| Oddendale | |
|---|---|
 Oddendale hamlet | |
| OS grid reference | NY593133 |
| Civil parish | |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | PENRITH |
| Postcode district | CA10 |
| Dialling code | 01931 |
| Police | Cumbria |
| Fire | Cumbria |
| Ambulance | North West |
| UK Parliament | |
Oddendale is a hamlet in Cumbria, England, near the large village of Shap. For transport there is the M6 motorway and the A6 road.
Oddendale has a stone circle nearby, (grid reference NY59201290 ), part of the complex of cairns, stone circles and standing stones that includes the 'Shap Stone Avenue' of monuments. [1] The site has benefitted from an extensive and relatively recent (1997) excavation [2] that revealed various stages in the monument's history: firstly, two concentric circles of oak wooden posts (dating to the Neolithic, c. 2,872–2,350 BC); followed by their removal and replacement with stone cappings of pink granite; followed by an Early Bronze Age ring cairn built over the inner circle surfaced with blue/gray stones and yellow/white pieces of flat limestone, with cremated bone, pottery and other 'token' grave goods; and then a fourth stage which saw the addition of a pink granite platform on to the side of the cairn, which itself had a kerb of red stones around it. [3]
The colouring of the stones may have had ritualistic significance. The replacement of the wooden circles by stone ones is a feature shared with some other monuments and may represent the replacement of concern for the living (and the Sun) by devotion to the dead (and the Moon or Sunset). [4]
A second circle and ring cairn was excavated not far away at grid reference NY59031352 . [5]
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