Durrington Walls

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According to current research, Durrington Walls was in the 4th millennium BC. The largest Stone Age settlement in Northern Europe and contains one of the largest megalithic series ever discovered in Europe . The complex is one of the so-called henge monuments and is located in Wiltshire , in the United Kingdom . It is just 2.5 km up the Avon from Stonehenge .

The Class II Henge (after Stuart Piggott ) consists of an oval wall in front of a ditch. The approximately 10 hectare oval has entrances in the southeast and northwest. Archaeologists now suspect that at least 300 buildings stood on this area. The facility was built and used at the time of the Neolithic Grooved ware , at the same time as the sarsen stones were shipped to Stonehenge. Not until June 2020 was another, much larger circle known, which includes Durrington Walls, the Larkhill Causewayed Enclosure and Woodhenge and is dated to an age of over 4,500 years.

Durrington Walls has been listed as a Scheduled Monument since 1928 and was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, along with neighboring sites as Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites .

Panorama of the plant

description

Durrington Walls is on a loop of the Avon between Amesbury and Durrington on Salisbury Plain . The earthwork is in close proximity to Woodhenge and the Packway enclosure . Due to the agriculture , the wall is very blurred and only visible in the northeast. In the lower part, however, sediments that had been eroded away were deposited and thus protected the layers below. Here trenches and post holes are well preserved.

Charcoal, which was found under the wall, gave data of 4575 ± 40 (GrO-901a) and 4585 ± 70 BP (GrO-901), i.e. between 3490 and 3100 BC. Chr. (1σ). The finds date Durrington Walls to the Grooved Ware period .

View from Woodhenge towards Durrington Walls

Research history

The complex was described by the antiquarian Colt Hoare as a "circular embankment" and placed under protection in 1928. In 1929 OGS Crawford documented the facility through aerial photographs . From 1950 to 1951, when a line trench was laid along the A 345 (old), the system was archaeologically examined for the first time and a bell- shaped grave was discovered.

In the course of construction work on the A345 from Amesbury to Marlborough , Durrington Walls were partially excavated from 1966–1967 by Geoffrey Wainwright and Ian Longworth . Julian Thomas (Manchester) and Mike Parker Pearson (Sheffield) dug Durrington Walls between September 2003 and 2010 as part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project . Eight houses from the Grooved Ware period were uncovered. They were about 5 m in diameter, had clay floors and square hearths in the center. Two of the houses were a bit out of the way to the west of the complex. The floors of the houses were covered with rubbish, including large amounts of animal bones.

The row of stones

Vincent Gaffney , an archaeologist from the University of Birmingham , believed that as part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape research project , he discovered a stone setting that was buried under the wall during radar surveys of the facility . He assumed a total of 90 stones, 30 of which up to a size of 4.5 m are still in the system, while the rest can be detected in foundation pits or fragments. However, more recent research allegedly found around 200 stones. The stones were set up about 4,500 years ago and formed the southern end of the ritual site described by the researchers. When the early builders redesigned the building, the stones are said to have been moved. Then the row was buried under an almost straight wall on the south side of the otherwise circular complex. The row of stones would be one of the largest megalithic structures discovered in Great Britain.

The comprehensive shaft circle

All the systems described so far are surrounded by another circle with a diameter of 2 km, the existence of which was only recognized by investigations as part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project from 2018 and which was announced in June 2020. There are over 20 individual pits or shafts. Each has a size of 5 × 20 m. This circle is in the same period as the Durrington Walls, so it was built in the same context. The shafts were noticed during investigations using ground penetrating radar . The dating of 4500 years Before Present was determined by excavations and the investigation of charcoal using the 14 C method .

interpretation

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Durrington is at the same time as Marden Henge , which can be inferred from the finds, especially of ceramics from Grooved Ware. The function of the huge henges could not be clearly clarified for the time being. The assumption that these are regional centers for large territories and the accommodations of an elite is outdated. The location of the superhenges suggests that the boundaries of the ancient territories did not shift. In any case, these huge henges were not built far from the older causewayed enclosures. Euan MacKie takes z. For example, suppose that Mount Pleasant was intended for the theocratic elite and that Maumbury Rings is the associated ceremonial center. The old enclosures were not modified, but henges were built near rivers and in low places. Therefore, the higher Maiden Castle was abandoned in favor of a 66 m lower foundation, which is only 300 m from the River Frome. The move took place around 2600 BC. BC, although the Henge trench, according to datable finds, apparently not before 2170 BC. Was excavated. In a similar process, the early Neolithic earthworks at Robin Hood's Ball were replaced by the Durrington facility 45 m lower and closer to the Avon.

According to a preliminary interpretation, the shaft circle is viewed as a route to the sites inside or as a border for a “sacred area” that cannot be specified.

Comparable systems

The complex is one of the largest of its kind and is only surpassed by the much better preserved Avebury . Marden ( Wiltshire ) and Mount Pleasant ( Dorchester ) reach comparable dimensions.

literature

  • Geoffrey Wainwright, Ian Longworth: Durrington Walls excavations, 1966-1968 (= Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries, 29). Society of Antiquaries of London 1971.
  • Juliet Clutton-Brock : Excavations at Grimes Graves , Norfolk, 1972-1976 , Part 1: Neolithic antler picks from Grimes Graves, Norfolk and Durrington Walls, Wiltshire, a biometric analysis. British Museum, London, 1984.
  • M. Stone, Stuart Piggott, A. St. J. Booth: Durrington Walls, Wiltshire: Recent Excavations at a Ceremonial Site of the early second millennium BC. Antiquaries Journal, 34, 1954, pp. 155-177.
  • Rodney Castleden: The Stonehenge People: an exploration of life in Neolithic Britain, 4700-2000 BC. Routledge, 1992, London, pp. 40-42, 44, 54, 57-63. ISBN 0-415-04065-5 .
  • Euan W. MacKie: Science and Society in Prehistoric Britain. 1977.
  • Michael Parker Pearson , Colin Richards, Mike Allen, Andrew Payne, Kate Welham: The Stonehenge Riverside project. - Research design and initial results. Journal of Nordic Archaeological Science, 14, 2004, pp. 45-60.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Michael Parker Pearson , Colin Richards, Mike Allen, Andrew Payne & Kate Welham: The Stonehenge Riverside project. - Research design and initial results. Journal of Nordic Archaeological Science, 14, 2004, pp. 45-60.
  2. ↑ a b c Die Presse: Riddle near Stonehenge: Giant shaft circle discovered , June 23, 2020
  3. ↑ a b Bruce Bower: Suburb of Stonehenge: Ritual village found near famed rock site. In: Science News. February 2007, accessed on June 22, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Angelika Franz: Stone circles: Archaeologists discover forerunners of Stonehenge. In: Spiegel Online . September 7, 2015, accessed June 22, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Ian Sample: 'Archeology on steroids': huge ritual arena discovered near Stonehenge. In: TheGuardian.com . September 7, 2015, accessed June 22, 2020 .
  6. ^ Aubrey Burl: Prehistoric Avebury. Yale University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-300-09087-0 , p. 125.

Coordinates: 51 ° 11 ′ 32 "  N , 1 ° 47 ′ 12"  W.