Ancient Offa's Dyke ... was built 200 years before King Offa was born

It was thought to have built by King Offa in the 8th century as border between England and Wales But even though it has been part of the British landscape for centuries, the ancient Offa's Dyke may have to be renamed, after archaeologists discovered it could have been completed 200 years before the great Anglo Saxon leader was born.

Experts used radiocarbon dating on the 177-mile dyke and revealed it could have been constructed as early as the 4th century...

The group behind the project said it is a 'tremendously exciting discovery' which challenges the accepted history of the ancient dyke.

The Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust excavations were carried out on a stretch of the dyke along the Shropshire border near the town of Chirk.

Paul Belford, director of the Archaeological Trust, said: 'It's been known as Offa's Dyke for centuries but some sections may not have been built by Offa...

Today it is a protected monument and The Offa's Dyke Path is one of Britain's longest walks - stretching rom Prestatyn in North Wales down to Chepstow in the South.

The material came from an ancient layer of re-deposited turf underneath the bank suggesting it was laid down as part of the construction process.

Mr Belford said: 'This is the first time we have accurate scientific dates for Offa's Dyke...

But the section of earthwork near Chirk have been carbon dated and revealed a 95 per cent probability it was built between 430 and 652.

Yeah, I loved how that simpleton kept saying it, and the writer restated it a couple of times in the body of the article.

Of course, we’re dealing with a country that has quite a deep archaeological legacy, and pays to maintain local archaeologists, but they seem to do very little most of the time.

As you know, Tintagel, which figures in the Arthurian myth, was held to be a single, post-”dark age” medieval structure, with one small monastery building.

In the 1980s during a dry spell, the tall dead grass caught fire and burned so thoroughly that it uncovered the ruins of over 200 early medieval buildings that no one had ever noticed were there.

The Roman historian Eutropius in his book Historiae Romanae Breviarium, written around 369, mentions the Wall of Severus, a structure built by Septimius Severus who was Roman Emperor between 193 and 211:
Novissimum bellum in Britannia habuit, utque receptas provincias omni securitate muniret, vallum per CXXXIII passuum milia a mari ad mare deduxit. Decessit Eboraci admodum senex, imperii anno sexto decimo, mense tertio. Historiae Romanae Breviarium, viii 19.1
"He had his most recent war in Britain, and to fortify the conquered provinces with all security, he built a wall for 133 miles from sea to sea. He died at York, a reasonably old man, in the sixteenth year and third month of his reign."

This source is conventionally thought to be referring, in error, to either Hadrian's Wall, 73 miles (117 km), or the Antonine Wall, 37 miles (60 km), which were both shorter and built in the 2nd century. Recently, some writers have suggested that Eutropius may have been referring to the earthwork later called Offa's Dyke...

The Venerable Bede also mentions the wall built by Septimus Severus. But Bede says that the wall was made of earth and timber, a description which would closer match Offa's Dyke than the Hadrian Wall Antonine Walls.
After many great and severe battles, (Severus) thought fit to divide that part of the island, which he had recovered, from the other unconquered nations, not with a wall, as some imagine, but with a rampart. For a wall is made of stones, but a rampart, with which camps are fortified to repel the assaults of enemies, is made of sods, cut out of the earth, and raised high above the ground, like a wall, having in front of it the trench whence the sods were taken, with strong stakes of wood fixed above it. Thus Severus drew a great trench and strong rampart, fortified with several towers, from sea to sea. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of England, Bk 1-5
[Wikipedia, Offa's Dyke]

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