Posted on 06/01/2007 5:36:07 PM PDT by blam
SPACE AGE LASERS REVEAL OFFA'S DYKE MISSING LINK
BY JANET HUGHES J.HUGHES@BEPP.CO.UK
08:00 - 01 June 2007
It has remained hidden for centuries but space-age technology has stripped away layers of history to discover what excited archaeologists believe could be a missing section of Offa's Dyke.
Aerial laser technology, which allows the experts to see what is hidden below the trees and the undergrowth, has discovered a long strip of earthworks in the Forest of Dean.
And archaeologists believe they may have finally found a missing 250-metre stretch of the Dyke built by King Offa between 757 to 796 AD to keep the English and the Welsh apart. Now they are planning a major study to check out if the findings taken from the air match those on the ground.
"The study has produced some exciting results," said senior project officer John Hoyle, the man charged with interpreting the results from the latest Lidar technology.
"There's a section of earthworks which looks like it could be a missing section of Offa's Dyke. Everybody assumed that particular section had been destroyed by quarrying but this shows it could still be there, hidden under all the brambles and bracken.
"But this isn't an exact mathematical process so now we have to validate the findings by pulling on our boots and trying to find it on the ground."
According to the earliest records by King Alfred's biographer Asser, the dyke built by the former King of Mercia to separate England and Wales, stretched "from sea to sea".
Much of the 80-mile stretch snaking from the Wye Valley to Wrexham is still visible and in places walkers can see the original ditch and rampart which was 27ft wide and eight metres high.
But farming has destroyed some sections in the Welsh Marches and some believe extensive mining and quarrying in the Forest of Dean and the Wye Valley is responsible for large gaps at the Gloucestershire end.
The gaps led some historians to question whether Offa did build his dyke sea to sea or stopped short of the Severn estuary, but local archaeologists believe there is enough evidence to prove he did reach Beachley.
The newly found hilltop earthworks at Wyeseal Woods, near St Briavels, fills the main gap on the Tutshill to Redbrook section of the 8th century barrier and is near the site of a disused quarry.
The new section could prove the dyke did go all the way to the Severn and and help back a theory that any differences in construction are because Offa's ancient builders took a few lazy short cuts in the county and filled in the gaps between older, less impressive earthworks, rather than start from scratch.
The mystery earthwork was pinpointed by the 'Lidar' which sends out 33,000 pulses per second to map the ground below the trees and bushes which are later digitally removed from aerial pictures to reveal what lies underneath.
It is the first time the technology has been used on such a large scale and experts from Cambridge University spent hours flying over the Forest in a small plane mapping 280 square metres of forestry.
English Heritage, the Forestry Commission and the local council paid £100,000 for the cost of the survey to help county archaeologists find out more about what lies under the woodlands.
And the missing section of Offa's Dyke is not the only thing local archaeologists are excited about after seeing an initial Lidar report.
It has helped them identify sites of charcoal, iron and coal workings dating back to Roman times .
Good map.
Or, 8.2 metres wide and 26.2 feet high.
Ya know I often thought it was spelled dike. I guess PC has just taken over everywhere.
It is just sad!
Gunner
Thanks for the PING! (* Ping’s Szechuan Bar & Grill ?)
The dike was built to keep the barbarians home. That would be more or less the Wales side.
That’s where I got my blood type.
The DNA is basically the same on both sides of the dike. The Welsh just left the Franco-Iberian (Ice Age) refuge before the subsequent 18 other (traceable in the DNA) groups did. Same with the Irish and Scots. The Irish and Spanish are about 90% R1b as are 68% of all Europeans. The Norse/Danes (Vikings, etc) are R1a intruders who split from the R1 line about 25k years ago...they (R1a's) spent the Last Glacial Maximum in the Ukranian refuge northwest of the Black Sea while the R1b's huddled in Spain .
The Anglo-Saxons were just late arrival R1b's.
The R1's split from the R2's even earlier and I think the R2's may be the Jomon/Ainu/Emeshi/Lapita people that lead to the likes of Kennewick Man, Spirit Cave man, etc in the Americas...and, a mix of the Polynesians.(Clan Of Ina)
The Scottish Picts and the 'Black Irish' are just more early arrival R1b's.
:’D Seems like a good problem to have. Not sure about learning the language first, but much luck with that as well.
Nah.....Offa is straight, not gay.
You must thinking of Oprah's Dyke.
Where do you get your information from in post 29? Is it a single source or gleaned from many?
It’s Rosie Belushi!
Welsh was revived in part due to the Eisteddfodd, a demanding annual festival for artists composing written works in the language of Cymru. :’)
Don’t you have sources for that or was it off the top of your head (#29)?
Most is from Stephen Oppenheimer's book, Origin's Of The British. Or, Bryan Sykes Book, Saxons, Vikings And Celts
The speculation about the R2 line is pretty much mine.
From the title I thought someone proved the Rosie ODonnel was Jimmy Hoffa’s daughter
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