Stonehenge: Photo courtesy NASAArcheologists have announced the discovery of what they think may be the primitive homes of the mysterious builders of Stonehenge on the West Salisbury plains within walking distance of the famous monolith circle.

So far, eight huts have been unearthed, already making the excavation the largest concentration of prehistoric huts discovered in Britain. But Mike Parker Pearson, of Sheffield University thinks it’s just the beginning, and that maybe hundreds of hearth sites may exist in the region. Radar analysis of the landscape suggests the settlement is huge.

"The whole valley appears full of houses," Parker Pearson said. “Our dates for the building of Stonehenge are identical to the dates for this very large settlement.”

Carbon dating of the settlement dates it to the middle Neolithic Age about 4500 years ago, the same time the huge sarsens and bluestones of Stonehenge were being put in place.

Each of the huts uncovered so far measure about 5m (16ft) square, and was made of timber surrounding a central hearth. The archeologists found rubbish dating back to 2600 years B.C. covering the clay floors of the houses.

"It is the richest - by that I mean the filthiest - site of this period known in Britain," Professor Parker Pearson said. "We've never seen such quantities of pottery and animal bone and flint."

Parker Pearson believes the region was used for funereal purposes, as well as for some kind of ceremonial midwinter gathering site for prehistoric revelers.

The ancient village is located about 1.75 miles northeast of the famous stone circle, near Durrington Walls a large 500 meter (nearly a 1/3 mile) in diameter circular earthwork. Another henge of a sort is also nearby, but this one was made of wooden poles stuck in the ground in a circular formation. Known as Woodhenge, Parker Pearson believes it is linked in ritual to its more famous stone cousin. Both henges are aligned with astronomical events, but the events are complementary. Stonehenge is lined up with the sunrise of the midwinter solstice, while the timber circle at Durrington lined up with the sunset of the midwinter solstice.

Pig teeth found at the village site seem to support Parker Pearson’s theory of a midwinter festival.

"One of the things we can tell from the pig teeth we've looked at is that most of them have been slaughtered at nine months. And we think they are farrowing in Spring," he said.

"It's likely there's a midwinter cull and that ties in with our midwinter solstice alignments at Durrington and Stonehenge."

Durrington’s purpose, he speculates, was for celebration of life, while Stonehenge served as a memorial and cemetery. After feasting, Parker Pearson believes the dead were deposited in the River Avon and sent downstream to Stonehenge, where a select few were cremated and buried.

More Info and Links

Stonehenge Guide
Stonehenge Settlement Found (National Geographic)
Vast settlement of huts linked to Stonehenge (Guardian)
More on Stonehenge
Stonehenge didn’t stand alone (National Geographic)

All tags:

Tags : archaeology, anthropology, archeology, Stonehenge, Neolithic Age, ancient cultures

How would you tag this story?

My tags:

A comma-separated list of terms describing this content. Example: funny, bungee jumping, "Company, Inc.".

• Email
• Delicious
• Digg
• Facebook
• Google
• Yahoo