Short Friday Archaeology Blogging
Return to Stonehenge edition!

A few weeks back, we mentioned the new discoveries at the site of Stonehenge. Well, it turns out that the workers' village wasn't the only thing they discovered (and much thanks to Alison from Creekside for the heads-up on this one):

Wooden counterpart of Stonehenge found
Second temple seen as counterpart to famous monoliths

...

In a teleconference conducted by the National Geographic Society, Parker Pearson said a circle of ditches and earthen banks at Durrington Walls enclosed concentric rings of huge timber posts, "basically a wooden version of Stonehenge," he said.

So, why two henges? Well, Stonehenge itself (the famous one) was itself originally constructed of wood and earthworks, approximately 1,000 years before the immense stone blocks were brought in.


An early phase at Stonehenge

It is not a stretch to suppose that the construction of the stone structure would have interfered with any rituals that had to take place at the site, and I think it entirely possible that this wooden henge was meant as a temporary place of worship while Stonehenge was being "upgraded," as it were. This notion, however, presupposes that the wooden henge was contemporary with the importation of the stone blocks. If this is not the case, then it is entirely likely that there were actually two ritual sites in use at the same time at Stonehenge, and indeed there is no reason why there shouldn't have been. Anyway, the question cannot be answered without dating evidence, none of which has been forthcoming just yet.

Brief Friday Archaeology Blogging
Posted, as usual, on Saturday.



Village near Stonehenge was party central
By Thomas H. Maugh Ii
Los Angeles Times
(Feb 3, 2007)

Archaeologists working near Stonehenge have discovered what appears to be an ancient religious complex containing a treasure trove of artifacts that may finally illuminate the lives and religious practices of the people who built the mysterious monument 4,600 years ago.

The builders of Stonehenge are indeed mysterious. There has long been a misapprehension that the Celts built the monument, but it had in fact been there for about two thousand years before the Celts even arrived in Britain. They probably used Stonehenge, but whether they put it to the use its creators intended is unknowable. So who were these mysterious pre-Celtic Britons? Well, they were a late neolithic people (the neolithic period in Britain ran from about 5,500 B.C. to c. 2,500 B.C), who began to practise agriculture, albeit not terribly skillfully, in about 4,000 B.C. In addition to building Stonehenge, and a number of other "henges", they are also believed to have been responsible for a number of the gigantic carvings on chalk hills in the south of England, such as the White Horse of Uffington:



Beyond that, we really don't know much about them, or what became of them, so the discovery of the seasonal village near Stonehenge, apparently associated with rituals at the henge itself, could turn out to be very, very important. Encouragingly, the archaeologists have discovered a great number of small artifacts, which will aid greatly in establishing typologies for neolithic pottery, etc. In short, it's a big find, and one that archaeologists working in the field of neolithic studies should be very excited about.