Castlerigg stone circle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Castlerigg stone circle ( English Castlerigg Stone Circle ) is one of the largest stone circle in England . It is located at 229 m altitude in Allerdale (parish of St. Johns Castlerigg and Wythburn) east of Keswick in Cumbria in the Lake District on a northeastern branch of the Castlerigg Fell . The subsoil consists of Skiddaw slate . The stone circle is a listed building (Scheduled Ancient Monument No. 22565).

General view of the Castlerigg stone circle
Aerial view of the Castlerigg stone circle

description

The outlier ( English outlier ) away from the circle - in front of a rampart

investment

The circle consists of 38 up to three meters high and 16 tons heavy unworked stones of different shapes, mostly made of slate. They point with the smoother side inwards. Some had fallen. Originally there were 42 stones that formed an oval about 70.0 m in diameter. A 3.3 m wide area at the northern end of the circle, which is formed by two large stones, is said to have served as access. In 1853 Williams was able to discover the remains of three burial mounds in the stone circle.

Ten stones are arranged in a rectangle on the western edge of the circle. They have been classified as a cove by Burl , the purpose of which is unknown. Most coves only consist of three or four stones. Avebury Cove dates back to the Bell Beaker Culture . However, Stukeley , who coined the term, referred to the structure in Castlerigg as a grave.

Scoring

Nick Best and AN Other discovered petroglyphs (spirals and rhombuses) on stones No. 10, 11 and 26 . Stone number 5 is marked with a cup and ring . The spiral on stone 11 could not be found in 1995 despite the use of laser scanning in high resolution, perhaps it was a natural discoloration.

Digs

Excavations in the cove in 1882 revealed no archaeological findings other than charcoal remains.

Dating

According to English Heritage , the stone circle can be dated to the early Bronze Age, i.e. according to continental terminology to the end of the Neolithic or the beginning of the Bronze Age.

Surroundings

Nearby are the stone circles of Elva Plain , Gray Croft and Swinside .

literature

  • Audrey Burl: A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany . London 2005.
  • Margarita Díaz-Andreu, C. Brooke, M. Rainsbury, N. Rosser: The Spiral that vanished: The Application of Non-Contact Recording Techniques to an elusive Rock Art Motif at Castlerigg Stone Circle in Cumbria . Journal of Archaeological Science 33, 2006, pp. 1580-1587.
  • Homer Sykes: Mysterious Britain - Fact and Folklore George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd. 1993 p. 26

Web links

Commons : Castlerigg Stone Circle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stone No. 11 is a foundling and belongs to the Borrowdale Volcanic Series , Margarita Díaz-Andreu, C. Brooke, M. Rainsbury, N. Rosser: The Spiral that vanished: The Application of Non-Contact Recording Techniques to an elusive Rock Art Motif at Castlerigg Stone Circle in Cumbria, The Journal of Archaeological Science 33, 2006 p. 1580
  2. ↑ http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/search/fr.cfm?rcn=LDNPHER08-3000
  3. ^ Aubrey Burl: Coves: Structural Enigmas of the Neolithic. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 82, 1988, p. 11
  4. ↑ "At the east end of it is a grave, made of such other stones, in number about ten: this is placed in the very east point of the circle, and within it ..." (Stukeley 1969 Vol. II, 48 )
  5. ↑ M. Díaz-Andreu, C. Brooke, M. Rainsbury, N. Rosser: The Spiral that vanished: The Application of non-contact Recording Techniques to an elusive Rock Art Motif at Castlerigg Stone Circle in Cumbria, Journal of Archaeological Science 33 , 2006, pp. 1580-157
  6. ↑ http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/search/fr.cfm?rcn=EHNMR-1066348

Coordinates: 54 ° 36 ′ 9 ″  N , 3 ° 5 ′ 49 ″  W.