Broch, Crannog and Hillfort

Broch

Crannóg

Hillfort

GLOSSARY

Adze Axe-like wood-working tool, but with blade at right-angles to the handle, used with pick-like motion.

Awl A pointed tool of flint, bone or bronze, used for making holes in skins, etc.

Barrow An earthen burial mound, either circular or rectangular in plan.

Burin Engraving or piercing tool, used with rotary action.

Berm Flat platform separating a mound or bank from a quarry ditch.

Cairn A heap of stones, varying in size, usually covering a burial.

Carinated A shoulder or sharp change in direction in the profile of a pot.

Chape Decorative terminal of a sword scabbard.

Cist Small rectangular pit lined with stone slabs and covered with a capstone; often a grave.

Corbelling Roofing method in which successive layers of stone rise one above the other and overlap inwards until they meet.

Cursus Long, narrow parallel-sided enclosure of the neolithic period.

Dolerite Basaltic type rock used for making axes, also in the construction of Stonehenge.

Dysse Long megalithic burial mound found in Denmark.

Gabbroic clay Clay containing crystals of the igneous rock gabbro from the Lizard peninsula.

Graver Engraving tool made from pointed, longitudinal flake, used with a straight action.

Hafted axe Axe with a wooden handle.

Halberd Bronze Age dagger at right angles to a wooden handle with metal rivets.

Henge Later neolithic circular enclosure surrounded by a bank and internal ditch, broken by one or more entrances.

Hunebeden Long megalithic burial mound found in the Netherlands.

Inhumation An unburnt human burial.

Machair Gaelic word describing lush meadowland.

Mattock Heads Pick-like tool with chisel shaped blade.

Megalithic Constructed of large stones, e.g. Stonehenge.

Midden Rubbish dump, often composed of discarded shells, bones or charcoal.

Quern Two stones used for grinding corn, either by rubbing backwards and forwards, or revolving one upon another

Revetment A facing of timber, stone or turf intended to stop the sides of a bank or mound collapsing.

Scalene triangle Unequal sided microlith, probably used as an arrow tip.

Sherds Fragments of broken pottery.

Skeuomorph An imitation.

Spelt A species of wheat: triticum spelta.

Tanged Projection at base of dagger or arrowhead used to fasten it to a handle.

Temenos Spacious enclosure of ‘consecrated’ land, attached to a temple.

Trepanation A form of brain surgery practised in the Bronze Age.

UK heatwave reveals long-hidden archaeological sites buried underground

Cropmarks of a large prehistoric enclosure in the Vale of Glamorgan with the faint footings of a probable Roman villa within.

The heatwave that has gripped the United Kingdom in recent weeks has led to drought and parched fields across much of the nation.

The dry conditions also revealed long-hidden archaeological sites buried underground.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) released aerial pictures of crop markings that show a large number of underground ancient sites.

The crop marks showed prehistoric settlements and Bronze Age barrows across the Llyn Peninsula in parts of north Wales, the RCAHMW said on their website.

Cropmarks of a large Bronze Age barrow cemetery on the Llyn Reninsula, Gwynedd.

 "A newly discovered early medieval cemetery of square barrows seen in the south Gwynedd is a very rare monument type for Wales," the RCAHMW said.

"A newly discovered early medieval cemetery of square barrows seen in the south Gwynedd is a very rare monument type for Wales," the RCAHMW said.

    "There was a surprise in the Vale of Glamorgan where severe drought at a known prehistoric settlement showed new cropmarks of a Roman villa within its modified ramparts."

The crop markings become apparent after greener vegetation, drawing on moisture trapped in the fortification ditches of the old sites, standing out among the brown, dryer vegetation.

Senior aerial investigator Dr Toby Driver spent hours flying over the crop marks and documenting the findings.

"I've not seen conditions like this since I took over the archaeological flying at the Royal Commission in 1997," Dr Driver told RCAHMW.

"So much new archaeology is showing it is incredible; the urgent work in the air now will lead to months of research in the office in the winter months to map and record all the sites which have been seen, and reveal their true significance."

Much of Britain has been experiencing a heatwave and unusually dry weather since June.

Extensive cropmarks of prehistoric enclosures in parched grassland on the Llyn Peninsula.

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW)