Wooden posts...

Britain has a history of Wooden deities:
The Ballachulish figure is a roughly life-sized figure of a girl or goddess, carved from a single piece of alder, with pebbles for eyes. It was found during building work in November 1880, under deep peat. It was lying face down on the gravel of an old raised beach, around 120 metres from the shore of Loch Leven. It might originally have stood beside a pool. The figure has been radiocarbon-dated to around 600 BC
This figure...


...was found in 1880 in the Broddenberg Fen, near Viborg; he has no arms, only one and a bit legs. What matters, he has in abundance. He is oak and he has been shaped to enhance his masculinity.

He was found amongst a heap of stones in a bog, surrounded by pottery vessels which confirmed the date of his burial as Early Iron Age.

Sometimes a male and female figure are found, such as at Braak in Holstein.

Sometimes the figure is simplified to a massive cock.



In 1961 Harold Anderson investigated three sacrificial sites at Foerlev Nymolle. In each he found stones, potsherds and worked wood. In one of the sites he found stones gathered into a heap, and under them he found a cloven oak branch 9 ft in length. Her resting place had been marked by a bunch of flax placed on the heap of stones under which she was preserved by the bog water when not needed for feasts and rituals.

Around her were the bones of an ox, goat, sheep, dog, horse and hare, and a badly damaged human shoulder blade

Her gender was emphasised by a strong incision where the fork began, and the roundness of the hips was emphasised by cutting back the upper part of the legs.

Another goddess figure was revealed in 1946, found in a little bog near Rebild Skovhuse.

She was found wrapped in a large cloth, woven to protect her when she was not needed to represent the goddess herself.




Popular Posts