A favourite blog of mine, though not in blogger land is the Smell of Water. One portion of Yorkshire is the East section, where a great number of prehistoric sites lay hidden under the surface and he has recently visited the great Rudston Monolith.
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| The Rudston monument set amongst the gravestones but still dominating the church |
Rudston monument. Is it the largest standing stone in England? I think of have read of estimations of a third of the stone underground.
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| Duggleby Howe |
Note: Julian Cope of Modern Antiquarian fame wrote this about the area and it is wise to dwell upon his words. Yes he is one of the figures from a past post- punk music (never listened) but he is intelligent and used to live at Avebury at one time.
"I am staring at the monolith from below the sacred hill altar. It is much easier to get a perspective without that huge church against my butt. From here, the mound dwarfs the church, as it should.
Rudston is an eerie place, built precariously on an ancient past of true psychedelic intensity. Each village along the Gypsey Race has some tale to tell. But here it pitches in to tell some awesome and unorthodox mystery. If Avebury is the Great Reconciler, then where are the cursuses? Rudston and its environment fits well with the Avebury complex: The chalk, the flint, the vast earth monuments, the disregard for time and perspective, all caught up in these enormous civic monuments".....Julian Cope, The Modern Antiquarian"
Cursuses are enigmatic features of prehistory, a straight trackway across the landscape, were they used for racing (no) or ceremonial walkways, but we will never know. But they are found all over the country, we even had one by our house in Chelmsford - The Springfield one, running next to the river.
The Rudston Monolith is an impressive beauty! I had not heard of it before. I visited Stonehenge, Avebury and Stanton Drew when I was in England in 2009.
ReplyDeleteSurprised you also visited Stanton Drew, not one of the most famous circles but is one of the largest. Rudston is impressive and again it seems as if the church is trying to dominate the stone.
Deletei've resisted the temptation to run straight to google.... using the grey matter to dredge up fact? Didn't Julian Cope do the song..... Perfect waste of time? you're mi....iii.iiii.iiii.iiii.iiiiine.... you're my perfect waste of time....... having stuck my neck out now i'm gonna go look it up.... i'll probably be wrong
ReplyDeletei was wrong.... that was Owen Paul...... but Julian Cope did the song.... World Shut Your Mouth which i m sure a lot of people will know.
DeleteI have never followed his musical career but he is still around, though probably not at Avebury. His music is on Head Heritage and the archaeology on The Modern Antiquarian.
DeleteI'm ashamed I've never even heard of it. It looks very impressive as Debra says.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading that Smell of Water blog too. Such a detailed analysis. Thank you also for the introduction to Julian Cope. Is that a documentary series he did?
Julian Cope, Liam was probably obsessed by prehistoric stones. He has a web site and has written two books on the subject, one on British prehistory and the other on European prehistory. Smell of Water or Ironpolis has just done a four part series on the Romanesque churches in the East Riding of Yorkshire, which is very interesting.
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