hagbard_celine
21-01-2008, 02:09 PM
http://www.offasdyke.demon.co.uk/
Offa's Dyke is a huge earthwork that runs along the Medieval border betweem Wales and England. It was named after an 8th Century king of Mercia, the land that today makes up the Welsh border country. It consists of a mound and ditch up to 8 feet high and 65 feet wide and 177 miles long.
Most archeologists believe it was built for a military purpose. It was a fortification to protect Mercia from the Welsh, or vice versa, but several question this. If it was built as a defence then where are the walls battlements? Surely they'd be there like Hadrian's Wall and the Great Wall of China. But there is no sign that any fortification was built on the dyke. Does anyone think that a hump in the ground would stop an army!?:eek: Also it runs right along the left bank of the river Wye, even where it dips into a 200-foot gorge. It wouldn't be necessary to have a fortification because the gorge itself would be defence enough.
So what is the dyke for? Nobody knows for sure, but my guess is that it was built out of cooperation between the English and Welsh, perhaps to simply mark where the border was.
I wonder what else in conventional historical "wisdom" is flawed too.
Offa's Dyke is a huge earthwork that runs along the Medieval border betweem Wales and England. It was named after an 8th Century king of Mercia, the land that today makes up the Welsh border country. It consists of a mound and ditch up to 8 feet high and 65 feet wide and 177 miles long.
Most archeologists believe it was built for a military purpose. It was a fortification to protect Mercia from the Welsh, or vice versa, but several question this. If it was built as a defence then where are the walls battlements? Surely they'd be there like Hadrian's Wall and the Great Wall of China. But there is no sign that any fortification was built on the dyke. Does anyone think that a hump in the ground would stop an army!?:eek: Also it runs right along the left bank of the river Wye, even where it dips into a 200-foot gorge. It wouldn't be necessary to have a fortification because the gorge itself would be defence enough.
So what is the dyke for? Nobody knows for sure, but my guess is that it was built out of cooperation between the English and Welsh, perhaps to simply mark where the border was.
I wonder what else in conventional historical "wisdom" is flawed too.