Mount Pleasant (Henge)
The Henge of Mount Pleasant is one of the five so-called Neolithic superhenges in the British Isles . It is near Dorchester in Dorset in England . Discovered by Stuart Piggott (1910–1996), the somewhat egg-shaped henge has a diameter of about 370 by 340 m (45,000 m²) and is in some ways more impressive than the Durrington Walls .
It has a wide moat where grooved goods and children's skeletons were found. He was surrounded by a completely worn wall. The four entrances are roughly on the axes. A circumferential palisade surrounded five concentric post rings. They were divided into equal quadrants by radial passages . The north-south corridor runs in a straight line, while the east-west corridor is curved. The posts were regularly arranged in the same number in each quadrant, for example four in the innermost ring. According to the current state of research (Geoffrey Wainwright 1970/71) the facility was built in the 3rd millennium BC. Built in BC. The post construction was on 2878-2470 BC. Dated at the time of Stonehenge's third expansion stage. When it collapsed and fell into disrepair, the square was redesigned. A small U-shaped bay made of sarsen was placed in the center, with three new pillars at specific points around the perimeter of the rotunda . One could have been a marker for the sunrise. A later henge with a diameter of 45 m was built within the enclosure in the southwest. The transformation of a square into other forms of solemn centers is not uncommon.
literature
- Rodney Castleden: The Stonehenge People. An Exploration of Life in Neolithic Britain, 4700-2000 BC Routledge, London et al. 1990, ISBN 0-415-04065-5 .
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 42 ′ 32.1 " N , 2 ° 24 ′ 43.5" W.