juamei
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Re: "standing stone fences"
Jun 04, 2004, 10:10
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Has anyone got any definitive photos of prehistoric walling?
I'm thinking about a certain persons stone rows here.
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FourWinds
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Re: "standing stone fences"
Jun 04, 2004, 10:42
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I do. At the Beaghmore complex in Tyrone Bronze Age field walls were found to run beneath surface. The stone circle were probably made from wall material.
It is assumed that the area was once good farming land and as the weather and conditions worsened they started building circles to try and placate the gods.
There is an alternative theory (mine) that the fields were abandoned and a later people came and built the circles to honour the mysterious builders of the abandoned field systems.
The walls at Beaghmore are only 30cm above the ground now.
There is also 120 acres of field walls dating back to around 2500 bce at the Ceide Fields in Mayo.
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wideford
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Re: "standing stone fences"
Jun 04, 2004, 10:44
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According to the Collin's Field Guide drystane dyking starts only in the Early Iron Age and asserts that they only really took off after 1710 in Scotland. It also says that before this date there were very few drystane walls in Britain and then only for larger village fields. The one across the Loch of Messigate in Orkney is below water and so pre-mediaval at least. All of which does not address the question of "standing stone fences". The only theory I have found is that they are the result of field clearances, which doesn't seem credible for the majority.
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FourWinds
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daft innit
Jun 04, 2004, 10:52
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I picture these walls as being <b>constructed</b> by erecting standing stones at regular intervals and 'drystoning' the gaps. How can that be as the result of field clearance? Seems odd to me.
Walling like this makes sense. It adds the option of sub-dividing the field and opening up a new entrance to it by simply 'unfilling' the gap between two standing stones.
What seems odd to me is when they claim this for rows of just 3 or 4 stones. Surely they're either a couple of adjacent gates or a stone row that was incorporated into a wall (or both)
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Kammer
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Re: "standing stone fences"
Jun 04, 2004, 11:14
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I'm not convinced that the stone fences ones I've seen in Snowdonia are prehistoric. They aren't weathered enough. Also, they don't look anything like stone rows. They look like fences.
That's not to say that other types of stone fence aren't prehistoric though.
Another thing I've been thinking about is whole concept of fencing. The idea of having loads of agricultural boundaries for livestock is relatively modern. Why bother fencing in sheep? If there's a shepherd on hand to look after them, they won't get lost or mixed up with other flocks.
K x
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Kammer
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Re: "standing stone fences"
Jun 04, 2004, 11:15
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That's assuming that you're actually looking for a prehistoric wall (in this case).
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fitzcoraldo
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Re: "standing stone fences"
Jun 04, 2004, 12:17
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There's an interesting aside here.
The British countryside and it's walled field systems didn't really come into place until the late eighteenth century with the passing of the various Enclosure Acts coupled with the new fangled farming methods of crop rotation, the use of machines and the introduction of new breeds of animals.
Prior to the enclosures farmers took alternating strips of the commonly held land
It's interesting when you go to mediterranean countries and see the field boundaries there. They tend to be low banks of earth or stones with maybe a large bank enclosing a number of fields.
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Hob
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Re: "standing stone fences"
Jun 04, 2004, 13:02
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Howdo Juamei,
Not really definitive, as the excavation reports concluded something like "May be the remains of a field boundary", probably Iron age.
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/25987
Doesn't Penwith, and particularly Zennor have possible pre-roman field walls?
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Kammer
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Re: "standing stone fences"
Jun 04, 2004, 14:38
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> Prior to the enclosures farmers took alternating strips of the commonly held land
Yes, but it wasn't used universally. My understanding is that strip farming was mainly used for arable agriculture, and Common Land was used for grazing livestock. I may be wrong though.
K x
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FourWinds
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Re: "standing stone fences"
Jun 04, 2004, 14:57
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At the Ceide fields each house had 2 strips of land. I don't know what the evidence is but the folks at the visitor centre say that they believe that the folks there used to alternate between cattle and crops in each strip. This means that one year a strip was getting fertilised and the next they grew crops on it.
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