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- Oct 29, 2002
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I watched this wide-ranging and very interesting lecture as it was broadcast live last night:
This lecture explores how digital landscape modelling can help unlock the secrets of Britain’s ancient pathways. Focusing on “corpse roads”, pathways taken by coffin bearers over the countryside before the Enclosures, it discusses the significance of such routes, and how a mapped understanding of factors such as slope, elevation and distance can shed light on the stories behind them.
The topic is intimately linked with the topic of 'Corpse Candles', those candles being originally carried by the coffin bearers as they traced the aforementioned routes. These lights later took on a supernatural aspect and several beliefs and traditions arose about them:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/corpse-candles.47320/#post-1783505
There's much on graveyards, lay-lines, yew trees, lychgates, archaeology, cartography and traditional beliefs surrounding life and death.
The lecturer, Dr Stuart Dunn (KCL), is, alas, of the modern 'read aloud' school, but I can't fault either his research or his material.
Strongly recommended to those interested in British folklore.
This lecture explores how digital landscape modelling can help unlock the secrets of Britain’s ancient pathways. Focusing on “corpse roads”, pathways taken by coffin bearers over the countryside before the Enclosures, it discusses the significance of such routes, and how a mapped understanding of factors such as slope, elevation and distance can shed light on the stories behind them.
The topic is intimately linked with the topic of 'Corpse Candles', those candles being originally carried by the coffin bearers as they traced the aforementioned routes. These lights later took on a supernatural aspect and several beliefs and traditions arose about them:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/corpse-candles.47320/#post-1783505
There's much on graveyards, lay-lines, yew trees, lychgates, archaeology, cartography and traditional beliefs surrounding life and death.
The lecturer, Dr Stuart Dunn (KCL), is, alas, of the modern 'read aloud' school, but I can't fault either his research or his material.
Strongly recommended to those interested in British folklore.