was just remarking to my wife - if this guy is a one man team, he's absolutely smashing it in terms of variation of cameras / shots / angles / takes and all the while managing to keep a constant line in delivery of narration. well bloody done.
@@MattMesserPics you've done a great job with this one; really watchable, nice variations and a very strong message about preservation in tandem with archeological curiosity.
What a fascinating film! I love the Saxon name, Beacon Hill, showing that, in Anglo-Saxon times, it was so completely disguised by the builders that no-one knew it was a burial site!
Thanks Anne! I just wanted to congratulate for this unusual insight when I realised the comment came from the very person who taught me 90% of what I know about the site. And so I feel I really ought to point everybody to "Exploring Belas Knap" by Anne Crow and encourage you all to visit the Winchcombe Museum (where you can pick up a copy) before you make your way up the hill to the long barrow!
Yes, I do it mostly as a hobby and for my children - but it is comments like yours that give great joy and make me put in that little extra effort next time. And thanks for sticking up against that nasty fellow yesterday, much appreciated!
One of my favourite places. I first visited with my future husband as we walked the Cotswold way. We came back with our toddlers and teenagers with their friends. We shared what we knew and then walked them down into Winchcombe. Imagine how surprised I was to discover that my grandfather whom I never knew was actually born there. I'm sure my soul connected with the area as soon as I set foot on Belas Knap..Thank you for such an informative video
Don't know how I managed to miss this upload. It's very much improved my cold and rainy day. Thank you for your usual superb standard of information, presentation, filming and editing. Cheers!
Thank you Matthias! You are as good a story teller as a videographer. I hope you keep making more videos. I've subscribed and will be watching for them. This one was so well put together I couldn't help but think the BBC should be embarrassed. When they try to tell a similar story they need a production staff of dozens of professionals. They'd get more done with their budgets if they redirected the funds as grants to capable content producers like you.
Thanks for those kind words - they really push me to try and do my best for the next ones! But I'm also beginning to get a bit scared about not living up to self set standards...
@@MattMesserPics I think the most important thing is that you have fun. You have the skills already, meaning you don't really need to push yourself to be better. Higher production values aren't necessary. I know we live in cultures that push us to be our best, as if it is a moral imperative. Seeking perfection is an unattainable goal. Just having fun is likely both easier & more sustainable.
@MattMesserPics here you go, let me see what I have in my pocket (sorts through odd bits of paper). Here we are. By the powers invested in me, I do hereby issue you the license to fail. You are hereby granted the right to produce a real clanger. (I give these out to writers in my group). Not every video will be as good as these so far. Not every video HAS to be as good. Carry on. You'll be fine.
I love an old barrow such a pity that it lasted so long only to be looted by idiots just about the time when that sort of thing started to stop - I really enjoyed your video ty
my wife and I moved to the Cotsolds in 1972 and raised a family of five children. My eldest daughter lives near me in Stroud Gloucestershire now. I still love the area. I am 77 now.
Now that is interesting. I myself have five children and they all love the Cotswolds. We had to move away in 2020 - I now finally know what home-sickness is...Stroud is one of my favourite towns. Home to the start of the Thames and Severn Canal, one of my many obsessions with the area.
The vagaries of YT algorithms threw this into my "feed", and I'm glad they did. How fascinating! Very well written and presented! And yes, warrants a modern archaeological approach, perhaps with ground penetrating radar first. And of course, the genius of Stuart Ainsworth. On a separate note, I'm always fascinated by all the stone walls lining the hedgerows and fields throughout the UK...I'm sure studies and analyses of many have been done, in terms of age and perhaps regional styles, etc., but I'm not aware of any. Where are the oldest walls? How many incorporate stone from Roman and Medieval buildings? What lies underground and adjacent to many of them? There was a Time Team episode where in a very short segment they looked at a wall that was re-using carved ecclesiastical Medieval stone, but they didn't talk about the age of the wall.
Thanks for that - kind comments like these give more joy than many people would imagine! GPR was one of the things I wanted to talk about - it might not be too successful in dense, wet soil - but I thought people would get bored if I rambled on and on...The scientist can easily get carried away...
Fascinating and elucidating, and at the same time both frightening and full of hope. The wreckers were here and they were butchers of the worst kind. Thank the Lord for the fine work of archaeologists such as Augustus Pitt Rivers, Sir William Flinders Petrie, Maud Cunnington, St. George Gray, Alexander Keiller, Stuart Piggott, Prof Richard Atkinson and Christopher Hawkes; some of the names belonging to later times I knew personally. Thank you Matthias for casting light upon a site I knew little about.
@bina nocht Yes, no less than treasure hunters and ignorant robbers. The 1700s were the saddest times for our ancient monuments, the like of Dr. William Stukeley and a few others were like voices in the wilderness but they were to grow in number and the 1800s heralded a golden dawn..
How lovely that you mentioned Stow on the Wold. I've only ever heard it mentioned in a story I read as a child. One of my favorite stories. It has nothing to do with the video but it has endeared me to your channel instantly. Cheers. Subscribing.
But you may get so hooked that you won't leave anymore, so, careful! I actually stayed in a lovely airbnb place in Stow on the weekend I filmed the footage for this.
A couple of months ago l visited belas knap. What l find intriguing that the skeletons placed in the purpose built burial chamber were already quite old,leading me to believe somewhere nearby was a lesser burial chamber long since lost to time. I think the skeletons must have been of people of high importance to be remembered for so long before belas knap was built. Huge planning and energy reserves would have gone into building such a magnificent structure. The cotswolds still holds many neolithic secrets. Ground penetrative radar would be of great use in determining any hidden archaeological evidence. It says to me the skeletal remains were worshipped in some form of ceremony for over a thousand years. Clearly belas knap was a very deeply spiritual place.
The question of why there are so few individual remains in such an elaborate structure has been on my mind a lot while I was researching this. Thanks for bringing it up here!
Even growing up in Oddingley and Upton Snodsbury, and having grandparents in Wyre Piddle, Belas Knap is a bit of an odd name :) I last visited at least 15 years ago. It's intriguing to think there could be more hidden beneath the surface.
Thank you! Yes, I do intend to make them regularly - at least once a month. They are a lot of work (next to a full time job) and I can't promise that they'll all be as interesting as this one. Have a great holiday!
Gatherers and hunters didn't "spend every hour of every day frantically" looking for food! Not every day and gatherers especially spent a few hours. Because they knew where everything grew and they had learned this as children with their mothers!
Wonderful video and very interesting material. Definitely subscribed now and eagerly looking forward to more content. I also must confess, I have a deep desire to live in the Cotswolds. Family on my mother's side came from some obscure village there across the sea to what became North Carolina, then to Georgia and then Florida, almost 330 years ago. I harbor intense fascination for the geographic area but even more so for Neolithic history and envy you much, my friend. Greetings from North Florida and thanks again!
Thanks for the wonderful, long message! I have lived in the Cotswolds for (only) ten years and I have never felt as home-sick as I do now after leaving - and I HAVE moved a lot in my life. There's a bit more scientific stuff coming up next (archeologic dating) and I'm curious to see if that damages (or helps) my subscriber base. We'll see...
@@MattMesserPics if your new content is anywhere as well done as this video or your others so far I don't think you need worry about losing any viewers, Mr. Messer. Thanks again.
There is a similar slightly larger Barrow Burial site above Brynnau Gwynnion in Glamorgan South Wales, it is on the ridgeway route across the mountains above the Vale of Glamorgan, which was Ancient at the time of the Romans, there are Bluestones at a near area called Craig Las, also the name Winchcombe is from the Old Cymric Wynch Cwm which is probably the name of a River Valley, with white rapids, you ascertain that Belas is Saxon, Belas in old Cymric was a God, Beli in middle Cymric and Beli in modern Cymric, is the same, in Cornwall he was called Beli as well same in Cumbria, Knap is a place of rest, in old Cymric yr cnapyr same in modern cnapyr, the word is rarely used today but it was common in the middle ages. Cnaps are usually very ancient Burial sites, what you say about the Victorians is very correct, they destroyed many ancient monuments, the most obvious that I have seen is on the Mountain above Cardiff at Gwaelod y Garth and Efail isaf where there were three Barrow Burial sites all aligned to the Belt of Sirius, they were all destroyed but can still be seen from below like little Pimples on top of the mountain. We will lose much of the Ancient History especially in the Welsh Mountains to erosion and Marshy ground, there are a number of stone circles already gone below the ground, it is essential that the Monuments lower down the mountains and valleys all over Britain is at least noted down or looked after, but money is needed and that is in short supply. Great programme and your calm words are so wonderful to hear. Pob Hwyl.
Thanks very much indeed for that long and detailed comment. I've copy-pasted it into my research folder on Belas Knap and am digesting it now as I find the time. But one thing is certain: I will try to seek out the long barrow you wrote about. But there already I am struggling. Google maps shows me one on the other side of Bridgend at Tythegston, which can't be right. You wouldn't be able to find grid coordinates of some sort, by any chance? Anyway, thanks again and I hope to continue delivering stuff you enjoy!
Only 321 subscribers?! While I disagree agree with your position on a few things, I do enjoy your film-making and narration. Excellent film. Pro. New subber.❤
Hi Paul, No that is no where close to the original which was one (or perhaps a couple) huge slab(s) laid across the sarsens. Those had been completely destroyed by the victorian 'antiquarians'. So what we are looking at here is a concrete ceiling with bits of cotswold stone pressed into it from underneath - an upside-down crazy pavement, as it were. That was a design by Emma Dent's ( the then owner of Sudeley Castle) people. It does seem weird from today's point of view, but let's remember that it was Emma who had the horrible carnage, left behind by the 1860's excavators, turned back into something as close as the original as she could with the means available back then. Sorry about the long answer, but it was a good point you made there...
We have Beacon Hill park here in Victoria bc Canada. It was previously inhabited by early native civilization. It is on the southern most part of Vancouver Island. Protected area as burial sites are there as well. TFS .
I know Belas Knapp well from walking there as a teenager. It's amazing to think there might be more secrets hidden there. Could you ask one of the local Archaeological Societies to get involved?
As happens so often, this was a story that was intended as a mere commented country ramble but then grew and grew in my mind the more I researched and asked around. What made it into the video is only a fraction of what I found out and could have said. I feared it might bore people - attention span is so short on the internet...If you haven't done so in the past, you might want to consider seeing the nice team at the Winchcombe museum. It was talking to Anne Crow and reading her little book about Belas Knap that got me hooked...
@@MattMesserPics There are still some that like longer videos...and there are some wonderful documentaries to be had...so...could you make Belas Knap part 2 ?...subscribed
I remember Lawrence showed more than the number of chambers you have shown in your plan of the barrow? Nice circular unreconstructed (as far as I know) one - shame the capstones weren't drawn in on the figure I remember 😐 Fabulous bit of work this and thanks for doing it 😀 btw No such thing as anything about a long barrow being 'too long' for some of us nerds!
There is probably a lot of documentation I've never seen. My prime source was the museum in Winchcombe and the publications they pointed me to. If you are aware of more, I'd be very thankful for a link or two. Thanks for the nice comment!
Having worked with a lot of interments over my career, the accounts of "sitting" skeletons, unsupported by wrappings is very unlikely. And "elbows on its knees" is downright impossible.
According to Fred Simmons, the first person to slide into the north-west chamber, the skeletons had their backs against the wall and their legs flat on the floor.
@@AnneCrow-id8py Nothing but decayable tissue holds bones together. The issue is that in an open space with no support around the bones, as the body decayed, the ligaments holding the bones together would decay and vanish. The skull and mandible would separate and fall away separately . The shoulder structures would fall apart. Unless there was a remarkable alignment the spinal bones would collapse into a pile. If a body is buried in an earth grave, then the soil will tend to maintain the bones in approximate anatomical positions. Though, if the bods is wrapped before it is buried, depending on practices like flexure, the bones will tend to slip and slide within the space provided by the wrappings as dictated by gravity. I've worked on many and the typical movie and fictional depictions have always irritated me because they are absurd.
@@theeddorian I'm sure you are right; I am just repeating what an eye-witness said. Mr Simmons also said that their heads had fallen off and were lying all about the tomb, which agrees with what you say. It was Lauriston Winterbotham, the archaeologist, who said that he was absent when the north-east chamber was opened, and, when he arrived he saw that the falling in of the roof had crushed the skeletons flat and pressed the bones partially into the floor. However, he did arrive in time to dig out a perfect skull and to determine that the head had been kept erect initially by placing the index finger of each hand into the nostrils.
@@AnneCrow-id8py I wasn't trying to correct you or anything like that. I have worked on literally hundreds of interments. So the contrast between what I've seen and what I hear from histories can be really high. I honestly like to know what he actually saw, because I "know" there's a lot of imagination in the account as it stands.
@MattMesserPics You know?!!! I almost asked if it was your own daughter?!!!!! Oh my word, she has such a beautiful way of singing, such command of her lovely sweet voice 💕❤️ !!! Wow. So I'll have to come across the pond to hear her otherwise?! Och...do please let me know, if she decides to sell recordings, digital or otherwise! God Bless, and thank you for your response. I'm blown away!! ☺️😘 And a HUGE thank you to her, for allowing you to include her ❤️
@MattMesserPics Thanks again..I just found it on YT, but, alas, it does have more magic when sung by your child. :) much more!!! Lol...my own daughters are adults now. 🫠
@@ShakesSphere Thanks so much for that - I'll let her know!! Typically for her age, she is a bit uncomfortable with her singing being out there in public, but at the same time, she is really proud about it. I confess that I sometime re-watch my own video again (is that called vanity-youtubing? 😂) just to hear her sing again in that passage under the shrubs. By the way, she is also singin in the short video about Waterhatch mill. Thanks again!
I don't understand why the remains of our ancestors should be kept in museums after the analysis has been completed. They should be restored to their final resting place, hence the word "final". The lack of respect for the remains of human beings is ghastly.
I sympathise with what you say there, but, on the other hand, if those few bone fragments were not in museums, they would be (or soon would be) in private 'collections', treated with even less respect and ultimately lost. Human nature, I'm afraid...but, as a society I think we are getting better with these things.
@@MattMesserPicsThank you Mattias, yes she does a wonderful job of singing this song. Here was the first time I had heard it. Keep up the amazing work here. Regards, Steve
This tale confirms for me my long-held belief that many of our Victorian forebears were destructive Visigoths of the worst kind. They had no respect for any artefact that bore no relationship to the over-vaunted Victorian era. Shocking people by-and-large!
I don't think your over-the-top condemnation of those who entered the chamber150 years ago is of any worth, they were people of their time, we should be thankful, it's not been levelled and ploughed out as thousands of others have been because they were no more than an inconvenient bump in a field.
Do visit Avebury, Silbury Hill, West Kennet Long Barrow, Woodhenge, the Sanctuary, and ... there's another one too. Name escapes me... all within a 20 mile ramble.
I've been to Avebury and Silbury Hill - they used to be within an hour's drive of my home - so why have I missed West Kennet? I've made a note to go there soon, thanks a lot for pointing it out!
@MattMesserPics excellent question, as West Kennet is literally across the road from Silbury Hill. I first visited Silbury Hill when it were brand new. Or so it seems now. I was allowed to climb to the top, at any rate. Last time I was at the Barrow, someone was cleaning up a mess left by visitors. A puddle of wax, in fact, from a melted candle. I don't mind people visiting by candlelight, but always: take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints. Empty crisp bags are disrespectful, but easy to pick up. Puddles of wax on rough stones is nasty. I can count on you to ask people to be good.
For more info on the destruction ancient sacred sites try looking at Britain's Hidden History Ross channel, which is still going since we lost Ross recently
What a shame that "archaeologists" of the time would use such destructive means to disturb a site which was undisturbed for so many thousands of years. I love traveling in the UK and exploring these sites, have not heard of this one.
And it is one of many, but definitely among the oldest we know of. Thanks for the long nice message and I definitely understand your passion for traveling in the UK!
Really interesting. I'm pretty sure they can learn a lot non invasively nowadays. That would be great, but it looks so butchered from its original form anyway, it would be horrible to make it any worse by digging it up more.
There they have rested for thousands of years and waiting to rest many more thousands of years watching us passing by in this history knowing that death maybe is eternal were they still rest. Thanks for the story Sir.👍
Those Victorian butchers also destroyed many so called Roman architecture all over North America and Canada and gave untouched left over buildings the titles of court houses, libraries and parliament buildings.
Modern studies of skeletal remains from other barrows suggest that the skeletons were often curated and were interred intermittently over many years. Though one recent dna study ( I only read it this year but forget where it was) found familial links between the skeletons suggesting a high status family? Again who knows. Not all barrows were tombs. Many are just heaped stones. Supposed to be territorial markers which may have been part of those with bones in them
There is a lot more I could have said but left out because I feared it may bore people. Indeed, it is thought that the dead of Belas Knap were left to be 'de-fleshed' by nature before their bones were interred. The main chambers were in use for some 300 years between 6000 BCE and 5700 BCE, which we know from carbon dating done in the early 2000s. Whether there is enough DNA material in the few remaining fragments to examine family relations I cannot say - DNA breaks down rather quickly but then some extraordinary progress has been made in recent years...out of my depth there, really. So, anyway, thanks for those interesting points!
Years ago I read of a tomb penetrated with one small hole and a camera inserted. Now one could introduce a ‘waldo finger’ to take a scrape and leave. Let them get back to their long, dark tea-time of the soul.
There were 20th century Philistines destroying important ancient archaeology during the time that I worked for the National Trust & Peak Park in the mid 1980's. Absolute criminal negligence & senseless destructions against our nations heritage that made educated men weep at the time, making me angry & saddened to this day.
I am shocked about this kind of thing having occurred until so recently - especially as you apparently have witnessed it from an inside point of view. All the more important that we advocate for "looking but not breaking", if you ask me...
@@MattMesserPics What I witnessed was wanton. Rival authorities holding differing opinions leading to the blaze' destruction of fascinatingly mysterious Neolithic irrigation works, a serpent mound & a pine plantation ploughed into a large settlement.
There is no such thing as a Stone Age, Bronze Age or other age. Gen 4:22 The Great, great, great grandson of Cain was “an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron”... meaning that iron and brass has been around before Noah and the Ark... what archeologists claim as Stone Age is simply some areas had the technology and some didn’t... just because technology was around doesn’t mean everyone had it equally. Groups that went off on their own and had catastrophes probably lost the technology and couldn’t get it back for a while. But iron and brass has been around almost as long as humans have been alive...
Have you checked your alignment? I'm being a prat here, but today is midwinter solstice. I'm reading about tombs in Newgrange (Ireland), Maeshowe (Scotland), and Gavrinis (France). All aligned to let sunlight of solstice into the chamber. Doubtful in this case, as the entrance was closed with stone.
At Newgrange- the opening was also closed but a narrow slit above the doorway allowed the light of the rising sun at the solstice to enter and illuminate the main chamber. Do a search online for the livestreaming of this event 2022.
@@ImperialistRunningDo No for Newgrange th-cam.com/video/_w-Pc76vDZU/w-d-xo.html This years event was somewhat occluded by cloudy weather on the solstice
@emcc8598 I'm sorry. I am not communicating well. Probably because of the language difference. My question is simply: is there an alignment with either of the chambers of this barrow here, the one in the Cotswolds?
Very, very true - I had to make a lot of sacrifices for the sake of fluent story-telling. I wonder if I shortened it too much. There is enough material for several hours, no joking.
How about we stop these archeologists from desecrating Graves, and digging people up.. This is a complete desecration .. What gives you the rest right... What gives you the right to desecrate sacred sites....
If there is still anything there it needs to stay there undisturbed. The ancient people made it and it belongs to those people that still might be there. Every time I see videos of these ancient barrows and cairns and learn they were dug up in our modern age and the bones were removed to be put in a shoe box stored in some basement somewhere or even worse I think is sad and our world loses more and more of our history. Leave the ancient dead alone.
Hi Mark. Your comment reminded me of a story in the book 'The Past is a Foreign Country' by Professor David Lowenthal. (Excellent book for anyone interested in the role of history in our lives. Highly recommended!). He told how a few generations ago scholars identified what they believed to be the oldest living tree in the UK. They cut it down to count the rings!
@@rossmacintosh5652 Thanks for the book notice. Also like the professor of Geography who went out and cut down a Bristle Cone Pine that was determined to be the oldest known tree at that time in the world.
@@marktapley7571 Mark, that may well have been the same story recounted by Professor Lowenthal in his book. Another one of his stories was about a grandfather riding the underground with his young grandson. While deep underground Gramps is overheard telling the boy "I remember when all this was fields" while pointing out the window. 🙄
@@rossmacintosh5652 Happily modern archaeology has also helped resurrect at least one tree sub species which was considered extinct "During 1963-1965, excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada, Israel revealed a cache of date palm seeds preserved in an ancient jar. They had experienced a very dry and sheltered environment for millennia. Radiocarbon dating at the University of Zurich confirmed the seeds dated from between 155 BC to 64 AD. The seeds were held in storage for 40 years...In 2005, a team of scientists sprouted a preserved 2,000-year-old seed, the oldest seed germinated with human-assistance." en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judean_date_palm
was just remarking to my wife - if this guy is a one man team, he's absolutely smashing it in terms of variation of cameras / shots / angles / takes and all the while managing to keep a constant line in delivery of narration. well bloody done.
And when it comes to moral build-me-ups, they don't come better than this - makes me re-double my effort! Thanks, mate, and happy holidays!
@@MattMesserPics you've done a great job with this one; really watchable, nice variations and a very strong message about preservation in tandem with archeological curiosity.
Delivered info w/o non essential dialogue. Great❤
What a fascinating film! I love the Saxon name, Beacon Hill, showing that, in Anglo-Saxon times, it was so completely disguised by the builders that no-one knew it was a burial site!
Thanks Anne! I just wanted to congratulate for this unusual insight when I realised the comment came from the very person who taught me 90% of what I know about the site. And so I feel I really ought to point everybody to "Exploring Belas Knap" by Anne Crow and encourage you all to visit the Winchcombe Museum (where you can pick up a copy) before you make your way up the hill to the long barrow!
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This is wonderful. Beautifully made documentary and fascinating subject matter. I look forward to more. Subscribed!
Yes, I do it mostly as a hobby and for my children - but it is comments like yours that give great joy and make me put in that little extra effort next time. And thanks for sticking up against that nasty fellow yesterday, much appreciated!
One of my favourite places. I first visited with my future husband as we walked the Cotswold way. We came back with our toddlers and teenagers with their friends. We shared what we knew and then walked them down into Winchcombe. Imagine how surprised I was to discover that my grandfather whom I never knew was actually born there. I'm sure my soul connected with the area as soon as I set foot on Belas Knap..Thank you for such an informative video
Thanks for that nice comment! I'm always glad to find people with an equally deep rooted love for the Cotswolds.
Don't know how I managed to miss this upload. It's very much improved my cold and rainy day. Thank you for your usual superb standard of information, presentation, filming and editing. Cheers!
And thanks for providing such a nice start of my Sunday! I'll do my best to keep them coming...
Brilliant little film, I know the area well from decades ago. You managed to capture the beauty and soft mystery of the area...
First time viewer. Watched the huffington horse episode and now this. Thank you. Very interesting.
And thank you for telling me! I'll try to keep them coming.
Haven't been there in years and always looked upon it as a bit of a false reconstruction but you've shone a new light on it, much appreciated.
Thanks, James!
Thank you Matthias! You are as good a story teller as a videographer. I hope you keep making more videos. I've subscribed and will be watching for them.
This one was so well put together I couldn't help but think the BBC should be embarrassed. When they try to tell a similar story they need a production staff of dozens of professionals. They'd get more done with their budgets if they redirected the funds as grants to capable content producers like you.
Thanks for those kind words - they really push me to try and do my best for the next ones! But I'm also beginning to get a bit scared about not living up to self set standards...
@@MattMesserPics I think the most important thing is that you have fun. You have the skills already, meaning you don't really need to push yourself to be better. Higher production values aren't necessary. I know we live in cultures that push us to be our best, as if it is a moral imperative. Seeking perfection is an unattainable goal. Just having fun is likely both easier & more sustainable.
@MattMesserPics here you go, let me see what I have in my pocket (sorts through odd bits of paper). Here we are. By the powers invested in me, I do hereby issue you the license to fail. You are hereby granted the right to produce a real clanger. (I give these out to writers in my group).
Not every video will be as good as these so far. Not every video HAS to be as good.
Carry on. You'll be fine.
Cheers, mate! You are so right, of course. I'll carry on then!
I love an old barrow such a pity that it lasted so long only to be looted by idiots just about the time when that sort of thing started to stop - I really enjoyed your video ty
Thanks!
my wife and I moved to the Cotsolds in 1972 and raised a family of five children. My eldest daughter lives near me in Stroud Gloucestershire now. I still love the area. I am 77 now.
Now that is interesting. I myself have five children and they all love the Cotswolds. We had to move away in 2020 - I now finally know what home-sickness is...Stroud is one of my favourite towns. Home to the start of the Thames and Severn Canal, one of my many obsessions with the area.
The vagaries of YT algorithms threw this into my "feed", and I'm glad they did. How fascinating! Very well written and presented! And yes, warrants a modern archaeological approach, perhaps with ground penetrating radar first. And of course, the genius of Stuart Ainsworth.
On a separate note, I'm always fascinated by all the stone walls lining the hedgerows and fields throughout the UK...I'm sure studies and analyses of many have been done, in terms of age and perhaps regional styles, etc., but I'm not aware of any. Where are the oldest walls? How many incorporate stone from Roman and Medieval buildings? What lies underground and adjacent to many of them? There was a Time Team episode where in a very short segment they looked at a wall that was re-using carved ecclesiastical Medieval stone, but they didn't talk about the age of the wall.
Thanks for that - kind comments like these give more joy than many people would imagine! GPR was one of the things I wanted to talk about - it might not be too successful in dense, wet soil - but I thought people would get bored if I rambled on and on...The scientist can easily get carried away...
@@MattMesserPics I think GPR is one of the most valuable tools available to an archaeologist today. I'm sure lots of your viewers would be interested!
Fascinating and elucidating, and at the same time both frightening and full of hope. The wreckers were here and they were butchers of the worst kind. Thank the Lord for the fine work of archaeologists such as Augustus Pitt Rivers, Sir William Flinders Petrie, Maud Cunnington, St. George Gray, Alexander Keiller, Stuart Piggott, Prof Richard Atkinson and Christopher Hawkes; some of the names belonging to later times I knew personally. Thank you Matthias for casting light upon a site I knew little about.
Thank you Frank for your kind words! I will be on the lookout for the names you mentioned on future projects.
@bina nocht Yes, no less than treasure hunters and ignorant robbers. The 1700s were the saddest times for our ancient monuments, the like of Dr. William Stukeley and a few others were like voices in the wilderness but they were to grow in number and the 1800s heralded a golden dawn..
Well done. Excellent presentation with fine overhead views via drone.
Thanks, and glad someone appreciates the drone stuff - it's so much work adding that to the whole process...
How lovely that you mentioned Stow on the Wold. I've only ever heard it mentioned in a story I read as a child. One of my favorite stories. It has nothing to do with the video but it has endeared me to your channel instantly. Cheers. Subscribing.
You need to visit the Cotswolds, then. You won't regret it.
But you may get so hooked that you won't leave anymore, so, careful! I actually stayed in a lovely airbnb place in Stow on the weekend I filmed the footage for this.
I'll do my best not to disappoint but it begins's to scare me a bit...
A couple of months ago l visited belas knap. What l find intriguing that the skeletons placed in the purpose built burial chamber were already quite old,leading me to believe somewhere nearby was a lesser burial chamber long since lost to time. I think the skeletons must have been of people of high importance to be remembered for so long before belas knap was built. Huge planning and energy reserves would have gone into building such a magnificent structure. The cotswolds still holds many neolithic secrets. Ground penetrative radar would be of great use in determining any hidden archaeological evidence. It says to me the skeletal remains were worshipped in some form of ceremony for over a thousand years. Clearly belas knap was a very deeply spiritual place.
The question of why there are so few individual remains in such an elaborate structure has been on my mind a lot while I was researching this. Thanks for bringing it up here!
Even growing up in Oddingley and Upton Snodsbury, and having grandparents in Wyre Piddle, Belas Knap is a bit of an odd name :)
I last visited at least 15 years ago. It's intriguing to think there could be more hidden beneath the surface.
Touché - You win hands down with Wyre Piddle. All joking aside, this is one of the reasons I love this country so much.
@@MattMesserPics There are also names like Temple Guiting, Lower Slaughter and Bamfurlong, the latter so bucolic Tolkien wrote it into the Shire.
I loved it, thank you! Have you done any more? If not, please do!
Thank you! Yes, I do intend to make them regularly - at least once a month. They are a lot of work (next to a full time job) and I can't promise that they'll all be as interesting as this one. Have a great holiday!
This is fascinating. Thank you.
And thanks a lot for enjoying it!
Thank you for telling their story!
Great show glad it came up this morning. Ground penetrating radar
Thanks! And very right you are!
Wonderful place , lots of atmosphere .
Gatherers and hunters didn't "spend every hour of every day frantically" looking for food!
Not every day and gatherers especially spent a few hours. Because they knew where everything grew and they had learned this as children with their mothers!
Newly subscribed and enjoying your page very much. Very informative and interesting video. Thank you Matthias.
Glad you like it, Jim, and thanks for telling me!
Brilliant work and hopefully one day we will know more 👍
Beautifully done, Matthias!
Thanks Ray!
Wonderful video and very interesting material. Definitely subscribed now and eagerly looking forward to more content. I also must confess, I have a deep desire to live in the Cotswolds. Family on my mother's side came from some obscure village there across the sea to what became North Carolina, then to Georgia and then Florida, almost 330 years ago. I harbor intense fascination for the geographic area but even more so for Neolithic history and envy you much, my friend. Greetings from North Florida and thanks again!
Thanks for the wonderful, long message! I have lived in the Cotswolds for (only) ten years and I have never felt as home-sick as I do now after leaving - and I HAVE moved a lot in my life. There's a bit more scientific stuff coming up next (archeologic dating) and I'm curious to see if that damages (or helps) my subscriber base. We'll see...
@@MattMesserPics if your new content is anywhere as well done as this video or your others so far I don't think you need worry about losing any viewers, Mr. Messer. Thanks again.
There is a similar slightly larger Barrow Burial site above Brynnau Gwynnion in Glamorgan South Wales, it is on the ridgeway route across the mountains above the Vale of Glamorgan, which was Ancient at the time of the Romans, there are Bluestones at a near area called Craig Las, also the name Winchcombe is from the Old Cymric Wynch Cwm which is probably the name of a River Valley, with white rapids, you ascertain that Belas is Saxon, Belas in old Cymric was a God, Beli in middle Cymric and Beli in modern Cymric, is the same, in Cornwall he was called Beli as well same in Cumbria, Knap is a place of rest, in old Cymric yr cnapyr same in modern cnapyr, the word is rarely used today but it was common in the middle ages.
Cnaps are usually very ancient Burial sites, what you say about the Victorians is very correct, they destroyed many ancient monuments, the most obvious that I have seen is on the Mountain above Cardiff at Gwaelod y Garth and Efail isaf where there were three Barrow Burial sites all aligned to the Belt of Sirius, they were all destroyed but can still be seen from below like little Pimples on top of the mountain.
We will lose much of the Ancient History especially in the Welsh Mountains to erosion and Marshy ground, there are a number of stone circles already gone below the ground, it is essential that the Monuments lower down the mountains and valleys all over Britain is at least noted down or looked after, but money is needed and that is in short supply.
Great programme and your calm words are so wonderful to hear.
Pob Hwyl.
Thanks very much indeed for that long and detailed comment. I've copy-pasted it into my research folder on Belas Knap and am digesting it now as I find the time. But one thing is certain: I will try to seek out the long barrow you wrote about. But there already I am struggling. Google maps shows me one on the other side of Bridgend at Tythegston, which can't be right. You wouldn't be able to find grid coordinates of some sort, by any chance?
Anyway, thanks again and I hope to continue delivering stuff you enjoy!
Simply an excellent presentation. Kudos.
Thanks! I'll do my best not to disappoint in the future - more science stuff coming up next, I'm afraid though...
Only 321 subscribers?!
While I disagree agree with your position on a few things, I do enjoy your film-making and narration. Excellent film. Pro. New subber.❤
Very kind, thanks! And I'm always happy to read criticism, by the way...
How is the ceiling on that interior built? Is it just small stones pressed into mortar and is that the original technique?
Hi Paul, No that is no where close to the original which was one (or perhaps a couple) huge slab(s) laid across the sarsens. Those had been completely destroyed by the victorian 'antiquarians'. So what we are looking at here is a concrete ceiling with bits of cotswold stone pressed into it from underneath - an upside-down crazy pavement, as it were. That was a design by Emma Dent's ( the then owner of Sudeley Castle) people. It does seem weird from today's point of view, but let's remember that it was Emma who had the horrible carnage, left behind by the 1860's excavators, turned back into something as close as the original as she could with the means available back then. Sorry about the long answer, but it was a good point you made there...
@@MattMesserPics That’s ok I was just curious because it didn’t seem like a technique they would have used in prehistory! Thanks for the explanation
@MattMesserPics carry on! I was going to ask the same question.
Have you been to the West Kennet Long Barrow?
More than enough of these graves have been emptied and catalogued over the years. Just leave them alone.
Absolutely fascinating story.. Glad I stumbled upon this video..
Thanks for that! I'll keep doing my best.
We have Beacon Hill park here in Victoria bc Canada. It was previously inhabited by early native civilization. It is on the southern most part of Vancouver Island. Protected area as burial sites are there as well. TFS .
I had never heard of this one!
I know Belas Knapp well from walking there as a teenager. It's amazing to think there might be more secrets hidden there. Could you ask one of the local Archaeological Societies to get involved?
As happens so often, this was a story that was intended as a mere commented country ramble but then grew and grew in my mind the more I researched and asked around. What made it into the video is only a fraction of what I found out and could have said. I feared it might bore people - attention span is so short on the internet...If you haven't done so in the past, you might want to consider seeing the nice team at the Winchcombe museum. It was talking to Anne Crow and reading her little book about Belas Knap that got me hooked...
@@MattMesserPics There are still some that like longer videos...and there are some wonderful documentaries to be had...so...could you make Belas Knap part 2 ?...subscribed
What holds the ceiling stones up @5:23 , ? just curious. Thank you.
It's a concrete ceiling with the stones set into it from underneath. The original Sarsens were lost in the Winterbotham carnage in the 1860s.
I remember Lawrence showed more than the number of chambers you have shown in your plan of the barrow? Nice circular unreconstructed (as far as I know) one - shame the capstones weren't drawn in on the figure I remember 😐 Fabulous bit of work this and thanks for doing it 😀 btw No such thing as anything about a long barrow being 'too long' for some of us nerds!
There is probably a lot of documentation I've never seen. My prime source was the museum in Winchcombe and the publications they pointed me to. If you are aware of more, I'd be very thankful for a link or two. Thanks for the nice comment!
I’m here and subbed! 🎉
First timer, *SUBBED!*
...And every nice comment like that is much appreciated!
Having worked with a lot of interments over my career, the accounts of "sitting" skeletons, unsupported by wrappings is very unlikely. And "elbows on its knees" is downright impossible.
According to Fred Simmons, the first person to slide into the north-west chamber, the skeletons had their backs against the wall and their legs flat on the floor.
@@AnneCrow-id8py Nothing but decayable tissue holds bones together. The issue is that in an open space with no support around the bones, as the body decayed, the ligaments holding the bones together would decay and vanish. The skull and mandible would separate and fall away separately . The shoulder structures would fall apart. Unless there was a remarkable alignment the spinal bones would collapse into a pile.
If a body is buried in an earth grave, then the soil will tend to maintain the bones in approximate anatomical positions. Though, if the bods is wrapped before it is buried, depending on practices like flexure, the bones will tend to slip and slide within the space provided by the wrappings as dictated by gravity. I've worked on many and the typical movie and fictional depictions have always irritated me because they are absurd.
That's an interesting point you make.
@@theeddorian I'm sure you are right; I am just repeating what an eye-witness said. Mr Simmons also said that their heads had fallen off and were lying all about the tomb, which agrees with what you say. It was Lauriston Winterbotham, the archaeologist, who said that he was absent when the north-east chamber was opened, and, when he arrived he saw that the falling in of the roof had crushed the skeletons flat and pressed the bones partially into the floor. However, he did arrive in time to dig out a perfect skull and to determine that the head had been kept erect initially by placing the index finger of each hand into the nostrils.
@@AnneCrow-id8py I wasn't trying to correct you or anything like that. I have worked on literally hundreds of interments. So the contrast between what I've seen and what I hear from histories can be really high. I honestly like to know what he actually saw, because I "know" there's a lot of imagination in the account as it stands.
I also love that beautiful child's voice singing...Can you please tell us any info on that recording?? Thank you ❤ i just love it.
The song is called 'Riverside' by Agnes Obel - Sung here by my 9 year-old daughter. Thanks for liking!
@MattMesserPics You know?!!! I almost asked if it was your own daughter?!!!!! Oh my word, she has such a beautiful way of singing, such command of her lovely sweet voice 💕❤️ !!! Wow. So I'll have to come across the pond to hear her otherwise?! Och...do please let me know, if she decides to sell recordings, digital or otherwise! God Bless, and thank you for your response. I'm blown away!! ☺️😘 And a HUGE thank you to her, for allowing you to include her ❤️
@MattMesserPics Thanks again..I just found it on YT, but, alas, it does have more magic when sung by your child. :) much more!!! Lol...my own daughters are adults now. 🫠
@@ShakesSphere Thanks so much for that - I'll let her know!! Typically for her age, she is a bit uncomfortable with her singing being out there in public, but at the same time, she is really proud about it. I confess that I sometime re-watch my own video again (is that called vanity-youtubing? 😂) just to hear her sing again in that passage under the shrubs.
By the way, she is also singin in the short video about Waterhatch mill.
Thanks again!
It looks like Bilbo Baggins house at Bag End.
I don't understand why the remains of our ancestors should be kept in museums after the analysis has been completed. They should be restored to their final resting place, hence the word "final". The lack of respect for the remains of human beings is ghastly.
I sympathise with what you say there, but, on the other hand, if those few bone fragments were not in museums, they would be (or soon would be) in private 'collections', treated with even less respect and ultimately lost. Human nature, I'm afraid...but, as a society I think we are getting better with these things.
What is the song played at the very beginning called, if I may ask?
It's Agnes Obel's song 'Riverside', sung by my daughter in her singing class
What is the name of the song at the beginning of the video?
Riverside, originally by Agnes Obel, re-interpreted by my daughter, who actually does a better job. But then, I would say that, of course.
@@MattMesserPicsThank you Mattias, yes she does a wonderful job of singing this song. Here was the first time I had heard it. Keep up the amazing work here. Regards, Steve
It would be interesting to see what a Ground Penetrating Radar could reveal.
This tale confirms for me my long-held belief that many of our Victorian forebears were destructive Visigoths of the worst kind. They had no respect for any artefact that bore no relationship to the over-vaunted Victorian era. Shocking people by-and-large!
Excellent little film.
Thanks, Jason!
Basically, a bunch of grave robbers disguised as "archaeololgists".
I don't think your over-the-top condemnation of those who entered the chamber150 years ago is of any worth, they were people of their time, we should be thankful, it's not been levelled and ploughed out as thousands of others have been because they were no more than an inconvenient bump in a field.
I'm sure someone mentioned that already, but isn't a ground penetrating radar the first thought for uncovering what lies there?
It certainly was what I had in my mind when I talked about NDT
Time to call in some geophysicists.
You got scared !
BRAVO@--Most Respectfully! LIDAR++? Will search what else you have pursued; please persist!
Good on Emma Dent 💜
Without her initiative, we'd be looking at a jumbled pile of stones today.
Do visit Avebury, Silbury Hill, West Kennet Long Barrow, Woodhenge, the Sanctuary, and ... there's another one too. Name escapes me... all within a 20 mile ramble.
I've been to Avebury and Silbury Hill - they used to be within an hour's drive of my home - so why have I missed West Kennet? I've made a note to go there soon, thanks a lot for pointing it out!
@MattMesserPics excellent question, as West Kennet is literally across the road from Silbury Hill.
I first visited Silbury Hill when it were brand new. Or so it seems now. I was allowed to climb to the top, at any rate.
Last time I was at the Barrow, someone was cleaning up a mess left by visitors. A puddle of wax, in fact, from a melted candle. I don't mind people visiting by candlelight, but always: take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints.
Empty crisp bags are disrespectful, but easy to pick up. Puddles of wax on rough stones is nasty.
I can count on you to ask people to be good.
For more info on the destruction ancient sacred sites try looking at Britain's Hidden History Ross channel, which is still going since we lost Ross recently
It is interesting to see many similarities to Japanese ancient burial sites.
What a shame that "archaeologists" of the time would use such destructive means to disturb a site which was undisturbed for so many thousands of years. I love traveling in the UK and exploring these sites, have not heard of this one.
And it is one of many, but definitely among the oldest we know of. Thanks for the long nice message and I definitely understand your passion for traveling in the UK!
What’s that music? the girl singing?
It's Riverside by Agnes Obel, sung by my daughter.
@@MattMesserPics Oh, it’s lovely.
More!!
Really interesting. I'm pretty sure they can learn a lot non invasively nowadays. That would be great, but it looks so butchered from its original form anyway, it would be horrible to make it any worse by digging it up more.
There they have rested for thousands of years and waiting to rest many more thousands of years watching us passing by in this history knowing that death maybe is eternal were they still rest. Thanks for the story Sir.👍
What a shame that the graves were pretty much robbed out. Hopefully there will be another tomb with intact skeletons and god knows what else
Time to fire up one of those fancy gadgets that use sonar or magnetic resonance or the like to find what is suggested - if it is there.
It would require the time and financing, though, but who knows, if enough people bring it to the attention of English Heritage...
Those Victorian butchers also destroyed many so called Roman architecture all over North America and Canada and gave untouched left over buildings the titles of court houses, libraries and parliament buildings.
Roman architecture in Canada?! Please elucidate!
How in the world is that flat ceiling held up!?
Concrete, I'm afraid, mate. The 1890s restauration...
Has anyone done a GPR survey to see if anything is beyond the false door?
Get Time Team on it with their deep earth radar scanner wotsits, they wouldn't do any unnecessary damage.
Modern studies of skeletal remains from other barrows suggest that the skeletons were often curated and were interred intermittently over many years. Though one recent dna study ( I only read it this year but forget where it was) found familial links between the skeletons suggesting a high status family? Again who knows.
Not all barrows were tombs. Many are just heaped stones. Supposed to be territorial markers which may have been part of those with bones in them
There is a lot more I could have said but left out because I feared it may bore people. Indeed, it is thought that the dead of Belas Knap were left to be 'de-fleshed' by nature before their bones were interred. The main chambers were in use for some 300 years between 6000 BCE and 5700 BCE, which we know from carbon dating done in the early 2000s. Whether there is enough DNA material in the few remaining fragments to examine family relations I cannot say - DNA breaks down rather quickly but then some extraordinary progress has been made in recent years...out of my depth there, really. So, anyway, thanks for those interesting points!
Knap is surely from the Welsh word Cnap. As in a ball game called Cnapan?
It certainly could. Could that mean 'lump of earth', in this case the barrow?
Huzzah for Emma Dent!
I can hear a fellow German in 0.01 second. Frohe weihnachten Matthew. 😁
I think I hear it as well. But I also see potential of a cousin to actor Roy Kinnear.
Years ago I read of a tomb penetrated with one small hole and a camera inserted. Now one could introduce a ‘waldo finger’ to take a scrape and leave. Let them get back to their long, dark tea-time of the soul.
Hmmm, I have a feeling that I might actually agree with you there, but you might want to elaborate a bit on that one...
excellent, subscribe!!
Thanks! Much appreciated!
I see the makings of a superstar here.
Beyond flattered...I'll do my best. Some scientific stuff coming up, I'm afraid - that might scare people off, we'll see...
Would you want someone to dig up your people, look what we found 🤯
No we should leave it alone it is a grave, and we should respect that persons resting place.
❤
😁
The bones are the home for the resting soul.
There were 20th century Philistines destroying important ancient archaeology during the time that I worked for the National Trust & Peak Park in the mid 1980's. Absolute criminal negligence & senseless destructions against our nations heritage that made educated men weep at the time, making me angry & saddened to this day.
I am shocked about this kind of thing having occurred until so recently - especially as you apparently have witnessed it from an inside point of view. All the more important that we advocate for "looking but not breaking", if you ask me...
@@MattMesserPics What I witnessed was wanton. Rival authorities holding differing opinions leading to the blaze' destruction of fascinatingly mysterious Neolithic irrigation works, a serpent mound & a pine plantation ploughed into a large settlement.
Looking forward to coming here to pay my respects to the ancestral peoples.
Yes, do go there - you will not be disappointed!
There is no such thing as a Stone Age, Bronze Age or other age. Gen 4:22 The Great, great, great grandson of Cain was “an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron”... meaning that iron and brass has been around before Noah and the Ark... what archeologists claim as Stone Age is simply some areas had the technology and some didn’t... just because technology was around doesn’t mean everyone had it equally. Groups that went off on their own and had catastrophes probably lost the technology and couldn’t get it back for a while. But iron and brass has been around almost as long as humans have been alive...
Actually there is no evidence to support your view. A book is not evidence just an account.
Remember that pottery is the first kiln product.
Have you checked your alignment?
I'm being a prat here, but today is midwinter solstice. I'm reading about tombs in Newgrange (Ireland), Maeshowe (Scotland), and Gavrinis (France). All aligned to let sunlight of solstice into the chamber.
Doubtful in this case, as the entrance was closed with stone.
At Newgrange- the opening was also closed but a narrow slit above the doorway allowed the light of the rising sun at the solstice to enter and illuminate the main chamber. Do a search online for the livestreaming of this event 2022.
@emcc8598 not finding much on Belas-Knap.
@@ImperialistRunningDo No for Newgrange
th-cam.com/video/_w-Pc76vDZU/w-d-xo.html
This years event was somewhat occluded by cloudy weather on the solstice
@emcc8598 I'm sorry. I am not communicating well. Probably because of the language difference.
My question is simply: is there an alignment with either of the chambers of this barrow here, the one in the Cotswolds?
Close a gate behind your back
I'm sure there are secretes in the graves today.
Ground radar !
Exactly!
From air looking at Beacon Hill ... it reminds me strongly of those 'hats' i seen in some depictions of Celtic warriors ...
there is far more than has been told.
Very, very true - I had to make a lot of sacrifices for the sake of fluent story-telling. I wonder if I shortened it too much. There is enough material for several hours, no joking.
💚🏜
So. No excavation?
We know what they contain. Bones. Leave it alone.
How about just leave it alone. Whatever happened to rest in peace?
call in the Time Team!
Archeologists AKA Grave Robbers and theives
How about we stop these archeologists from desecrating Graves, and digging people up..
This is a complete desecration ..
What gives you the rest right...
What gives you the right to desecrate sacred sites....
I agree with you. We should just leave them alone.
I have a spade. Lol . 😆 How do you know it's a sacred site until you look. Gimme a break.
The whole planet is a graveyard, ashes to ashes,dust to dust. The common soil we walk on was alive at one time.
If there is still anything there it needs to stay there undisturbed. The ancient people made it and it belongs to those people that still might be there. Every time I see videos of these ancient barrows and cairns and learn they were dug up in our modern age and the bones were removed to be put in a shoe box stored in some basement somewhere or even worse I think is sad and our world loses more and more of our history.
Leave the ancient dead alone.
YOU DON'T SEE IT? it's rght there, its the form of a giant arrowhead!
No. It's a shoe.
Typical British operation. Tear everything to pieces then “reconstruct” the site and claim it is ”original” like the rebuilt Stonehenge.
Fabricators
Hi Mark. Your comment reminded me of a story in the book 'The Past is a Foreign Country' by Professor David Lowenthal. (Excellent book for anyone interested in the role of history in our lives. Highly recommended!). He told how a few generations ago scholars identified what they believed to be the oldest living tree in the UK. They cut it down to count the rings!
@@rossmacintosh5652 Thanks for the book notice. Also like the professor of Geography who went out and cut down a Bristle Cone Pine that was determined to be the oldest known tree at that time in the world.
@@marktapley7571 Mark, that may well have been the same story recounted by Professor Lowenthal in his book. Another one of his stories was about a grandfather riding the underground with his young grandson. While deep underground Gramps is overheard telling the boy "I remember when all this was fields" while pointing out the window. 🙄
@@rossmacintosh5652 Happily modern archaeology has also helped resurrect at least one tree sub species which was considered extinct
"During 1963-1965, excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada, Israel revealed a cache of date palm seeds preserved in an ancient jar. They had experienced a very dry and sheltered environment for millennia. Radiocarbon dating at the University of Zurich confirmed the seeds dated from between 155 BC to 64 AD. The seeds were held in storage for 40 years...In 2005, a team of scientists sprouted a preserved 2,000-year-old seed, the oldest seed germinated with human-assistance."
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judean_date_palm
In 200 years we can do better than those 21st century butchers.