Watching a Question Time video of the Prehistory Guys yesterday evening, and someone said what is your favourite object from prehistory, Michael Bott said the Bush Barrow gold lozenge found in Wiltshire My mind went back to my favourite object, and realised it was also gold and it was the small four inch, highly decorated Lansdown Sun Disc found in one of the barrows near Bath Racecourse.
It had spun my imagination as I walked each day, often early morning, when the sun gently forced the moon out of the sky. One of the great moments of clarity came when I looked behind me as I came to the dog leg that turned left in the field and looking back saw the 19th century Lansdowne obelisk just on the horizon, probably about 30 miles away. It caught my breath, I was looking back to the Cherhill downs where the obelisk had been built, and just beyond that was of course Avebury one of the great prehistoric stone circles of this area.
Prehistory almost became clear to me, it wasn't the reams of knowledge read, the dating of archaeology it was the landscape that held the mystery of all our ancestors. It holds our dust, gentle shapes will tell of old farmhouses, stone will show prehistoric hut circles, and occasionally, just occasionally the earth will yield treasures from the past.
I would look back at that time when artificial light was a thing of the future, I realised the 'Milky Way' would have been clear in the sky, as would the round of the sun and moon to tell the seasons. Imaginations had been caught by the 'Sun disc', was it held up to the sun for reflection? or did it trace the moon's path. Does it matter? Brief moments in history, foreshadowing religion in all its daily rituals.
Something I wrote in 2008 And it was all down to Mike Aston, long gone, illustration in a book.
Very beautiful. David's father found an axe head which York museum dated to 4000 BC - he just saw it in a field he had just ploughed (in the days of horse and plough) - it was the most beautiful green stone and the nearest such stone was in the Langdale Pikes in the Lakes. I gave it to his niece when I moved here - I wanted it to stay in the family - but I think of it and its history often.
ReplyDeleteThose Langdale axe heads found there way all over the country, prized treasures indeed. There is a funny reel about the mistakes made in the filming of Standing with Stones, it is called 'The Blooper Reel' 13 minutes but around nine minutes, they have made their way in the mist to the top of Langdale to visit this famous quarry for stone axes - not easy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xvPunBYo64
DeleteI have never seen that gold disc before. I would like to know what the Cherhill white horse looked like before it was vandalised in the 18th century by someone who thought he would make it look more like a real horse...
ReplyDeleteDo you think there was an earlier white horse there? There was a spate of White horses that appeared on the hills of Wiltshire, the Westbury one, Alton Barnes to name but two but of course Uffington is the only one identified as Bronze age. When you look from above down the slope of the hill, up by the W/H it would make me dizzy.
DeleteAccording to Wikipedia, the horse was cut by a Dr Christopher Alsop in 1780, shouting instructions through a megaphone from Labour In Vain hill. I have always thought that Dr Alsop changed the original shape from a much earlier horse. Alsop was a good friend of George Stubbs...
DeleteThat explains a lot, George Stubbs being involved. It all of course hangs on the need for a chalk base, there is a white horse not far from here as well, but definitely not Stubb inspired.
DeleteHave you read the book, 'The Scouring of the White Horse'? Interesting 19th century book about the tradition of fairs around the event.
DeleteNo Tom, but looking the Uffington White Horse up, which I have said elsewhere sired all the 18th century horses, I see that Aubrey was the first to mention scouring. There is info on TMA -https://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/303/uffington_white_horse.html
DeleteIn which the book you mentioned was talked about, the fairs of old were merry times, they used to be held up on the racecourse as well.
The sun disc was indeed an intriguing object for it speaks not just of decoration and skilful metal working but of the pre-Christian culture from which it emerged. I like your comment about the landscape and that remembered moment of insight.
ReplyDeleteGold of course echoed the colour of the sun, so it must have had significance. Cherhill Down was my walking place before Bath and then Yorkshire of course, which I don't do so much anymore - could be age!
ReplyDeleteProf Mick Aston got an honorary degree from King Alfreds Winchester at the same time as Son was getting his BA Archaeology Practice. My claim to fame - being in the cathedral at the same time!
ReplyDeleteCoincidental! Mike Aston in his television appearances always wore those knitted striped jumpers, he was always so affable.
ReplyDeleteI loved every minute and I can only visit vicariously. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAre you referring to the video Joanne? It always makes me laugh, also cross, for when Rupert emerges from the Stoney Littleton long barrow he never mentions the ammonite embedded in the entrance.
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