Searching for the Silures

Iron age / By /
Searching for the Silures

Author: Raymond Howell

Publisher:

ISBN: 0752440144

Category: Iron age

Page: 159

View: 619

The Silures, the Iron Age tribe of south-east Wales, are described by Roman sources as among the most implacable foes of Roman expansion. The remarkable Silurian War, a protracted and surprisingly successful guerrilla campaign, saw the advancing legions kept at bay for a quarter of a century. In this important new book, Dr Ray Howell examines our current knowledge of these fascinating but enigmatic people. The Silures emerge as a resilient and sophisticated clan-based tribal confederation. Their martial traditions, reflected in their material culture including artefacts such as the red enamelled trappings of their chariots, found expression in their remarkable resistance to Roman seizure of their lands. Elements of their traditions survived the extended period of occupation which followed the Roman conquest to be reasserted in post-Roman south-east Wales.

Celtic Wales

History / By /
Celtic Wales

Author: Miranda Aldhouse-Green

Publisher: University of Wales Press

ISBN: 9781786830449

Category: History

Page:

View: 148

Celtic Wales is about the beginnings of Wales and how the period from the Iron Age to medieval times helped shape and define the modern nation of Wales. Early Wales has a spectacular archaeological, literary and mythical heritage. This book uses archaeology and early historical documents to discuss all aspects of early Welsh society, from war to farming and from drinking habits to Druids.

History of Kenfig

History / By /
History of Kenfig

Author: Mansel Jones

Publisher: Goylake Publishing

ISBN: 9780993245817

Category: History

Page: 188

View: 425

A HISTORY OF KENFIG tells the story of Kenfig and its neighbouring villages, Cefn Cribwr, Cornelly, Kenfig Hill, Pyle, Stormy Down and Sker from prehistoric times to the twentieth century. In A HISTORY OF KENFIG you can discover what really happened to Elizabeth Williams, the 'Maid of Sker', how a Roman road still dominates the village of Cornelly, whether the medieval town of Kenfig is under the pool or under the sand, how a famous sportsman helped to shape Cefn Cribwr's industrial landscape, the first person to legally build a house in Kenfig Hill and much more. A HISTORY OF KENFIG focuses on the people and events that have helped to shape the region and the breadth and range of the book are sure to appeal to the history lover and the general reader alike.

Beacons in the Landscape

Social Science / By /
Beacons in the Landscape

Author: Ian Brown

Publisher: Windgather Press

ISBN: 9781909686274

Category: Social Science

Page: 267

View: 986

Of all Britain's great archaeological monuments the Iron Age hillforts have arguably had the most profound impact on the landscape, if only because there are so many; yet we know very little about them. Were they recognised as being something special by those who created them or is the 'hillfort' purely an archaeologists' 'construct'? How were they constructed, who lived in them and to what uses were they put? This book, which is richly illustrated with photography of sites throughout England and Wales, addresses these and many other questions. After discussing the difficult issue of definition and the great excavations on which our knowledge is based, Ian Brown investigates in turn hillforts' origins, their architecture, and the role they played in Iron Age society. He also discusses the latest theories about their location, social significance and chronology. The book provides a valuable synthesis of the rich vein of research carried out in Britain on hillforts over the last thirty years. Hillforts' great variability poses many problems, and this book should help guide both the specialist and non-specialist alike though the complex literature. Furthermore, it has an important conservation objective. Land use in the modern era has not been kind to these monuments, with a significant number either disfigured or lost. Public consciousness of their importance needs raising if their management is to be improved and their future assured.

Gwent Folk Tales

Fiction / By /
Gwent Folk Tales

Author: Christine Anne Watkins

Publisher: The History Press

ISBN: 9780750991544

Category: Fiction

Page: 192

View: 681

GWENT teems with stories of magic and strange transformations above and below ground. To tell them afresh, storyteller Christine Watkins has searched out of darkness through a maze of mountain mist and salvaged a wisewoman’s ironstone from the river. Read on to discover how and why the star-browed ox walked through a dream, what happened when Pegws found herself without Reverend Ridge in Carmel Chapel, and how the owl flew in low over the foxgloves, trying to sense from which direction change might come . . . Gwent Folk Tales brings to life long-told tales and weaves them beautifully with stories told to the author by family members. Wonderfully illustrated and engaging, there is a tale for everyone.

Rethinking Celtic Art

Art / By /
Rethinking Celtic Art

Author: Duncan Garrow

Publisher: Oxbow Books

ISBN: 9781842173183

Category: Art

Page: 233

View: 101

Early Celtic art' - typified by the iconic shields, swords, torcs and chariot gear we can see in places such as the British Museum - has been studied in isolation from the rest of the evidence from the Iron Age. This book reintegrates the art with the archaeology, placing the finds in the context of our latest ideas about Iron Age and Romano-British society. The contributions move beyond the traditional concerns with artistic styles and continental links, to consider the material nature of objects, their social effects and their role in practices such as exchange and burial. The aesthetic impact of decorated metalwork, metal composition and manufacturing, dating and regional differences within Britain all receive coverage. The book gives us a new understanding of some of the most ornate and complex objects ever found in Britain, artefacts that condense and embody many histories.

The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology

Social Science / By /
The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology

Author: Helena Hamerow

Publisher: OUP Oxford

ISBN: 9780199212149

Category: Social Science

Page: 1110

View: 718

Written by a team of experts and presenting the results of the most up-to-date research, The Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology will both stimulate and support further investigation into a society poised at the interface between prehistory and history.

Old Oswestry Hillfort and its Landscape: Ancient Past, Uncertain Future

Social Science / By /
Old Oswestry Hillfort and its Landscape: Ancient Past, Uncertain Future

Author: Tim Malim

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd

ISBN: 9781789696127

Category: Social Science

Page: 254

View: 678

This book, organised into 14 well-crafted chapters, charts the archaeology, folklore, heritage and landscape development of one of England's most enigmatic monuments, Old Oswestry Hillfort, from the Iron Age, through its inclusion as part of an early medieval boundary between England and Wales, to its role during World War I.

Controlling Colours

Social Science / By /
Controlling Colours

Author: Marlies Hoecherl

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd

ISBN: 9781784912260

Category: Social Science

Page: 154

View: 393

Colour defines our material world, operates as a communication tool and creates meaning. This book revisits well known and well documented sites or artefacts and explores their colours and colour connotations by looking at various contexts such as processes, landscape, iconography, body decoration or the colour connotations of death.

Britannia Prima

Great Britain / By /
Britannia Prima

Author: Roger White

Publisher: History Press Limited

ISBN: PSU:000062644532

Category: Great Britain

Page: 280

View: 932

When Edward I took Caernarfon, seat of the Princes of Gwynedd, in 1278, he conquered the last remaining part of the Roman Empire. Why was it that this part of the Roman Empire survived for 800 years before succumbing to the medieval kingdoms that succeeded Rome? In answering this question, this book offers a new and innovative perspective on Wales, the South West and the Welsh Marches at a time when they were united as Britannia Prima, one of the four late Roman provinces of Britain. Created at the end of the third century, the province endured for 200 years, offering a successful resistance to the incoming Anglo-Saxon invaders throughout the fifth century. This book, the first ever to examine one of the provinces of late Roman Britain, provides a critical analysis of the abundant archaeological information now available. In doing so it paints a picture of a wealthy and flourishing Roman society in the fourth century, able to achieve a measure of economic self-sufficiency through its wealth of natural resources, a society that maintained its Roman, and urban, character throughout the fifth century. Eventually Britannia Prima fragmented, overwhelmed by the internal and external pressures that it faced, but its enduring legacy is the distinct nature, culture and identity of the Welsh and Cornish kingdoms that succeeded it.

Religion in Britain from the Megaliths to Arthur

Religion / By /
Religion in Britain from the Megaliths to Arthur

Author: Robin Melrose

Publisher: McFarland

ISBN: 9781476624266

Category: Religion

Page: 284

View: 240

The Druids and the Arthurian legends are all most of us know about early Britain, from the Neolithic to the Iron Age (4500 BC–AD 43). Drawing on archaeological discoveries and medieval Welsh texts like the Mabinogion, this book explores the religious beliefs of the ancient Britons before the coming of Christianity, beginning with the megaliths—structures like Stonehenge—and the role they played in prehistoric astronomy. Topics include the mysterious Beaker people of the Early Bronze Age, Iron Age evidence of the Druids, the Roman period and the Dark Ages. The author discusses the myths of King Arthur and what they tell us about paganism, as well as what early churches and monasteries reveal about the enigmatic Druids.