Wayland's Smithy, Long Barrow Tomb. The History & Myth Behind The Name. Oxfordshire, England

#WaylandsSmithy #Longbarrow #Englishmegaliths
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Today we’re going to the South East of England to talk about Wayland’s Smithy in Oxfordshire England.
It’s location near the village of Ashbury is along the same hill as the Uffington White horse, Uffington castle and close to the Ridgeway national trail, which is an ancient road.
The current appearance of this monument is the result of partial reconstruction in 1962 and 1963.
The site became associated with the mythological figure Wayland the Smith in the early middle ages, because of that the site became known as Wayland’s Smithy.
The name Wayland’s Smithy was first mentioned in a Saxon chronicle dating from 955 AD.
It refers to the Saxon smith God who was said to live in the monument.
Wayland’s Smithy is a 2 phase neolithic tomb.
It’s a chambered long barrow and it’s in one of the best surviving conditions when compared to other long barrows in Britain.
It’s made out of Sarsen, a kind of sandstone that is common to the area.
Sarsen stone is similar to the stones used at stonehenge.
The tomb we see today is the later phase of the monument.
The remains 14 of people were discovered in this first structure.
11 men, 2 woman and 1 child.
Radiocarbon dating showed that the first burials were probably placed there between 3590 and 3555BC, and the last burials were placed between 3580 and 3550BC.
The mound is about 56 meters long and 13 meters wide.
Within the southern end of the mound is the burial chamber.
A narrow and partially constricted orthostatic passage leads to a pair of side chambers, aligned east to west.
Just like we saw in Newgrange the passage and chambers form a cruciform structure.
The excavations in 1919-1920 done by Sir. Charles Peers and Reginald Smith, were of dubious quality and very poorly recorded.
The majority of the excavated human remains removed at that time have since been lost.
With the exception of 2 skulls archived at the natural history museum.
In the 1962 and 1963 excavations were led by Professors Stuart Piggot and Richard Atkinson who restored the sit to its appearance in antiquity.
During these excavations the 4 large entrance stones have been returned upright to their original positions.
Radiocarbon dating showed this monument to be a strikingly late phenomenon.
As it’s about 200 years younger than other long barrow tombs in England
Destruction of the monument appears to date from the late bronze age, and from the iron age into the roman period.
Most damage has been inflicted by the end of the roman period.
This monument was a place for collective burial, perhaps involving successive rites, and of progressive monumentalization.
We have to confront a much more precise chronology, which raises fresh questions and underlines how much we do not know about this remarkable monument.
In the 17th century AD a spiritual movement originated in England called Contemporary Druidry.
It’s sometimes describes as a nature religion.
It sees itself as being in line with a tradition that goes back to the religion of the ancient celts.
For that reason the British and Irish Isles are a sacred landscape to them, in particular ancient archaeological sites.
The connection to a Saxon god in addition to its ancient use as burial grounds make this a very important site for Druidic practice.
Samhain is one of the important days of the ritual calendar, which marks the beginning of the dark days of autumn.
The dying sun, the dying nature and the dead ancestors.
And as we have discussed previously in our Newgrange video, the winter solstice is one of the important days of the ritual calendar as well.
It marks the end of the dark days and celebrates the lighter days to come.
It’s a time to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new.
The rebirth of the sun and the rebirth of nature.
It’s been used as a ritual site by various modern pagan groups as well since the late 20th century.
The monument has been scheduled under the Ancient monuments protection act in 1882.
It’s under the guardianship of the National Trust and it’s open without charge to visitors all year round.
Sources:
www.english-he...
Alasdair Whittle, Alex Bayliss and Michael Wysocki (2007). Once in a Lifetime: the Date of the Wayland's Smithy Long Barrow.
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 17, pp 103-121 doi:10.1017/S0959774307000194
Music: Adrian von Ziegler
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[@dragonmares59110]

I was surprised by how "small" the interior was compared to the size of the site. Keep it up, those are great videos.

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Usually the inner chambers and passage leading up to it are quite small. I think humans were a lot shorter back then, and they mostly used the inside of these places for burials only. For me it's mostly fun to look at the difference in structures and sizes. Next up is Loughcrew in Ireland 🤗☺️

[@KlausJepps]

@@HistoryWithKayleigh Interesting. I looked this up! From what I found, human males were in average about 3cm taller 16.000BCE. lowest point at around 4.000BCE where Males were 16cm shorter and Females 12cm shorter than today. This is to me not a big enough height difference compared to the size of the structures. In old houses in Denmark, the doors were very short, so many expect people were that short. But I've heard that in fact they made the doors short to keep heat in. Also the short beds pointed to short ppl, though here again - they slept halfway sitting because they coughed a lot with the open fireplace in the house. So even though they were shorter, they weren't that short.

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Yeah i don't necessarily thought they were that much shorter, i think the interior was small because it was not supposed to be a place to stay for a long period of time in my opinion 🙂

[@ellypersoneni1492]

Lovely! This was the first video I watched. I love that you included our fur friends! Keep recording please!

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Thank you! I've started working on a new one already haha! I love doing the research and making these videos! My cats say; meow!😽

[@christabrouwer]

The cat with the glasses on at the end cracked me up! Nice vid again, interesting history! Keep'em coming, Kayleigh!

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Thank you Mom!❤️🥰 I'm so happy I ordered those glasses for them🤭😂

[@Terry.W]

Thanks for the info ..very interesting..

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Thank you Terry!

[@wicked_wizard]

The quality on this one is way better! Keep it up 👍🏻

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Thank you so much!

[@mevenstien]

Very interesting subjects and I like the way you present them.👍🙂

[@Traveler13]

Amazin place

[@edamgod5979]

ngl best outro ever

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

😂

[@tomevans4402]

I knew nothing about this, awesome. Love history. I’m extremely interested in these areas because the people had to have ready food and water and organization. Thanks again!!🌹

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

🤗

[@joejacoby2464]

I loved this video! I'll be watching the rest of the ones very soon - you have a talent for explaining details and keeping the subject interesting. I've been surprised in the videos I've watched so far how very long these sites have been used over time. I've seen a few of the Nuraghi in Sardinia and been awed by the structures - watching your series, I can see that I have quite a few other places to add to my list of sites to see. Keep up the great work, thanks for much for sharing!

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Thank you! I'm so happy I can keep you interested throughout, I'm always afraid I go into way too much detail 😂 I get caught up in my research and want to share everything I find🤭

[@MarkGeraghty]

Well read 👍😁

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Thank you!

[@PaulFrancis-SkyRascal]

I live near here :) Nice vid :) subbed, these vids will give me good ideas on historical places to fly :) thank you.

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Thank you! I have another English location planned for about 3-4 weeks in the future. First up is Loughcrew in Ireland and after that we will look at a site in Wales. And then we will have an English one. You guys are lucky to have such magnificent sites close to you🤗

[@floydriebe4755]

Personally, i think you speak English quite well. Some of the comments from viewers of this video were, in my opinion, ridiculous. Expecting you to pronounce words "properly" in English is like expecting an englishman to pronounce words "properly" in Dutch. Not to mention that, proper pronunciation can vary from one county to the next. Or, from one English speaking country to the next. You speak clearly and concisely, which is more than i can say for a lot of natural English speakers. Keep up the good work, Kayleigh! You are doing fine.

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Thank you so much, i always try to work on my pronunciations and when I don't get it right i do get disappointed in myself, thank you for you kind words ☺️

[@sevenodonata]

We come for the history, and stay for the cats! :) Also, so nice to finally hear "British AND Irish isles"! :D

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Thank you! I've made the mistake of calling it The British isles in the past and I was told that it should be named both. Thank you for noticing, I'll be sure to keep calling it The British and Irish isles in the future ☺️

[@notmikesully8810]

Hi friend!! I found you on discord, and wanted to express my support :) I'm a firm believer that if we want to grow on the platform, us small creators gotta stick together, so keep up the good work!! I subscribed and will be checking back for more content!!!

[@Maffman]

Nice video! very informative (here from reddit)

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Thank you! I hope you will stick around for future uploads, we visit a different location in each video ☺️

[@jeffhenderson934]

If I missed it, I apologize. Is the site aligned for the summer and/or winter solstice? (For some of the negative replies below- Keep doing what you’re doing, it’s working. And your English pronunciation is better than mine. I blame the South Carolina and Florida public school systems for my poor grammar and speech faux pas’.

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

It's aligned to the south, but not sure if that's supposed to be a solstice alignment 🙂

[@jeffhenderson934]

@@HistoryWithKayleigh with my line of work I need to get the lightning sensor pointed as close to true North as possible, so you know which direction the storm is moving. There’s also a solar panel that needs to be pointed to the southwest at a 52 degree angle. All of this is attainable with an iPhone these days. But it makes wonder the significance of the solstices thousands of years ago. It’s certainly not for farming. You’re not planting in the middle of the summer or the dead of winter. Astronomical? Keeping track of time? The older I get and based on the material to build these monuments, there’s more to it than that. Magnetic resonance? Whatever it is, it keeps me up at night.

[@dantaylor9132]

Subscribed from your reddit post on r/wales

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Thank you! I hope to keep you interested for a long time to come! Next video will be Loughcrew in Ireland, and after that it's going to be one of the sites in Wales that I was recommended today ☺️ I have a lot to choose from, they're all added to my list!

[@kerylorbsmultidimensional4214]

Were the skeletons found that disappeared of a larger stature?..?

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Get your Merch: historywithkayleighshop.com/ Become a Channel member: kzbin.info/door/MwDeEoupy8QQpKKc8pzU_Qjoin Support me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/HistoryWithKayleigh

[@clossemarin3201]

Somewhere across the vast Atlantic is a girl with a sing-songy voice who will never know what's it like to hold my (shaky) hand.

[@merlinwizard1000]

58th, 19 March 2023

[@lallyoisin]

please argue rather than delete

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

I don't argue or delete, we all have our own perceptions and all of them are valid ☺️

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Thank you! If you're interested in Megalithic monuments outside of Ireland or the UK for that matter, I have one video about the Dutch dolmens, i was able to travel there, since I live in the Netherlands 🤗 it has some myth surrounding it, really fun to learn more about

[@TeethToothman]

🌜🫁🌛

[@lallyoisin]

last point I promise .. sky burials only remain in Tibet. we eat we are eaten . sounds like a fair result. scalp marks might not always be about cowboys and indians. the Finns and Irish have the highest lactose intolerance in Europe. first cowboys. 4000 - 2000 bc is Taurus. 2000- 0000 is (Egypt) Ram Aries. christianity brought the fish... Pisces. I'm hoping we are now entering or have entered Aquarius : the age of enlightenment but... along with that comes a reduction of population according to vedas! it is what it is I guess! peace! 🇮🇪🐍

[@davidwalker1652]

It's pronounced 'Oxford-sheer', not 'Oxford-shyer'. And 'smithy' should have voiced 'th' (like 'this' or 'with'. Not voiceless like 'smith', or 'myth').

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

My pronunciations aren't the best, I am indeed aware. I'm Dutch and I have trouble enough as it is with pronouncing the English language. I don't speak it much besides these videos. I type a lot in English, so my brain knows the words, but my mouth just can't keep up and keeps messing up the words 🙈😅🤭

[@davidwalker1652]

@@HistoryWithKayleigh Oh your English and general pronunciation is fantastic; it just sounds American rather than British so doesn't quite match how those UK place names should be pronounced. If it's any consolation, almost all native speakers of American-English would make exactly the same mistakes! (I live in Oxford, so hear a lot of "Oxford-shyer" from US tourists :D )

[@davidwalker1652]

@@HistoryWithKayleigh Also, the difference in pronunciation between 'smith' and 'smithy' makes absolutely no sense anyway, but hey, that's English for you! :D

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Oh thank you, I'm really trying to work on it. We got British English in school but I was told not to speak that way as Americans, Canadians and Australians disliked it many times. But I'll be sure to keep working on it and do extra research on pronunciations

[@timbadcock2736]

@@davidwalker1652 that's the thing your from Oxford where they speak odd. The Smivvy is in old Berkshyre where some of us actually do still have local accents and funnily enough say it more like this woman pronounces it, just with a bit more of a country twang.

[@reallycool]

You didn't edit out the cats at the end. Very unprofessional.

[@HistoryWithKayleigh]

Hehe, that was actually edited in you dummie😂🤭