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Apr 14, 2022 · The Llyn Cerrig Bach Horde, an archaeological discovery of over 150 bronze and iron objects found in a small lake in the northwest of Anglesey, suggests that as the Romans advanced onto the island votive offerings were more commonly used to satiate the gods of nature than the souls of sacrificial victims.
Sep 27, 2022 · Archaeologists are excavating a 4,000-year-old burial mound on a British island linked in mythology to the mysterious order of magical priests known as the Druids.
- Island of Anglsey
- Mona by The Romans
- The Druids
- Odd Tactics
- Bryn Celli Ddu
- Reconstructing History
- Pathway
- New Discoveries
- Ceremonial Center
- Connecting Past and Present
The island of Anglesey, overlooking the Irish Sea from the northwest corner of Wales, has been linked for centuries with ancient and magical mysteries. The island has been occupied since prehistoric times, more than 5,000 years ago, and it’s covered in ancient stone monuments, like the Neolithic passage tomb called Bryn Celli Ddu — Welsh for "the m...
Anglesey was called Mona by the Romans – and it keeps that name today in Welsh as “Ynys Mon” or “Mona Island.” It acquired the name of Anglesey from Viking raiders who attacked Wales in the 10thcentury.This map of Anglesey was made by the English cartographer John Speed in 1607, for an atlas of the British Isles.
For centuries, Anglesey has been linked to the mysterious order of magical priests known as the Druids, who were said to lead the Celtic British against the invading Romans after 43 A.D. The link seems to have been made by a single Roman writer around the end of the first century A.D., Cornelius Tacitus, who wrote about a Roman attack on Anglesey, ...
Tacitus wrote that the attacking Roman soldiers were surprised to find Druids on the front lines of the defenders, throwing magical curses instead of missiles. Neither the curses or the missiles, however, appear to have worked – and the Romans eventually occupied Anglesey and put the Druids to death wherever they found them.
Modern archaeologists have found no trace of the Druids on Anglesey, or indeed anywhere else in Britain – but their mysterious and magical role has become an almost indelible legend in the hands of later writers. Ancient stone monuments like Bryn Celli Ddu might have been reused as ceremonial sites by later peoples – but they were built many thousa...
The original tomb of Bryn Celli Ddu was built around 5000 years ago; it was excavated by archaeologists in 1928 and 1929, then reconstructed. The archaeology of the site shows it was at first a simple burial chamber surrounded by a ditch, and earthen bank, and a circle of upright stones.
The entrance passage to the tomb was added later, possibly hundreds of years later. Like the Newgrange tomb in Ireland, the entrance passage lines up for a few days a year with the rising sun – but at mid-summer at Bryn Celli Ddu.
For the last five years, archaeologists from the University of Cardiff and the Welsh Heritage agency Cadw have been conducting excavations at a burial mound a short distance from the passage tomb at Bryn Celli Ddu. Pieces of distinctive pottery and sophisticated flint tools found at the new site show that the burial mound is built during the Bronze...
The excavators have also found artifacts that may be even older than the passage tomb, including pieces of Neolithic pottery known as “grooved ware” and the remains of a stone axe. Archaeologist Ffion Reynolds, who led the recent excavations, says that the finds show that the Bryn Celli Ddu landscape was used as a ceremonial center over thousands o...
Stories of the Celtic Druids leading the British resistance of the Roman invasions from Anglesey are likely to continue. But modern historians and archaeologists are finding real facts about this ancient landscape that may be even stranger than fiction. Follow Tom Metcalfe on Twitter @globalbabel. Follow Live Science @livescience & Facebook.
Roman assault on Anglesey, from Tacitus. Anglesey, off the North-Western coast of Wales, was a haven for Celts and Pagans. Many Druids withdrew to the Island to defy the Romans and continue their rituals. The Romans were quite determined to crush Druidic practices and set about assaulting the island. Roman historian, Tacitus, describes the ...
Feb 11, 2020 · The tiny island of Iona in the Scottish Hebrides is believed by many to be one of the most sacred places on earth. Formed by the very oldest of rock, it may have been a sacred island of the Druids before becoming the centre from which St Columba converted most of Scotland and northern England to Christianity.
Apr 29, 2022 · 1. The Ancient Druidic Mysteries Buried Under Anglesey. The Island of Anglesey was once home to one of history’s most mysterious groups: the Druids. The Romans accused them of magical rituals, human sacrifice and even cannibalism, and soon after the invasion, the full force of the Roman army descended on this small island.
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The Druids and Druidism. The term druid is used by Greek and Roman authors, medieval Irish writers, and modern scholars alike to designate a priest of the ancient Celts. A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. It is thought that they were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators ...
