CNN: Ancient Village Found near Stonehenge

[Bicoastal]

From CNN.com

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Archaeologists have uncovered what may have been a village for workers or festival-goers near the mysterious stone circle Stonehenge in England.

The village was located at Durrington Walls, about two miles from Stonehenge, and is also the location of a wooden version of the stone circle.

Eight houses have been excavated and the researchers believe there were at least 25 of them, archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson said Tuesday at a briefing held by the National Geographic Society. (Watch scientist describe big parties for Stonehenge builders )

The village was carbon dated to about 2600 B.C., about the same time Stonehenge was built. The Great Pyramid in Egypt was built at about the same time, said Parker Pearson of Sheffield University.

The small wooden houses had a central hearth, he said, and are almost identical to stone houses built at about the same time in the Orkney Islands.

The researchers speculated that Durrington Walls was a place for the living and Stonehenge -- where several cremated remains have been found -- was a cemetery and memorial. Both are connected to the Avon River by paths they called avenues.

Parker Pearson said remains of stone tools, animal bones, arrowheads and other artifacts were uncovered in the village.

Remains of pigs indicated they were about nine months old when killed, which would mark a midwinter festival, he said.

Parker Pearson said Stonehenge was oriented to face the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset, while the wooden circle at Durrington Walls faced the midwinter sunrise and midsummer sunset.
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Had to post this. Aside from the fact that this find may bring archeologists a few steps closer to solving the centuries-old riddle of Stonehenge, I enjoy it when one of the top headlines of the day is an event that inherently cannot be politicized.....or can it?

[AngryAmish]

1. Is it in danger of being trodden upon by a dwarf?

[lancdem]

3. lol

[Bicoastal]

5. No one knows who they were...

...or what they were doing.

(LOL--knew someone would reference Spinal Tap.)

[flying rabbit]

18. PUPPET SHOW

and bush administration

[CrazyOrangeCat]

2. Cool post. Thanks.

[HughBeaumont]

4. I raise a practical question at this point . ..

"are we going to do Stonehenge tomorrow?"

"No we're not going to FAHCKING do Stonehenge!"

[AngryAmish]

6. You can't really dust for vomit.

[HughBeaumont]

8. Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock,

having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is often useful.

[AngryAmish]

9. Plowing through your bean field

Poking your hay...

[acmavm]

7. Well, as for me, thank you. I am fascinated by Stonehenge.

[xxqqqzme]

10. can we have a link? please

[Bridget Burke]

12. Archaeology Magazine has a link to the BBC article....

On their "News" page. http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/index.html

I could have provided a direct link. But I thought anybody interested in this stuff might like even more!

[hashibabba]

11. I didn't look at CNN.Com, but here's a link to a story about it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6311939.stm

[MorningGlow]

16. My favorite bit from the BBC article

Professor Parker Pearson believes it drew Neolithic people from all over the region, who came for massive feasts in th emidwinter, where prodigious quantities of food were consumed. The bones were then tossed on the floors of the houses.

"The rubbish isn't your average domestic debris. There's a lack of craft-working equipment for cleaning animal hides and no evidence for crop-processing," he said.

"The animal bones are being thrown away half-eaten. It's what we call a feasting assemblage. This is where they went to party--you could say it was the first free festival."

Neolithic partiers! Woo hoo! :headbang:

("Freebird!")

[Miss Chybil]

13. Fascinating... thanks! nt

[Judi Lynn]

14. Houses Found Buried Beneath Stonehenge Site

Houses Found Buried Beneath Stonehenge Site

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 30, 2007; 1:26 PM

New excavations near the mysterious circle at Stonehenge in South England have uncovered dozens of homes where hundreds of people lived -- at roughly the same time 4,600 years ago that the giant stone slabs were being erected.

The finding strongly suggests that the monument and the settlement nearby were a center for ceremonial activities, with Stonehenge likely a burial site while other nearby circular earthen "henges" were areas for feasts and festivals.

The houses found buried beneath the grounds of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site are the first of their kind from that late Stone Age period in Britain, suggesting a surprising level of social gathering and ceremonial behavior, in addition to impressive engineering. The excavators said their discoveries together constitute an archeological treasure.

"This is evidence that clarifies the site's true purpose," said Michael Parker Pearson of Sheffield University, one of the main researchers. "We have found that Stonehenge itself was just half of a larger complex," one used by indigenous Britons whose beliefs centered around ancestor and sun worship.
(snip/...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013000661.html?nav=rss_nation

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Woodhenge was first discovered in the 1920s

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/stonehengeinteractivemap/sites/woodhenge/01.html

and is right next to Durrington Walls, rather than a couple of miles away: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/stonehengeinteractivemap/index.html

though it might later than the earliest parts of Stonehenge and Durrington Walls, the same can be said for the large stones at Stonehenge:

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/stonehengeinteractivemap/timeline/index.html

(that last diagram displays really badly with Firefox on Windows, by the way)

[MindPilot]

17. Nope. Not true. Carbon dating is only accurate to a few hundred years

Ask any creationist and they will tell you that christian cavemen built Stonehenge with a prayer crane to lift the rocks into place and they used it to cage their pet dinosaurs.

Seriously I had the great privilege and honor to visit Stonehenge when I was a kid. That was back when you could freely walk around the place and actually touch the rocks. It was as close to a "spiritual experience" as I will likely ever have in my life. What an incredible sensation being right next to those huge stones and feeling the sunlight in the circle. I will never forget it.

The latest discoveries are a big step forward in figuring out what when on there. I suspect there was some ancient wisdom that we have yet to rediscover.

[beyond_the_pale]

19. Hmmm A party house or 8th wonder of the world?

I have lived too long to see the great stone henge compared to something like a big picnic. LOL

But, happy to learn that its still being studied and other theories imagined. When I first heard of that place in my childhood it was spoken of almost reverentially, like the ancient people possessed such amazing wisdom about the stars and physics.

Especially liked this part:

"The village was carbon dated to about 2600 B.C., about the same time Stonehenge was built. The Great Pyramid in Egypt was built at about the same time, said Parker Pearson of Sheffield University."

[Algorem]

20. ancient wierdos.at least they're dead.