Stonehenge 'party village' unearthed in Wiltshire

January 30, 2007

Times Online January 30, 2007 Archeologists have found the village where the builders of Stonehenge lived and partied (AP) Stonehenge 'party village' unearthed in WiltshireMark Bridge Archaeologists have unearthed remains of a huge ancient settlement that they believe housed the hundreds of construction workers needed to build nearby Stonehenge. Piles of

animal bones found at the Neolithic village in Wiltshire, the largest of its kind ever found in Britain, suggest it was also the place to go for a lavish feast, featuring spit-roast pork and beef. "We’re talking Britain’s first free festival. It’s part of attracting a labour force – throwing a big party," Professor Mike Parker Pearson, of the University of Sheffield, lead archaeologist, told Times Online. He said that the village’s Neolithic inhabitants – who he believes are likely to be among the ancestors of modern Britons – were not primitive "cave men". They were well-dressed in "smarter than you'd imagine" leather clothing and capable of enormous feats of engineering – notably the transport of the huge stones of Stonehenge 240 miles from Wales's Preseli Mountains to Salisbury Plain. The excavations have unearthed hundreds of well-preserved houses with imprints of beds and wooden dressers still present on the

clay floors. The finds were made at Durrington Walls, less than two miles from Stonehenge, where a second massive monument – a circle of huge timber posts more than a thousand feet across – once stood. Magnetic scans of the area revealed that the valley at Durrington Walls was densely populated. Experts had never before found evidence of human habitation near Stonehenge. The houses have been radiocarbon dated to 2600-2500 BC, the same period Stonehenge was built. They were 16-foot square, and made of wood, with a clay floor and central hearth. The team also excavated a paved avenue between Durrington Walls’s timber circle and the River Avon. The 90-foot wide pathway mirrors one that links Stonehenge with the same river. But while Stonehenge’s avenue is lined up with the midsummer solstice sunrise, Durrington’s is aligned with that day’s sunset. Similarly, where Stonehenge’s giant markers

frame the midwinter sunset, Durrington’s timber posts would have given Neolithic people a perfect view of the sun rising on the same day. Professor Parker Pearson says that the discoveries help confirm a theory that Stonehenge did not stand in isolation but was part of a much larger religious complex used for funerary ritual. He now thinks that Neolithic people would come to Durrington from across southern Britain to celebrate life before depositing their dead in the River Avon for transport to the afterlife.Durrington’s avenue leads directly to a cliff from which, he says, mourners may have thrown entire bodies or scattered ashes into the water. Large amounts of animal bone and pottery found at the site, in quantities that dwarf finds of the same period elsewhere in Britain, indicate that Durrington was the site of epic feasts. Pig teeth show that the animals eaten there were slaughtered at the age of nine months, suggesting that the parties were held in midwinter. The team think that people moved along "Stonehenge Avenue" to the second monument after feasting to cremate and bury a select few of their dead. In contrast to Durrington, Stonehenge was a place for these people, who worshipped their ancestors, to commune with the spirits of those who had died, said the team. Professor Parker Pearson believes that Durrington Walls was built in wood because it was deliberately intended to rot away, while stone was chosen for Stonehenge as a lasting monument to the ancestors. He said that ongoing isotope analysis on human teeth

found at the site should tell his team more about the geographical origins of its residents. No DNA has survived on site, but recent studies by Professors Bryan Sykes and Stephen Oppenheimer of Oxford University indicate that those of British descent are descended from Neolithic Britons as well as later invaders, like the Anglo-Saxons. Peter H

Inbox full of unwanted email? Get leading protection and 1GB storage with All New Mail.

January 30, 2007

I always thought the circles were used as gathering places for parties. We spent quite a few happy times for celebrations in the Rollright Stones, where there was music, dancing, fire jugglers, drums etc.

Jo

-

peter VV

Tuesday, January 30, 2007 7:07 PM

Re: Stonehenge 'party village' unearthed in Wiltshire

Times Online

January 30, 2007

Archeologists have found the village where the builders of Stonehenge lived and partied (AP)

Stonehenge 'party village' unearthed in WiltshireMark Bridge

Archaeologists have unearthed remains of a huge ancient settlement that they believe housed the hundreds of construction workers needed to build nearby Stonehenge.

Piles of animal bones found at the Neolithic village in Wiltshire, the largest of its kind ever found in Britain, suggest it was also the place to go for a lavish feast, featuring spit-roast pork and beef.

"We’re talking Britain’s first free festival. It’s part of attracting a labour force – throwing a big party," Professor Mike Parker Pearson, of the University of Sheffield, lead archaeologist, told Times Online.

He said that the village’s Neolithic inhabitants – who he believes are likely to be among the ancestors of modern Britons – were not primitive "cave men".

They were well-dressed in "smarter than you'd imagine" leather clothing and capable of enormous feats of engineering – notably the transport of the huge stones of Stonehenge 240 miles from Wales's Preseli Mountains to Salisbury Plain.

The excavations have unearthed hundreds of well-preserved houses with imprints of beds and wooden dressers still present on the clay floors.

The finds were made at Durrington Walls, less than two miles from Stonehenge, where a second massive monument – a circle of huge timber posts more than a thousand feet across – once stood.

Magnetic scans of the area revealed that the valley at Durrington Walls was densely populated. Experts had never before found evidence of human habitation near Stonehenge.

The houses have been radiocarbon dated to 2600-2500 BC, the same period Stonehenge was built. They were 16-foot square, and made of wood, with a clay floor and central hearth.

The team also excavated a paved avenue between Durrington Walls’s timber circle and the River Avon. The 90-foot wide pathway mirrors one that links Stonehenge with the same river.

But while Stonehenge’s avenue is lined up with the midsummer solstice sunrise, Durrington’s is aligned with that day’s sunset.

Similarly, where Stonehenge’s giant markers frame the midwinter sunset, Durrington’s timber posts would have given Neolithic people a perfect view of the sun rising on the same day.

Professor Parker Pearson says that the discoveries help confirm a theory that Stonehenge did not stand in isolation but was part of a much larger religious complex used for funerary ritual.

He now thinks that Neolithic people would come to Durrington from across southern Britain to celebrate life before depositing their dead in the River Avon for transport to the afterlife.Durrington’s avenue leads directly to a cliff from which, he says, mourners may have thrown entire bodies or scattered ashes into the water.

Large amounts of animal bone and pottery found at the site, in quantities that dwarf finds of the same period elsewhere in Britain, indicate that Durrington was the site of epic feasts.

Pig teeth show that the animals eaten there were slaughtered at the age of nine months, suggesting that the parties were held in midwinter.

The team think that people moved along "Stonehenge Avenue" to the second monument after feasting to cremate and bury a select few of their dead.

In contrast to Durrington, Stonehenge was a place for these people, who worshipped their ancestors, to commune with the spirits of those who had died, said the team.

Professor Parker Pearson believes that Durrington Walls was built in wood because it was deliberately intended to rot away, while stone was chosen for Stonehenge as a lasting monument to the ancestors.

He said that ongoing isotope analysis on human teeth found at the site should tell his team more about the geographical origins of its residents.

No DNA has survived on site, but recent studies by Professors Bryan Sykes and Stephen Oppenheimer of Oxford University indicate that those of British descent are descended from Neolithic Britons as well as later invaders, like the Anglo-Saxons.

Peter H

Inbox full of unwanted email? Get leading protection and 1GB storage with All New Mail.