A Reconnaissance Excavation at South Cadbury Castle, Somerset, 1966

1967 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Alcock

South Cadbury Castle (N.G. ST 6225) occupies a free-standing hill, some 500 feet high, towards the Somerset-Dorset border. The hill itself is principally, if not entirely, of yellow sandstone belonging to the Jurassic series. To the west there are wide views across the low-lying Somerset basin centred on Glastonbury, an area of great importance in the early post-Roman centuries. To the east, a scarp marks the western edge of the higher ground of Wessex. In cultural terms, South Cadbury lies within the north-western limits of the coins of the Durotriges, but is only a dozen miles from the Glastonbury Lake Village. In the post-Roman period, it is one of the most easterly sites to produce imported pottery of Tintagel type, as well as one of the most inland.

Author(s):  
Sorin Geacu

The population of Red Deer (Cervus elaphus L., 1758) in Tulcea county (Romania) The presence of the Red Deer in the North-western parts of Tulcea County is an example of the natural expansion of a species spreading area. In North Dobrogea, this mammal first occurred only forty years ago. The first specimens were spotted on Cocoşul Hill (on the territory of Niculiţel area) in 1970. Peak numbers (68 individuals) were registered in the spring of 1987. The deer population (67 specimens in 2007) of this county extended along 10 km from West to East and 20 km from North to South over a total of 23,000 ha (55% of which was forest land) in the East of the Măcin Mountains and in the West of the Niculiţel Plateau.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-103
Author(s):  
Aliaksandr Bystryk

Abstract This paper deals with the topic of conservative West-Russianist ideology and propaganda during World War I. The author analyzes the most prominent newspaper of the movement at the time – Severo-Zapadnaia Zhizn (The North-Western Life). The discourse of the newspaper is analyzed from the perspective of Belarusian nation-building, as well as from the perspective of Russian nationalism in the borderlands. The author explores the ways in which the creators of the periodical tried to use the rise of the Russian patriotic feelings to their advantage. Appealing to the heightened sense of national solidarity which took over parts of Russian society, the periodical tried to attack, delegitimize and discredit its ideological and political opponents. Besides the obvious external enemy – Germans, Severo-Zapadnaia Zhizn condemned socialists, pacifists, Jews, borderland Poles, Belarusian and Ukrainian national activists, Russian progressives and others, accusing them of disloyalty, lack of patriotism and sometimes even treason. Using nationalist loyalist rhetoric, the West-Russianist newspaper urged the imperial government to act more decisively in its campaign to end ‘alien domination’ in Russian Empire, and specifically to create conditions for domination of ‘native Russian element’ – meaning Belarusian peasantry, in the Belarusian provinces of the empire.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Lambert ◽  
A. Penaud ◽  
M. Vidal ◽  
C. Gandini ◽  
L. Labeyrie ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Holocene period (last 11,700 years BP) has been marked by significant climate variability over decadal to millennial timescales. The underlying mechanisms are still being debated, despite ocean–atmosphere–land connections put forward in many paleo-studies. Among the main drivers, involving a cluster of spectral signatures and shaping the climate of north-western Europe, are solar activity, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) varying atmospheric regimes and North Atlantic oceanic gyre dynamics. Over the last 2500 years BP, paleo-environmental signals have been strongly affected by anthropogenic activities through deforestation and land use for crops, grazing, habitations, or access to resources. Palynological proxies (especially pollen grains and marine or freshwater microalgae) help to highlight such anthropogenic imprints over natural variability. Palynological analyses conducted in a macro-estuarine sedimentary environment of north-western France over the last 2500 years BP reveal a huge and atypical 300 year-long arboreal increase between 1700 and 1400 years BP (around 250 and 550 years AD) that we refer to as the ‘1.7–1.4 ka Arboreal Pollen rise event’ or ‘1.7–1.4 ka AP event’. Interestingly, the climatic 1700–1200 years BP interval coincides with evidence for the withdrawal of coastal societies in Brittany (NW France), in an unfavourable socio-economic context. We suggest that subpolar North Atlantic gyre strengthening and related increasing recurrence of storminess extremes may have affected long-term coastal anthropogenic trajectories resulting in a local collapse of coastal agrarian societies, partly forced by climatic degradation at the end of the Roman Period.


1951 ◽  
Vol 31 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 132-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Richardson ◽  
Alison Young

In 1946 a visit to the barrow, which lies on the edge of the western scarp of Chinnor Common, and a cursory examination of the adjoining area, cultivated during the war, resulted in finds of pottery and other objects indicating Iron Age occupation. The site lies on the saddleback of a Chiltern headland, at a height of about 800 ft. O.D. Two hollow ways traverse the western scarp, giving access to the area from the Upper Icknield Way, which contours the foot of the hill, then drops to cross the valley, passing some 600 yards to the north of the Iron Age site of Lodge Hill, Bledlow, and rising again continues northwards under Pulpit Hill camp and the Ellesborough Iron Age pits below Coombe Hill. The outlook across the Oxford plain to the west is extensive, embracing the hill-fort of Sinodun, clearly visible some fourteen miles distant on the farther bank of the Thames. The hollow way at the north-west end of the site leads down to a group of ‘rises’ hard by the remains of a Roman villa, and these springs are, at the present day, the nearest water-supply to the site.


1876 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-154
Author(s):  
A. H. Schindler

The part of Belúchistán now under Persian rule is bounded upon the north by Seistán, upon the east by Panjgúr and Kej, upon the south by the Indian Ocean, and upon the west by Núrámshír, Rúdbár, and the Báshákerd mountains.This country enjoys a variety of climates; almost unbearable heat exists on the Mekrán coast, we find a temperate climate on the hill slopes and on the slightly raised plains as at Duzek and Bampúr, and a cool climate in the mountainous districts Serhad and Bazmán. The heat at Jálq is said to be so intense in summer that the gazelles lie down exhausted in the plains, and let themselves be taken by the people without any trouble.


Antiquity ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 29 (114) ◽  
pp. 77-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Jackson

The archaeological background of the people of what is now Scotland south of the Forth and Clyde in the Roman period was a La Téne one, and specifically chiefly Iron Age B. This links them intimately with the Britons of southern Britain in the conglomeration of Celtic tribes who called themselves Brittones and spoke what we call the Brittonic or Ancient British form of Celtic, from which are descended the three modern languages of Welsh, Cornish and Breton. To the north of the Forth was a different people, the Picts. They too were Celts or partly Celts; probably not Brittones however, but a different branch of the Celtic race, though more closely related to the Brittones than to the Goidels of Ireland and (in later times) of the west of Scotland. Not being Brittonic, the Picts may be ignored here. Our southern Scottish Brittones are nothing but the northern portion of a common Brittonic population, from the southern portion of which come the people of Wales and Cornwall. Some historians speak of the northern Brittones as Welsh, following good Anglo-Saxon precedent, but this is apt to lead to confusion. The best term for them, in the Dark Ages and early Medieval period, as long as they survived, is ‘Cumbrians’, and for their language, ‘Cumbric’. They called themselves in Latin Cumbri and Cumbrenses, which is a Latinization of the native word Cymry, meaning ‘fellow-countrymen’, which both they and the Welsh used of themselves in common, and is still the Welsh name for the Welsh to the present day. The centre of their power was Strathclyde, the Clyde valley, with their capital at Dumbarton.


1977 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 45-49
Author(s):  
Richard J. Hodgkinson ◽  
Christopher D. Walley

Carbonate and clastic sediments of Jurassic and Cretaceous age are exposed along the fault-scarp of Djebel Nefusa in north-western Libya. Previous geological investigations have been mainly restricted to the eastern sector of the scarp. Recent studies by the authors in the western sector of Djebel Nefusa and on equivalent sediments in southern Tunisia have allowed the first regional interpretation of these rocks.The area studied lies geographically and geologically at the edge of the Saharan Platform, a large cratonic block, composed of rocks of Precambrian-Palaeozoic age. To the north and east lies a downfaulted sedimentary basin (Gabes-Sabratha Basin) containing a large thickness of Mesozoic sediments. The location of the sections measured along Djebel Nefusa are depicted in Fig.1.The stratigraphic nomenclature of the rock succession of Djebel Nefusa was first established in the east and continued laterally towards the west by later workers. Difficulties in the application of this nomenclature are presented by the recognition of facies changes previously overlooked by earlier investigators. However, as a framework for understanding these changes and the sedimentary processes which caused them, the stratigraphy erected by Magnier (1963) is adopted.


1990 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stig Jonsson ◽  
Per Holmlund

Scharffenbergbotnen is a 3 × 6 km large basin of interior ice drainage on the north-western side of Heimefrontfjella in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The elevation at the bottom of the depression is 1142 m a.s.l., while bedrock immediately to the south-east of this point rises to more than 2750 m. Ice enters the basin mainly from a low ice divide (1250 m a.s.l.) in the west but also through a 400 m high icefall in the east. Two separate blue-ice areas constitute approximately half the surface of the basin, while the other half is snow-covered. As part of SWEDARP (Swedish Antarctic Research Programme) 1988 a research project to study the origin and mass balance of this basin has been initiated. A net of 28 stakes has been established for studies of ablation and ice movement (Fig. 1). The ice thickness was measured by radio-echo sounding (Fig. 2) and particular care was devoted to get the correct ice depths at the entrance to the basin. The ice thickness along a central section of the basin varied from 1000 m in the west to 400 m at the bottom of the depression. In order to explain the ablation two automatic weather stations (Aanderaa 2700) were operated during the field season (mid-January to mid-February 1988). One was placed in the bottom of the depression, the other 13 km to the west in an area where a small net accumulation took place during the field season. The latter station should record “normal” weather. Sensors registering wind speed, wind gust, wind direction, incoming solar radiation, air temperature and relative humidity were installed at both weather stations, while reflected solar radiation, net radiation and air pressure were measured only at Scharffenbergbotnen. All sensors except the air pressure sensor were placed 270 cm above the ground, and all were read every 10 minutes. Ablation measurements were carried out between 16 January and 18 February on 24 of the stakes. 12 of these stakes were standing in snow. All but one recorded ablation and, as no signs of melting could be seen, all ablation must be due to evaporation and perhaps for the snowy areas some wind erosion. The average ablation rate for the whole field season was 0.7 mm w.eq. per day with a standard deviation of 0.3. Stakes in blue ice showed slightly higher values than those in snow. For January, when air temperatures always were above −10°C, the average ablation rate was 1.2 mm w.eq. per day. A regional difference in ablation rate across the depression was also measurable. Maximum ablation took place immediately below the arête forming the north-eastern boundary of the basin and diminished towards south-west. Below the arête the ablation rate was above 1 mm w.eq. per day for the whole field season and more than 2 mm w.eq. per day during January. A comparison of weather data between the two stations showed the following main differences. In the depression the temperature showed no daily variation and relative humidity varied between 40 and 60%. The weather at the other station was characterised by colder nights and weaker winds as well as by a relative humidity between 60 and 80%. The reason for the regional variation in ablation can be explained by almost constant easterly winds during January and the drop in altitude (between 300 and 500 m) along the north-western arête. On 11 February 1988 the weather station at Scharffenbergbotnen was converted into a system for satellite (Argos) transmission of weather data to Europe. The transmission seems to have been successful but the data are not yet processed. At present (January 1989) one of us is remeasuring the stakes (ablation and ice movement) during SWEDARP 1989. Preliminary results sent by radio point towards a yearly net ablation rate of 120 mm w.eq. for the blue-ice area in the bottom of the depression. 25% of the ablation took place during the field season 1988, but 75% has evaporated between 18 February 1988 and mid-January 1989. Probably most of the evaporation took place during December 1988 and January 1989, which means a very high daily evaporation rate (2.5 mm w.eq. per day).


1978 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 309-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia M. L. Christie ◽  
S. M. Elsdon ◽  
G. W. Dimbleby ◽  
A. Saville ◽  
S. Rees ◽  
...  

The ancient village of Carn Euny, formerly known as Chapel Euny, lies on a south-west slope just above the 500 foot contour in the parish of Sancreed in West Cornwall (fig. 1). The granite uplands of the region are rich in antiquities, as a glance at a recent survey shows (Russell 1971), not least those of the prehistoric period. The hill on which the site is situated is crowned by the circular Iron Age Fort of Caer Brane (pl. 27). Across the dry valley to the north-west rises the mass of Bartinny Down, with its barrows, while in the valley below the site near the hamlet of Brane is a small, well preserved entrance grave and other evidence of prehistoric activity. To the south-east about one mile away is the recently excavated village of Goldherring dating from the first few centuries of our era (Guthrie 1969). From later times, the holy well of St Uny and the former chapel which gave its name to the site, lie nearby to the west. The village contains a fine souterrain, locally known as a fogou, after a Cornish word meaning a cave (Thomas 1966, 79).Nothing appears to have been known of the settlement or Fogou before the first half of the 19th century when the existence of an unexplored fogou at Chapel Uny is first mentioned by the Reverend John Buller (1842), shortly followed by Edmonds (1849) who described to the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society an ‘Ancient Cave’ which had been discovered by miners prospecting for tin.


2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vakhtang Licheli

Abstract The settlement and necropolis of Grakliani Hill are located in Central Transcaucasia, Georgia. Excavations of the settlement on the eastern slope and the necropolis on the south-western part of the hill demonstrated that the site had been occupied between the Chalcolithic and the Late Hellenistic periods. The most interesting remains of buildings belong to 2nd and 1st millennium BC. Several sanctuaries of this period were excavated. A monumental altar was discovered in the eastern part of the settlement. The altar was located in the north-western corner of a building. On its eastern side there was an ash pit with a platform along the northern wall. The platform was used for placing offerings, including a South Mesopotamian seal. An architectural complex of the following period (450-350 B.C) was discovered in the western part of the lower terrace. It consisted of three main rooms and three store-rooms. Burials of various periods were discovered in the western part of the hill’s southern slope. The earliest one is a pit-burial dating to the Early Bronze Age, the latest one belongs to the 2nd century BC. After analyses of the finds several directions of cultural and commercial links were identified: Colchis, Persia, Phoenicia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia Minor.


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