Is there any historicity to the concept of Ghost Fences / Walls?
score:7
'Ghost walls' is a concept that is used in archaeology. But maybe not just so fanciful as in these historical fiction books:
Meanwhile, trial trenches at the north end of the adjacent long and narrow meadow—on the surface of which, when ploughed, stray finds of Roman pottery and coins had often been made—revealed a well-defined layer of Roman building debris associated with ‘ghost-walls’, or foundation-trenches from which all masonry had been removed by stone-robbers. Below this was a stratum of dark occupation-earth with an abundance of pottery indicating the presence of an extensive Early Iron Age settlement.
The Oxford Archaeology Dictionary refers to this as:
Or examplified in Hadrian's Ghost Wall:
The key to understanding Hadrian’s Wall is that the Romans built a temporary frontier of wood in the East, and wood and earth in the West, to protect them while they constructed the permanent stone frontier. It follows that there would also be temporary forts and other structures amounting to a whole ghost timber and earth version of Hadrian’s Wall.
It seems reasonable to assume that the fancy name gives rise to imagination if you hear it.
Some books mention 'ghost fences' en passant in the way described in the question:
Alistair Moffat: "The Borders: A History of the Borders from Ealiest Times", Birlinn, 2011.
Alistair Moffat: "The Sea Kingdoms: The History of Celtic Britain and Ireland", Birlinn, 2011
And a few more. Seemingly with a claim to be real science.
But, as you can see, this concept seems to be a pet peeve of one man, outside of fiction and academia.
Upvote:0
Causewayed Enclosure Burials
A causewayed enclosure was a Neolithic site that was enclosed by multiple earthen ditches. Dozens have been identified in the UK.
The purpose of these locations is not well understood, but they have been interpreted by some as early or temporary forts.
It was apparently common to bury the dead in these ditches. As an example, the limited excavation at The Trundle identified a woman buried in a chalk cairn in one ditch.
Significance
It is not known what the significance - if any - these burials had. But it is easy to see how one could construct the story of "Ghost Walls" around them.
These ditches appear defensive at first glance, but don't have evidence of walls or other defensive structures. And many people were apparently buried in them. Therefore - ah! - the ditches must exist for the burials, and they must defend against something walls cannot defend against: Ghosts!
Personally, I lean towards the theory that they were meeting sites for trade or ritual, and they needed some kind of paddock to keep the cattle in, so they dug ditches. Anyone who happened to die while at the meeting place might be buried in the ditch out of convenience.
Upvote:2
Never happened. Celts regarded heads as trophies, they were considered important enough to show guests when they arrived. They had a similar place as trophy heads of modern hunters.
There were a couple of temple sites in southern Gaul such as Roquepertuse where niches were cut into stone pillars and skulls placed in them. This was for display not a warning. The skulls were possibly enemy warriors as the site contained a number of seated warrior statues including what appears to be them holding severed heads on their laps.
A different site at a temple in northern Gaul was the remains of hundreds of headless warriors found at Ribemont-sur-Ancre. The bones were stacked together but believed to have originally been part of a large trophy where the (headless?) bodies of fallen enemies were tied to racks to be eaten by birds and weather away, the remains finally being buried.
It's reasonable to assume that had the Celts created any kind of ghost wall the Romans would have mentioned it as proof of their barbarity. As it was the Romans talked about the sacred groves as places of dread.
More post
- 📝 Why did it take over 100 years for Britain to begin seriously colonising America?
- 📝 What is the origination of the Forlorn Hope?
- 📝 Is there a link between national debt/trade deficit and starting a war?
- 📝 What was the role of the college of consuls in Ancient Rome?
- 📝 What was the nominal strength of a company in a British Regiment during the American war of Independence?
- 📝 As far as Themistocles's journey after his exile is concerned why do modern historians conclude that Plutarch meant Thasos instead of Naxos?
- 📝 What do these lines on the origins of Hindu/Muslim communal consciousness mean?
- 📝 Why didn't carrier based fighters support bombers?
- 📝 Is there a source for Medieval army composition and tactics across cultures?
- 📝 Is the Bible considered a reliable historical resource?
- 📝 What was said about Vermont in the Paris negotiations of 1782?
- 📝 What is the oldest debt that any country is paying right now, and to whom?
- 📝 How fast and how far could one travel, by means of horse relay posts, in ancient China in 1500CE?
- 📝 How severe were the casualties in ancient/medieval battles?
- 📝 What evidence supports the claim that Shivaji's father was Muslim?
- 📝 Roman Legion composition
- 📝 Why was metal armor phased out after gun powder was weaponized?
- 📝 Did the proto-Indo-Europeans displace or overlay the pre-existing European tribes?
- 📝 What is the significance of the term "never start changing the borders in Eastern Europe by force?"
- 📝 Paradigm change in power: from military to economic in Europe
- 📝 When was Donald Trump's first visit to his mother's birthplace, the Isle of Lewis?
- 📝 Why couldn't the Ottoman Empire modernise at the same time as Meiji Japan did?
- 📝 Are there any historical conceptions that accurately depict a scenario of swinging rapidly from a state of war to a state of tranquility?
- 📝 Apart from the Inuit, and candlefish on the northwest coast, did pre-Columbian America have lamps or candles?
- 📝 Is it true that "All spicy food is from Latin America"?
- 📝 What was the function of the walls of Jericho?
- 📝 Why was the Aeolipile not put to practical use in classical antiquity?
- 📝 Were Magellan's wife and kids held hostage?
- 📝 Can a country only have one indigenous population?
- 📝 In modern terms (for example the 2017 US dollar), how much purchasing power is 50,000 (French) Francs in 1829?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Is there any historicity to the concept of Ghost Fences / Walls?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that the United States was "suckered into WW1" by Zionists, made by Benjamin Freedman in his 1961 speech?
- 📝 Are there any accounts of everyday life during the Black Death?
- 📝 In the "Christmas truce" of 1914 were there any football (soccer) matches between British and German troops?
- 📝 Is there any evidence of armies enrolling women in fighting roles in significant number in antiquity or the middle ages?
- 📝 Is there any documented criticism of the brutality of the Colosseum from citizens at the time?
- 📝 Were there any drunk driving laws before the automobile?
- 📝 Has there been any "invasive plants warfare" in the past?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that Cleopatra and Caesarion considered fleeing to India to escape the Romans?
- 📝 Were there any travel restrictions during the Black Death pandemic?
- 📝 Were there any Germans in Japan after the surrender of Germany in May, 1945 and if so, what happened to them?
- 📝 Were there any high-ranking female soldiers during the Middle ages?
- 📝 Are there any documented examples of wooden ships which were in active service for 100 years or more? If not, what is the longest?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that the Catholic Church slowed innovation during the Middle Ages?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that the US Strategic Defense Initiative played any significant role in undermining the USSR?
- 📝 Is there any documentation that indicates the Aztecs were as violent as they are made out?
- 📝 Was there a pre-determined arrangement for the division of Germany in case it surrendered before any Soviet forces entered its territory?
- 📝 Were there any crops and livestock common to both the Old and New Worlds prior to the Columbian exchange?
- 📝 Is there any instance of part of a country successfully seceding and then unifying with a neighbouring country in the last century?
- 📝 Was there any theological opposition to the lightning rod?
- 📝 Isn't there any positive legacy of the Mongolian occupation in Russia?
- 📝 Was there ever any doubt which side the USA would join?
- 📝 Have there been any efforts by the countries of Europe to restore their monarchies?
- 📝 Are there any scientific estimates for the population of Mycenaean Greece?
- 📝 Is there any archaeological evidence for the Dorian Invasion of Greece?
- 📝 Is there any possible way to count provinces of the Achaemenid Empire to be 127?
- 📝 Are there any existing foreign language teaching texts from the Ancient Near East?
- 📝 Are there any historians who believe that the crusades were not motivated as a distraction from internal conflicts?
- 📝 Were there any successful attempts by the Allies to "turn" groups of Axis soldiers?
- 📝 Were there any pilots that declined to carry out the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?