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Green Castle, Portknockie
Green Castle is a naturally defended rocky outcrop in the village of Portknockie in Moray, Scotland, that was occupied successively by small promontory forts of the Iron Age and Pictish periods. The site forms a rocky headland long and wide, surrounded by steep cliffs rising high above the sea. The site was extensively excavated between 1976 and 1982. During the Iron Age a single palisade was built to protect the headland at its landward side. Traces of the slot created by these timbers, together with an Iron Age sherd and pits have been excavated. This occupation period produced evidence of metalworking, including fragments of moulds, furnaces, hammerstones and whetstones. Ard marks over the upper surfaces of Iron Age archaeological layers suggest that the site was then used for agriculture before being reused for defensive purposes during the Pictish period. A new timber palisade backfilled by beach cobbles marked a first phase of Pictish activity on the site. The fort wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Promontory Fort
A promontory fort is a defensive structure located above a steep cliff, often only connected to the mainland by a small neck of land, thus using the topography to reduce the ramparts needed. Although their dating is problematic, most seem to date to the Iron Age. They are mainly found in Brittany, Ireland, the Orkney Islands, the Isle of Man, Devon, the Channel Islands and Cornwall. Ireland Only a few Irish promontory forts have been excavated and most date to the Iron Age, though some, like Dunbeg Fort (County Kerry) might have originated in the Bronze Age. Others, like Dalkey Island (County Dublin) contain imported Eastern Mediterranean pottery and have been reoccupied and changed in the early medieval period. Some, like Doonmore (near Dingle, County Kerry) are associated with the Middle Ages. Dunbeg contains an early medieval corbelled stone hut (clochán). Isle of Man On the Isle of Man, promontory forts are found particularly on the rocky slate headlands of the south. F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hammerstone
In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which appeared early in most regions of the world including Europe, India and North America. This technology was of major importance to prehistoric cultures before the age of metalworking. Materials A hammerstone is made of a material such as sandstone, limestone or quartzite, is often ovoid in shape (to fit the human hand better), and develops telltale battering marks on one or both ends. In archaeological recovery, hammerstones are often found in association with other stone tool artifacts, debitage and/or objects of the hammer such as ore. The modern use of hammerstones is now mostly limited to flintknappers and others who wish to develop a better understanding of how stone tools were made. Usage Hammerstones are or were used to produce flakes and hand axes as well as mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pictish Sites In Scotland
Pictish is the extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographical and personal names found on monuments and the contemporary records in the area controlled by the kingdoms of the Picts, dating to the early medieval period. Such evidence, however, points strongly to the language being an Insular Celtic language related to the Brittonic language spoken prior to Anglo-Saxon settlement in what is now southern Scotland, England, and Wales. The prevailing view in the second half of the 20th century was that Pictish was a non-Indo-European language isolate, predating a Gaelic colonisation of Scotland or that a non-Indo-European Pictish and Brittonic Pictish language coexisted. Pictish was replaced by – or subsumed into – Gaelic in the latter centuries of the Pictish period. During the reign of Domnall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iron Age Sites In Scotland
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in front of oxygen (32.1% and 30.1%, respectively), forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust. In its metallic state, iron is rare in the Earth's crust, limited mainly to deposition by meteorites. Iron ores, by contrast, are among the most abundant in the Earth's crust, although extracting usable metal from them requires kilns or furnaces capable of reaching or higher, about higher than that required to smelt copper. Humans started to master that process in Eurasia during the 2nd millennium BCE and the use of iron tools and weapons began to displace copper alloys, in some regions, only around 1200 BCE. That event is considered the transition from the Bronze Age to the I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Promontory Forts In Scotland
A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the softer rock to the sides of it, or are the high ground that remains between two river valleys where they form a confluence. A headland, or head, is a type of promontory. Promontories in history Located at the edge of a landmass, promontories offer a natural defense against enemies, as they are often surrounded by water and difficult to access. Many ancient and modern forts and castles have been built on promontories for this reason. One of the most famous examples of promontory forts is the Citadel of Namur in Belgium. Located at the confluence of the Meuse and Sambre rivers, the citadel has been a prime fortified location since the 10th century. The surrounding rivers act as a natural moat, making it difficult for enemies to access the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static, defensive position. Consequently, an opportunity for negotiation between combatants is common, as proximity and fluctuating advantage can encourage diplomacy. The art of conducting and resisting sieges is called siege warfare, siegecraft, or poliorcetics. A siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by a quick assault, and which refuses to Surrender (military), surrender. Sieges involve surrounding the target to block the provision of supplies and the reinforcement or escape of troops (a tactic known as "Investment (military), investment"). This is typically coupled with attempts to reduce the fortifications by means of siege engines, ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortriu
Fortriu ( la, Verturiones; sga, *Foirtrinn; ang, Wærteras; xpi, *Uerteru) was a Pictish kingdom that existed between the 4th and 10th centuries. It was traditionally believed to be located in and around Strathearn in central Scotland, but is more likely to have been based in the north, in the Moray and Easter Ross area. ''Fortriu'' is a term used by historians as it is not known what name its people used to refer to their polity. Historians also sometimes use the name synonymously with Pictland in general. Name The people of Fortriu left no surviving indigenous writings and the name they used to describe themselves is unrecorded. They were first documented in the late 4th century by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, who referred to them in Latin as the ''Verturiones (or Vecturiones)''. The Latin root ''verturio'' has been connected etymologically by John Rhys with the later Welsh word ''gwerthyr'', meaning "fortress", suggesting that both came from a Common Brittonic r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norsemen
The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the predecessor of the modern Germanic languages of Scandinavia. During the late eighth century, Scandinavians embarked on a large-scale expansion in all directions, giving rise to the Viking Age. In English-language scholarship since the 19th century, Norse seafaring traders, settlers and warriors have commonly been referred to as Vikings. Historians of Anglo-Saxon England distinguish between Norse Vikings (Norsemen) from Norway who mainly invaded and occupied the islands north and north-west of Britain, Ireland and western Britain, and Danish Vikings, who principally invaded and occupied eastern Britain. Modern descendants of Norsemen are the Danes, Icelanders, Faroe Islanders, Norwegians, and Swedes, who are now generally referred to as "Sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to live in cities. The history of agriculture began thousands of years ago. After gathering wild grains beginning at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers began to plant them around 11,500 years ago. Sheep, goats, pigs and cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago. Plants were independently cultivated in at least 11 regions of the world. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture in the twentieth century came to dominate agricultural output, though about 2 billion people still depended on subsistence agriculture. The major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials (such as rubber). Food classes include cereals (grains), vegetables, fruits, cooking oils, meat, milk, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ard (plough)
The ard, ard plough, or scratch plough is a simple light plough without a mouldboard. It is symmetrical on either side of its line of draft and is fitted with a symmetrical share that traces a shallow furrow but does not invert the soil. It began to be replaced in China by the heavy carruca turnplough in the 1st century, and in most of Europe from the 7th century. In its simplest form it resembles a Hoe (tool), hoe, consisting of a ''draft-pole'' (either composite or a single piece) pierced with a nearly vertical, wooden, spiked ''head'' (or ''stock'') which is dragged through the soil by draft animals and very rarely by people. The ard-head is at one end a ''stilt'' (handle) for steering and at the other a ''share'' (cutting blade) which gouges the surface ground. More sophisticated models have a composite pole, where the section attached to the head is called the ''draft-beam'', and the share may be made of stone or iron. Some have a cross-bar for handles or two separate stilts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sharpening Stone
Sharpening stones, or whetstones, are used to sharpen the edges of steel tools such as knives through grinding and honing. Such stones come in a wide range of shapes, sizes, and material compositions. They may be flat, for working flat edges, or shaped for more complex edges, such as those associated with some wood carving or woodturning tools. They may be composed of natural quarried material or from man-made material. They come in various grades, which refer to the grit size of the abrasive particles in the stone. (Grit size is given as a number, which indicates the spatial density of the particles; a higher number denotes a higher density and therefore smaller particles, which give a finer finish to the surface of the sharpened object.) Stones intended for use on a workbench are called bench stones, while small, portable ones, whose size makes it hard to draw large blades uniformly over them, especially “in the field,” are called pocket stones. Often whetstones are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Industrial Furnace
An industrial furnace, also known as a direct heater or a direct fired heater, is a device used to provide heat for an industrial process, typically higher than 400 degrees Celsius. They are used to provide heat for a process or can serve as reactor which provides heats of reaction. Furnace designs vary as to its function, heating duty, type of fuel and method of introducing combustion air. Heat is generated by an industrial furnace by mixing fuel with air or oxygen, or from electrical energy. The residual heat will exit the furnace as flue gas. These are designed as per international codes and standards the most common of which are ISO 13705 (Petroleum and natural gas industries — Fired heaters for general refinery service) / American Petroleum Institute (API) Standard 560 (Fired Heater for General Refinery Service). Types of industrial furnaces include batch ovens, vacuum furnaces, and solar furnaces. Industrial furnaces are used in applications such as chemical reactions, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
