New findings at stonehenge2/3/2024 is the equivalent of the goal post area on a football pitch.Īnother possible reason why people were attracted to the area was that some of the flint could be turned a striking bright pink colour in one of the spring areas. In 40-odd days a staggering 31,000 were discovered in a 16 metre square area and more than 2,000 were found in a square metre – the largest concentration of such finds in Europe. The dig, which is funded by the University of Buckingham, has also unearthed the largest haul of Mesolithic worked flints across the Mesolithic period ever found. The site and the Stonehenge areas were very well known places to visit for a very long time – the London of the Mesolithic.” It’s unique to have people of that time come from so many different far away places. “The colouring is caused by algae – Hildenbrandia rivularis – and it is due to a combination of dappled light and the unusually warm spring water in the area – 10 to 15 degrees. Another possible reason why people were attracted to the area was the striking bright pink colouring of the flint, which isn’t that colour anywhere else in the country.” Tool types suggest people were coming to it from far to the west of Stonehenge and from the east. There’s also evidence for a multi-cultural population at the site. We have found remains of biggame animals, such as aurochs and red deer, and an enormous amount of burnt flint from their feasting fires. They would have had the equivalent of tour guides and there would have been feasting. The River Avon would have been the “A” Road – people would have come down on their log boats. “In effect, Blick Mead was the very first Stonehenge Visitor Centre, up and running in the 8th millennium BC. For years people have been asking “why is Stonehenge where it is?”, now at last, we have found the answers.” The first monuments at Stonehenge were built by these people. The area was clearly a hub point for people to come to from many miles away, and in many ways was a forerunner for what later went on at Stonehenge itself. It provides evidence for people staying put, clearing land, building, and presumably worshipping, monuments. The persistent use of the site for nearly 3,000 years and the fact that many of the tools found were for domestic purposes rather than hunting ones also points to the fact that people were settling there – previously it was thought that there weren’t any settlers until Neolithic times.ĭavid Jacques, Research Fellow in Archaeology at the University of Buckingham, who led the dig, said: “The site blows the lid off the Neolithic Revolution in a number of ways. Clearance of land, an activity previously thought to be a part of the ‘farming package’ brought in by Neolithic immigrants from the continent in the 5th millennium BC, appears to have taken place around a substantial area of the spring at Blick Mead between 75BC, a time when Mesolithic culture had been seen as purely nomadic. Further startling finds from the dig challenge previous definitions of the Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |