landscape

Bretons and Britons: the fight for identity

This well-illustrated book on Breton identity is a development of Cunliffe’s Facing the Ocean (2001), in which he successfully carves out a broad Atlantic cultural identity, separate to that of central Europe. Echoing the great Cyril Fox, Cunliffe’s opening chapter…

Below At Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, ‘Capability’ Brown used an enlarged version of a bridge dam to mark the changes in level between two bodies of water. To the visitor crossing the bridge, it looks as if the water flows naturally from one side to the other, whereas the flow from one to the other is controlled by a sluice gate. below right The conduits and sluices that were integral to 18th century dams are prone to silting and are difficult to repair, so many dams of that period have since been modified to incorporate an open spillway, lined with stone. A by pass channel, or leat, could also be used to divert water from the lake to the river on the downstream side of the dam.

Looking at lakes as ornaments in the landscape

For a visitor to a late 18th-century country seat, the most striking feature of the landscape, apart from the house, would have been the lake. For that reason, it is all the more surprising these bodies of water have had such little attention from garden historians and archaeologists. Perhaps that is because it is assumed that they are natural, and that the house site was chosen to overlook the water, whereas the opposite is usually the case, as Chris Catling now reports.

Lakes Quiz

Which Italian lake was the site of a major battle in 217 BC between a Roman army and Hannibal's Carthaginian forces?

Stonehenge

The earliest family photo from Stonehenge?

A Victorian 3D image thought to be the earliest-known family photograph to have been taken at Stonehenge has been identified in the collection of Queen guitarist Dr Brian May. CA went to see the ‘stereo view’ on display at the monument’s visitor centre.

Sailing to Ithaca?

Is Ithaca, in fact, Odysseus’ island, where Penelope faithfully weaved, steadfastly waiting for her mischievous prince in their well-appointed palace?

BELOW After an almost complete collapse, the Ousdale Broch has been expertly restored.

Reviving Ousdale Broch

A recent conservation project has breathed new life into an Iron Age broch in northern Scotland. The Ousdale Broch, just south of Berriedale in Caithness, used to be considered one of the best-preserved brochs in the region. At some point…

RIGHT CPAT archaeologists Paul Belford and Kate Longley surveying the early benchmarks in the foreground, with the 1948 trig point behind. BELOW The lower stone slab showing the carved benchmark, and the cast created in the base of the concrete block, here on its side.

Unexpected discoveries at Beacon Ring

Archaeologists excavating the Welsh hillfort Beacon Ring (Caer Digoll) made an unexpected discovery relating to the 19th-century Ordnance Survey this summer, which has cast new light on early map-making fieldwork. Beacon Ring is on the Long Mountain overlooking Welshpool. Since…

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Sifting through the remains of Scotland’s kelping industry

For a brief period, from around 1750 to 1820, the west coast and islands of Scotland experienced a boom in demand for kelp, a seaweed-derived substance used in the soap and glass-making industries. Kevin Grant – formerly St Kilda Archaeologist with the National Trust for Scotland, now Archaeology Manager at Historic Environment Scotland – has been studying the fragile and elusive remains of this once-thriving industry, as Chris Catling reports.

IMAGES: Tom Ferraby; Rose Ferraby, using data from Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire, CC BY SA 3.0

Illuminating Isurium: exploring Aldborough’s Roman remains

Isurium Brigantum was a thriving and prosperous Roman town in what is now North Yorkshire, but it has attracted relatively little modern archaeological attention. Now, though, a decade of geophysical surveys have shed vivid light on its make-up, and a wide-ranging new book presents a compelling narrative for how the once-bustling settlement evolved. Carly Hilts reports.

Hoppenwood Bank: exploring a burnt-mound landscape

Burnt mounds are an archaeological enigma: recent discoveries at Hoppenwood Bank, a bog near Bamburgh in Northumberland, call into question even the little we thought we knew. They show that some of these mainly Bronze Age features date back to the Early Neolithic, and are associated here with a series of substantial timber platforms. Graeme Young, of the Bamburgh Research Project, explains.