Woodhenge
Woodhenge is a henge monument located in the county of Wiltshire , England .
The Woodhenge, located north of Amesbury and named after Stonehenge , which is only 3.2 km southwest , was probably built around the year 2340 BC. BC, before Stonehenge, erected. Dating from the 1970s , however, suggest a more recent date of creation. Only the post holes of the rotten wooden posts that made up the Henge Monument were found in the ground . Similar henges with a circle of posts ( Woodhenge by Little Catwick ) have since been referred to as Woodhenges.
Research history
Woodhenge was excavated between 1926 and 1928 by Maud and Benjamin Cunnington, curator of the Devizes Museum.
construction
The monument was surrounded by a low wall (67 m in diameter) with an outer moat and could (like Stonehenge) be entered through an entrance from the northeast. Woodhenge is made up of six elliptical post rings, the largest of which is 44 m in diameter. The oval rings lie on the axis of the midsummer sunrise. A child's skeleton with a shattered skull was found in the center of the facility, suggesting human sacrifice .
reconstruction
The 168 post holes are now marked by low concrete bollards. These bollards have a different color depending on the ring to which they belong (see sketch). The red bollards do not mark a ring, but the ring-shaped positions of burials . According to some older reconstructions, Woodhenge is said to have been roofed, but this is doubted today.
Finds
There were Grooved Ware and Bell Beaker sherds found.
The site is owned and maintained by English Heritage . The UNESCO declared the area of Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites , including Woodhenge heard 1986 World Heritage Site .
See also
Web links
- First BBC report of the discovery of a timber plant in Avebury in 1999
- English Heritage Site on Woodhenge
literature
- Miranda Aldhouse Green: Human Sacrifice - Ritual Murder from the Iron Age to the End of Antiquity Magnus Essen 2003 ISBN = 3-88400-009-8
- ME Cunnington: Woodhenge: a description of the site as revealed by excavations carried out there by Mr. and Mrs. BH Cunnington 1926-7-8, also of four circles and an earthwork enclosure south of Woodhenge. Devizes, George Simpson 1929
- J. Pollard: Structured deposition at Woodhenge. Proc. Prehist. Soc. 61, 1999, 137-156.
Coordinates: 51 ° 11 '21.6 " N , 1 ° 47' 8.1" W.