President and Vice-President dig Stonehenge
At about the same time as this issue of Salon goes out, the world’s media will be seeking sound bites from Geoff Wainwright, our President, and Tim Darvill, Vice-President, as they cut the turf to inaugurate the first archaeological excavation at Stonehenge in forty-four years. Tim and Geoff have obtained scheduled monument consent for a two-week excavation in the south-eastern quadrant, where a small trench, measuring 3.5 metres by 2.5 metres, will be used to try and obtain stratified material for dating the erection of the Double Bluestone Circle – the first stone structure on the site. They also hope to find out how long the circle was in use, when it was dismantled and when it was reused in later stages of the evolution of Stonehenge.
Professor Wainwright said: ‘This small excavation is the culmination of six years of research which Tim and I have conducted in the Preseli Hills of north Pembrokeshire and which has shed new light on the eternal question as to why Stonehenge was built. The excavation will date the arrival of the bluestones following their 250-km journey from Preseli to Salisbury Plain and contribute to our definition of the society which undertook such an ambitious project. We will be able to say not only why but when the first stone monument was built.’
More precise dating will allow the construction of the Bluestone Circle to be placed in context and compared with other events of the mid-third millennium BC, which is when archaeologists currently believe the relatively standard henge at Stonehenge was transformed by the arrival of the bluestones.
Survey work carried out by Tim and Geoff has revealed that the landscape around Carn Menyn in the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire is replete with monuments, including stone circles, standing stones, cairns, portal tombs, rock art and numerous modified springs. They have argued that this spring-filled landscape, with its rare and unusual spotted dolorite outcrop, was associated with healing, and that the builders of the Bluestone Circle at Stonehenge hoped to recreate something of the same properties by replicating that landscape on Salisbury Plain.
The excavation at Stonehenge will last until 11 April. During this time Stonehenge will be open as normal and visitors will be able to observe the excavation as it happens on plasma screens inside a special marquee. Daily video updates of the dig are also viewable on the English Heritage website. Tim will be delivering a series of lectures on the Preseli Bluestones in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne on 13, 14 and 15 May 2008 as part of the Society’s Tercentenary Festival lecture series, and the first results from the excavation are likely to be revealed in a BBC 2 ‘Timewatch’ programme on Stonehenge, to be broadcast in the autumn.
Craig said:There are plenty of other stones around in the SW as well - Avebury is close by.
There are some 50 stone circles in Cumbria, including some of the earliest stone circles in Britain. There is a vast range of types, from the vast monumental circles at Castlerigg, Swinside and Long Meg, to the standard early bronze age circles of about 100 ft in diameter as at Casterton and Elva Plain, to diminutive rings associated with alignments and burials. Some are associated with henge monuments such as Mayburgh.
Nemesis said:http://www.visitcumbria.com/pen/longmeg.htm