Devils Quoits
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The Devils Quoits (also Devil's Quoits) are a henge monument with a stone circle . They are near the Farmoor Reservoir, south of the village of Stanton Harcourt, southeast of Witney in Oxfordshire in England . It is believed that they date from the Neolithic Age and are 4,000 to 5,000 years old. The Quoits were restored between 2002 and 2008 and are under protection.
The late Neolithic class IIA henge (after Richard John Copland Atkinson; 1920–1994) has a ditch with a diameter of up to 120 meters and opposite, almost east-west-oriented entrances. The northern half of the henge appears to have had a second outer ditch.
Inside the henge is a stone circle that may have been built in the early Bronze Age after the henge had been in use for some time. The slightly egg-shaped stone circle has a maximum diameter of 79 meters and followed the axis of the henge. It originally contained 36 stones, most of which were removed by the end of the Middle Ages. The henge is at the center of a complex of prehistoric monuments.
The facility was badly damaged in 1940 by the construction of an airfield, which included the construction of concrete runways and the leveling of a large area. In 1940 there was only one stone left in situ , while two others had been placed nearby. The site was then further damaged by the gravel extraction. Excavations in advance of the gravel extraction in 1972, 1973 and 1988 produced a complete plan of the devil's quoits. The excavations of the trenches indicated repeated use, with the finds consisting of fire pits and animal and human bones.
The name "Devil's Quoits" is connected to a legend that says that the devil once played with a beggar for his soul and won by throwing the big stones.
120 Henge monuments can be found mainly in the south of England, but also in other regions of the British Isles, including the Orkney . Unlike causewayed camps or hillforts , they were mostly built on the plains, often near rivers (here the Thames ) and in fertile farmland.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Not to be confused with the portal tombs from the Neolithic period mentioned in Cornwall and Wales Quoit . These dolmens, including a Devil's Quoit , were also known as cromlechs in the 19th century .
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 44 ′ 22.5 " N , 1 ° 24 ′ 21.7" W.