Tag: Druids

  • Early archaeology in Wales: the ‘Precambrian’ era

    Early archaeology in Wales: the ‘Precambrian’ era

    The Cambrian Archaeological Association, established in 1847, was the first society devoted to the study of archaeology of Wales. This piece aims to tell the story of archaeology before that date. Archaeology, in the sense of the systematic study of the material remains of prehistoric and early historic times, can hardly be said to have…

  • The Last Bard: loops of an invented tradition

    The Last Bard: loops of an invented tradition

    By now the ‘invented tradition’ is itself a tradition.  Since Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger published their edited collection The invention of tradition in 1983, we’ve become familiar with the idea that rituals, histories and beliefs that seem age-old were actually recent fictions devised with specific purposes in mind. One of the chapters in The…