Dorset, an archaeological odessey

Today the spring sun shone in a near clear blue sky as we set off to explore some of West Dorsets enigmatic ancient sites. These sites hold a special place in my heart, they were some the first sites I visited on my journey into prehistory and on into archaeology. Even before I knew what I was looking at these ancient sites where working their magic on me and strangely directing my lives path. They weren't just influential on my archaeological path, but on my spiritual path and creative/artistic paths too.  The three entwined paths creating a single journey which had begun on the summer Solstice morning at the Stonehenge Festival in 1984, as I and friends watched the sun rise over chanting Druids within the majestic stones of Stonehenge. It had been a while since I'd visited some of these sites, and I was excited, more so as I was taking a friend who'd not been to many of them, and I do like to enthuse, like some amphetamine driven mentalist tour guide. Whether the victims of my ramblings enjoy them or not is another matter, and not really my concern (winks). Even more confounding to people must be my visible enthusiasm for World War Two concrete, corrugated iron and trench works. Another aspect to me is that I'm constantly learning myself from each visit, seeing things differently, seeing where I made wrong assumptions and therefore interpretation, and through that developing my perspectives and understanding of the sites and landscapes they're set in much better. I know that over the years through periodical visits my descriptions and interpretations of sites have evolved, and hey, if I get to drag people along with me to these 'piles of stones', earthworks and World War Two sites, well that's just a bonus, I do love talking (winks again).

So, I divided the day into 4 posts in age order. First some Neolithic Long Barrows. Second a Bronze Age Standing Stone and Standing Stone. Third, a magnificent Iron Age Hillfort. And, finally (and not so ancient), a World War Two airfield. Enjoy, or not (as you've guessed I'll ramble anyway).