Talk:Bryher Woman

Images

File:Samson Hill, Bryher - geograph.org.uk - 2172450.jpg

Very interesting article! I wonder if we could add some images to illustrate it. c:Category:Bryher, Isles of Scilly has a lot on offer, perhaps there are photos of the site. Fortunately most photos have coordinates.

First we need to locate it. a potato-field at Hillside Farm is our first clue. Google maps puts https://goo.gl/maps/9usZFMNHZmEaJmsi8 Hillside Farm at 49°57'08.7"N 6°21'18.4"W. The map on page 6, Figure 4 in Charles Johns 2002 paper indicates a location just southeast of it, on the foots of Samson Hill. Interestingly, Google Maps has a 360 degrees photograph of a location around there, showing a heap of stones overgrown with grass and small bushes (April 2019), though satellite imagery makes it look more like a site with stones which has been partially deliberately cleared of vegetation. This is at 49°57'07.7"N 6°21'17.0"W. It looks quite a lot like photograph in The Guardian with the caption: Capstones at the Bryher burial site, which was discovered in 1999. Photograph: © Isles of Scilly Museum Association. Though I'm not quite sure. Perhaps these stones have not remained uncovered, but were buried again for better conservation?

What I am quite sure of is that File:Hell Bay Hotel - geograph.org.uk - 3241807.jpg was taken very close to this site. Camera location: 49° 57′ 07.2″ N, 6° 21′ 17.4″ W. If we turn out Google Maps 360 degrees photograph around, we can almost perfectly match it. But, we're not sure if these are the same stones as seen in The Guardian. Do the 2 stones in the front represent the site where Bryher Woman was found? I don't know.

File:Ruby Red Devon cattle on Bryher.jpg is the only photo which says it might be taken at Hillside Farm: The cattle are from Hillside Farm. But it's not really illustrative. Other than that, we've got some pictures of Samson Hill like File:Samson Hill, Bryher - geograph.org.uk - 2172450.jpg, but we can't really use it, because we don't know which part of the hill we're look at, and from which angle. I'm just an amateur trying to figure this out, so if anyone knows better, I stand to be corrected. Cheers, Nederlandse Leeuw (talk) 19:43, 27 July 2023 (UTC)

On closer inspection, the site must be much further south, roughly around 49°56'53.8"N 6°21'14.7"W. To be exact, according to Johns 2002: The sword and mirror burial site is situated on Hillside Farm, towards the southern end of Bryher, just below the 10m contour line at the base of the north-facing slope of Samson Hill (SV 8774 1441). In that case, File:Samson Hill, Bryher - geograph.org.uk - 2172450.jpg probably serves as the best general illustration of the site: the slopes of Samson Hill. It looks like we don't have the actual site in any of our Commons photographs, but at least this is an approximation. Cheers, Nederlandse Leeuw (talk) 20:51, 27 July 2023 (UTC)

This photo shows the east of Samson Hill, taken from in between Heathy Hill and Samson Hill. The side to the north is more cultivated.

I think you are one field over to the east with your estimate: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1017089?section=official-list-entry shows a map of the site and field boundaries towards the bottom of the page.

I've uploaded an image of the field in question: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cist_site_north_of_Samson_Hill,_Bryher.jpg taken from the western hedge line looking into the field in question. Unfortunately there is not much of interest on the surface. Second image on https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-66314179 (a cursory look didn't find the image on Historic England) shows that the cist was entirely underground, and a note in the Isles of Scilly Museum mentioned it was reburied, don't have a digital source for that though. Cloanthus (talk) 12:23, 28 July 2023 (UTC)