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Stonehenge
It is
difficult to believe but true. I have never been to Stonehenge. I have passed
it many, many times over the years travelling along the A303 but I have never
deviated off to walk around it.
Today
we are correcting this severe error.
We
park up and stroll across to the main centre. The English Heritage annual
membership is proving cost effective on this trip. Coffee, papers and breakfast
rolls. Suitably warmed up and now swathed in layers (down jackets, hats and
gloves) we discuss whether to catch the courtesy bus to the site or stroll the
two miles across the fields.
We opt for the latter and it proves a good decision. We would have missed several ancient barrows and information boards. Apart from which the exercise did us good.
We
walk anticlockwise around the site (later discovering we had gone the wrong way
round) trying to avoid all the selfie takers. It proves hard getting clear
shots of just the stones. Mag reminisces about how as a young kid, her family
used to come here for picnics amongst the stones before they were fenced off
and protected.
We
didn’t download the smartphone information app but there is one available and
you can get details about it from the centre where you buy tickets.
It is
an astonishing site and it takes me a while to get my head around it all. Built
in several stages, the first monument was an early henge monument, built about
5,000 years ago. The unique stone circle was erected in the late Neolithic
period about 2500 BC and in the early Bronze Age many burial mounds were built
nearby. Together with Avebury, Stonehenge forms the heart of a World Heritage
Site, with a unique concentration of prehistoric monuments.
I keep having to remind myself that in 7000BC, when the oldest pits and possible pine totem-pole structures were built, much of southern England was covered by woodland. However, historians make a case that this chalkland area around Stonehenge many have been an unusually ‘open’ landscape and that is why it became an early Neolithic monument complex.
The display of ‘reconstructed’ Neolithic huts is informative. This was a sophisticated society and the museum is full of surprises about how they lived their lives.
If
you are interested in reading about the history of the area, the English
Heritage website is a good starting point at https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history-and-stories/history/
We
walk back the road way and call in at the small museum information display. The
most surprising thing for us proves to be the time line. I am shaken to
discover that my perception about the date of building places like Machu Picchu
is way, way out. Far later than I thought! Go figure.
We
drive down to Salisbury, calling in at Waitrose, before going up to the Camping
and Caravan club site. Here we have a choice of several pitches, all sloping.
We opt for one close to the hedge – an all-weather pitch – with great views
across the playing field towards the embankments of Old Sarum.
Our
levelling blocks prove too low and we end up pitched slightly nose down
lengthways but level side to side.
Post
script:
Tonight, I try to get some moon shots but it is very cold. There is lots of condensation to contend with and the breaks in the cloud become shorter and shorter. I give up. Some nights astronomy is just not to be.
Useful
websites:
https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/
Postscript 2
By chance we have just watched a fascinating Channel 5 programme updating people about the history of Stonehenge. They have discovered a series of arcing pits in a circle around Durrington walls to the east of Stonehenge. Each pit is around 20m across and several metres deep and all take on a uniform wall steepness. Archaeologists working at Durrington Walls have no worked out that there were over 1000 circular hut dwellings at this location and in the weeks approaching the winter solstice, thousands gathered from across the whole of the UK to celebrate with huge domesticated pig hunts. The exact purpose of the pits are still unknown but huge time and energy was expended on them and they were built just before the Stonehenge pillars were assembled.
Archaeologists are hypothesising that Stonehenge was important for the winter solstice not the summer one. They are now believing that Stonehenge was built where it is because of two natural 'lines' in the landscape surface that happened to line up perfectly with the winter solstice setting sun. It seems Neolithic peoples' came and celebrated at Durrington walls and then walked in procession down to the River Avon and followed it down and around the next southerly meander before deviating away from it near modern day West Amesbury, when they then proceeded up the ancient 'Avenue' into Stonehenge.
Meanwhile they are still working on the purpose of the pits that surround Durrington Walls.
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