tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154359965221795553.post7922033715263140562..comments2024-03-01T14:27:35.794-08:00Comments on Albion Awakening: Heddon Hill and Ingram church - John Michell semi-vindicatedBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154359965221795553.post-21422535733186862212017-07-22T00:10:05.626-07:002017-07-22T00:10:05.626-07:00To continue the speculations about Heddon hill - v...To continue the speculations about Heddon hill - visual inspection, confirmed by the map, is consistent-with its being the (somewhat distorted) remains of a 'classical' seven-circuit labyrinth - <br /><br />https://labyrinthsociety.org/about-labyrinths<br /><br />I suppose the reason why my mind was on such matters was that I was doing the 'hill fort walk' - which goes between several prehistoric strcutures, with concentric mounded banks - this area is exceptionally rich in such remains. Some were indeed probably used as forts at some times - but others were probably more like temples, others again used as defensible villages. <br /><br />But a hilltop location is a bad one for practical purposes - no water supply, for example. In the 'iron age' (later bronze to pre-Roman) there seems to have been continyal internal warfare; so defence was the priority. But in the Neolithic and early bronze age (the megalithic era) the country was pacified, and hilltops would not have been used for defense but presumably for the religious purposes towards which so much of that society seems to have been orientated. <br /><br />If Heddon Hill dates from the Neolithic/ Early Bronze age, then it was likely to be a hill top, domed 'temple'; rather than originally being farmed, or being a fort. <br />Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154359965221795553.post-3337806186860783172017-07-21T22:54:14.454-07:002017-07-21T22:54:14.454-07:00@a - The idea is that labyrinths - a labyrinth bei...@a - The idea is that labyrinths - a labyrinth being a single, complexly winding path, and Not a maze in which you could get lost - were spiritual constructs; walking the labyrinth was a ritual. <br /><br />So people are envisaging that the ascent to a hilltop temple - or some other sacred 'centre' would proceed by a processing along this path - perhaps in a formal procession, led by a priest. During the physical journey, a simultaneous spiritual change would be happening as a preparation. <br /><br />Presumably, some ceremony would occur once the centre of the labyrinth had been reached. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7154359965221795553.post-77927954890046241902017-07-21T11:19:45.930-07:002017-07-21T11:19:45.930-07:00What is the point of the labyrinthine path? To con...What is the point of the labyrinthine path? To confuse and disorient a pilgrim? Or to lengthen the journey while giving glimpses and views of the final destination? <br /><br />Usually a maze is a sort of enclosing obscuring prison...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com