![Matthias Messer](/img/default-banner.jpg)
- 23
- 178 299
Matthias Messer
Germany
เข้าร่วมเมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2009
Rambles in the distant past with the odd bit of science thrown in
Email: mattmesserpics@gmail.com
Email: mattmesserpics@gmail.com
Old Castle Rheinberg - Kings, Counts and Hidden History
The picturesque ruins of castle Rheinberg are looking down - some 200 m - to the Wisper-dale, a breathtakingly beautiful valley, just 8 km north of the town of Lorch on the river Rhine. All this is part of a UNESCO world heritage site and if you go there, you will see why.
Rheinberg is almost forgotten now, but once it was the home of the Rheingrafen, the counts of the Rhine who acted as stewards of the Rheingau on behalf of the King of East-Franconia.
After the gift of Verona, 983 AD, the Rheingau was owned by the bishopric of Mainz, one of the most influential worldwide and our castle here slowly lost its significance. By 1800 it was disused and in rapid decay.
The one thing you can say for it is than Napoleon never blew it up - safety through obscurity...
Rheinberg is almost forgotten now, but once it was the home of the Rheingrafen, the counts of the Rhine who acted as stewards of the Rheingau on behalf of the King of East-Franconia.
After the gift of Verona, 983 AD, the Rheingau was owned by the bishopric of Mainz, one of the most influential worldwide and our castle here slowly lost its significance. By 1800 it was disused and in rapid decay.
The one thing you can say for it is than Napoleon never blew it up - safety through obscurity...
มุมมอง: 419
วีดีโอ
Switch to Lumix S5IIX from Fujifilm XH2S - Fantastic IBIS in Old Castle Waldeck
มุมมอง 4264 หลายเดือนก่อน
The decision to change horses and buy the Panasonic Lumix S5IIX turned out to be one I shall not regret. I have tried to kill two birds with one stone here by putting the S5 II X through its paces - at least in the areas important to my type of work and also to to a bit of reconnaissance for my ongoing research project, the Rheingauer Gebück. That green fortification went right past the old cas...
DJI Air 3 - No Variable Aperture - And the 180 Degree Rule?
มุมมอง 4695 หลายเดือนก่อน
Following up on my previous video, I explain here how exactly I set up my DJI Air 3 (that also applies to the Mini 4 pro) to expose for good looking video, allowing for motion blur where needed. Where I don't need motion blur - and you'd be surprised how often that is with drone video - I rather go for optimum image quality.
DJI Air 3 - 48mp? What the Reviews didn't tell us!
มุมมอง 2.7K5 หลายเดือนก่อน
I have replaced my DJI Mavic 2 Pro with the recent Air 3. Was that a stupid thing to do? Or is the 12 MP sensor actually good enough? Or perhaps even better than the 1" Hasselblad camera? Here we answer three questions so far not really tested by all the reviews I have found: 1) Is the digital zoom any good in video mode? 2) Can it really take 48 MP images in still? 3) Which max ISO can we use ...
On the Brink of Nuclear Disaster - The Windscale Pile 1 Fire
มุมมอง 8406 หลายเดือนก่อน
...And a wonderful walk in the Lake District National Park. In October 1957 the Windscale Pile 1 Nuclear Reactor suffered a nearly catastrophic failure: A fire spread from a fuel cartridge and compromised large parts of the graphite core. Several attempts were made to get the reactor under control, but, in the end, it was the Site manager, Tom Tuohy, who prevented the ultimate catastrophe by or...
Hailes and the Blood of Christ - Mystery of a Relic
มุมมอง 1.1K7 หลายเดือนก่อน
Hailes Abbey in Gloucestershire was founded and built in 1246 by Henry III's brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall and existed as a Cistercian Abbey until its dissolution in 1539. It hosted one of England's most famous relics back in the day: A sample of the blood of Jesus Christ, allegedly shed in his final moments on the cross in Jerusalem. In this video, we will learn some interesting facts abo...
The Monks and the Devil - Iconic Tintern Abbey
มุมมอง 6K11 หลายเดือนก่อน
Many or most have seen a picture of Tintern Abbey. Yet, few seem to be able to pinpoint it on the map, and fewer still have ever been there. If you leave the M48 at Chepstow and head north along the river Wye, Afon Gwy in Welsch, along the winding A466, you suddenly see a church without roof or windows to your right. In the middle of nowhere stand the ruins of a church so impressive that it wou...
Waterhatch - Secrets of a Sunken Mill
มุมมอง 734ปีที่แล้ว
Waterhatch was a Cotswold sheep farm until the late 1950s. Today, we are left with mystical, almost haunted looking ruins perhaps a twenty minute walk from Sudeley Castle. Water is still rushing over the wheel, telling the attentive walker where to find it in the woods. The little we know has been made accessible by Mike Lovatt: The River Isbourne In the Service of Mankind, 2012, ISBN 978-1-445...
Last Secrets Of The Uffington White Horse
มุมมอง 81Kปีที่แล้ว
As so often with old monuments, more knowledge emerges from old graves. The Uffington White Horse in southern Oxfordshire has been carved into the hill some 3000 years ago and then been maintained ever since. Every 20 years at the latest, it has to be scoured and re-chalked, which the people in the local villages have been doing continuously for more than 120 generations. The knowledge about wh...
Birth of the Industrial Age - The Iron Bridge
มุมมอง 2.2Kปีที่แล้ว
Today, iron, or rather steel, is a standard material for bridges. Back in 1779, The Iron Bridge was the first of its kind. It was boldly built, as a show-case for what Coalbrook Dale stood and still stands for: The birth-place of the industrial age. We explore the bridge's history, special properties and background. And we try to discover the last resting place of the architect who started it a...
The Cerne Abbas Giant - Enigma of Britain's Biggest Phallus
มุมมอง 20Kปีที่แล้ว
The Cerne-Abbas Giant, today managed by the National Trust, has puzzled historians since its sudden appearance in the written record in 1694. When was it created? What was its purpose? As recent as 2021 we have begun to shed more light on some of the questions. Watch until the end, if you want to know how to (archeologically!) date a giant phallus... For chalk figures, also have a look at Tom S...
The Medway Megaliths - Have I Found Smythe's Lost Barrow?
มุมมอง 2.6Kปีที่แล้ว
The Medway Megaliths - Have I Found Smythe's Lost Barrow?
The Skeletons of Belas Knap - Secrets of a Stone-Age Grave
มุมมอง 44Kปีที่แล้ว
The Skeletons of Belas Knap - Secrets of a Stone-Age Grave
Spoonley Wood Roman Villa - Mystery of the Missing Mosaics
มุมมอง 8Kปีที่แล้ว
Spoonley Wood Roman Villa - Mystery of the Missing Mosaics
Castle Ehrenfels - Why is it a ruin today?
มุมมอง 2.8Kปีที่แล้ว
Castle Ehrenfels - Why is it a ruin today?
I have been to Tintern a number of times. Well worth the visit.
Went there, Dragon Hill in late 80's and saw a woman and hallucinated, heard the trappings of a horse. Suzie from Leeds... 3.38
What a stunning video, thank you.
Stumbled right into this channel ! Your work is exceptional ….. thank you ! Kindest regards and best wishes, West Virginia USA
Well done presentation. It’s a shame they had to be celibate. They should have been able to get married and have families.
Interesting. However, I have never accepted that this is a horse, for me it is clearly a fox. Who would have have created a horse with such a tiny head and short legs? And the tail is certainly more like a fox. The tail of a horse hangs downward or held high and the hairs trailing behind, the tail of the fox is held proudly outward containing bones until the very end. And the next hill along is called Fox Hill about 7 miles to the West along the Ridgeway.
We have similar things in Australia that can only be seen from the air, all made from walking & moving stones away from the lighter coloured earth underneath. So strange. So beautiful.
Would you go for this one instead for the mavic 3 classic?
That depends on your application. For Photos I'd prefer the 20MP camera of the Mavic 3. For film I'd go with the Air 3. It turns out that for the way I film, the missing aperture adjustment is much less of an issue than people make you believe.
Oh - And I should add: In terms of flying capability, the Air 3 is the more modern, more capable machine.
Quite interesting but what a lot of waffle, virtually no information whatsoever about the horse. It should have been much shorter. Or better still he should have waited 'till that paper was published before he made it. Very disappointing.
I rarely ever comment on things like this, but I'll make an exception here. May I suggest that you make a note of my channel name and never ever watch one of those videos again. They are all bound to disappoint, as much work as their creation might have been. I think that's the best solution. Cheers.
Just been on holiday and walked the Ridgeway by the Uffington White Horse and castle today; it is absolutely amazing!
When I was a child-6ish we lived in England. We took a trip to Scotland and there were many chalk crests and pictures up there. Have you done any videos of those? I’ve always been curious about them also.
I'm thinking it was basically a trade sign - looking at the time they think horses were introduced to Britain it could be this was just an early precursor to the advertising hoarding - "Get your horse here" kind of thing 😂
Lovely to go there in my armchair.
That is exactly what I am trying to enable people to do! Thanks!
I just happened upon your channel an hour ago and am enjoying myself immensely. Your knowledge of Medieval history, culture and architecture makes the videos both interesting and informative. Many thanks. PS. Thank you for pronouncing Bealieu correctly. I cringe whenever I hear people (even the locals!) call it Bewly. Ditto for when they pronounce Boulogne as Booloin!
Thanks for that nice comment! It seems to be a niche subject, though, considering how little attention that Hailes video is getting. All the more important to welcome a new watcher!
I visited the beautiful horse on the hill decades ago on my one and only trip to England, visiting a university friend who had moved l to London. Being an art history grad, I had made a list of all the ancient sites I wanted to see. My poor long suffering friend wasn’t as into these things. I have a photo slide somewhere of the horse, and the giant as well. Wonder if I can find them. Thank you for this video. It brought back memories I haven’t had in years. Such a magically beautiful and mysteriously evocative part of England.
Thank you for another excellently presented film and story.
Doesn't look like a horse.
There's a good pub opposite the abbey where you can enjoy lunch in the garden overlooking the ruins.
Do you mean the Anchor Inn? That is indeed really nice. But do consider the Wild Hare across the road! I usually start filming at insanely early hours to avoid causing a scene with my drone. And so, on the day I filmed the Tintern video, I found myself in dire need of a substantial breakfast before the Abbey grounds opened for visitors. I had done the bit up at the devil's pulpit and all the walking and drone filming outside the abbey grounds and the Wild Hare people served me one of the most delicious bacon rolls I ever tasted, bless them!
@@MattMesserPics yes, that's the one. They serve a nice Sunday lunch. I've not tried the Wild Hare. Will give it a go the next time I have a walk around Tintern.
The dragon Hill used to be one of those giant trees, but cut down by.....? long before the ice-age. As everywhere else in the world can be found. There probably was a race of giants who built giant stone structures with giant machinery. I do not wish to explore these stories further, because they are frightening, but I do hope that if they indeed came from another place in our solar-system of even further away, they have massacred each other.
As you might expect from a science-bloke, I'm not easily sold on the idea of aliens messing around on earth and then conveniently disappearing once we are sufficiently advanced to catch them red-handed. But I do agree that dragon hill looks uncannily like a humungous ancient tree-stump!
The Whitehorse is a symbol of infertility. It's a warning ,do not live here. It will make you talk like a woman. The giant symbolizes a unique.
Huh?
@@hsmd4533 ask the locals. tourist show making up stories
Aliens
Hmmm...yeah...I do get the argument though...
I know this is a year old, but I have a theory. I was visiting Luxembourg in spring of 1999 with my husband’s high school history teacher. After lunch he showed us around a small plaza with a prominent water fountain. Nothing unusual jumped out at first, but he gave us some clues and we suddenly realized the entire fountain was a series of monkeys engaged in every imaginable sex act😂. He told us it was designed by the townspeople (long ago) and dedicated to the local Bishop who was universally despised. The Bishop allowed it to be built because another Bishop (loved by the people) in a nearby town had been honored with a lovely, ornate fountain dedicated to his years of service. Eager to show off, he even gave money from the church coffers to allow for a real show stopper in his honor. It was so well camouflaged, there’s a good chance the Bishop didn’t even see what was right in front of him, lol! Maybe the Cerne Giant was in ‘honor’ of another not so beloved authority? It’s just a theory, but I think there’s a good chance people have always thought the Giant was pretty cheeky, and it would have been a great joke if that was the origin. Thanks for the video! Cheers
Very interesting, thanks! At first I thought this rings a bell and that I've seen that fountain during a recent visit to Luxembourg, but maybe I'm imagining things. Now I can't find any reference to it...you wouldn't perhaps remember the name? Anyway, it was indeed thought that the Cerne Giant could be a joke mocking Oliver Cromwell, but the OSL dating pretty much rules out a creation in the 1600s. If it was a similar thing mocking the monks of nearby Cerne Abbey (quite possible), we'll likely never find out except if we are lucky and a enlightening manuscript from the abbey's library surfaces. Have you been to Cerne Abbas? It's a lovely part of the world, with or without giant.
@@MattMesserPics I’ve not been to Cerne, but I have been to the white horse in Uffington (I hope I got that name right). I am an American and was sent to RAF Fairford for two weeks during joint military exercises when I was in the Air Force. While there I met a very charming MOD fellow who was kind enough to show me around on the weekends. My last night in England he took me to the chalk horse hill and we climbed up in the evening with a picnic dinner and a portable radio to stargaze. I will never forget the feeling of lying there with a pre-historic monument staring up at a billion stars. It felt like Time was just standing still and I felt like the universe was staring back at me! A wonderful memory for sure. I had an opportunity later to visit England, France, and Germany with my husband over three weeks, that’s when I saw the fountain. Unfortunately I don’t recall the name of it. I tried to look it up to give you a reference when I commented before, but found nothing. Sadly, the history teacher who told us the story has passed too. It makes me think stories like that were not uncommon, otherwise someone surely would have written about it by now? But that’s just my guess. I wish I could be more helpful. Cheers!
@@Blackbird_Singing_in_the-Night Ahh, Fairford - a stone's throw from my old home in Tetbury, which I shall never stop missing.
Great information ℹ️
Thank you!
XTC English Settlement
King Alfred is my 30 x great grandfather,lots of other people too. Thomas Hughes gives a great description of the annual scouring. It's certainly mystical how people always knew it was significant even after they didn't know why. Isn't it they find now that the people who made Stonehenge and lived in that whole culture they were born,a lot of them in what we now think of as northern France and Belgium,these folk came and went to and fro. We forget that it was not separate countries then,so the culture that made Stonehenge and lived in that high ground from Dorset to Oxfordshire was kind of pan-european.
That is a very good thought. To understand Neolithic and Bronze-age cultures we should explore much more the obvious signs of pan-mediterranean exchange. Think, for example about the Scottish brochs and the Nuraghes on Sardinia, to name just one example.
I think it's a lot younger than we are told , put there to hide whats underbeath .
What makes you think that? OSL dating got it wrong?
@MattMesserPics or maybe it's completely fake to hide what's underneath . Stonehenge was built from the ground up in 1958 , and there is a black and white film of the special occasion . And that horse looks way too stylized , almost like it was designed by picasso , let's say .
The fact that tbe government are blocking getting skeletens back shows more a cover up of dates and what we are veing told and in order to do that and set the narrative that they want thats what they have done with all our real past and history....
The chalky soils are perfect for growing Chardonnay and, given the current warm trend of climate change, I expect these magnificent slopes to be entirely covered in vineyards within a decade or two.
😅
I wonder how much the image of the horse has changed over thousands of years? If it has been re-traced every 20 years one would expect that its lines would slowly drift, a bit like a story that is told and re-told over and over...
Apparently, it has changed very little in shape, but the lines themselves have become more 'upward looking' over the centuries. That's what archeology tells us.
Hello, Matt! 1st time viewer here in the USA snooping around UTube for British history, geography, and anthro&archeology content. You've just gained a follower! Matt, what immediately stands out about this beautifully recorded and edited content is your ability to step back and let the wise local elder featured speak. Prompted by your marvelously curious questions. Bravo!! Thankyou for that!! I'm excited about the prospect of exploring the rest of your content.🧜♀️🌬💕🙏 Melly
Thank you very much for that lovely comment! I do hope not to disappoint going forward, even if I have preciously little time to film and edit at the moment. I quite agree with those interviews being valuable, but it's surprisingly difficult to find people both knowledgeable and willing to be on camera.
@@MattMesserPics I bet it's challenging, until you find the ones that will talk all day and then some. There's one in every community, I think... someoneeager to share what they know. The difference is that you took the time to find hin.
It was a treat to watch a friendly, conversational, informal interview. The world could use more content like this. Thank you!
Thank you so much! Doing the interview with Charles was wonderful. He had so much to show and say about the region, I could only put a small part in the video...
youve many fallacies of kings and the peopleing of the sands of time, such a pity...............
To me its a wonderful piece of art that looks like a stylised horrse. But the more i look at it, the more i feel it was a beautiful attempt to draw a 3d representation of a horse on a 2d surface with possibly little reference of how to draw 3d to refere to.
Thanks for that! And,yes, exactly as I said about the Cerne Giant: Those people knew much more about perspective than we generally give them credit for.
This not an English man . Maybe Welsh but more probably a new comer
"Bottom print of Thomas Cromwell". Lol. Great video Matthias, very fascinating and beautifully delivered. Hailes is well worth a visit, not least for the excellent apple orchard shop next door. I don't buy the authenticity of the relic, they were fabricated by artisans to order in the Middle East, especially in Jerusalem, throughout the early middle ages and sold to the credulous. It's reasonably to suggest that 99% of the well known ones were fakes. A small pronunciation tip: the 'Scilly Isles' are pronounced like 'silly' and not 'skilly' as you have it. Your English is generally very impressive!
Thank you! Imagine Christoph Waltz saying: "Forgive me, it is a second language!"...😁 But about the relic: Yes, of course it was a fake, 99% sure. But the intriguing thing is that the more you probe, and my break-through was the trip to Aachen, the more you extend its trace into the past - it is accounted for as early as the beginning of the 9th century. So at least a very old fake...
Considering the extraordinary size of his club with which to 'dong' things with, I'm surprised he is not known simply as 'The Big Donger"!😉
I was born nearby and my father followed the local tradition and took me and my brother and sister there, to stand on. The grass. eye of the horse and make a wish. In turn, I took my son there but there was by then a fence. So I lifted him over and told him what to do.
What a lovely family tradition 🌱🎉🤗
Lovely. New subscriber. We will be visiting England for the birth of our third grandchild in two weeks. It is a lifelong dream. I’ve always wanted to see the Uffington Horse, so that’s how I found you. Then I watched the Giant, and now am “here” at Hailes, which will certainly be on my list of must visits. Thank you so much for the history, peace and beauty you’ve shared.
Thanks for the lovely comment! If you have time, you may find a visit to Tintern inspiring - it is only an hours drive from Hailes.
@@MattMesserPics Thank you so much! We’ve just arrived in Rowland’s castle in Hampshire…Whenever we get settled, we will investigate Tintern as well!
Epi-tome.
I know, I know! Even my daughter told me off for that one. My bad...😅
There’s one in Russia as well.
4:59 minutes in the sheep is saying, and what are you looking at, we've been here a lot longer than you have whilst chewing the grass.😊
Meaning horse country . Spiders..spider country.. Etc etc..
You have to go there to appreciate the chalk image in scale in this topography. It is not very big, and is hard to see clearly unless you fly a drone camera. Amazing, beautiful, mysterious artwork, 3000 years old!!! Loved and maintained by local folk for aĺl those years. The burials/ graves were frightening though. The arrangements of posed dismemberment look like some sort of vengeance, that I'd rather not think about. Really enjoyed this video. Thanks. Nick.
Thanks and, yes, I quite agree. Those graves send a shiver down your spine...
perhaps such figures did overgrow but their shapes were discernible by the differences in the overgrowing vegetation than the surrounding ground, such as we see from aerial views that detail the outlines of structures, only perhaps in reverse, that process as the growth on compounded chalk trench lines was less than that on the surrounding undisturbed ground ?
21:57
I could listen to him for hours...
Ouch! Emma was a bit naughty.
I have given her a bit unjustified bad press in this video. Later-on, when I researched for Belas Knap, the people at Winchcombe museum told me more about her and I also found an old copy of her book about the area. Quite a remarkable woman, really...
Enjoyed the history and hope the book is in America
Thanks! And I am sure you can order the book in the US - I put the details in the description to the video.
... lidar of the white horse... th-cam.com/video/YLyxyCIUfls/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=PrehistoricBritain
My theory is that it's an advertising billboard. Lambourn is just down the hill from there, and it's long been famous for race horses. With the importance of horses in the pre-industrial era, it was an advert for the local horse breeding community. See this big white chalk horse? You can have a fancy horse too! Come into the valley!
Actually, that is precisely what some historians are thinking: That the people of Uffington hill-fort were horse breeders and wanted everybody pointed to them from afar.
@@MattMesserPics Makes perfect sense to me. It's horse country there, since the soil isn't very good for growing crops on the side of the valley. Thin soil means you grow grass, and if all you can grow is grass, you raise livestock on it. Sheep and cows to feed yourself, horses as a cash crop. There's a lot of arable stuff going on where it ISN'T vertical, though. My grandparents used to live near there (you could see the horse from their bedroom window if it was clear), and my granddad got paid to keep beehives in fields.
Excellent post - I'm now subscribed. Not sure why the TH-cam algorithm recommended a giant phallus. Must remember to clear my search history from time to time.
Thank you! Some of my viewers commented that searches for 'Downing Street' might come up with this video🧐