Wayland's Smithy: Difference between revisions
m coord & mapframe |
No edit summary Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
||
(31 intermediate revisions by 25 users not shown) | |||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}} |
|||
{{short description|Neolithic long barrow and chamber tomb site in Oxfordshire, England}} |
{{short description|Neolithic long barrow and chamber tomb site in Oxfordshire, England}} |
||
{{Infobox ancient site |
{{Infobox ancient site |
||
Line 9: | Line 10: | ||
|location = Near [[Ashbury, Oxfordshire|Ashbury]] |
|location = Near [[Ashbury, Oxfordshire|Ashbury]] |
||
|region = [[Oxfordshire]] [[England]] |
|region = [[Oxfordshire]] [[England]] |
||
|coordinates = |
|coordinates = {{coord|51.5667811|-1.5961466|format=dms|type:landmark|display=it}} |
||
|map = {{Infobox mapframe|id=Q2553002|zoom=13|frame-width=200}} |
|||
|map_type = United Kingdom Oxfordshire |
|map_type = United Kingdom Oxfordshire |
||
|map_size = |
|map_size = |
||
Line 18: | Line 20: | ||
|public_access = Yes |
|public_access = Yes |
||
|condition = Restored |
|condition = Restored |
||
|excavations = |
|excavations = 1962–63 |
||
|archaeologists = [[Stuart Piggott]] |
|archaeologists = [[Stuart Piggott]] |
||
|website = [https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/waylands-smithy/ English Heritage] |
|website = [https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/waylands-smithy/ English Heritage] |
||
|designation1 = Scheduled monument |
|designation1 = Scheduled monument |
||
|designation1_number = 1008409 |
|||
|designation1_number = PRN7306<ref>[http://publicapps.oxfordshire.gov.uk/wps/portal/publicapps/applications/heritage Museums and Archaeology - Oxfordshire Historic Environment Record]</ref> |
|||
|designation1_offname = Wayland's Smithy chambered long barrow, including an earlier barrow and Iron Age and Roman boundary ditches |
|||
|designation1_date = 1882 <ref>{{cite wikisource |last=Hunter |first=Robert |chapter=Appendix A |wslink=The Preservation of Places of Interest or Beauty |plaintitle=The Preservation of Places of Interest or Beauty |year=1907 |publisher=Manchester University Press}}</ref> |
|designation1_date = 18 August 1882<ref name="NHLE">{{NHLE |num=1008409 |desc=Wayland's Smithy chambered long barrow, including an earlier barrow and Iron Age and Roman boundary ditches |access-date=12 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite wikisource |last=Hunter |first=Robert |chapter=Appendix A |wslink=The Preservation of Places of Interest or Beauty |plaintitle=The Preservation of Places of Interest or Beauty |year=1907 |publisher=Manchester University Press}}</ref> |
||
}} |
}} |
||
'''Wayland's Smithy''' is |
'''Wayland's Smithy''' is an [[Neolithic British Isles|Early Neolithic]] [[chambered long barrow]] located near the village of [[Ashbury, Oxfordshire|Ashbury]] in the south-central [[England|English]] county of [[Oxfordshire]]. The barrow is believed to have been constructed about 3600 BCE by [[pastoralism|pastoral communities]] shortly after the introduction of [[agriculture]] to the British Isles from continental Europe. Although part of an architectural tradition of long barrow building that was widespread across Neolithic Europe, Wayland's Smithy belongs to a localised regional variant of barrows - found only in south-west of Britain - known as the [[Severn-Cotswold tomb|Severn-Cotswold group]]. Wayland's Smithy is one of the best surviving examples of this type of barrow. |
||
⚫ | The site's appearance is a result of restoration following excavations undertaken by archaeologists, [[Stuart Piggott]] and [[Richard J. C. Atkinson|Richard Atkinson]], in 1962–63. Their research of the site showed it had been built in two different phases. First as a timber-chambered [[oval barrow]] built around 3590 and 3550 BCE and then later as a stone-chambered long barrow in around 3460 to 3400 BCE.<ref name=EH>{{cite web|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/waylands-smithy/history-and-research/|title=Archaeological history and research|publisher=English Heritage|access-date=27 June 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107041032/http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/waylands-smithy/history-and-research/|archive-date=7 January 2014}}</ref> The barrow is on the same hill range as [[Uffington White Horse]] and [[Uffington Castle]]; it is also close to [[The Ridgeway]], the [[Historic roads and trails|ancient trackway]] across the [[Berkshire Downs]]. |
||
[[Archaeology|Archaeologists]] have established that the monument was built by [[pastoralism|pastoralist]] communities shortly after the introduction of [[agriculture]] to Britain from continental Europe. Although representing part of an architectural tradition of long barrow building that was widespread across Neolithic Europe, Wayland's Smithy belongs to a localised regional variant of barrows produced in the south-west of Britain, now known as the [[Severn-Cotswold tomb|Severn-Cotswold group]]. Of these, it is in one of the best surviving conditions. |
|||
The barrow, which is a [[scheduled monument]], is under the guardianship of [[English Heritage]] and open all year round.<ref name="NHLE" /> It has been used as a ritual site in [[modern Paganism]] since the late 20th century. |
|||
⚫ | The |
||
==Toponym== |
|||
Wayland's Smithy is along the same hill as the [[Uffington White Horse]] and [[Uffington Castle]], while it is also close to [[The Ridgeway]], an ancient road running along the [[Berkshire Downs]]. In the [[Early medieval England|early middle ages]], the site became associated with the mythological figure [[Wayland the Smith]], from which it gained its name. Since the late 20th century it has been used as a ritual site by various [[Modern Paganism|modern Pagan]] groups. Now under the guardianship of the [[National Trust]], it is open without charge to visitors all year round. |
|||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | Wayland's Smithy is one of many prehistoric sites associated with [[Wayland the Smith|Wayland]] or ''Wolund'', a [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] smith-god. This character appears in [[Norse mythology]], and a depiction of him is believed to be present on the [[Franks Casket]], on display in the [[British Museum]] in London.{{sfn|Grinsell|1976|p=46}} It was most likely named by the [[Saxon people|Saxons]] who settled in the area some four thousand years after Wayland's Smithy was built. The first recorded mention of the name is in an early medieval land deed (908AD) from [[Compton Beauchamp]], which documented in a charter from King [[Eadred]] in 955{{nbsp}}AD.{{sfn|Grinsell|1976|pp=46, 149}}<ref name=ford>[http://www.berkshirehistory.com/archaeology/waylands_smithy.html berkshirehistory.com/waylands_smithy], David Nash Ford, 2003. Accessed 27 June 2014</ref> |
||
== |
==Description== |
||
⚫ | The Early Neolithic era was a revolutionary period of British history. Between 4500 and 3800 BC, it saw a widespread change in lifestyle as the communities living in the [[British Isles]] adopted [[agriculture]] as their primary form of subsistence, abandoning the [[hunter-gatherer]] lifestyle that had characterised the preceding [[Mesolithic]] period.{{sfn|Hutton|1991|pp=16–17}} This came about through contact with continental societies, although it is unclear to what extent this can be attributed to an influx of migrants or to indigenous Mesolithic Britons adopting agricultural technologies from the continent.{{sfnm|1a1=Hutton|1y=1991|1p=16|2a1=Ashbee|2y=1999|2p=272|3a1=Hutton|3y=2013|3pp=34–35}} |
||
⚫ | With new technologies, Neolithic societies in Britain began to emulate European funerary practices. The wooden mortuary house mainly consisted of a paved stone floor with two large posts at either end. A single crouched burial had been placed at one end and, the mostly disarticulated remains of a further 14 individuals were scattered in front of it.<ref name=EH/> Analysis of these remains indicated that they had been subjected to [[excarnation]] before burial and deposited in possibly four different phases. [[Posthole]]s at one end have been interpreted as supporting a timber facade. An earth barrow covered the whole monument with material excavated from two flanking ditches and measured around {{convert|15|ft}} wide and {{convert|6|ft}} deep.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.silentearth.org/waylands-smithy/|title=Wayland's Smithy|date=12 August 2016|author= Austin Kinsley|website=www.silentearth.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Atkinson|first1=R. J. C.|title=Wayland's Smithy|journal=Antiquity|volume=39|issue=154|year=1965|pages=126–133|issn=0003-598X|doi=10.1017/S0003598X00031653|s2cid=162712533 }}</ref> |
||
[[Image:RidgewayRingfort.jpg|left|thumb|The Ridgeway (Uffington Castle ringfort in the distance, on the left)]] |
|||
⚫ | The later stone tomb consists of two opposing transept chambers and terminal chamber; along with the longer entrance chamber, this gives the burial area a cruciform appearance in plan. At the entrance four large [[sarsen]] stones stand (originally six, but two are lost), having been returned to their upright locations following the 1962 excavations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pegasusarchive.org/ancientbritain/waylands_smithy.htm|title=Wayland's Smithy|website=www.pegasusarchive.org}}</ref> It is classified by [[archaeologist]]s as one of the [[Severn-Cotswold tomb]]s. The large trapezoidal earth [[tumulus|barrow]] erected over it was revetted with a stone [[Megalithic architectural elements|kerb]] and its material was again excavated from two large flanking ditches. Excavation in 1919 revealed the jumbled remains of seven adults and one child.<ref name=EH2>[http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/waylands-smithy/history-and-research/waylands-smithy-ii/ history and research: Waylands Smithy II. English Heritage], accessed 27 June 2014</ref> |
||
⚫ | The Early Neolithic was a revolutionary period of British history. Between 4500 and 3800 BC, it saw a widespread change in lifestyle as the communities living in the [[British Isles]] adopted [[agriculture]] as their primary form of subsistence, abandoning the [[hunter-gatherer]] lifestyle that had characterised the preceding [[Mesolithic]] period.{{sfn|Hutton|1991|pp=16–17}} This came about through contact with continental societies, although it is unclear to what extent this can be attributed to an influx of migrants or to indigenous Mesolithic Britons adopting agricultural technologies from the continent.{{sfnm|1a1=Hutton|1y=1991|1p=16|2a1=Ashbee|2y=1999|2p=272|3a1=Hutton|3y=2013|3pp= |
||
==Site description== |
|||
⚫ | The wooden mortuary house mainly consisted of a paved stone floor with two large posts at either end. A single crouched burial had been placed at one end and, the mostly disarticulated remains of a further 14 individuals were scattered in front of it.<ref name=EH/> Analysis of these remains indicated that they had been subjected to [[excarnation]] before burial and deposited in possibly four different phases. [[Posthole]]s at one end have been interpreted as supporting a timber facade. An earth barrow covered the whole monument with material excavated from two flanking ditches and measured around {{convert|15|ft}} wide and {{convert|6|ft}} deep.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.silentearth.org/waylands-smithy/|title= |
||
⚫ | The later stone tomb consists of two opposing transept chambers and terminal chamber; along with the longer entrance chamber, this gives the burial area a cruciform appearance in plan. At the entrance four large [[sarsen]] stones stand (originally six, but two are lost), having been returned to their upright locations following the 1962 excavations.<ref> |
||
The site is important as it illustrates a transition from a timber-chambered barrow to stone-chamber tomb over a period that may have been as short as 50 years. Carbon dating of the burials in the second tomb suggests it was a late use of this style of burial, being similar to [[West Kennet Long Barrow]], which had been in use 200 years before.<ref name=EH2/> |
The site is important as it illustrates a transition from a timber-chambered barrow to stone-chamber tomb over a period that may have been as short as 50 years. Carbon dating of the burials in the second tomb suggests it was a late use of this style of burial, being similar to [[West Kennet Long Barrow]], which had been in use 200 years before.<ref name=EH2/> |
||
==Antiquarian historiography == |
|||
⚫ | Wayland's Smithy is one of many prehistoric sites associated with [[Wayland the Smith|Wayland]] or ''Wolund'', a [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] smith-god. |
||
⚫ | |||
==Folklore, folk tradition, and modern Paganism== |
|||
⚫ | |||
The name "Wayland's Smithy" is a reference to the mythological metal-worker [[Wayland the Smith]]. This character appears in [[Norse mythology]], and a depiction of him is believed to be present on the [[Franks Casket]], on display in the [[British Museum]] in London.{{sfn|Grinsell|1976|p=46}} The monument's name is first recorded in an early medieval land charter (BCS 908) from [[Compton Beauchamp]], which has been attributed a date of 955{{nbsp}}AD.{{sfn|Grinsell|1976|pp=46, 149}} |
|||
In 1738, Francis Wise, who was then the under-keeper of the [[Bodleian Library]], recorded a belief held about the site in local folklore.{{sfnm|1a1=Ellis Davidson|1y=1958|1p=146|2a1=Grinsell|2y=1976|2p=149}} Like several other early commentators, Wise referred to the site not as "Wayland's Smithy", but only as "Wayland Smith".{{sfn|Ellis Davidson|1958|p=147}} Wise related that: |
In 1738, Francis Wise, who was then the under-keeper of the [[Bodleian Library]], recorded a belief held about the site in local folklore.{{sfnm|1a1=Ellis Davidson|1y=1958|1p=146|2a1=Grinsell|2y=1976|2p=149}} Like several other early commentators, Wise referred to the site not as "Wayland's Smithy", but only as "Wayland Smith".{{sfn|Ellis Davidson|1958|p=147}} Wise related that: |
||
Line 61: | Line 57: | ||
The site was also mentioned in a letter sent to the antiquarian [[William Stukeley]] by his daughter Anna on 3 October 1758.{{sfn|Grinsell|1976|p=149}} There is some folklore associating witch relics with the site.{{sfn|Grinsell|1976|p=149}} It is referred to as "Wayland Smith's Forge" in [[Walter Scott]]'s 1821 novel ''[[Kenilworth (novel)|Kenilworth]]''.{{sfn|Grinsell|1976|p=149}} In 1828, a one-inch [[Ordnance Survey]] map recorded the site's name as being "Wayland Smith's Forge". The folklorist and archaeologist [[Leslie Grinsell]] suggested that the decision to name it this on the map was influenced by Scott's novel.{{sfn|Grinsell|1976|p=149}} |
The site was also mentioned in a letter sent to the antiquarian [[William Stukeley]] by his daughter Anna on 3 October 1758.{{sfn|Grinsell|1976|p=149}} There is some folklore associating witch relics with the site.{{sfn|Grinsell|1976|p=149}} It is referred to as "Wayland Smith's Forge" in [[Walter Scott]]'s 1821 novel ''[[Kenilworth (novel)|Kenilworth]]''.{{sfn|Grinsell|1976|p=149}} In 1828, a one-inch [[Ordnance Survey]] map recorded the site's name as being "Wayland Smith's Forge". The folklorist and archaeologist [[Leslie Grinsell]] suggested that the decision to name it this on the map was influenced by Scott's novel.{{sfn|Grinsell|1976|p=149}} |
||
==Modern use== |
|||
===Twentieth and twenty-first century activity=== |
|||
[[File:Waylands-smithy-2006-10-23.jpg|thumb|The site is used for rituals by [[Modern Paganism|Modern Pagans]]]] |
|||
⚫ | |||
The deposition of coins at the site has taken place since at least the 1960s, with visitors lodging the coins into cracks in the site's stones.{{sfn|Houlbrook|2015|p=178}} As of 2015, the local wardens from [[The National Trust]] are tasked with removing said deposits, and ''circa'' 2010 English Heritage removed information about the coin deposition custom from the site's information panel.{{sfn|Houlbrook|2015|p=178}} The coins removed by the wardens are then donated to local charities.{{sfn|Houlbrook|2015|p=182}} As the folklorist Ceri Houlbrook noted, all of this deposited material "contributes to the ritual narrative of a site".{{sfn|Houlbrook|2015|p=184}} |
|||
[[Modern Paganism|Modern Pagans]], including [[Druidry (modern)|Druids]] and [[Heathenry (new religious movement)|Heathens]] use Wayland's Smithy for ritual purposes. Anthropologist Thorsten Gieser thinks the modern ritualistic use of the site by new age religions to communicate with "ancestors", "spirits of the earth", and an "earth goddess" is symbolic of its folkloric links to Wayland and its use as a prehistoric burial ground.{{sfn|Gieser|2016|p=55}} However, in 2019, concern were raised that one of the groups using the site for their rituals was "[[Heathenry in the United Kingdom#Odinist and Wodenist groups|Woden's Folk]]", a [[neo-Nazi]] [[Heathenry (new religious movement)|Heathen]] movement. The National Trust said it would increase the number of times its rangers visited the site.{{sfnm|1a1=Dixon|1y=2019|2a1=BBC News|2y=2019}} Graffiti carved into the trees around the site has included [[swastikas]].{{sfnm|1a1=Dixon|1y=2019|2a1=BBC News|2y=2019}} |
|||
Among the [[Modern Paganism|modern Pagan]] groups that use Wayland's Smithy for ritual purposes have been various [[Druidry (modern)|Druids]]. The anthropologist Thorsten Gieser noted that the site was important to Druids because of its folkloric links to Wayland and because of its use as a prehistoric burial ground. These Druids regard it as a space in which to communicate with "ancestors", "spirits of the earth", and an "earth goddess".{{sfn|Gieser|2016|p=55}} In 2019, various press sources expressed concern that one of the Pagan groups using the site for their nocturnal rituals was Woden's Folk, a [[Heathenry (new religious movement)|Heathen]] group which held to [[Neo-Nazi|neo-Nazi]] views. The National Trust responded that they would increase the number of times that their rangers visited the site.{{sfnm|1a1=Dixon|1y=2019|2a1=BBC News|2y=2019}} |
|||
==Cultural references== |
==Cultural references== |
||
[[Walter Scott]]'s Elizabethan novel [[Kenilworth (novel)|''Kenilworth'']] (published 1821) features both |
[[Walter Scott]]'s Elizabethan novel [[Kenilworth (novel)|''Kenilworth'']] (published 1821) features both a chambered underground dwelling and a farrier living in it named 'Wayland Smith'.<ref name=ford/> |
||
[[Susan Cooper]]'s ''The Dark is Rising'' series of young-adult novels features a supporting character named Wayland Smith, and deals greatly with English lore and legend. |
[[Susan Cooper]]'s ''The Dark is Rising'' series of young-adult novels features a supporting character named Wayland Smith, and deals greatly with English lore and legend. |
||
[[Julian Cope]] included a song called "Wayland's Smithy Has Wings" on his 1992 album ''[[The Skellington Chronicles]]''.{{ |
[[Julian Cope]] included a song called "Wayland's Smithy Has Wings" on his 1992 album ''[[The Skellington Chronicles]]''.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}} |
||
Author [[Patricia Kennealy-Morrison]] has a protagonist named Turk Wayland in her Rennie Stride mystery series, and sets a scene at the end of the fourth book, ''A Hard Slay's Night: Murder at the Royal Albert Hall'', at Wayland's Smithy.{{ |
Author [[Patricia Kennealy-Morrison]] has a protagonist named Turk Wayland in her Rennie Stride mystery series, and sets a scene at the end of the fourth book, ''A Hard Slay's Night: Murder at the Royal Albert Hall'', at Wayland's Smithy.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}} |
||
Rudyard Kipling, in his interlinked collection of stories ''[[Puck of Pook's Hill]]'', set many of the stories near the Smithy, and told of the arrival of the smith god in the first.{{ |
Rudyard Kipling, in his interlinked collection of stories ''[[Puck of Pook's Hill]]'', set many of the stories near the Smithy, and told of the arrival of the smith god in the first.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}} |
||
Both the Uffington White Horse and Wayland's Smithy were incorporated into the [[BBC]] miniseries ''[[The Moon Stallion]]'', produced in 1978. In the serial, set in 1906, the stones are associated with witchcraft.{{sfn|Bramwell|2009|pp=167, 173–174}} |
Both the Uffington White Horse and Wayland's Smithy were incorporated into the [[BBC]] miniseries ''[[The Moon Stallion]]'', produced in 1978. In the serial, set in 1906, the stones are associated with witchcraft.{{sfn|Bramwell|2009|pp=167, 173–174}} |
||
The British music group [[Radiohead]] recorded a music video here for their non-album single "[[Pop Is Dead]]".{{ |
The British music group [[Radiohead]] recorded a music video here for their non-album single "[[Pop Is Dead]]".<ref>Dan Caffrey {{google books|mRUYEAAAQBAJ|Radiohead FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the World's Most Famous Cult Band (2012)|page=214}}</ref> |
||
<gallery> |
|||
⚫ | |||
File:Wayland's Smithy entrance.JPG|The entrance |
|||
Image:Waylands-smithy-2006-10-23.jpg|Side view |
|||
File:Approaching Wayland's Smithy.jpg|Side view at dusk |
|||
⚫ | |||
</gallery> |
|||
==References== |
==References== |
||
Line 97: | Line 86: | ||
===Bibliography=== |
===Bibliography=== |
||
{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} |
{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} |
||
* {{cite journal |last=Ashbee |first=Paul |title=The Medway Megaliths in a European Context |journal=Archaeologia Cantiana |publisher=Kent Archaeological Society |volume=119 |year=1999 |pages=269–284 |url=http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Pub/ArchCant/119-1999/119-09.pdf }} |
|||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | * {{cite news |last=Dixon |first=Hayley |date=9 August 2019 |title=Neo-Nazis at the National Trust: How far-right groups are trying to 'take back' ancient sites |website=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/09/neo-nazis-national-trust-far-right-groups-trying-takeback-ancient/ |access-date=27 August 2019 }} |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | * {{cite contribution |last=Gieser |first=Thorsten |year=2016 |contribution=Druids at Wayland's Smithy: Tracing Transformations of the Sentient Body in Ritual |title=Dem Körper eingeschrieben: Verkörperung zwischen Leiberleben und kulturellem Sinn |editor1=Matthias Jung |editor2=Michaela Bauks |editor3=Andreas Ackermann |location=New York |publisher=Springer |pages=55–72 }} |
||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
* {{cite journal |last=Grinsell |first=Leslie V. |title=Notes on the Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain |journal=Folklore |volume=90 |issue=1 |year=1979 |pages=66–70 |doi=10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716124 }} |
|||
* {{cite journal |first=Ceri |last=Houlbrook |title=The Penny's Dropped: Renegotiating the Contemporary Coin Deposit |journal=Journal of Material Culture |volume=20 |number=2 |pages=173–189 |year=2015 |doi=10.1177/1359183515577120 |hdl=2299/18964 |s2cid=159495735 |hdl-access=free }} |
|||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
:{{cite journal |first=Ceri |last=Houlbrook |title=The Penny's Dropped: Renegotiating the Contemporary Coin Deposit |journal=Journal of Material Culture |volume=20 |number=2 |pages=173–189 |year=2015 |doi=10.1177/1359183515577120 |ref=harv|hdl=2299/18964 }} |
|||
⚫ | |||
⚫ | |||
{{Refend}} |
{{Refend}} |
||
Line 136: | Line 115: | ||
[[Category:Stone Age sites in England]] |
[[Category:Stone Age sites in England]] |
||
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Oxfordshire]] |
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Oxfordshire]] |
||
[[Category:Scheduled monuments in Oxfordshire]] |
|||
[[Category:Oxfordshire folklore]] |
[[Category:Oxfordshire folklore]] |
||
[[Category:Berkshire folklore]] |
[[Category:Berkshire folklore]] |
||
[[Category:Buildings and structures completed in the 4th millennium BC]] |
Latest revision as of 17:08, 3 July 2024
![]() The long barrow entrance | |
![]() | |
Standort | Near Ashbury |
---|---|
Region | Oxfordshire England |
Coordinates | 51°34′00″N 1°35′46″W / 51.5667811°N 1.5961466°W |
Typ | long barrow and chamber tomb |
History | |
Periods | Neolithic |
Site notes | |
Excavation dates | 1962–63 |
Archaeologists | Stuart Piggott |
Condition | Restored |
Public access | Yes |
Website | English Heritage |
Official name | Wayland's Smithy chambered long barrow, including an earlier barrow and Iron Age and Roman boundary ditches |
Designated | 18 August 1882[1][2] |
Reference no. | 1008409 |
Wayland's Smithy is an Early Neolithic chambered long barrow located near the village of Ashbury in the south-central English county of Oxfordshire. The barrow is believed to have been constructed about 3600 BCE by pastoral communities shortly after the introduction of agriculture to the British Isles from continental Europe. Although part of an architectural tradition of long barrow building that was widespread across Neolithic Europe, Wayland's Smithy belongs to a localised regional variant of barrows - found only in south-west of Britain - known as the Severn-Cotswold group. Wayland's Smithy is one of the best surviving examples of this type of barrow.
The site's appearance is a result of restoration following excavations undertaken by archaeologists, Stuart Piggott and Richard Atkinson, in 1962–63. Their research of the site showed it had been built in two different phases. First as a timber-chambered oval barrow built around 3590 and 3550 BCE and then later as a stone-chambered long barrow in around 3460 to 3400 BCE.[3] The barrow is on the same hill range as Uffington White Horse and Uffington Castle; it is also close to The Ridgeway, the ancient trackway across the Berkshire Downs.
The barrow, which is a scheduled monument, is under the guardianship of English Heritage and open all year round.[1] It has been used as a ritual site in modern Paganism since the late 20th century.
Toponym
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Franks_Casket_vorne_links.jpg/225px-Franks_Casket_vorne_links.jpg)
Wayland's Smithy is one of many prehistoric sites associated with Wayland or Wolund, a Germanic smith-god. This character appears in Norse mythology, and a depiction of him is believed to be present on the Franks Casket, on display in the British Museum in London.[4] It was most likely named by the Saxons who settled in the area some four thousand years after Wayland's Smithy was built. The first recorded mention of the name is in an early medieval land deed (908AD) from Compton Beauchamp, which documented in a charter from King Eadred in 955 AD.[5][6]
Description
[edit]The Early Neolithic era was a revolutionary period of British history. Between 4500 and 3800 BC, it saw a widespread change in lifestyle as the communities living in the British Isles adopted agriculture as their primary form of subsistence, abandoning the hunter-gatherer lifestyle that had characterised the preceding Mesolithic period.[7] This came about through contact with continental societies, although it is unclear to what extent this can be attributed to an influx of migrants or to indigenous Mesolithic Britons adopting agricultural technologies from the continent.[8]
With new technologies, Neolithic societies in Britain began to emulate European funerary practices. The wooden mortuary house mainly consisted of a paved stone floor with two large posts at either end. A single crouched burial had been placed at one end and, the mostly disarticulated remains of a further 14 individuals were scattered in front of it.[3] Analysis of these remains indicated that they had been subjected to excarnation before burial and deposited in possibly four different phases. Postholes at one end have been interpreted as supporting a timber facade. An earth barrow covered the whole monument with material excavated from two flanking ditches and measured around 15 feet (4.6 m) wide and 6 feet (1.8 m) deep.[9][10]
The later stone tomb consists of two opposing transept chambers and terminal chamber; along with the longer entrance chamber, this gives the burial area a cruciform appearance in plan. At the entrance four large sarsen stones stand (originally six, but two are lost), having been returned to their upright locations following the 1962 excavations.[11] It is classified by archaeologists as one of the Severn-Cotswold tombs. The large trapezoidal earth barrow erected over it was revetted with a stone kerb and its material was again excavated from two large flanking ditches. Excavation in 1919 revealed the jumbled remains of seven adults and one child.[12]
The site is important as it illustrates a transition from a timber-chambered barrow to stone-chamber tomb over a period that may have been as short as 50 years. Carbon dating of the burials in the second tomb suggests it was a late use of this style of burial, being similar to West Kennet Long Barrow, which had been in use 200 years before.[12]
Antiquarian historiography
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Waylands_Smitty_2_db.jpg/220px-Waylands_Smitty_2_db.jpg)
In 1738, Francis Wise, who was then the under-keeper of the Bodleian Library, recorded a belief held about the site in local folklore.[13] Like several other early commentators, Wise referred to the site not as "Wayland's Smithy", but only as "Wayland Smith".[14] Wise related that:
- All the account which the country people are able to give of it is 'At this place lived formerly an invisible Smith, and if a traveller's Horse had lost a Shoe upon the road, he had no more to do than to bring the Horse to this place with a piece of money, and leaving both there for some little time, he might come again and find the money gone, but the Horse new shod.[15]
The site was also mentioned in a letter sent to the antiquarian William Stukeley by his daughter Anna on 3 October 1758.[16] There is some folklore associating witch relics with the site.[16] It is referred to as "Wayland Smith's Forge" in Walter Scott's 1821 novel Kenilworth.[16] In 1828, a one-inch Ordnance Survey map recorded the site's name as being "Wayland Smith's Forge". The folklorist and archaeologist Leslie Grinsell suggested that the decision to name it this on the map was influenced by Scott's novel.[16]
Modern use
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Waylands-smithy-2006-10-23.jpg/220px-Waylands-smithy-2006-10-23.jpg)
The deposition of coins at the site has taken place since at least the 1960s, with visitors lodging the coins into cracks in the site's stones.[17] As of 2015, the local wardens from The National Trust are tasked with removing said deposits, and circa 2010 English Heritage removed information about the coin deposition custom from the site's information panel.[17] The coins removed by the wardens are then donated to local charities.[18] As the folklorist Ceri Houlbrook noted, all of this deposited material "contributes to the ritual narrative of a site".[19]
Modern Pagans, including Druids and Heathens use Wayland's Smithy for ritual purposes. Anthropologist Thorsten Gieser thinks the modern ritualistic use of the site by new age religions to communicate with "ancestors", "spirits of the earth", and an "earth goddess" is symbolic of its folkloric links to Wayland and its use as a prehistoric burial ground.[20] However, in 2019, concern were raised that one of the groups using the site for their rituals was "Woden's Folk", a neo-Nazi Heathen movement. The National Trust said it would increase the number of times its rangers visited the site.[21] Graffiti carved into the trees around the site has included swastikas.[21]
Cultural references
[edit]Walter Scott's Elizabethan novel Kenilworth (published 1821) features both a chambered underground dwelling and a farrier living in it named 'Wayland Smith'.[6]
Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series of young-adult novels features a supporting character named Wayland Smith, and deals greatly with English lore and legend.
Julian Cope included a song called "Wayland's Smithy Has Wings" on his 1992 album The Skellington Chronicles.[citation needed]
Author Patricia Kennealy-Morrison has a protagonist named Turk Wayland in her Rennie Stride mystery series, and sets a scene at the end of the fourth book, A Hard Slay's Night: Murder at the Royal Albert Hall, at Wayland's Smithy.[citation needed]
Rudyard Kipling, in his interlinked collection of stories Puck of Pook's Hill, set many of the stories near the Smithy, and told of the arrival of the smith god in the first.[citation needed]
Both the Uffington White Horse and Wayland's Smithy were incorporated into the BBC miniseries The Moon Stallion, produced in 1978. In the serial, set in 1906, the stones are associated with witchcraft.[22]
The British music group Radiohead recorded a music video here for their non-album single "Pop Is Dead".[23]
References
[edit]Footnotes
[edit]- ^ a b Historic England. "Wayland's Smithy chambered long barrow, including an earlier barrow and Iron Age and Roman boundary ditches (1008409)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
- ^ Hunter, Robert (1907). Wikisource. . The Preservation of Places of Interest or Beauty. Manchester University Press – via
- ^ a b "Archaeological history and research". English Heritage. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
- ^ Grinsell 1976, p. 46.
- ^ Grinsell 1976, pp. 46, 149.
- ^ a b berkshirehistory.com/waylands_smithy, David Nash Ford, 2003. Accessed 27 June 2014
- ^ Hutton 1991, pp. 16–17.
- ^ Hutton 1991, p. 16; Ashbee 1999, p. 272; Hutton 2013, pp. 34–35.
- ^ Austin Kinsley (12 August 2016). "Wayland's Smithy". www.silentearth.org.
- ^ Atkinson, R. J. C. (1965). "Wayland's Smithy". Antiquity. 39 (154): 126–133. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00031653. ISSN 0003-598X. S2CID 162712533.
- ^ "Wayland's Smithy". www.pegasusarchive.org.
- ^ a b history and research: Waylands Smithy II. English Heritage, accessed 27 June 2014
- ^ Ellis Davidson 1958, p. 146; Grinsell 1976, p. 149.
- ^ Ellis Davidson 1958, p. 147.
- ^ Ellis Davidson 1958, pp. 146–147.
- ^ a b c d Grinsell 1976, p. 149.
- ^ a b Houlbrook 2015, p. 178.
- ^ Houlbrook 2015, p. 182.
- ^ Houlbrook 2015, p. 184.
- ^ Gieser 2016, p. 55.
- ^ a b Dixon 2019; BBC News 2019.
- ^ Bramwell 2009, pp. 167, 173–174.
- ^ Dan Caffrey Radiohead FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the World's Most Famous Cult Band (2012), p. 214, at Google Books
Bibliography
[edit]- Ashbee, Paul (1999). "The Medway Megaliths in a European Context" (PDF). Archaeologia Cantiana. 119. Kent Archaeological Society: 269–284.
- BBC News (11 August 2019). "Wayland's Smithy 'neo-Nazi ritual' reports spark more patrols". BBC News. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
- Bramwell, Peter (2009). Pagan Themes in Modern Children's Fiction: Green Man, Shamanism, Earth Mysteries. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-21839-0.
- Dixon, Hayley (9 August 2019). "Neo-Nazis at the National Trust: How far-right groups are trying to 'take back' ancient sites". The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
- Ellis Davidson, Hilda R. (1958). "Weland the Smith". Folklore. 69 (3): 145–59. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1958.9717140. JSTOR 1258855.
- Gieser, Thorsten (2016). "Druids at Wayland's Smithy: Tracing Transformations of the Sentient Body in Ritual". In Matthias Jung; Michaela Bauks; Andreas Ackermann (eds.). Dem Körper eingeschrieben: Verkörperung zwischen Leiberleben und kulturellem Sinn. New York: Springer. pp. 55–72.
- Grinsell, Leslie V. (1976). Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain. London: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-7241-6.
- Grinsell, Leslie V. (1979). "Notes on the Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain". Folklore. 90 (1): 66–70. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1979.9716124.
- Houlbrook, Ceri (2015). "The Penny's Dropped: Renegotiating the Contemporary Coin Deposit". Journal of Material Culture. 20 (2): 173–189. doi:10.1177/1359183515577120. hdl:2299/18964. S2CID 159495735.
- Hutton, Ronald (1991). The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-17288-8.
- Hutton, Ronald (2013). Pagan Britain. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-197716.
External links
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Wayland's Smithy at the English Heritage website
- Wayland's Smithy at The Megalithic Portal
- Wayland's Smithy at The Modern Antiquarian
- Barrows in the United Kingdom
- English Heritage sites in Oxfordshire
- History of Berkshire
- History of Oxfordshire
- Megalithic monuments in England
- Stone Age sites in England
- Archaeological sites in Oxfordshire
- Scheduled monuments in Oxfordshire
- Oxfordshire folklore
- Berkshire folklore
- Buildings and structures completed in the 4th millennium BC