Stonehenge a New Understanding (62 page)

Read Stonehenge a New Understanding Online

Authors: Mike Parker Pearson

Tags: #Social Science, #Archaeology

Whittle, A. W. R., R. J. C. Atkinson, R. Chambers, and N. Thomas. 1992. Excavations in the Neolithic and Bronze Age complex at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, 1947–1952 and 1981.
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
58: 143–201.

Whittle, A. W. R., A. Barclay, A. Bayliss, L. McFadyen, R. Schulting, and M. Wysocki. 2007. Building for the dead: events, processes and changing worldviews from the thirty-eighth to the thirty-fourth centuries cal. BC in southern Britain.
Cambridge Archaeological Journal
17 (Suppl.): 123–47.

Whittle, A. W. R., J. Pollard, and C. Grigson. 1999.
The Harmony of Symbols: the Windmill Hill causewayed enclosure
. Oxford: Oxbow.

Wikipedia. 2010. London Stone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Stone

Wikipedia. 2010. Rudston monolith.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudston_Monolith

Williams-Thorpe, O., C. P. Green, and J. D. Scourse. 1997. The Stonehenge bluestones: discussion. In B. Cunliffe and C. Renfrew (eds)
Science and Stonehenge
. London: British Academy & Oxford University Press. 315–18.

Williams-Thorpe, O., M. C. Jones, P. J. Potts, and P. C.Webb. 2006. Preseli dolerite bluestones: ax-heads, Stonehenge monoliths, and outcrop sources.
Oxford Journal of Archaeology
25: 29–46.

Woodward, A. B. and P. J. Woodward. 1996. The topography of some barrow cemeteries in Bronze Age Wessex.
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
62: 275–92.

Woodward, P. J., S. M. Davies, and A. H. Graham. 1993.
Excavations at Greyhound Yard, Dorchester 1981–4
. Dorchester: Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society Monograph 12.

Wright, N. 2007.
Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain
(ed. Michael D. Reeve). An edition and translation of
De gestis Britonum [Historia regum Britanniae
]. (Arthurian Studies 69.) Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.

Yates, D. T. 2007.
Land, Power and Prestige: Bronze Age field systems in southern England
. Oxford: Oxbow.

Young, W. E. V. 1935a.
Leaves from My Journal VII
. Manuscript diary, Library of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (Devizes).

Young, W. E. V. 1935b. The Stonehenge car park excavation, 1935.
Leaves from My Journal VII
. Manuscript diary, Library of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (Devizes).

Zvelebil, M. and P. Pettitt. 2008. Human condition, life and death at an Early Neolithic settlement: bioarchaeological analyses of the Vedrovice cemetery and their biosocial implications for the spread of agriculture in central Europe.
Anthropologie
46: 195–218.

ILLUSTRATIONS
__________
Color Plates

1.
Our 2008 excavation of Aubrey Hole 7 recovered the cremated bones of about sixty people buried within Stonehenge more than four thousand years ago. © Aerial-Cam

2.
The 26.6 square kilometers of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, including Durrington Walls, Stonehenge, and other Neolithic sites. Clusters of Early Bronze Age barrows encircle Stonehenge. Reconstruction drawing by Peter Dunn, © English Heritage

3.
Stonehenge without the tourists. © Aerial-Cam

4.
Sunset through sarsen stones 1 and 30. These form the northeast entrance to Stonehenge, leading to and from the avenue. © Aerial-Cam

5.
Reconstruction of Stonehenge Stage 1. © Peter Dunn

6.
Reconstruction of Stonehenge Stage 3. © Peter Dunn

7.
Colin Richards (center top) excavating one of the Neolithic houses at Durrington Walls. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

8.
Trenches around the east entrance of Durrington Walls revealed Neolithic houses (foreground) and the avenue running from the river (visible in the far trench). © Aerial-Cam

9.
The Durrington Walls Avenue had a surface of broken flint (darker area in center), flanked by chalk banks. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

10.
Reconstruction of the Southern Circle at Durrington Walls. It is likely to date to the same time as Stonehenge’s sarsen circle and trilithons (Stage 2). © Peter Dunn

11.
The Southern Circle as rebuilt at North Newnton, Wiltshire, in 2006 by
Time Team
. © Julian Thomas and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

12.
Reconstruction of the Durrington Walls Avenue and surrounding houses. © Peter Dunn

13.
Reconstruction of the Western Enclosure at the center of the Durrington Walls village. © Peter Dunn

14.
Reconstruction of the Neolithic village of Durrington Walls before the building of the henge bank and ditch. © Peter Dunn

15.
Reconstruction of the Durrington Walls henge ditch and bank. © Peter Dunn

16.
The discovery of an antler pick at the bottom of the Greater Cursus ditch. This helped us to place the Cursus in the same date range as the Lesser Cursus. © Julian Thomas and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

17.
The Cuckoo Stone, near Woodhenge, was erected east of the Cursus. © Aerial-Cam

18.
The Food Vessel burial under excavation at Bulford. This multiple burial, close to the standing stone, contained many grave goods. © Colin Richards and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

19.
At Woodhenge, Josh Pollard discovered that a stone “cove” once stood in the southern part of the site after the timber posts had decayed. © Aerial-Cam

20.
Excavations at Durrington Walls (center and right) and south of Woodhenge (bottom left). © Colin Richards and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

21.
The remains of a Late Neolithic timber tower overlooking the River Avon, south of Woodhenge. It was subsequently disturbed by the building of an Early Bronze Age barrow. © Aerial-Cam

22.
The completion of the excavation of Aubrey Hole 7. © Aerial-Cam

23.
Reconstruction of Bluestonehenge at West Amesbury, on the west bank of the River Avon. © Peter Dunn

24.
Reconstruction of the Stonehenge Avenue reaching the West Amesbury henge after removal of the bluestones and construction of a henge ditch and bank. © Peter Dunn

25.
The busy moments of an excavation. This is Bluestonehenge in 2009. © Aerial-Cam

26.
The periglacial stripes and chalk ridges revealed in our excavation across the avenue close to Stonehenge in 2008. © Aerial-Cam

27.
Colin Richards (left) and Andrew Chamberlain at the closed chamber tomb, or cromlech, of Carreg Samson in west Wales. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

28.
At Craig Rhosyfelin we found the first clear evidence of bluestone quarrying. The monolith (lower right) left behind in the quarry was detached by prehistoric stoneworkers from the outcrop (behind where Ben Chan and I are standing); they then moved the monolith from the rock face along stone rails on which it still rests. © Aerial-Cam

Black & White Illustrations

Chapter 1

p.
17
Reconstruction of a Neolithic house of the fourth millennium BC. From Parker Pearson “Bronze Age Britain” figure 35. Reconstruction drawing by Peter Dunn, © English Heritage

p.
22
A pair of Neolithic stone axes from the quarries at Langdale in the Lake District.These polished axes are nearly a foot long. While some axes were used for practical purposes, others show no signs of wear, so appear to have had a ritual or symbolic value. © National Museums of Scotland

p.
24
Map of Avebury, Stonehenge, and Preseli, with other henge complexes and related Neolithic sites. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

Chapter 2

p.
28
Plan of Stonehenge, showing the ditch, bank, Station Stones, and avenue. © English Heritage

p.
29
Plan of Stonehenge, showing the numbering of the bluestones and sarsens. © English Heritage

p.
30
Plan of Stonehenge Stage 1 (3000–2920 BC), showing the Aubrey Holes and postholes inside the ditch and bank. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

p.
31
Plan of Stonehenge Stage 2 (2680–2470 BC), showing the sarsen circle and the Q & R Holes. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

p.
32
Plan of Stonehenge Stage 3 (2620–2480 BC), showing the avenue and the rearranged bluestones. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

p.
33
Plan of Stonehenge Stage 4 (2280–1980 BC), showing the bluestone oval and circle. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

p.
34
Plan of Stonehenge Stage 5 (2280–2020 BC), showing the Y & Z Holes. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

p.
36
Professor William Gowland (kneeling center) supervising excavations at Stonehenge in 1901. © English Heritage

p.
37
Colonel William Hawley (seated right) with his team of workmen at Stonehenge in 1919. © English Heritage

p.
41
Professor Richard Atkinson (kneeling center) supervising the re-erection of Stone 53 at Stonehenge in 1964; Professor Stuart Piggott is standing fourth from the left. Reproduced by permission of English Heritage

p.
44
Schematic plan of astronomical alignments at Stonehenge—Stage 1 (3000–2920 BC). The post settings in the northeast entrance were aligned approximately on the northern major moonrise; Stone 97 provided a sightline from the center of the circle to the midsummer solstice sunrise. Together with Stones B and C, it provided an approximate alignment approximately on the northern major moonrise. Some of the post settings in the center of the circular enclosure were aligned approximately on the southern major moonrise to the southeast. The area shaded gray shows the range of moonrise (east) and moonset (west) at major standstill. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project. After Richards (2007)

p.
47
Plan of astronomical alignments at Stonehenge—Stage 2 (2620–2480 BC). The axis of midwinter sunset/midsummer sunrise was marked by the great trilithon within the sarsen circle. The Station Stones also provided an alignment on this solstice axis as well as a further approximate alignment with the southern major moonrise and northern major moonset. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project. After Ruggles (1997) and Richards (2007)

Chapter 3

p.
53
The interior of House 7 in the stone-built Neolithic village at Skara Brae, showing the stone dresser and central hearth. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

p.
54
Peterborough Ware was a style of Middle Neolithic pottery used throughout most of Britain in 3400–2600 BC. © Julian Thomas and Routledge

p.
55
Grooved Ware was a style of Late Neolithic pottery used throughout Britain in 2800–2200 BC, probably originating in Orkney around 3200 BC. It is the style of pottery used at the Neolithic village of Durrington Walls. © Julian Thomas and Routledge

p.
57
A plan of Durrington Walls showing the bank of the River Avon (right), the avenue leading through the ditch and bank from the Southern Circle, the Western Enclosures (center left) and the positions of some of our trenches. Woodhenge is the much smaller monument at the bottom. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

p.
60
The Avebury stone circles and henge (center rear) were part of a complex ceremonial landscape that included Silbury Hill (left) and the West Kennet palisaded enclosures (foreground). From Whittle “Sacred Mound, Holy Rings: Silbury Hill and the West Kennet Palisade Enclosures: A later Neoplithic Complex in North Wiltshire” figure 87. © Oxbow Books

p.
63
A pit excavated in 2004 at Durrington Walls. It contained animal bones that are the remains of feasting, as well as flint tools, pottery, and a human femur. The black and white photographic rods are used to indicate scale. © Julian Thomas and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

p.
64
The fragment of human femur from the pit shown in the previous figure. Note the impact scar in the center of the bone (below the three centimeter mark in the scale) caused by a flint arrowhead. © Aerial-Cam

p.
65
A chisel arrowhead from Bluestonehenge. This type of arrowhead was in use in the Middle Neolithic (3400–2600 BC). © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

p.
67
An oblique arrowhead from the ditch of the Stonehenge Avenue. This type of arrowhead was in use in the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic (2600–2200 BC). © Aerial-Cam

p.
68
The flint phallus (and two flint balls) from a pit beneath the avenue at Durrington Walls. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

Chapter 4

p.
73
The floor of House 547 at Durrington Walls. The white rectangular area is the chalk-plaster floor in the center of the house. Within it, the dark circular area is the hearth. A line of stakeholes, showing where the wattle-and-daub wall once stood, surrounds the house. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

p.
75
The remains of four Late Neolithic houses are visible in this main trench at Durrington Walls. I am standing outside the doorway of one of the houses in an area of midden (heaps of domestic garbage). © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project

p.
78
A plan of the excavation trenches at Durrington Walls, showing some of the house floors and their hearths. The inset (top left) shows the position of the trenches in relation to the henge bank, the river, and the modern roads. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project, drawn by Mark Dover

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