"Live" flood maps
http://www.shoothill.com/floodmap/

Boreades wrote:

jon wrote: I'm not convinced that Robert has fully thought through his arguments!

Ditto, especially his idea that Wansdyke (etc) were canals across the hilltops.

After taking a look I have concluded Robbo has put the work in, and thought it through, err.....which is not to say he is right.

I liked his discussion of Jade Axes. http://robertjohnlangdon.blogspot.co.uk ... -axes.html

My main problem from the limited material I can see, is that he works from the exceptional, eg Stonehege... Atlantis..into the everyday.

I am learning from this.

But, then again, I like disreputable sources.

It's just occurred to me that besides The Ridgeway being the main "dry" route across the largest part of Southern England, it was also the access route into the heart of Doggerland as well.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland

All we need now is for some bronze to be trawled-up from the North Sea.

Meanwhile, back in Somerset, Mulcheney has become a new Lake Village, much like the 5,000 year old ones near Glastonbury.

Link to lots of images that are more than 600px wide.

Our traditional archeologists find these kind of platform causeways in various lowland flood plains, like Somerset and East Anglia. They then miss the bleeding obvious and say they have Ritual or Spiritual Purpose. Well, I suppose keep your feet dry could be described as spiritually uplifting. If my feet were wet for days or weeks on end, I'd be pretty spiritually-challenged.



Langport is near to being an inland port once more.



http://www.shoothill.com/floodmap/

This also illustrates why The Greater Ridgeway makes a long detour eastwards on its way from Lyme Regis, instead of a more direct route up the line of the Fosse Way. For travellers without detailed weather forecasts, it's the more reliable route.

That floodmap looks suspiciously like an east west divide. Perhaps a linguistic divide too.

macausland wrote:Perhaps a linguistic divide too.

Err, in Zummerzet? Not sure about that.

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/a ... ndex.shtml

Granted, geographically South Somerset and North Somerset are different. South Somerset (where all the flooding is) is the flat ground, the Somerset Levels. North Somerset is hillier, and is where all the mining took place.

Linguistically, South Somerset -v- North Somerset?
'Spose 'tis puzzball, m'dear.
Unless we mean Bristol. But that's not in this flood area.

http://www.mintinit.com/speakbristolian.php

East - West, following your link

Summerzet and Ezzex

macausland wrote:Other photos of interest are of Muchelney in Somerset which now looks like an island with the churches still out of harm's way on dry land. Further photos show other churches and abbeys in a similar situation. Perhaps this ties in with the ancients keeping their feet dry in the past.

Wiki tells us that Muchelney means 'the increasingly great island'. It may be a thought to check all villages ending in 'ey' to see what height they are above the surrounding countryside.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muchelney

This map by Palden Jenkins shows how the Somerset Levels might have looked before the medieval drainage schemes. According to Palden the Romans built dunes, held in place by Mediterranean dune-loving plants.

http://www.palden.co.uk/leymap/sitesplaces.html

The Palden Jenkins map is an excellent map. But I have doubts. Just because it happened in a Roman era, it doesn't mean it was Romans. They had already taken over the most productive lands, and the harvests were being exported to the mainland. Our native Britons were displaced by the hostile takeover. New lands had to be made productive to feed the native people. New terraforming was the order of the day.

But in any case, the Palden Jenkins map should educate our Environment Agency as to why they really should be keeping up with dredging the rivers and waterways.