fitzcoraldo
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Re: What Is It??
Jul 02, 2004, 20:50
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My views on the movements of axes are very much coloured by what I have read coupled with my many visits to the Cumbrian monuments.
A couple of days ago Stubob & myself returned from our latest trip. We saw huge stones, massive avenues, circles that seemed totally out of proportion in their size and frequency to the projected population of the area, we stood in an 'Irish henge' and then walked a couple of hundred yards to a 'Yorkshire Henge' the following day we visited a circle with a Derbyshire vibe.
Why so many flavours?
I can't say for sure that the axe trade was driving this but my heart & my head tells me that something major was occuring in the late Neolithic /early Bronze Age in the Cumbrian fells and from all the available information I reckon that the procurement of stone axes was a major ingredient.
What we do know is that Langdale axes are found all over Britain and Ireland, so someone was coming here to collect and distribute them throughout our islands.
"Two guys were looking at some shirts in a shop window.
One said 'That's the one I'd get', when the owner of the shop, a cyclops, came out and kicked his head in."
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fitzcoraldo
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Re: Ferriter's Cove
Jul 02, 2004, 20:59
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The more report summaries I read, the more I am convinced that the archaeo establishment love their 'secret squirrelisms'.
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FourWinds
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Re: What Is It??
Jul 02, 2004, 21:52
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What I wonder is something like this.
A lot of the stone circles date to the Bronze Age, not the Neolithic. As we know in the early to mid Bronze Age stone was still the major tool material. Bronze was a magic thing to so many people. Why stone axes? Why not bronze axes?
I just don't like the specialised axe trade claims. I feel the 'posher' ones would have been choice items and valuable, but I think man's psyche is geared to appreciate beauty and rarity. To a man hundreds of miles from somebody else's sacred axe mine (remote but where a common stone is worked) the axe will be worthless (because it's from a common rock).
Axes like the ones of Lambay porphyry, a type of rock only found exposed on Lambay Island, would be very special and rare. Again it's interesting to note that the axes were only roughed atthe axe factory and finished elsewhere. It could be that this 'elsewhere' is just as or even more important than the site of the factory. An axe pollished at a certain sacred site could be worth more than one prepared elsewhere.
There is definitely something about certain axes, but I don't think anyone's sussed it yet.
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fitzcoraldo
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Re: What Is It??
Jul 02, 2004, 22:33
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Plain fact is, the common or garden Langdale axe did manage to find it's way all over our islands in decent amounts. Most of the ones found in my area are worn or broken and discovered during field walking as opposed to any ritual context. I guess, at a basic level, they were just bloody good tools.
One possible explanation for the later Bronze Age Circles could be that, as I think you've already pointed out, it's not only axes that were traded. Once trading allegiences and presumably kinship was forged, it was easier to maintain established links than forge new ones. So trade carried on with the new metal goods. One hint at this could be Stukeleys report of a 'bronze celt' found ritually buried in the entrance to Mayburgh.
The links between Cumbria and Ireland have always been strong, after all they provided you with your patron saint and now they send you free x-rays on a regular basis c/o Sellafield
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BrigantesNation
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Re: What Is It??
Jul 02, 2004, 22:36
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I tend to agree Fitz, it's certainly my current line in what drove the class 2a's in Yorkshire.
Have you seen anything about Langdale distribution in Europe? All those babies around the Humber almost create a picture of a mamoth export trade to the continent.
You going to the BA conf?
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fitzcoraldo
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Re: What Is It??
Jul 02, 2004, 22:44
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Hi G.
I'll take my own advice and hit the books for European exports. I know we have imports from the continent.
As for the conference, it all depends on whether I'm at sea or not. I may book a place just in case, it's a cracking looking program.
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BrigantesNation
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Re: What Is It??
Jul 02, 2004, 22:48
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Last years was very good.
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FourWinds
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Re: What Is It??
Jul 02, 2004, 22:54
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I'm going to have to go away and do some re-reading, because I can't remember what Burl says (if anything) with regard to the Cork 5-stone stone circles. I know of one with an axe like hollow in one of the stones (which actually looks natural, but still could have been the reason it was chosen), however, most are 2m in diameter and their constant axial alignment is most definitely ritual. This is in a copper-rich area and so could be trading points for copper, and presumably they were built by people who knew about copper and bronze. When people know that magic would they belong to an 'axe cult'?
Actually, writing that has just made me realise what I don't like about all this. It's the 'axe cult' brigade ...
(I know you weren't necessarily promoting this by the way)
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fitzcoraldo
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Re: What Is It??
Jul 02, 2004, 23:19
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I think I was there, was that newcastle or was that the year before?
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BrigantesNation
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Re: What Is It??
Jul 03, 2004, 09:10
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You missed last years (Newcastle), Me, Hob and BG made it.
Unless you were hiding..
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