Europe

Part II – England: Stone Age Sites of Britain

See Also:
Part I – Scotland: Stone Age Archaeological Sites of Britain
Part III – Wales, Channel Islands and Other Stong Age Sites of Britain

Stonehenge Stone Layout – Wikipedia

Paleolithic (2.6 million B.C. – 10,000 B.C.):  The first evidence of a human ancestor living in Britain comes from a set of 50 fossilized footprints left in an ancient streambed near the town of Happisburgh in County Norfork, England, about 850,000-950,000 B.C. These early arrivals to Britain would have come at a time when most of Britain was connected to mainland Europe via a now submerged area of the North Sea, known as Doggerland.  The Paleolithic was a time of monumental fluctuations in climate, that led to significant sea level variation, vegetation and animal life changes, and the spread and retreat of giant glacial icefields. These changes also affected the spread and retreat of early human populations, and it appears at times the complete depopulating of Britain.

Most of the evidence gathered to date comes from preserved human and animal remains, and stone tool fragments.

Video:
Doggerland Time Team Documentary (BBC)

Mesolithic (11,000 to 5,500 B.C.):  The Mesolithic in Britain is marked by the first permanent habitation of Britain by modern humans, and a gradual warming of the climate that saw a change in the landscape from Arctic tundra, to one more temperate that brought about the rapid spread of birch, pine and alder forests. The Mesolithic also saw the final submergence of Doggerland, making Britain into the island it is today.

Neolithic (4,300 – 2,000 BC): As one might imagine, the Neolithic period offers the best-preserved evidence of stone age peoples in Britain, and there are a number of archaeological sites open to the public that offer beautiful examples of the buildings and monuments they constructed. These structures are due in large part to a fundamental shift in the human story, from primitive hunter-gathers to settlement builders focused more and more on agriculture and cattle herding. With the shift to a more stable food supply, Britain also saw a growth in its population and the appearance of permanent settles and buildings designed to last.

WILTSHIRE NEOLITHIC SITES

Wiltshire is a county in southwest England that seems to have been another focal point of Neolithic culture in Britain, or at least of its famed stone monument builders. Quite a few of Britain’s most famous Neolithic sites lay within the county’s boundaries, including Stonehenge and Avebury, and Silbury Hill. I explore these and other sites just as interesting below.

STONEHENGE (Find It) is one those sites that have received so much attention from archaeologists to new age spiritualists that entire books could be written about what has actually been discovered about the site, and what has been speculated about. So I am just going to touch on the highlights, and offer plenty of sources for further reading. Stonehenge has a long history and has gone through many phases, and how it’s reflected today on the landscape, does not necessarily fit what it meant to the very first people who buried their dead here.  And a burial site for cremated remains really was the first use of the Stonehenge site in 3,100 B.C., with any standing stones on the site representing headstones. In time the significance of Stonehenge changed, as we see the first evidence of pillars being erect about 3,000 B.C. But the first pillars were made of wood, not stone. The final phases of Stonehenge, beginning about  2,600 B.C, involved the bringing of the massive Sarsen stones to the site, that make up the giant stone pillars and capstones we see today.  It also saw a repurposing of the smaller stones (known as bluestones) that had been used to mark the location of early graves sites.

If there is one purpose that has remained true to the Stonehenge site through the ages, its that of a place to remember the dead. And like our use of headstones today, the use of stone, a material much more durable than wood and other materials, was no accident.  It allowed people to build a permanent spot they could return to for generations and celebrate their ancestors.

Much has been made of the astroarcheological significance of Stonehenge over the years, and more than a few scientists have tried to make the case that it offers evidence of alignments with significant cosmological events, including both equinoxes and solstices. However, the only concrete evidence in this regard points to Stonehenge as a gathering point during the Winter Solstice. And this evidence comes from the teeth of very young pigs, that shows they were consistently killed about nine months after they were born,  around the Winter Solstice.  The evidence comes from Durrington Walls, another henge site just upriver from Stonehenge, that is believed to have played a part in a larger ceremonial ritual that connected the two sites together. Durrington Walls also provides evidence that suggests for at least 50 years it was the largest known Neolithic settlement in northwest Europe. This 50 year period occurred around the time the large Sarsen stones were erected at Stonehenge. This may indicate that Durrington Wells may well have served not only as a gathering place for the annual Winter Solstice celebration of the dead but also as the work camp for construction of the final stage of Stonehenge. One other piece of evidence gathered from the pig and cows teeth collected at Durrington, is that the people who brought these animals to the annual feast weren’t just locals, but people who came from as far away as Scotland. They know this because of the very specific chemical signature that is stored in teeth when they are formed, and which reflects the soil composition of the place they were raised.

Finally, it seems that soon after the final stage of Stonehenge’s development, a change began to occur in Britain’s culture. The great feasts and gatherings that had marked the site in times past slowly disappeared, people began to bury their dead instead of cremating them, and metal implements of gold and copper, as well as other grave goods, started to show up in burials. This marked the arrival of the technological shift in Britain known as the Bronze Age, and the ideas brought with it from mainland Europe.

Videos:
Nova: Ghosts of Stonehenge
Time Team  The Secrets of Stonehenge
Time Team: Durrington Wells

Suggested Reading:
Stonehenge – A New Understanding: Solving the Mysteries of the Greatest Stone Age Monument – Mike Parker Pearson
Daily Mail: How the builders of Stonehenge 5,000 years ago were almost completely wiped out by mysterious ‘Beaker people’

AVEBURY (Find It) lies only 23 miles from Stonehenge and is the largest known stone henge in the world. It compromises a larger outer ring of megalithic stones, and two inner circles. It was constructed in the same time frame as Stonehenge around 3,000 B.C. Beyond its clear roll in religious or social rituals, its exact purpose remains unknown. I also suspect given its proximity to many of the other Neolithic sites in Wiltshire that all the different sites were connected in some manner or other that made this area special compared to other parts of Britain. There is just too much going on to think otherwise.

WEST KENNET LONG BARROW (Find It) lies roughly twenty miles north of Stonehenge. Long barrows are amongst oldest remaining examples of Neolithic architecture in Britain, and many were built before either Stonehenge or Avebury. In the case of West Kennet, it was constructed around 3,600 B.C., an was used up through about 2,500 B.C. Excavations revealed the bones of at least 46 different individuals buried at the site, over the centuries. And it seems it was not only a place of burial but a site of regular ritual activity that often involved the temporary removal of bones from the tomb. The most likely explanation for this was that some kind of ancestor worship was occurring.

In doing research on long barrows, the question immediately arose, so what is the difference between a long barrow, and a passage tomb. I found the best explanation here, and the answer seems to involve a few things. One, long barrows seem to be the earliest version of what would become passage tombs. Their names also tell you something about their shape, which tends to differ from the larger, rounded passage tombs. And third, and this is just speculation on my part. Most passage tombs are noted for their connection to astronomical events such as the Winter or Summer Solstice. And while some Long Barrows seem to have this feature, it doesn’t seem to be as prevalent.

One last item that seems unresolved to me, is burial practices among the Neolithic culture in Britain.  On the one hand, I have read that cremation of the dead, with almost no grave goods, was predominant. This was the case for example at Stonehenge, which started out as a large cemetery before becoming the monument we see today. Yet the long barrows and passage tombs were all about storing the remains and grave goods of the ancestors, to be revered by future generations. And both examples appear within roughly similar geographic regions and timeframes. And not to confuse the issue, but another type of barrow came into wide use as Neolithic sites like Stonehenge were abandoned. These barrows can be found in significant quantity very close to Stonehenge, however, research suggests these tombs were the result of the Bell Beaker People that entered Britain at the beginning of the Bronze Age and were fundamental in reshaping Britain, and perhaps wiping out the Neolithic farmers that had inhabited the island for thousands of years. The discovery of the skeleton known as the Amesbury Archer is a good example of this group of people.

Here are some other long barrows in England that are worth exploring.
Belas Knap Long Barrow (Find It) – Official Website
Wayland’s Smithy Long Barrow (Find It)  – Official Website
Stoney Littleton Long Barrow (Find It) – Official Website
Wind Mill Tump Long Barrow (Find It) – Official Website
Uley Long Barrow (Find It) – Official Website

Suggested Reading:
Long barrows, dolmens and passage graves
BBC: The Amesbury Archer: The King of Stonehenge?
Schoolboys uncover ‘Amesbury Archer of the North’ at Kirkhaugh burial site

Video
Peter Knight Lecture: West Kennet Long Barrow
The Mysterious Chambered Long Barrow in the Cotswolds

SILBURY HILL (Find It) if you have done any following of British prehistoric archaeology the first thing you probably think of when seeing Silbury Hill is that it’s probably a giant passage tomb. And if it were, it would be the biggest one ever created. But it turns out that while the hill is the biggest manmade prehistoric structure in Europe, it doesn’t seem to have much significance beyond the effort that clearly went into creating and shaping it over the centuries. And it appears based on the latest research of archaeologists, that it was the act of creating Silbury Hill that was more important to the Neolithic people’s of the era, than anything else. And that seems to be a general theme of this prehistoric society…mass communal cooperation on projects that took centuries to construct. It reminds me of the quote – “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in“.

Suggested Reading:

Britain Begins – Barry Cunliffe
Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland – Bryan Sykes

Next: Part III – Wales, Channel Islands and Other Stong Age Sites of Britain