Ancient sites near you?

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a web site containing a few pictures and information about a Bronze age burial mound less than 10 kilometers from where I live. It's on the maps, but this far no one I've mentioned it to has been aware of its existence.

I visited the site last saturday with my girlfriend and one of our dogs. It was a beautiful day and impressing place to visit. There were also some inscriptions carved in rock which are quite a bit more recent than the burial mound itself. I couldn't quite make out what the inscription on picture 3 says.

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4

Please share whatever information and experiences you might have from sites near you, no matter where you live.

[Edit: Added links to pictures & some more information]

[edit on 12/9/05 by Count]

If you walk down my local river you can see the remnants of 4000 year old fish traps. And my town was the scene of one of the most famous batles between the Saxons and the Vikings.

And we have a old Roman settlement, coupled with a small bronze age community, all of which were built on a few years ago.

My family owns a few very large properties in the remote west of Queensland here in Australia. One of the properties has a significant cave system running throughout it. When I was studying Anthropology at university, my uncle (who owns the property) arranged for an Aboriginal elder to guide me through the caves and show me the ancient cave art.

It was absolutely mind-blowing. He said that archaeologists had dated the paintings as being almost 30 000 years old! Now that's an ancient site! The paintings were beautiful. There were many hand prints on the walls and it was quite humbling to imagine somebody standing in that same spot 30 000 years ago and leaving their mark. There were also paintings of local animals - kangaroos, wombats, emus, as well as paintings of spirit creatures such as quinkins, which are very tall spirits with long, spindly arms and legs that hide in the cracks between rocks.

Some of the caves were off limits to me, because they were for women's business and some of them were off limits to my mother, since they were for men's business. In some caves, I had to be introduced to the local spirits so that they would not harm me. The elder explained to me the significance of the paintings and the symbols used and showed me how some of the paintings were simple "I was here" type marks, whilst others told elaborate stories from the Dreamtime.

All in all, the experience gave me a profound sense of the bond the Aboriginal people have with the land. It's one thing to read about ancient cultures at university. It's another to stand a few feet away from beautiful art that was over 28 000 years old when Jesus was born.

A number of years ago a few mates and myself went looking for new fishing spots just south of Port Hedland (which is in the far north of Western Australia,its very remote up there and had my 4x4 and had to make our own tracks through the bush,we found a tidal creek which had the usual red boulders thats everywhere up there which were covered with Aboriginal carving`s a guess at 40-50 total.

Looking back now because of this thread(other wise i would`nt have thought about it) i wish i`d taken some pics or at least told someone its there.though for all i know about rocks and carvings it could have been only 100 years old?.

All seriousness aside click this to get instantly close to an ancient site

www.slac.stanford.edu...

Near to me: Camunian (Camonica Valley) and Remedello culture (Remedello town)

www.rockart-ccsp.com...

www.geocities.com...

www.archaeometry.org...

www.rupestre.net... op=viewarticle&artid=9

www.geocities.com...

www.geocities.com...



archaeology.about.com...

members.tripod.com...

www.metmuseum.org...

Long before I was born, my grandfather plowed through the very fields that my family now farms.

He found many aboriginal artifacts, I still have many of them. Some are arrowheads that we found on the land at some time just walking around, while my grandfather found a few hammerhead rocks with engraving on them for rope or whatnot.

Its quite interesting to hold something as old as such. How old this is im not sure, but my guess is nothing too spectacular. The land wasnt inhabited that long ago.

It makes me wonder what else is out there. The hammer tools are quite interesting. Alot of work would go into carving a piece like that, only to be left behind.

Actually I should not even try to guess how old our dug up tools are as there have been aboriginals in the area for eons.

Some examples here:

Link

Ill take photos of our findings. They are quite interesting.

How about this?

Guy finds ancient roman villa after using Google maps!
xmb.stuffucanuse.com...

[edit on 15-9-2005 by Netchicken]