Round Houses or Oblong Houses?

[macausland]

I'd be interested in anybody's views on building design in pre-Roman Britain.

We are told in all the official histories on 'Celtic' Britain that the Celts built round houses.

The Anglo Saxons on the other hand built rectangular buildings, a style they brought with them from the Continent.

This has been used to support the argument for Anglo Saxon conquest of Celtic Britain.

Recent finds in south Wales have unearthed the remains of the foundations for a rectangular building dating back to the Bronze Age.

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/g ... _minister/

I came across an article on I think the BBC site recently about a similar discovery further into England but I've lost the link to it.

Any thoughts on this?

[Boreades]

Hello macausland

It's a good question. As the Saxons were never more than 10% of the UK population (at most), this is an excellent example of the "official histories" missing the bleeding obvious. i.e. what were the non-Celt, non-Saxon British people living in?

Coincidentally, over at The Megalithic Portal, there is a new article on four rectangular houses at Kingsmead Quarry, Horton in Berkshire. dated to 3700 BC

http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=33625

[Mick Harper]

The Anglo Saxons on the other hand built rectangular buildings, a style they brought with them from the Continent

As I point out frequently in The History of Britain Revealed we have no record of any 'Anglo-Saxon' culture on the Continent so we cannot know what shape their houses were, nor whether they acquired the shape from their assumed neighbours on the Continent or from their definite neighbours in Britain.

It should also be mentioned that since the Anglo-Saxons were -- like the Romans, the Normans, the Danes and the English gentry -- merely the ruling class, it is very unlikely that their buildings would be the same as the local peasantry.

[macausland]

Thanks for the reply.

I'll have a look at the link you provide.

When I mentioned 'Anglo Saxons' I should have put it in quotes.

It was the assurance by all the 'experts' that 'Celts' lived in round houses and 'Anglo Saxons' lived in rectangular houses. And this is used to demonstrate the truth of the 'anglo saxon invasion and slaughter of the 'Celts' in Britain'.

Another 'proof' given is that the 'English' language pushed out the 'native Celtic' languages. We are told that this must be true as there are so few 'Celtic' words in English. Therefore there must have been total 'ethnic cleansing' or mass slaughter of the 'Celts'.

What this misses is that there is a lot of 'Celtic' influence in the English language, well, arguably.

From my slight knowledge of Scot's Gaelic I know that there are similarities even if the languages are quite different. If Gaelic is much further removed along the linguistic tree than say Dutch or German I would have thought there would be few similarities.

For example: Neither language has a true infinitive. Something English should have as a Germanic 'import'.

A feature of both languages is the use of continuous tenses. Something that all English learners of German or French find confusing as the temptation to say Ich bin or Je suis before every verb is very strong.

Gaelic has two verbs 'to be'. Bi (pronounced 'be') and Tha (pronounced 'haa'). Tha is used to form the continuous.

Bi is used in definite statements. When used with pronouns etc it becomes 'is'. e.g. is mi, I am, is tu, you are.

I realise that the early Welsh is said to be the language of early Britons and not Gaelic so I'm probably just wittering here but I'm sure there was an early influence.

By the same token I wouldn't mind betting that English was always the language of eastern Scotland. Perhaps 'stranded' after the Doggerland inundation. Scot's dialect in the north east is very strong and very similar to northern English, except that English in England was presumably diluted with the growth of a standard from London.

[Boreades]

Scot's dialect in the north east is very strong and very similar to northern English, except that English in England was presumably diluted with the growth of a standard from London.

Ah yes, very similar, and sometimes easily confused. I once made the mistake of asking a bonnie lass which part of Scotland she was from. Oops, she was from Northumberland. Fortunately she saw the funny side and we're still friends.

[TisILeclerc]

Aye, Borrie ma lad, but ask a wee lassie from Dundee which part of Newcastle she's from and I suspect you'll get a much different response.

[Boreades]

Why aye!

Oh, my nose is bleeding.

[TisILeclerc]

Hello, they've found another rectangular building.

This time in Scotland in Ayrshire and dating back six thousand years.

First pottery to be found in Scotland as well.

Archaeologists believe the structure, near Hillhouse farm north-east of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire, was built by some of the earliest farmers in Scotland.

This took place more than 4,000 years BC, before the Callanish Stones in Lewis and Stonehenge in Wiltshire.

The rectilinear hall, which measured 45 feet (14m) in length and 26 feet (8m) in width, belonged to a type of house built by the first farming communities in Scotland.

Fragments of Neolithic carinated bowl, used for cooking and storage, were also found.

Experts say it is a rare example of the earliest type of pottery used in Scotland.

Before 4,000 BC, pottery making skills were not known in the country.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... field.html

[Boreades]

Some more have turned up in Yorkshire.

Iron Age square barrows, Pocklington, Yorkshire

The cropmarks of four squares indicate the distinctive remains of Iron Age burial sites on the Yorkshire Wolds. These cropmarks represent the ditch surrounding a burial mound. Although relatively rare nationally, these square barrows are common on the Yorkshire Wolds and are sometimes associated with elaborate burials with exotic grave goods such as chariots. These new discoveries demonstrate that even in well-explored areas such as the Wolds, there is still the potential for new revelations if conditions are right.

"Rare nationally, but common on the Yorkshire Wolds".
Shirley that's significant.
Are they Viking?
Or early versions of Headingley Cricket Ground?

[hvered]

Are they Viking?

Square-shaped Iron Age barrows in Yorkshire are associated with Parisi 'chariot burials'. The Arras Culture and all that.

They're supposed to have come over from Paris (Lutetia), fleeing from Caesar reportedly, but in truth it's speculation. There could just as well be a Scandinavian connection. Could mess up historians' timeline but perhaps makes more geographical sense?