http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ mirrored file For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== Channel4.com Text Only Durrington Walls: A Time Team Special. *Britain's biggest henge* About three kilometres to the north east of Stonehenge, bisected by two roads, one of them the busy A345, is a huge circular earthwork, or henge <#henge>: Durrington Walls. Despite damage from the road construction and many years of ploughing, its high bank and ditch is still a striking feature on the landscape of this world heritage site. And while Stonehenge may be Britain's most famous prehistoric monument, Durrington Walls is its biggest. Bigger even than the henge at nearby Avebury, which encloses virtually an entire village within its circle, Durrington Walls is approximately 480 metres in diameter. Its ditch, six metres deep, 16 metres wide and topped by a three-metre bank, is almost one mile around. Built about 4,500 years ago during the Neolithic era , around the same time as the first phases of construction of Stonehenge, it would have been a huge project for the people of the time. According to Time Team's Mick Aston, 'Most people in southern England must have been involved in some shape or form, because if they weren't doing the building work they would have been supporting the people who were.' During the summer of 2005, Time Team filmed the excavations taking place at Durrington Walls as part of a ten-year archaeological investigation of the Stonehenge world heritage site. The project, which was in its third year in 2005, has already involved collaboration by ten universities, four archaeological projects and countless experts as well as Time Team, who built a reconstruction of the massive timber circles <#timber> that would once have stood on this site. *1967 excavations* The first significant excavations at Durrington Walls took place in 1967, when the A345 was being improved. These revealed the remains of two timber circles: the Southern Circle, a large multi-ringed structure at the south-eastern entrance to the henge; and the smaller, two-ringed Northern Circle inside the henge. Time Team's reconstruction was of the Southern Circle. The 1967 excavations also uncovered late Neolithic pottery and huge quantities of animal bones on the site, suggesting that feasting had taken place there. A large number of deer antlers, found mainly at the foot of the ditch, were identified as picks used in the construction of the monument. *Recent excavations* In 2003, as a prelude to the recent excavations, English Heritage carried out a magnetometry <#> survey, which identified two new entrances to the henge. Over the next two years, excavations were carried out outside the henge and in one large segment cutting across the bank and ditch. The area outside the east entrance was found to contain a series of Neolithic pits, large quantities of animal bones, pottery and worked flints, including arrowheads. There were also traces of hearths, again suggesting feasting. Study of the bones found on the site, as well as of the fat residues found on pottery, showed that a large proportion came from pigs, as well as a smaller quantity from cattle. Examination of pig teeth finds showed that they belonged to animals that were about nine months old when they were killed suggesting that this took place in midwinter. The teeth were also found to suffer from caries, or decay, leading to speculation that they had been deliberately fed honey to sweeten their meat. Other finds on the site included flint representations of male and female sexual organs, a fragment of a carved chalk plaque and evidence of Neolithic domestic buildings. Most exciting of all for the archaeologists, they also found a massive Neolithic roadway – the first of its kind in Europe – made of compacted chalk and leading down to the river Avon from the henge entrance. *Linking the living and the dead* This led Professor Mike Parker Pearson to claim a definite link between Durrington Walls and Stonehenge, which also had The Avenue leading down to the river. Drawing on his experience of archaeological work in Madagascar, he has put forward the idea that the two sites were interlinked and in use at the same time. He believes the wooden structures at Durrington Walls, temporary and subject to decay, were representative of the land of the living, while the stones at Stonehenge, permanent and unchanging, represented the world of the ancestors. The two were linked by ceremonial routes – the roadway at Durrington Walls and The Avenue at Stonehenge, joined by the river Avon – along which the remains of the living would make a literal and metaphorical journey to the land of the dead. Time Team's timber circles reconstruction. *Time Team's timber circles reconstruction* For the Durrington Walls programme, Time Team embarked on an ambitious project to reconstruct one of the two timber circles that excavations have revealed once stood inside the henge. This was not only the biggest reconstruction project ever attempted by Time Team: it was also the biggest project of its kind ever to take place in Britain. The Southern Circle at Durrington Walls consisted of two huge entrance posts and 166 other posts of varying sizes, arranged in five concentric circles. The circle was 40 metres across and aligned so that the midwinter sun would rise between the entrance posts. The excavated postholes, about 2-2.5 metres across, give an indication of the size of the timbers, which were probably oak. The largest post in Time Team's reconstruction weighed five tons, and it was decided to erect this one manually, without the aid of modern machinery, to give an idea of the scale of the task facing the Neolithic henge <#henge> builders. To carry out the task, the Team brought in 20 soldiers, led by Major Adam Neale, from the 14th Regiment Royal Artillery. Organised by project manager John Kropacsy, and advised by Professor Julian Thomas of Manchester University, they used an A-frame to hoist the massive post into position. It isn't known if this was the method used by the builders of Durrington Walls, but there is evidence of A-frames being used in other parts of the world during this period and it seems like the most logical way to get a post up. What became clear during the reconstruction, however, was that it would have taken many more than 20 men to carry out the task. Time Team substituted the use of pulleys for raw muscle power in this case: calculations show that it would have required 100 or more men to erect the entrance post had pulleys not been used. Time Team used machines to complete the task in the week available, and the timbers were supplied ready-felled from managed woodland. For the Neolithic builders, though, there would have been no such luxury. They would have had to cut down around five acres of forest with primitive tools, drag the timbers across land and rivers and erect them using ropes and manpower alone. It was Neolithic engineering and architecture on an epic scale, and would have taken hundreds of people many decades to plan and execute. Clearly they would only have done so for an important purpose. And that, as Clive Ruggles, an archaeoastronomer from Leicester University, was able to confirm in plotting the reconstruction, was connected with the midwinter sunrise. Archaeologists are often divided over whether henge monuments and what took place at them are connected with midwinter or midsummer. At sites such as Stonehenge, where the opposite horizons are in the same position relative to each other, it could be either or both. At Durrington Walls, where the opposite horizons are different, it is clear that the site was aligned towards the midwinter sunrise so that that any festivals or ceremonies that took place there were connected with that time of year. (This was also confirmed by the evidence of pigs' teeth found on the site, which were those of animals born about nine months previously.) The reconstruction of the timber circle at Durrington Walls provided insights into a number of issues to do with how such monuments were built and what they might have been used for. Above all, perhaps, it gave a sense of the scale of the monument and what it might have looked like 4,500 years ago. Unfortunately, it didn't last for anything like as long as the real thing. The timbers had only been borrowed for the purpose, and not long after they had been erected, they all had to come down again. *back to top* <#top> Henge monuments. There are at least 120 known 'henges' in the British Isles, with examples to be found from the south west of England to the Scottish islands and from the Thames valley to the river Boyne. The biggest and most famous concentration is in the Wessex chalklands, where monuments such as Stonehenge and Avebury attract millions of visitors each year. There are many other less well-known henges, including Woodhenge and Durrington Walls in the same area. The largest such complex outside Wessex is at Thomborough, in north Yorkshire, where there are six large henges within 10 kilometres of each other. In archaeological terms, a henge is usually defined as a circular or oval area enclosed by a bank and an internal ditch. This distinguishes them from defensive enclosures, where the ditch would be on the outside (and the bank probably topped by a wooden palisade). The distinction is not a hard and fast one, however: Stonehenge <#stonehenge> does not have an internal ditch and some henge monuments have ditches both inside and outside the bank. Even without a defensive purpose, the banks and ditches around henges were often built on a massive scale. The ditch at Avebury, for example, is nine metres deep and 21 metres wide in places, while that at Durrington Walls is six metres deep and 16 metres wide, with a three-metre-high bank. These would have been spectacular structures when they were built – the cathedrals of their age especially so in chalkland areas, where the exposed white chalk of their perimeters would have been visible for miles around. Henges vary in size from just a few metres across to almost 500 metres in diameter at the biggest sites, such as Durrington Walls and Avebury. Even the smallest represent a significant commitment of time and effort by the Neolithic and Bronze-Age communities that built them in the third millennium BC. The largest would have involved hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people in their construction – not only to carry out the actual building work but also to supply the materials, tools, food and other necessities to those engaged in it. Without the advantages of modern technology, and working only with stone tools, antler picks and the like, the henge builders must have been extremely well organised and committed to take on such large and long-term projects. This level of commitment emphasises the importance that must have been placed on henge monuments in antiquity. So what were they used for? Debates rage among archaeologists and others, but the truth is that no one can be entirely sure. It is generally accepted that henges had some kind of ceremonial, religious or ritual significance, but it is less clear how this related to the specific features found on henge monument sites. A large proportion of them have been found to contain some sort of circular arrangement of timber posts, identifiable today by their postholes. Others, of course, contain stone circles, though these should not be confused with the henge itself (see Stonehenge: the henge that isn't <#stonehenge>. Other features include standing stones or cairns, pits, burials, stone or timber entrance posts and evidence of various other structures. The banks and ditches of henge monuments are usually broken by one or more entrances. (Archaeologists classify henges according to the number. Class I henges have a single entrance, Class II henges have two, and Class III henges have four. There are also sub groups for henges that have more than one internal ditch.) It is often thought that these align with midsummer or midwinter sunrises, but in fact most of them show no such alignment. This does not mean that the henges were not associated with midsummer or, more likely, midwinter festivals or gatherings – indeed, many monuments have a clear link, particularly to the midwinter sunrise – but there is little evidence for a straightforward, common astonomical alignment. *back to top* <#top> Stonehenge: the henge that isn't. Strictly speaking, what we think of as Stonehenge isn't a henge at all. The term is used by archaeologists to refer to a circular or oval area enclosed by a bank and an internal ditch. A stone circle is not a henge; and in any case the stone circle at Stonehenge was built hundreds of years later than the original earthwork enclosure on the site. Nor is there an internal ditch. Nonetheless, Stonehenge is the origin of the term 'henge'. The Middle English form of Stonehenge was Stanenges, which is made up of 'stan', or stone, and 'heng', probably meaning hinged or hanging. It is thought that Stanenges, or hinged or hanging stones, referred to the great trilithons of the monument. The term 'henge' is first recorded as a distinct word in the 18th century, and its use in the modern archaeological sense is attributed to Thomas Kendrick, who later became Keeper of British Antiquities at the British Museum, in 1932. *back to top* <#top> Further reading. /The Henge Monuments of the British Isles: Myth and archaeology/ by Jan Harding (Tempus 2003) paperback £17.99 A comprehensive and accessible guide to the henge monuments of Britain and Ireland. Drawing on a full range of up-to-date information, Jan Harding covers the full range of these monuments and their possible meanings from southern England to the Scottish islands. /Hengeworld /by Mike Pitts (Arrow, 2001) Mike Pitts, an archaeologist, asks what sort of people designed and built these extraordinary structures. Using computer reconstructions he shows what they looked like and asks what they are for. Combining reports of his own digs and new research with a re-examination of evidence gathered in the past, Pitts also makes some significant new discoveries and solves some intriguing mysteries from the recent history of archaeological excavation along the way. Probing beyond the material world, he suggests 'new contexts' for Stonehenge which 'envisage metaphor and symbol'. Hengeworld is supported by clear diagrams and well-documented evidence: there are over 75 pages of appended radiocarbon date tables, notes and bibliographic information. /From Sickles to Circles: Britain and Ireland at the time of Stonehenge/ edited by Alex Gibson and Alison Sheridan (Tempus, 2005) paperback £30 Drawing on the expertise of more than 20 leading Neolithic and Bronze-Age scholars, the rich and complex variety of Neolithic Britain and Ireland is reflected in studies that range from megaliths, Scottish passage-graves and chambered cairns in Orkney to hostilities in early Neolithic Ireland and flintwork in Northern Ireland. The Bronze-Age section includes wide-ranging reviews of Beaker burials, Bronze-Age artefacts and Bronze-Age chronologies. /Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland before the Romans/ by Francis Pryor (Perennial, 2004) paperback £9.99 An authoritative and radical rethinking of the whole of British history before the coming of the Romans, based on remarkable new archaeological finds. So many extraordinary archaeological discoveries (many of them involving the author) have been made in the last 30 years that our whole understanding of British prehistory needs to be updated. So far only the specialists have twigged on to these developments; now, for the first time, Francis Pryor broadcasts them to a much wider, general audience. /Neolithic Britain and Ireland/ by Caroline Malone (Tempus, 2001) paperback £10.75 Well-illustrated guide covering how Neolithic people lived off the land; domestic settlements; causewayed enclosures; burials and tombs; monumental landscapes (including henges and circles); artefacts, technology and craftsmen; and the 'neolithic achievement' in developing the new skills and customs that led to 'new levels of social complexity'. /Prehistoric Settlements/ by Robert Bewley (Tempus, 2003) paperback £17.99 This book traces the variety and development of prehistoric settlements in Britain through 8,000 years, from the hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic to the tribes of the Iron Age in the years before the Roman invasion. Examining key sites such as Star Carr, Bodmin Moor, the Dartmoor reaves, and hillforts and farmsteads, Bewley concentrates on two central themes: the close relationship between the individual settlement site and the wider landscape; and the ways in which archaeologists discover, interpret, and reinterpret prehistoric settlements. /The Significance of Monuments/ by Richard Bradley (Routledge, 1998) The author traces the history of Neolithic and Bronze-Age burial mounds, henges, stone circles and barrows since their first appearance 6,000 years or more ago. He provides insights into what they might have meant to, and their role in the lives of, prehistoric people in Europe. /Understanding the Neolithic/ by Julian Thomas (Routledge, 1999) paperback £22.99 Julian Thomas presents a sometimes controversial investigation of the period 4000-2200 BC. Whilst examining the archaeological evidence of the period, the book challenges the assumptions and prejudices that have shaped archaeologists' accounts of the distant past and presents fresh interpretations informed by social theory, anthropology and other disciplines. *back to top* <#top> Other websites. Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites. *Stonehenge Riverside Project* www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/research/stonehenge Mike Parker Pearson, professor of archaeology at Sheffield University, provides a brief introduction to the excavations at Durrington Walls and elsewhere in the Stonehenge world heritage site. There are also online PDF copies of the project's interim reports for 2004 and 2005 . *Stonehenge interactive map* www.english-heritage.org.uk/stonehengeinteractivemap/index.html English Heritage has produced an interactive map of the Stonehenge world heritage site, showing Durrington Walls and other ancient sites in relation to Stonehenge itself. There is a brief illustrated feature on Durrington Walls, including a 360-degree view of the site. The website also includes a time map showing how the Stonehenge landscape developed through prehistoric times and a time line providing an at-a-glance view of the relationship between the construction of the different monuments. *Thornborough Neolithic Henge Complex* http://thornborough.ncl.ac.uk/index.htm Virtually unknown and unresearched until very recently, the Thornborough Neolithic henge complex, in north Yorkshire, is the largest such site outside the Wessex chalklands. Damaged by quarrying, from which it is still under threat, it has been the subject of a vigorous conservation campaign. The website includes a description of the complex, which includes six large henges within 10 kilometres of each other, reports of recent archaeological projects at Thornborough and a virtual tour of the site. *back to top* <#top> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ Text Only: Homepage ] [ Graphical: Channel4 Homepage ] [ Contact Us ] [ Access Advice ] [ HTML 4.01 TR Approved ]