The Antonine Wall
While most people have heard of Hadrian’s wall, which was begun in 122 AD at the behest of Emperor Hadrian, fewer people are familiar with the Antonine wall, which was constructed on the orders of his successor, Antonius Pius. The Antonine wall is a turf wall built by the Roman legions, starting in 142 AD, across the belt of Scotland from the Firth of Clyde to the Firth of Forth. With a length of 39 miles, the wall was on average ten feet high and sixteen feet wide. To further augment the defenses, the Romans dug out a deep ditch on the north side and built a wooden palisade along the top of the wall. The wall took twelve years to build and included 19 forts. We have visited both Bar Hill, and Rough Castle, which is the best preserved Read more…
Sarn Helen
Sarn Helen means “Helen’s Causeway.” It is named for Elen, the wife of Macsen Wledig, who Welsh legend says ordered the building of the roads in Wales in the fourth century. The historical record indicates the road was actually built far earlier by the Roman legions who conquered Wales in the first century AD, in order to allow the rapid movement of troops and military supplies. Most of the Roman road network in Britain was completed by 180 AD. Sarn Helen began in north Wales at the Roman fort of Cae-rhun. It ran south to Trefriw. From there it went to Caer Llugwy and Dolwyddelan. Then it headed through the Cwm Penamnen Valley. It ran past Bryn Y Castell to the fort of Tomen y Mur. From there it went to Dolgellau and may have crossed the Afon Dyfi at Read more…
Prestatyn Roman Bath
The Prestatyn Roman Bath lies five miles north of the main Roman road that ran east to west across north Wales, starting at Chester. The baths were built as an adjunct to the Roman administrative complex that oversaw the region’s lead mining industry. It was also home to the 20th legion. A settlement had been located at Prestatyn before the arrival of the Romans, as evidenced by bronze working, round houses, and an infant burial dating to 30 BC. Roman attributes have been found from 70 AD, and the village continued to be occupied through the 4th century. Today, the baths are the only remains of the ancient settlement, the rest of the site having been covered over or destroyed by a housing development. The bathhouse was built around 120 AD and expanded in 150 AD with the addition of Read more…
The Menai Strait
The Menai Strait is the narrow body of water, approximately 16 miles long, between mainland Wales and the island of Anglesey, called Ynys Mon in Welsh. At its center point, the Strait is roughly 1600 feet from shore to shore, widening to over 3000 feet at either end of the Strait. The Strait was formed through glacial erosion of the bedrock and was flooded after the end of the ice ages. Before the Strait was dredged in the modern era, it was possible to walk across the Lavan Sands, located to the east of Bangor, at low tide. Llanfaes, the town King Edward destroyed to build Beaumaris Castle, was the largest commercial center in North Wales prior to the conquest, and it was located along this ancient pathway, which went from Holyhead, through Anglesey to Llanfaes, across the Lavan Sands Read more…
The Druid’s Circle
The Druid’s circle is an ancient stone monument located on Penmaenmawr, the larger headland to the west of the town of Conwy in north Wales. Despite the name, this stone circle predates the druids and the Celtic religion by millenia and may be up to 5000 years old. Known as Meini Hirion in Welsh, meaning long stones, several prehistoric trackways run past the site. This area was important because the type of rock at Penmaenmawr, augite granophyre, was ideal for making stone axes. Axe heads from Penmaenmawr have been discovered around Britain including in Scotland, Yorkshire and the Thames Valley. Modern quarrying destroyed the remains of a large prehistoric settlement on the mountaintop west of Penmaenmawr, although some archeological studies were undertaken before the evidence was lost. Excavations conducted in 1957 at the druid’s circle itself discovered the cremated remains Read more…
Dinas Dinlle
Dinas Dinlle is an Iron age hillfort, and possibly once the site of a Roman lighthouse, located southwest of Caernarfon on the Irish sea in North Wales. The hillfort is a roughly rectangular defended enclosure with a high inner rampart and also an outer terraced rampart, which is divided by a deep ditch. It measures approx. 230m north-south by 145m east-west and would originally have enclosed approx. 4 hectares. The fortifications survive on only three sides today as the west side has been eroded away by the sea. Formerly the site may have stood well inland. Even today, it is possible to make out small depressions which are thought to indicate the locations of Iron Age huts. It also includes a mound that may be the remains of a barrow or burial. Finds of Roman pottery suggest that the Romans Read more…
Did Cancer Exist in the Middle Ages?
My dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2001, a few months after my mom had a hysterectomy for uterine cancer. In 2007 at the age of 63, my dad was diagnosed with a second (unrelated) cancer–something horrible called lyposarcoma with a 15 pound tumor in his abdomen. He was given five years to live and made it 4 1/2. A month after my father died in 2011, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, her second (unrelated) cancer. She died in 2019 when it returned. How common was cancer in the past? If cancer is more common now than before it could be because: 1) we’ve polluted our environment 2) we live longer than in the past, so we die from things we wouldn’t have had the chance to die from in the Middle Ages 3) we’ve circumvented natural Read more…
The Celtic City of Glanum
The Celts in France were known to the Romans as Gauls, though in their own language they called themselves Celtae and are the origin of the name that came to be applied to all the peoples who shared their language and culture. The city of Glanum was established by the 6th century BC when the villagers built ramparts on the hills surrounding their village to protect themselves from invaders. The hallmark of the town was a sacred spring known for its healing powers and was dedicated to the Celtic water god, Glanis, one of several Celtic gods worshipped in the city. Archaeologists view the city as having a vibrant Celtic culture, using characteristic pottery, cooking utensils (boiling rather than frying), and a penchant for displaying the heads of their enemies at the city gate. As with the Britons, we know Read more…
The Celts in Wales
The Celts are an overarching term to refer to the ethnic group that spread through Europe in the pre-Roman era. The Irish, Welsh, and Scots all have a Celtic ancestry, but they settled their respective regions before the Roman conquest of Britain. There is an amazing amount of debate as to the origin of the Celts: were they Phoenician? stocky and dark? tall and blonde? as culturally cohesive as the label suggests? The standard theory is that the Celts were an Indo-European group that gradually migrated across Europe and Asia, with an identifiable, distinct culture by 750 BC. As a group, they were well-known to the Greeks and Romans. The map to the right shows the migrations of the celtic (or proto-celtic) groups around 1000 BC. Note the expansion of the Celts in particular between 500 and 200 BC into the Read more…
Making Sense of Medieval Britain
Medieval Wales and Britain in general is my thing (obviously!), and since I can’t get enough, I kind of assume everyone around me can’t either 🙂 Thus, I’ve started a series of videos about the history of Britain. The videos will be put up weekly. This week we have Making Sense of Medieval Britain, where I explain about the various peoples who lived in/conquered/migrated to Britain during the medieval period in six minutes. With graphics! Click on the link to see the video!
The Saxon Invasions
It is a matter of record that the Saxons invasions of Britain began in the last years of the Roman occupation, and then started in in full force after the Romans left the island in 410 AD. They marched away, seemingly without a backward glance, leaving the Britons–after 400 years of occupation–to fend for themselves. Map retrieved from: http://historiarex.com/e/en/225-anglo-saxon-invasions From Gildas, writing in the 6th century: From Britain envoys set out with their complaints, their clothes (it is said) torn, their heads covered in dust, to beg help from the Romans. … The Romans … informed our country that they could not go on being bothered with such troublesome expeditions; that Roman standards, that great and splendid army, could not be worn out by land and sea for the sake of wandering thieves who had no taste for war. Rather, Read more…
The Beginning of the Dark Ages in Britain
The Beginning of the Dark Ages in Britain: the ‘Dark Ages’ were ‘dark’ only because we lack extensive (or in some instances, any) historical material about the period between 407 AD, when the Romans marched away from Britain, and 1066, when William of Normandy conquered England. “Initially, this era took on the term “dark” . . . due to the backward ways and practices that seemed to prevail during this time. Future historians used the term “dark” simply to denote the fact that little was known about this period; there was a paucity of written history. Recent discoveries have apparently altered this perception as many new facts about this time have been uncovered. The Italian Scholar, Francesco Petrarca called Petrarch, was the first to coin the phrase. He used it to denounce Latin literature of that time; others expanded on Read more…
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