Lligwy Burial Chamber - Neolithic

 

The Huge capstone estimated to weight around 25 tonnes is supported by 8 side stones of locally occurring limestone. Described in 1781 and excavated in 1909, it contained numerous Neolithic flints and pots, along with the remains of 15-30 people including children. The Possible East, West and South alignment of stones suggest astronomical purposes
The pottery included Grooved Ware and Beaker suggests a later Neolithic date but could have been placed there at the end of the tombs life as a burial place . Grooved Ware is thought to have originated on Orkney and is often associated with ritual sites

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Cambriae Typus

Welsh History: Cambriae Typus (below)
Cambriae Typus, the "model image of Wales", is the earliest published map of Wales as a separate region from the rest of Great Britain. Made by Elizabethan polymath Humphrey Llwyd in 1573, the map shows Wales stretching to the River Severn, including large areas of what is now England.
Publication ...
Humphrey Llwyd (1527–1568), a Welsh historian, physician and politician, though not a professional surveyor, began work on the Cambriae Typus late in his life. In a letter shortly before his death he sent the manuscript of the map to Abraham Ortelius, who published it in the 1573 Additamentum to the 1570 publication of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. The map was titled Cambriae Typus. The map of Wales appeared alongside a joint map of Wales and England, also by Llwyd. Cambriae Typus was subsequently revised and used in the Mercator atlas of 1607 and in later atlases.
Specifications
The original four-sheet manuscript of the map has now been lost, but original prints from Theatrum Orbis Terrarum still survive. Although often described as a 1573 publication, the National Library of Wales, which owns an original print of the map, place a tentative date of 1574 to the work. The original print of the map was 47.2 by 34.7cm, using Ortelius typeface. The scale was set at ca.1:520,000.
Features
Cambriae Typus is the first printed map to show Wales as a separate region. The map itself is a weak representation of the country, even for its time, with multiple inaccuracies that did not exist in contemporary maps. It has been suggested that the poor delineation of the coastline may be due to a mistake made by Ortelius in transferring the original or that Llwyd had based the original on an earlier inaccurate map.
Location names on the front of the map are given in Latin, English and Welsh, while the back side contains the equivalent text in German. Various features depicted on the map include a divider caliper in the lower left-hand corner, a cartouche, a sailing ship in Cardigan Bay, as well as a sea monster in the Irish Sea off the coast of Pembrokeshire. The map has a decorative border.
In total five revisions were made to Llwyd's map, including a copper etching by Peter Kaerius, published by Jodocus Hondius in 1603. This version retained the original features of the map, but the additional graphics were changed. In the 1603 print the dividers were replaced by a quarter compass radiating lines out across the Irish Sea, the cartouche was enlarged; while the original ship and seas monster were removed and replaced by two different versions of each. A 1612 version had a stronger more defined coastal outline based on the original, with a further edition using the same improved coastal outline on Hondius' map.
The map shows Wales stretching to the River Severn, land which is now part of England. This was because Llwyd was making a cultural and historical map, rather than one that showed the political situation of the time.

- Wales ~ Land Of My Fathers. <3

 

 

 

Welsh connections to The Gunpowder Plot of 1605;

 

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group Catholics led by Robert Catesby. The plan was to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of England's Parliament on 5th November 1605. The plot was revealed to the authorities in an anonymous letter and during a search, Guy Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder—enough to reduce the House of Lords to rubble—and arrested. He was sentenced along with seven other conspiritors to be hanged, drawn and quartered....
* Welsh spymaster Hugh Owen ( 1538 - 1618 ) who had dedicated his life to overthrowing the Protestant Order and to restore the Church of Rome to England and Wales is regarded by many as being the mastermind behind the Gunpowder Plot. He also helped plan the Spanish Armada and was involved in plots on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, after which he had fled, firstly to Oswestry, then via Spain to Brussels, where he advised the Netherlands government on English affairs, frequently using Welsh in his secret correspondence. He made several journeys to Italy, Spain and France and maintained a succession of secret agents in England, and used Welshmen in the English regiments in Flanders for information and keeping in touch with Welsh affairs .
It is thought that it was Owen who originally introduced Guy Fawkes to the other conspirators, when Fawkes acted as a servant to him during his time in Brussels and if the plot had been successful, it was Owen who would have organised continental reaction. Owen was also named in Fawkes' trial as the man ‘whose finger hath been in every treason which hath been of late years detected’. Owen himself escaped retribution, operating from the comparatively safe haven of Catholic Europe. Despite many assassination attempts mounted against him by Elizabeth’s agents, including Sir Francis Drake and regular demands from the English government for his extradition, which were consistently repulsed, Owen died peacefully of old age in Rome,
* Father Robert Jones who resided at the Jesuits' South Wales Mission "Cwm" in Llanrothal, Herefordshire, was implicated in an attempt to save two of the Gunpowder Plot perpetrators.See more

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Leeks and the Welsh……………

Welsh Traditions: Leeks
The leek is one of the national emblems of Wales, worn by Welsh citizens on St. David's Day and it is still tradition for soldiers in the Welsh regiments to eat a raw leek on St. David's Day. According to legend, K...ing Cadwallader ordered his Welsh soldiers to identify themselves by wearing the vegetable on their helmets in an ancient battle against the Saxons. Another version refers to the Battle of Agincourt, where the leeks in their caps are said to have distinguished the Welsh archers from their enemies when they fought with Henry V against the French.See more

‘Nos Calan Gauaf,

All Hallows eve is by the Welsh called ‘Nos Calan Gauaf,’ meaning ‘the first night of winter;’ sometimes, ‘Nos Cyn Gauaf,’ the ‘night before winter.’ It is one of the ‘Teir Nos Ysprydnos,’ or ‘three nights for spirits,’ upon which ghosts walk, fairies are abroad, mysterious influences are in the air, strange sights are seen, and in short goblins of every sort are to be with special freedom encountered. They may be conjured to appear, by certain enchantments, and to give their visitors glimpses of the future, especially as regards the subject of marrying. On this night it is customary for the [281] young people, gathered in many a merry circle, to seek by tricks and charms of various sort to become acquainted with their future lovers and sweethearts. Not that it is always necessary to employ such aids, for on the Teir Nos Ysprydnos the phantoms of future companions have been known to appear unsummoned. There are many such stories as that of Thomas... Williams, the preacher, who slept in the hills on a Nos Ysprydnos, and although he used no charms nor tricks of any sort, he saw his future wife. As he was just about putting out his light, having jumped into bed, the door opened and the goblin mother of the young woman he subsequently married walked into the room, leading her daughter. ‘Here, Thomas,’ said she, ‘I am going, but I leave you Mary.’ And when he came down home out of the mountains he found that the old mother had died in her bed at the very moment he saw her goblin. To have done less than marry the girl, after that, would have been to insult the good old lady’s ghost, and cast reflections on the reputation of All Hallows eve.
WELSH FOLK-LORE, FAIRY MYTHOLOGY,
LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS. WIRT SIKES,page 281See

Link to the Welsh Osprey Proect-Please check it out!

http://www.dyfiospreyproject.com/history-of-british-ospreys/welsh-ospreys