Arctic Blast Camp In Iron Age Settlement скачать в хорошем качестве

Arctic Blast Camp In Iron Age Settlement

During the "Arctic Blast" that hit the UK in March 2023 I headed out to one of Northumberlands Forest to spend the night in an Iron Age defended settlement as one last night of high winds and snow moved in. The site consists of an Iron Age defended settlement and a medieval cross situated in an elevated position on the eastern end of a ridge. The settlement, rectangular in shape, is 55m east-west by 58m north-south, within three ramparts of earth and stone separated by two ditches. All three ramparts are very well preserved and are on average 1m high and 6m wide. The ditches are between 6m to 9m wide and are on average 1m deep. The settlement was partially excavated in 1959 and 1960; it was shown that all three of the ramparts were faced with a stone revetment on the sides facing the ditches and that the innermost ditch was the earliest of the two. A wooden fence or palisade had been constructed upon the outermost rampart. Excavation also uncovered the foundations of two stone round houses within the interior and two pieces of Roman pottery dated to the second century AD. The settlement was clearly occupied in the Roman period but the existence of a palisade and multiple ramparts suggests that the monument may be of more than one phase and it is thought to have its origins in the prehistoric period immediately preceding the Roman invasion of Britain. Immediately outside the north east angle of the settlement there is the socket stone of a medieval cross; it is rectangular in shape and measures 87cm by 76cm and is 52cm high. There is a socket hole in the centre 21cm deep. In the socket there is a stone shaft which is thought to be the remains of the medieval cross reused in post-medieval times as a boundary stone when modern initials were carved onto one of its surfaces. Manside cross is first mentioned in the Border Survey of 1604 when it is referred to as Manns' Head, and is also depicted on later maps. The settlement at Manside survives exceptionally well and retains significant archaeological deposits. It is one of very few multiple ditched Romano-British monuments in Northumberland; its unusual form is of added interest and it will contribute to any study of late prehistoric and Romano-British settlement and activity.