Monday 8 August 2011

Eggardon Hill mass turn-out!

The little lad is yawning because its early; nothing to do with my talking!  

Well, what a turn-out for the Eggardon Hill walk yesterday. The weather report of just two days ago, which predicted storms, did not appear and we had a windy but bright day. The views were stunning with the added bonus of the grass being cut in the field where the Bronze Age disc barrow is situated. Also, one very local couple (they live at the bottom of Eggardon) brought with them a very good example of a worked flint core, from which many blade tools can be produced. Nice to see it, as it was found in one of the fields at the foot of the hillfort. It's still weird to think that this piece had been sitting in that field for thousands of years waiting to be picked up by a human hand once more. Although smaller than Maiden Castle, Eggardon is my favourite Iron Age hillfort in Dorset, with a wonderful panoramic view of the landscape and the sea to the south, including Golden Cap. It's always difficult to see the human element when walking around our many ancient monuments. These places would have been bustling places, with people doing business, playing music, flirting, children running around and animals making a noise (and a smell). But we are blessed with an imagination and it is possible to see this scene in our minds-eye. For we are walking the space these people lived in and touching the objects they made and valued. When they built the burial mounds they wanted to remember their ancestors, and they are still there today for us to be reminded that we are but the existing generation of many that has made up the human story.   

Hey, guy in the green, I said look to your left!

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