Greater Stonehenge Cursus, Woodhenge, Bluehenge, Durrington Walls, Blick Mead

www.paleolithic-neolithic.com In the first part of our Stonehenge series we Huge Burial Site have explained these amazing ritual cult What we already know is that the whole circles and even compared Stonehenge with Stonehenge plains area was a pre-historic other cult rings in Europe and the Middle East. burial site. First burials were attested with We investigated when and in which sequence an age of over 10,000 years. Various forms of they were erected and who actually built them. burials were practiced and changed over time.

In part two we want to look at the surrounding These might have also changed due to the landscape of Stonehenge which most of us are immigration of various tribes at this holy site. unaware of how many archeological treasures At Stonehenge and Woodhenge which we will still lie below its surface. We call these here describe in more detail later on cremation Greater Stonehenge. burials in dug out holes took place. These were topped with wooden Scanning Project posts or stones as In a recent scanning project grave markers. 16 square kilometers of ground were investigated T h e r e a f t e r up to three meters deep to secondary burial in detect previously unknown long barrows were ancient structures. the norm. For these secondary burials This project revealed 17 only the bones were new stone and timber used. The wooden formations plus dozens of block houses were new Neolithic tombs dated about 30 meters long around 6,000 years old. and fully covered with earth. They were An amazing discovery was used for multiple a 33 meter long wooden burials and burial burial house a so-called gifts were common. long barrow. In addition These mass tomb hundreds of Bronze and structures are about Iron Age burial mounds 6,000 years old. were detected as well as Then again with the can be seen on the fotos. beginning of the

2 Bronze Age a change took years ago. So it was place and small burial the first huge structure mounds for single burials constructed some 700 were preferred and erected meters north of the later in rows. Thereafter circle most famous Stonehenge tombs followed. cult circles.

Let’s look at the most With a length of close to prominent Barrow group three kilometers and a close to the two cursus width of over one hundred explained further on. meters it really was a huge This line of barrows is ritual place at the time. about 1,200 meters long Imagine this was still a and about 250 meters forested area. So first all wide and can still today trees had to be felled with be recognized in aerial simple Neolithic stone photographs. axes.

Both burial type’s Experts calculated that cremation plus grave this job needed around marker and bones only in 1,000 men to accomplish. barrows were practiced The cursus had a ditch and in this area for over 7,000 bank all along running in years. But we also know east west direction. At both that Stonehenge was a ends two huge pits were multifunctional ritual site found which are thought to also to predict eclipses, be linked to the solstices. solstices and equinox. And at the same time a Neolithic long barrow Now let’s look at the various tomb was also erected at structures archeologists its open end were remains have discovered over time of a secondary human and already investigated burial and an ox skull were including the Cursus, found. Bluehenge, Woodhenge, Blick Mead and Durrington What was the purpose Walls. of this long open space? Was it the first procession Cursus alley? Or was it a sportive When first discovered campus for competitive its shape made experts purposes? There is another believed they were looking interesting theory. Have at a Roman horse race two annual processions circus. They based their taken place - one for first assumption on the marking the longest day fact that Vespasian had and one for the shortest erected a camp site on day of the year? the Avon River banks next to the beginning of the Or have different Stonehenge Avenue. immigrated communities and cultures practiced But at closer investigation their different ceremonies they found out that this and rituals worshipping was a pre-historic ritual different gods? Many place built shortly before questions with few Stonehenge some 5,500 concrete answers inspire

3 numerous adverse theories. Why the blue stones were alone standing blank timber moved back again to poles like a forest without Lesser Cursus Stonehenge in antiquity is not branches and tree crowns. We should not forget the Lesser clear. So only the foundations Woodhenge was certainly not Cursus. It was erected around of 27 blue stones could be an observatory because it the same time of the larger excavated here. The circle had only one entrance in the cursus about one kilometer was small and measured only northeast. northwest of its western start ten meters across. Today only or end. This smaller version is a 25 meter wide ditch is left Was Woodhenge the poor only 400 meters long and 60 including its outer bank. There man’s burial site right next meters wide. It was extended is no proof of any solar or lunar to the builder’s quarters of in a second phase to double its orientation. Stonehenge? Well it must have length and open at its eastern been also a ritual site, because end. Possibly to be extended Woodhenge in its center a human sacrifice the following year during the This is a very particular site burial was discovered during annual solstice festival visit? right next to the south of the early excavations. residential site of Durrington Bluehenge vs Stonehenge Walls. It was a ritual and It is assumed it was a sacrifice Let’s follow the time line of burial site erected during the because the child engraved construction activities at main construction period of here was buried at the center Greater Stonehenge. The next Stonehenge around 4,500 and in addition was found to project after the Cursus and years ago. have a split skull. After all the the first building activities at ceremonial sites let’s now look Stonehenge was Bluehenge. Here six oval shaped circles at the fascinating residential of wooden poles have been sites. We already know that Welsh erected. In total 168 wooden immigrants brought along poles have been attested. Blick Mead their blue dolerite stones from Selected poles were rather It really is the oldest site in Preseli Hills over a distance of huge and measured over the Stonehenge prehistoric more than 200 kilometers and seven meters in height. The landscape and also called first placed them in a circle at outer circle had a diameter of the missing link. Because it Stonehenge. These were later 40 meters. bridges the gap so far missing removed and used to start between the Mesolithic and Bluehenge about 5,000 years The circles were surrounded the Neolithic period. And ago. by a two meter deep ditch or Blick Mead proves permanent moat which was twelve meters occupation starting 10,000 Bluehenge is situated two wide at the top. The outer kilometers southeast of bank erected from the dugout Stonehenge on the banks of material was only one meter River Avon and right next to high but ten meters wide and the Roman Emperor Vespasian in total Woodhenge measured camp which is overbuilt 110 meters across. by today’s town of West Amesbury. Is it a coincidence This was really a huge structure that right here the famous and had a similar size as Stonehenge Avenue ended or contemporary Poemmelte in started? Bluehenge was only Germany. But it had no palisade discovered in 2008. walls like Poemmelte only

4 years ago and lasting and put heated up stones three kilometers northeast uninterrupted for over 3,000 from your fireplace in it and of Stonehenge. Agricultural years. This is an amazing early ready is your hot soup within activities have destroyed the hunter-gatherer camp and a minutes. And the animal skin area to a great extent. Further well-chosen site too. can be reused many times. two modern roads run across and in addition military Here a spring produces Blick Mead is the oldest barracks had been erected continuous water flow with a attested settlement in the in the northeast and some permanent temperature of ten area and is situated only houses in the west on this degrees. So it never freezes two kilometers east of site. Durrington Walls was even in winter. But what makes Stonehenge and right north the home of the Stonehenge this spring special indeed? of modern West Amesbury. builders but prehistoric Have you heard the story of the It is definitely linked with the visitors for solstice festivals purple stones? It is an algae in oldest cremation burials in stayed here as well. the spring water which covers the area dated 10,000 years the stones. Once taken out and ago. Unfortunately not much It was excavated in 2004 drying in air they turn bright has been published about and found to go back 5,000 red and somewhat purple after the oldest Stonehenge site years. The site was occupied few hours. in comparison with all other uninterrupted for over 500 sites. years. Experts investigated Excavations also revealed seven ancient house floors thousands of sharp flint stone Durrington Walls and calculated that up to tools and animal bones mostly Unfortunately there is little 1,000 houses could have from aurochs. We also know left today of this intriguing covered the area and over how our pre-historic ancestors ancient settlement site about 5,000 people might have lived cooked. They knew how to here at peak times. Experts handle fire for over 500,000 established that this amount years. Cooking meat over fire of man power was needed to is easy. But how do you cook build the ditch which was not a soup or prepare medicine dug out in phases but in one when you do not yet have any effort. pottery pots? The said Stonehenge visitors It is real simple. Make a small have come as far as from hollow in the ground lay a fresh the Scottish Highlands and piece of animal skin in it. Than brought along cattle to be fill it with rests of meat, herbs, slaughtered for solstice roots etc. Top it up with water festivals. Same is true for

5 many pig bones excavated large tree stems. Its which were so to speak entrance was oriented imported from many areas southeast precisely to of the island. Isotope the midwinter solstice analysis of the animal teeth sun rise. Interestingly proved this. this opposes the solar alignment of Stonehenge. Durrington Walls was But similar to the built on a slope stretching Stonehenge heel stone a southeast down to single large wooden pole River Avon and had two was positioned at the entrances. One was exit towards the second situated few meters avenue. from the river bank the other pointed northwest. It is the island after Hindwell in Western Enclosures necessary to understand that Wales. This also shows that We already know that River Avon was meandering Wales was another important Durrington Walls was through the landscape like settlement area on the island the residential area and a snake. First running north and explains also why Welsh Stonehenge the ceremonial south at Durrington Walls and clans played an important role site of this area. But recent then turning east west to pass in Stonehenge construction. findings give new fruit for Stonehenge. thought and theories. To Later the residential area the west of the Southern Like Stonehenge Durrington extended all around the walled Circle the so-called Western Walls was surrounded by a area of Durrington Walls. It Enclosures were discovered huge ditch about six meters was also found that on the during excavations. deep and seven meters wide river banks huge ceremonial at its bottom. With the dugout fires were lit up. And this They consist of a raised material a three meter high and was possibly the same time group of six small round nearly 30 meter wide bank was when a second avenue was structures erected around created. On the inner side rests erected near Durrington Walls a terrace close to eastern of a wooden palisade with about from River Avon following the entrance. Two houses with 200 poles were discovered. midsummer sunset direction. a wooden palisade and ditch around them were identified. Just to give you a comparison Southern Circle Hundreds of years later two its surrounding wall was close In a second development step a additional ring structures to two kilometers long and so large wooden circle was erected were added. it is five times bigger than the within the walled area called Stonehenge ritual circles. It Southern Circle. It consisted What purpose did they is also the second largest in of four large circles with rather serve? Were they houses

6 worthy to protect for the elite or shamans? and road construction. In this article we tried Were they important cult meeting places or to give you an overview how intense and shrines? Were here different gods worshipped extensive the ceremonial building activities of than in Stonehenge? All is possible. our ancestors were.

But it proves that the Greater Stonehenge And again it shows that these Neolithic area was not just a simple ritual place for communities were so unbelievable primitive Neolithic people. Our prehistoric sophisticated and skilled at a level we can not ancestors were much more developed and imagine. How they acquired their knowledge sophisticated than we still imagine today. about farming, construction, metallurgy, weapon and tool making, astronomy, medicine Conclusion and many more subjects is still a mystery to When planning to visit Stonehenge little us. information is given about what is called Greater Stonehenge archeological landscape. But such visits to Stonehenge and other Unfortunately little can be visited today as prehistoric sites make us think and hopefully much of the prehistoric structures fell victim help us understand the importance of nature to modern agriculture and expanding villages to survive.

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