That's Sarah's work of what date? Some archaeologists shifted their opinion after the appearance of Harrow, Journal of the English Place-Name Society, 42 (2010), 43-62.
Keith
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From: The English Place-Name List [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Bob Trubshaw [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 06 November 2016 09:51
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Subject: hearg, nemeton and ??
Trying to combine Sarah Semple's work on 'harrows' (hearg) with some of the place-name evidence.
Semple notes that typical archaeological evidence from hearg sites indicates early Anglo-Saxon, Roman and Iron Age 'ritual activities' but, crucially, no settlement evidence from these eras.
As such some (at least) of the hearg sites may have been referred to as a nemeton in previous centuries.
But I'm struggling to come up with any plausible words in Celtic/Brythonic for such 'ritual sites'. A quick reread of Celtic Voices, English Places hasn't offered any help and I don't have access to more specialist sources. Anyone willing to venture some suggestions as to what nemeta might have been called before they were called nemeta?? e.g. any compounds of coed which might denote a 'sacred grove'??? My suspicion is that whatever such word(s) might have been they rarely survive in place-names because of the absence of habitation at such locations (at least until the mid-Saxon period or later).
Thanks
Bob Trubshaw
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