The death that greets at Butser

Haggard  skeleton;
Sockets deep;
Horns of plenty,
Decaying bone.
An Iron Age greeting?
Welcome talisman
Or deadly curse?
Dare I enter……?

I was privileged enough last weekend to visit the Iron Age replica settlement at Butser in Hampshire UK. The original farm was an archaeological experiment from the 1970s. It has now moved to a different site nearby where there are houses from Pre-Neolithic to Roman times some recreated from actual archaeological finds in Wessex, giving a living museum. They run various course throughout the year in skills used by our ancestors. I got to make felt for clothing and a friend learned to knapp stone tools. There are skulls above the doors of the neolithic houses. Probably the houses were built by a group and an animal killed for a feast on completion. The skull representing the animal spirit was put over the door maybe to ward off evil spirits.

Words and photo copyright Englepip©

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Daily Prompt: You would think there were giant skulls

Photo by Englepip©

You would think there were giant skulls

Awkwardly rising from the grassy edges of the field,

Combatants of Saxon times,

Reawakened by the late summer sun,

Reviving  to drink  afresh the air

Of  evening on the chalk Downland and

To  march again along the dusty ancient droves

To battle.

But if they are skulls, they are marred,

By scars cut deep into flesh and bone

Sores of ancient battle

As  warrior hacked warrior to the death.

But reality is equal to imagination

Both Exceptional

And the Giant Puffballs are a marvel of nature

Huge and resounding to the thrumming

Of your hand, like ancient drums

Yet also so delicious and nutritious  that

Even the snails have eaten through the flesh

and the deer  nibbled to the innards

Of this exceptional, gigantic, gastronomic delight.

 

via Daily Prompt: Exceptional