Thorgrim
(2004-02-04) | Fascinating! Do you have any more archive photos of lost sites? |
Andy B
(2004-02-04) | This is a corker, thanks and good luck with your dissertation. We'll be fascinated to hear about what else you can uncover. Not literally of course, but I do feel the urge to get out the seaside spades and go and uncover Yelland again :-)
Cheers,
Andy |
archaeologyh
(2004-02-05) | Thanks for your comments. The Yelland Stone Row has been overlooked as many of the lowland coastal sites have. As i am in the lucky position of studying at the Institute of Archaeology i am able to research the site with the best possible resources at my disposal. I am hoping to produce a small booklet at some point covering this very important site. I will of course publish bits of it on your fantastic website! I believe that research should be shared.
Yelland Stone Row is probably one of the most important sites in the British Isles as it is the only known example of a multiple stone avenue situated on a submerged prehistoric landscape. Sure there are other submerged features in existence but no other stone row. Also the Mesolithic deposit beneath the foundation of the row is 'sealed' i.e. nothing has been washed away from the site over the last 6500 years or so and therefore artefacts remain 'in situ'. The row itself is probably Bronze Age although this still has to be determined.
Once i have finished my desktop SMR i hope to get some of the guys from Geophys to help with a thorough survey of the marsh area and the land surrounding it.
I will let you know what we find when it happens. In the meantime thanks for all the encouragement. |
Andy B
(2004-02-06) | Really? What about Higher Town on the Scilly Isles as another example of a multiple stone avenue situated on a submerged prehistoric landscape.
Cheers,
Andy
|
archaeologyh
(2004-02-06) | Has this been identified as a row or a wall? |
Thorgrim
(2004-02-06) | Wall or row at Higher Town? Jury is still out on this one. Ashbee is silent on stone rows and Weatherhill's Cornovia is rather poor on Scilly. Cheryl Straffon gives it as a stone row of three stones, one of which is grooved. There are two kinds of submerged walls on Scilly - field walls and walls linking burial sites. Walls usually have larger stones at intervals wth smaller ones between. If the Higher Town Bay stones are part of a wall, it would mean that the smaller ones have been washed away or buried in the sand. It certainly looks like row and there is nothing to be seen of any stones between those visible. I like to think that it's a row, but I am undecided. |
TimPrevett
(2004-02-06) | I am also reminded of Er Lannic in Brittany, which has two stone circles, one submerged. |
Rob Don (archaeology
(2004-03-25) | I thought i would just add to the comment that i made concerning other stone features on submerged land surfaces.
The other sites are open to speculation concerning the reliability of their identification. Yelland Stone Row presents us with no 'ifs' concerning layout and subsequent identification, it is a multiple stone row, there is no doubt! As archaeologists we cannot rely on speculation concerning evidence for the possibility of a stone row on other similar sites, these have to be verified using the relevant techniques. If we rely on 'ifs' then all we are doing is providing possibilities and as such not really applying archaeological methodology to answer the relevant questions. Identification presents no problem at Yelland and therefore becomes an exceptionally good unit of research.
All the other sites present us with questions that cannot be answered without research. Sure, we can speculate, but anyone can do that - it isn't really the same as actually finding out through careful research. Speculation will only generate the questions to be answered rather than providing solutions. |
RSleepy
(2007-08-17) | Yes I thought Er Lannic too |
bilabog
(2008-09-12) | Hello mate. Hows it goin? I was interested to see you have been looking at the stone row in Yelland in the past. Four years ago I did my A-level piece of coursework on Fremington. I live just before you enter Yelland. About a 10 minute walk from my house are 2 fields which end up joining the Tarka trail. Before starting my coursework I found, while walking my dog, what I believe is to be a Bronze age cutting knife. On later inspection, I found hundreds of pieces of worked flint in the same field.
One of the questions which I could choose for my cousrework piece was: How far can fieldwalking alone provide evidence of prehistoric settlement? So My field was ideal to begin to answer this question. I got permission from the land owner to organises a fieldwalk on the area that I belived would turn up the largest quantity of flints. I ended up finding 400/500 if not more pieces flint. Many clearly worked. I also did a resistivity survey on the area. (although the equipment used wasnt great, ploughing etc. so the results arnt great ) I also incorparated the stone row at Yelland in my final piece. I came to a far flung conclusion, that my site, and the Yelland stones could be linked. Maybe a permanent or temporary Bronze age settlement was on my site. They would have used the estuary as a place to gather food etc, and would have been a very important part of their lives. I would love to see a final copy of you work. Cheers mate. Pete Smith |
archaeologyh
(2012-01-21) | Hi Pete,
That is really great. Did you remember to reference my work correctly? |
archaeologyh
(2012-01-21) | I would be really interested to read your own work regarding the discovery and the questions that you were posing with regard to the landscape of this intertidal zone. |
archaeologyh
(2012-01-21) | It is likely that the Yelland site is much earlier. There is no doubt in my mind that during the mesolithic this was a prime hunting and fishing ground linked with the sites found at Westward Ho!. The coastline would not have been as it is today and therefore the sites would not have been that far in distance from each other communicatioon would have been easy as the water tends to act like an amplifier. Try it... stand at Instow and shout... The artefacts that you have found need to be identified to see which period that they come from... I think Fremington is a secondary site to Yelland for many reasons... |
archaeologyh
(2012-01-21) | Secondary as in time of occupation |
archaeologyh
(2012-01-21) | My concern at the moment is that much of the landscape that he Powerstation once occupied will be developed without thorough investigation. From my research i have discovered that there was much found at the time of it's construction, particularly human remains, that got hushed up so that the developement could go ahead. I am concerned that history will repeat itself and no-one will serve a PPG16 on the site... possible one of the most important in Europe, archaeologically speaking. I believe that E.H. Roger's conclusion that a settlement and burial ground had long since been washed away was incorrect and that much of the archaeology remians on that site. I find it interesting that his investigation, the only other one apart from my own, occurred at the approximate time of the planning for the Yelland Power Station. I think that a major excavation and investigation of the site should be undertaken before any further development goes ahead. |
archaeologyh
(2012-01-21) | This could be the site of the century.... but we will never know unless the authorities take notice. |
Print
Main News