Grounded: a journey through landscapes, sanctuaries and sacred places

James Canton started writing Grounded during the COVID pandemic when England was in Lockdown. Restricted in where he could travel he decided to explore some of the special sites close to home including landscapes and religious sites. The plan was to research what had made these sites special over a period of time and why some sites may no longer be considered significant. In England many of the churches have been built on the sites of earlier churches and in some cases on sites that were considered special before Christianity. Why were these sites chosen for religious buildings?

Once restrictions had been lifted he was able to travel further afield and visited locations in Wiltshire including West Kennet Long Barrow and Coneybury Hill (close to Stonehenge but in  use a thousand years earlier). What was the significance of these sites that thousands of years ago people had chosen the site to bury the dead or to share a celebration. How could you begin to visualise what people living up to 6,000 years ago saw around them.

The author then examined some recent finds that were probably votive offerings including the Garboldisham Macehead, antler bone axes and wooden carvings such as the Dagenham Idol. One of the author's conclusions is that to the hunter gatherers in England the most sacred places could be those connected to the living. He suggests that people today should not see themselves as separate from nature. It is not possible to see the world as people in the past saw it but it is still possible to view glimpses of their world and what it might have meant to them. Being aware of our environment, including special places, helps us to remain grounded.