186,568 research outputs found
The age of Stonehenge
No full textStonehenge is the icon of British prehistory, and continues to inspire ingenious investigations and interpretations. A current campaign of research, being waged by probably the strongest archaeological team ever assembled, is focused not just on the monument, but on its landscape, its hinterland and the monuments within it. The campaign is still in progress, but the story so far is well worth reporting. Revisiting records of 100 years ago the authors demonstrate that the ambiguous dating of the trilithons, the grand centrepiece of Stonehenge, was based on samples taken from the wrong context, and can now be settled at 2600-2400 cal BC This means that the trilithons are contemporary with Durrington Walls, near neighbour and Britain largest henge monument. These two monuments, different but complementary, now predate the earliest Beaker burials in Britain - including the famous Amesbury Archer and Boscombe Bowmen, but may already have been receiving Beaker pottery. All this contributes to a new vision of massive monumental development in a period of high European intellectual mobility
Durrington Walls to West Amesbury by way of Stonehenge: a major transformation of the Holocene landscape
No full textA new sequence of Holocene landscape change has been discovered through an investigation of sediment sequences, palaeosols, pollen and molluscan data discovered during the Stonehenge Riverside Project. The early post-glacial vegetational succession in the Avon valley at Durrington Walls was apparently slow and partial, with intermittent woodland modification and the opening-up of this landscape in the later Mesolithic and earlier Neolithic, though a strong element of pine lingered into the third millennium BC. There appears to have been a major hiatus around 2900 cal BC, coincident with the beginnings of demonstrable human activities at Durrington Walls, but slightly after activity started at Stonehenge. This was reflected in episodic increases in channel sedimentation and tree and shrub clearance, leading to a more open downland, with greater indications of anthropogenic activity, and an increasingly wet floodplain with sedges and alder along the river’s edge. Nonetheless, a localized woodland cover remained in the vicinity of DurringtonWalls throughout the third and second millennia BC, perhaps on the higher parts of the downs, while stable grassland, with rendzina soils, predominated on the downland slopes, and alder–hazel carr woodland and sedges continued to fringe the wet floodplain. This evidence is strongly indicative of a stable and managed landscape in Neolithic and Bronze Age times. It is not until c 800–500 cal BC that this landscape was completely cleared, except for the marshy-sedge fringe of the floodplain, and that colluvial sedimentation began in earnest associated with increased arable agriculture, a situation that continued through Roman and historic times
The Excavation of the Henge Monument at Durrington Walls, Wiltshire, 1966
No full textThe earliest record of the Henge at Durrington Walls, in the parish of Durrington, Wiltshire (SU. 150437) (location map, fig. 1), is that made in the early nineteenth century by Sir Richard Colt Hoare (1812, p. 169). Today, the bank and ditch of the henge have been largely either ploughed flat or masked by comparatively modern accumulations of plough-soil and there is little to indicate to the casual visitor that these degraded earthworks represent all that is left of the largest henge monument in Britain.</jats:p
Durrington Walls and the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project 2010-2016
No full textYesSince 2010 the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project (SHLP) has undertaken extensive archaeological prospection across much of the landscape surrounding Stonehenge. These remote sensing and geophysical surveys have revealed a significant number of new sites and landscape features whilst providing new information on many previously known monuments. The project goal to integrate multimethod mapping over large areas of the landscape has also provided opportunities to re-interpret the landscape context of individual monuments and, in the case of the major henge at Durrington Walls, to generate novel insights into the structure and sequence of a monument which has attracted considerable research attention over many decades. This paper outlines the recent work of the SHLP and the results of survey at Durrington Walls that shed new light on this enigmatic monument including a site ‘hidden’ within the monument
A massive, Late Neolithic pit structure associated with Durrington Walls Henge
No full textFunding: The University of Bradford Research Development Fund and the University of St Andrews funded this open access publication.A series of massive geophysical anomalies, located south of the Durrington Walls henge monument, were identified during fluxgate gradiometer survey undertaken by the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project (SHLP). Initially interpreted as dewponds, these data have been re-evaluated, along with information on similar features revealed by archaeological contractors undertaking survey and excavation to the north of the Durrington Walls henge. Analysis of the available data identified a total of 20 comparable features, which align within a series of arcs adjacent to Durrington Walls. Further geophysical survey, supported by mechanical coring, was undertaken on several geophysical anomalies to assess their nature, and to provide dating and environmental evidence. The results of fieldwork demonstrate that some of these features, at least, were massive, circular pits with a surface diameter of 20m or more and a depth of at least 5m. Struck flint and bone were recovered from primary silts and radiocarbon dating indicates a Late Neolithic date for the lower silts of one pit. The degree of similarity across the 20 features identified suggests that they could have formed part of a circuit of large pits around Durrington Walls, and this may also have incorporated the recently discovered Larkhill causewayed enclosure. The diameter of the circuit of pits exceeds 2km and there is some evidence that an intermittent, inner post alignment may have existed within the circuit of pits. One pit may provide evidence for a recut; suggesting that some of these features could have been maintained through to the Middle Bronze Age. Together, these features represent a unique group of features related to the henge at Durrington Walls, executed at a scale not previously recorded.Peer reviewe
Age and season of pig slaughter at Late Neolithic Durrington Walls (Wiltshire, UK) as detected through a new system for recording tooth wear
No full textThe recording of tooth wear is essential for the investigation of age in zooarchaeological assemblages, but most tooth wear methodologies apply only to mandibular teeth, thereby neglecting potentially valuable maxillary data. The large sample of pig maxillary jaws and teeth recovered at Durrington Walls has provided the opportunity to design a new recording method for maxillary as well as mandibular jaws. Work on previously excavated animal bone material from Durrington Walls (Albarella and Payne, 2005) suggested the possibility of seasonal pig killing at the site, but the issue has not, until now, been explored in detail. This paper therefore has a dual purpose: to describe the new method for recording tooth wear on pig teeth; and to use the new information from both the mandibular and maxillary teeth to explore pig age at death and seasonality at Durrington Walls. The results provide evidence of differential deposition of pigs of different ages at Durrington Walls, with one midden context containing younger pigs brought to the site to provide meat for predominately winter-based feasting events, and other contexts containing remains of older pigs (mainly in their second year) deposited in both domestic and more public locales also predominantly in winter. The study highlights the usefulness of maxillary teeth for our understanding of past systems of pig exploitation as well as the desirability of recording their wear in animal bone assemblages
Feeding Stonehenge: cuisine and consumption at the Late Neolithic site of Durrington Walls
No full textThe discovery of Neolithic houses at Durrington Walls that are contemporary with the main construction phase of Stonehenge raised questions as to their interrelationship. Was Durrington Walls the residence of the builders of Stonehenge? Were the activities there more significant than simply domestic subsistence? Using lipid residue analysis, this paper identifies the preferential use of certain pottery types for the preparation of particular food groups and differential consumption of dairy and meat products between monumental and domestic areas of the site. Supported by the analysis of faunal remains, the results suggest seasonal feasting and perhaps organised culinary unification of a diverse community
Feeding Stonehenge: cuisine and consumption at the Late Neolithic site of Durrington Walls
No full textThe discovery of Neolithic houses at Durrington Walls that are contemporary with the main construction phase of Stonehenge raised questions as to their interrelationship. Was Durrington Walls the residence of the builders of Stonehenge? Were the activities there more significant than simply domestic subsistence? Using lipid residue analysis, this paper identifies the preferential use of certain pottery types for the preparation of particular food groups and differential consumption of dairy and meat products between monumental and domestic areas of the site. Supported by the analysis of faunal remains, the results suggest seasonal feasting and perhaps organised culinary unification of a diverse community
- …
