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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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