Prehistoric henge discovered in Newbold-on-Stour

Blackleaf

Blackleaf

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A prehistoric henge, dating back almost 6,000 years, has been uncovered on farmland in Warwickshire.

The site, in Newbold-on-Stour, is earmarked for a housing development.

Prehistoric henge discovered in Newbold-on-Stour

20 May 2017
BBC News


A housing development is earmarked for Mansell Farm in Newbold-on-Stour

A prehistoric henge, dating back almost 6,000 years, has been uncovered on farmland in Warwickshire.

The site, in Newbold-on-Stour, is earmarked for a housing development.

A geophysical survey led to an initial dig in 2016, but archaeologists have been "excited" to discover what was originally thought to be a burial mound is in fact a ritual gathering place.

Unlike Stonehenge, the site in Newbold consists only of a circular space, surrounded by a mound and ditch.

Dating back to between 4,000 and 3,000BC, its exact purpose is unclear, but Nigel Page, from Archaeology Warwickshire, said it was "very clearly ritual".

Five skeletons, believed to date to the late Bronze Age, were found in the ditch.

Dating on those is expected to be be completed in mid June, but Mr Page said they were in themselves a surprising find.

"Surviving skeletons in this area are so rare, because the soil conditions just sort of eat the bones," he said.


The more famous Durrington Henge and Thornborough

Prehistoric henge discovered in Newbold-on-Stour - BBC News
 
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darkbeaver

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When and where was the slab of stone with "Ritual Gathering Place" cut into it found? I think since the ruins were found on a farm maybe a better choice of function might have been ancient barn.
 
C

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Who knows what henges were for. My ancestors made them but their culture awas crushed by wave after wave of invaders .. Beaker People, Celts, Romans, Saxons, Northmen and there is no oral tradition left to explain them, not even snippets of folklore. Ritual spaces or cattle runs are equally plausible.
 
Blackleaf

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darkbeaver said:
When and where was the slab of stone with "Ritual Gathering Place" cut into it found? I think since the ruins were found on a farm maybe a better choice of function might have been ancient barn.
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Henges were not used as barns. It seems they were used for religious and ritualistic purposes.

There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges: henge; hengiform monument; henge enclosure.

A henge refers to a particular type of earthwork of the Neolithic period, typically consisting of a roughly circular or oval-shaped bank with an internal ditch surrounding a central flat area of more than 20 m (66 ft) in diameter. There is typically little if any evidence of occupation in a henge, although they may contain ritual structures such as stone circles, timber circles and coves. Henge monument is sometimes used as a synonym for henge. Henges sometimes, but by no means always, featured stone or timber circles, and circle henge is sometimes used to describe these structures. The three largest stone circles in Britain (Avebury, the Great Circle at Stanton Drew stone circles and the Ring of Brodgar) are each in a henge. Examples of henges without significant internal monuments are the three henges of Thornborough Henges. Although having given its name to the word henge, Stonehenge is an atypical henge in that the ditch is outside the main earthwork bank.

The word henge is a backformation from Stonehenge, the famous monument in Wiltshire.[5] Stonehenge is not a true henge as its ditch runs outside its bank, although there is a small extant external bank as well. The term was first coined in 1932 by Thomas Kendrick, who later became the Keeper of British Antiquities at the British Museum.

Some of the best-known henges are at:




Henges sometimes formed part of a ritual landscape or complex, with other Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments inside and outside the henge. Earlier monuments associated with a later henge might include Neolithic monuments such as a cursus (e.g., at Thornborough Henges the central henge overlies the cursus), or a long barrow such as the West Kennet Long Barrow at Avebury, Wiltshire, or even, as in the case of Stonehenge, Mesolithic post holes. Later monuments added after the henge was built might include Bronze Age cairns as at Arbor Low. Examples of such ritual landscapes are:




Burials have been recorded at a number of excavated henges, both pre-dating the henge and as a result of secondary reuse. For example:




Henges may have been used for rituals or astronomical observation rather than day-to-day activity. That their ditches are located inside their banks indicates that they were not used for defence, and that the barrier of the earthworks was more likely symbolic than functional. Following arguments presented for Irish Iron Age enclosures, Barclay suggested that they are 'defensive': that the ditch and bank face something 'dangerous' inside the enclosure. He has also suggested that the considerable range of things surrounded by the earthworks, and the very long date range, are because henges were designed mainly to enclose pre-existing ceremonial sites that were seen as 'ritually charged' and therefore dangerous to people. It has been conjectured that whatever took place inside the enclosures was intended to be separate from the outside world and perhaps known only to select individuals or groups.




The three Thornborough Henges in North Yorkshire


Part of the village of Avebury in Wiltshire is inside Europe's largest henge


Maumbury Rings in Dorchester, Dorset, later reused as a Roman ampitheatre and then a Civil War fort


Rings of Brodgar, Orkney


King Arthur's Round Table, Cumbria



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henge
 
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