Arthur's Stone (Wales)

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Arthur's Stone

Arthur's Stone ( Welsh Maen Ceti or Maen Cetty or Great Stone of Sketty called) is a megalithic site in Wales . The protected as a Scheduled Monument is located northeast of Reynoldston on the Gower Peninsula near Swansea .

investment

The megalithic complex is almost at the highest point of the Cefn Bryn , a ridge up to 150 m high and eight kilometers long that runs along the Gower peninsula. It consists of a dolmen with a large capstone that rested on twelve narrow, upright supporting stones. The capstone had already broken before 1693, originally it was about 4.0 by 3.0 by 2.2 m and weighed an estimated 30 to 35 t. The largest part weighs around 25 t, the largest of the broken parts rests on the floor. Of the supporting stones, nine stones are still standing upright; the largest piece of the capstone lies on four of them. The complex probably contained two small, roughly rectangular grave chambers lying next to each other, which were about 1.4 by 1.2 m in size and 0.8 m high. The entrance was probably on the south side.

A little further to the west is a large cairn from the Bronze Age .

Arthur's Stone after Henry G. Gastineau

history

The complex was probably built around 2500 BC. Built in the Neolithic . There are many theories for the construction of the facility and especially for the transport of the large capstone; The large capstone was probably transported to South Wales by glaciation during the last ice age and remained on the ridge when the glaciers melted. For the construction, the earth was excavated below the capstone and supported with the supporting stones. The complex cannot be clearly assigned to other grave complexes from the Stone Age. Perhaps the entire complex in its present form does not come from the Stone Age, as, in contrast to other complexes, there were no remains of a cairn that covered the complex. Only a small stone enclosure runs around the complex, which hardly stands out from the surroundings; this differs significantly from the Cotswold Severn Tomb systems.

There are numerous legends about the complex. Allegedly, St. David is said to have broken the capstone with his sword while fighting a Celtic druid. According to another legend, the stone is said to have come from King Arthur , who found it in his shoe in Carmarthenshire and threw it over the mouth of the Loughor to Gower. Through contact with the legendary king, the stone grew to its enormous size, and other stones have held it up in admiration ever since. The stone was already an attraction in the 15th century. Henry Tudor is said to have made a detour to Gower in 1485 after landing in Milford Haven and on his way to the Battle of Bosworth to visit the stone. In the 16th century, the stone was considered the most important prehistoric site in Great Britain, along with Stonehenge and Silbury Hill . The complex was first referred to as Arthur's Stone in the 16th century, but the name is said to be older. In 1870, the Egyptologist John Gardner Wilkinson was the first scientist to examine the facility. He indicated the path on which, according to legend, an apparition of the legendary King Arthur on a white horse was seen as the remains of a menhir avenue. As one of the first archaeological sites in Wales, Arthur's Stone was placed under the protection of the Ancient Monuments Act in 1882 .

literature

  • Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales: An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan: I - Part 1: Pre-Norman Monuments - The stone and bronze ages. HMSO, Cardiff 1976, ISBN 0-11-700590-8 , pp. 31-32.
  • Homer Sykes: Mysterious Britain - Fact and Folklore George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd. 1993 ISBN 0-297-83196-8 p. 110

Web links

Commons : Arthur's Stone (Gower, Wales)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Explore Gower: Arthur's Stone. Retrieved August 18, 2015 .
  2. ^ Diane M. Williams: Gower. A Guide to ancient and historic monuments on the Gower peninsula . Cadw, Cardiff 1998. ISBN 1-85760-073-8 , p. 59.
  3. ^ Elisabeth Whittle: Glamorgan and Gwent . HMSO, London 1992. ISBN 0-11-701221-1 , p. 12.

Coordinates: 51 ° 35 ′ 38.7 "  N , 4 ° 10 ′ 46.6"  W.