Wansdyke is one of the great linear, bank-and-ditch earthworks of England. From end to end it stretches 35 miles across Somerset and Wiltshire. Only the Devil's Dyke, near Newmarket, is higher. Archaeologists Sir Cyril and Lady Aileen Fox described it as 'a formidable barrier'. Yet it is not nearly as well known, for example, as that other great linear earthwork on the English-Welsh border, Offa's Dyke.This book seeks to bring Wansdyke into the spotlight, to describe this magnificent earthwork and examine the controversies about where it starts and finishes. The quest to understand Wansdyke has been a long one, and the attempts to decipher its secrets by antiquaries and archaeologists are chronicled. But Wansdyke does not give up its secrets easily. Only by putting it into its wider archaeological and historical context do we begin to move to a closer understanding of its origins.Packed with maps and photographs, this comprehensive study of the earthwork aims to stimulate the interest in the monument that it deserves and to encourage others to take up the Quest for Wansdyke!
Wansdyke is one of the great linear, bank-and-ditch earthworks of England. From end to end it stretches 35 miles across Somerset and Wiltshire. Only the Devil's Dyke, near Newmarket, is higher. Archaeologists Sir Cyril and Lady Aileen Fox described it as 'a formidable barrier'. Yet it is not nearly as well known, for example, as that other great linear earthwork on the English-Welsh border, Offa's Dyke.This book seeks to bring Wansdyke into the spotlight, to describe this magnificent earthwork and examine the controversies about where it starts and finishes. The quest to understand Wansdyke has been a long one, and the attempts to decipher its secrets by antiquaries and archaeologists are chronicled. But Wansdyke does not give up its secrets easily. Only by putting it into its wider archaeological and historical context do we begin to move to a closer understanding of its origins.Packed with maps and photographs, this comprehensive study of the earthwork aims to stimulate the interest in the monument that it deserves and to encourage others to take up the Quest for Wansdyke!
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