Digital 3D model of a carved stone decorated in La Tène style, found near the Hill of Mullaghmast, in county Kildare, Ireland; 6th century AD. ?? National Museum of Ireland; Dublin.

The stone had been repurposed multiple times, being incorporated into the masonry of a FitzGerald castle, and later a local farm. It’s believed that the stone originally stood at the ritual inauguration site of Dún Áilinne, where kings of Leinster were traditionally inaugurated. The stone has several cuts, four on the left side and two on the top, which are believed to have been made with a sword or swords. It has been speculated that striking the stone with a sword, or using it to sharpen the weapon, may have been part of the inauguration ritual.

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https://www.heritagedaily.com/2024/08/stonehenge-altar-stone-hails-from-scotland/153227

HeritageDaily

Stonehenge Altar Stone hails from Scotland

According to a new study published in the journal Nature, the Altar Stone at Stonehenge (thought to be Welsh in origin) actually hails from Scotland.

Gold coin (1/4 stater) of the Gallic Treveri tribe, found at an unspecified location in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany; 2nd century B.C. ??

The obverse of the coin shows a man wearing a laurel-crown (Greek motif signifying victory), while the reverse displays the common Gallic motif of a horse with a human head (possibly also a Greek-derived motif, representing the centaur Chiron, or the constellation Sagittarius). The Gallic Treveri tribe gave their mame to the city of Trier in Germany.

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Landscapes of Somerset, England; first picture shows Glastonbury in the distance. ???????

The region was formerly known as Glastening, from which Glastonbury gets its name. Glastening was named after a Welsh chieftain named Cyndrwyn Glas(t) (i.e. “the grey”), son of Elnaw, who hailed from the chiefdom of Dogfeiling in north Wales, which was part of the Kingdom of Gwynedd. He was a descendant of Gwynedd’s founder, Cunedda Wledig, who hailed from Manaw Gododdin in Scotland. ??????????????

After the Welsh king of Powys, Selyf Sarffgadau (“Solomon Battle-Serpent”) was killed by the Angles of Northumbria at the Battle of Chester (AD 613), Cyndrwyn seems to have opportunistically invaded Powys and enthroned his son Elfan there. Part of Powys’ territory in central England was carved out to form another kingdom called Pengwern, where Cyndrwyn’s other son Cynddylan was enthroned. Another son, Morfael, gained renown fighting against the Angles of Mercia, when he stormed and took the town of Caer-Luitcoyt (now Lichfield) from them.

Subsequently, an alliance was made with Penda of Mercia, and the Pengwern Welsh were instrumental in the defeat and killing of king Oswald of Northumbria at the Battle of Maserfield (AD 642). However, king Penda’s Welsh allies would eventually have a falling out with him, and they notably abstained from fighting the Battle of Winwaed (AD 655), where he was killed by Oswiu of Northumbria. The victorious Oswiu then attacked Pengwern unexpectedly, killing Cynddylan and Elfan, and forcing the elderly Cyndrwyn, his son Morfael, and many of their people to seek refuge in Dumnonia. There, they were apparently given Glastening as a chiefdom. Tragically, they lost half of it almost immediately, as the West Saxons invaded and defeated the Britons at the Battle of Peonnum (AD 658), pushing the border to the river Parrett.

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Recreated burial of an Indo-European prince, unearthed near Fuente Olmedo, in Valladolid province, Spain. ?? On display at the Museum of Valladolid.

The Fuente Olmedo burial is dated to ~1,650 B.C. It contained a young man between 16 and 18 years of age, buried with elite-status items such as bell-beaker pottery, a copper dagger, copper arrows, a golden diadem, and a stone wrist-guard to protect his forearm when engaged in archery. His young age and diadem suggest he was a ruler who inherited his position, but died prematurely.

Archaeological and genetic studies have shown that the people to whom the Fuente Olmedo prince belonged were in part derived from Central European migrants who came to central Spain at some point around 2,500 B.C. They were apparently mostly males, who then intermarried with native Iberian women. DNA extracted from skeletons of these people has so far all reflected the paternal lineages R1b-P312 and DF27, which would mean that these people were of the same stock as the later attested Celts. Their autosomal DNA however, was almost entirely native Iberian, as the central European component was diluted through generations of inter-marriage. These people were culturally different from the non-Indo-European Iberian civilization of the southern and eastern peninsula. The latter were urban, agricultural, and matriarchal, while the former were male-ruled, semi-nomadic livestock-herders. These Indo-European herders were ancestral to later attested peoples of Iberia, such as the Vettones and Lusitanians, while others of their descendants inter-married with the Celts who arrived in the peninsula from southern France around 1,200 B.C; going on to form hybrid cultures such as the Celtiberians, Berones, Autrigones, and others. In the case of northern peoples such as the Astures, Gallaecians, and Cantabrians, trade and some migration from the British Isles seems to have also contributed to the mix.

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Great Sugar Loaf Mountain (Irish: Ó Cualann; “Lump of Cualu”), with heather prairie blooming in the foreground and the remainder of the Wicklow Mountains in the background; county Wicklow, Ireland. ??

The name of this mountain reflects the original and more ancient name of the region, for Cualu was the name of a territory that encompassed almost the whole of present county Wicklow and parts of county Dublin, from Arklow to the river Liffey. According to the Irish place-name index, www.logainm.ie, the Wicklow Mountains were also formerly known as Sliabh Ruadh, meaning “Red Mountain”. The current Irish name is Sléibhte Chill Mhantáin, meaning “Mountains of the Church of St. Mantan”, and is more modern.

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The Anglo-Saxon Coppergate Helmet; discovered in York, England; 8th century AD. ??????? The brass and iron helmet is modeled on late Roman cavalry helmets and is very much identical to the ones depicted as being worn by Northumbrian soldiers at the Battle of Dún Nechtáin, on the Pictish Aberlemno stone. It is not the only one of it’s type discovered in England and dated to that period either, though it certainly is the finest and most exquisitely executed example.

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