Rhiannon
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Re: Henges designed to exclude?
Aug 01, 2003, 10:29
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I don't pretend to be any expert on henges tombo, but I'm sure some of them were built in a way to exclude some people from some areas some of the time. Some henges (you can look at my notes about Marden and durrington walls etc) - I guess those are the real biggies though - have very very narrow entrances which would have restricted entry. Also the big ones have smaller henges inside them sometimes. I suppose it could be a bit like a church where there's the screens and everything dividing the most sacred area off, and only some people (or everyone, but only sometimes) are allowed to go into those areas.
Your bog standard small henges that were just earth banks though, I guess that doesn't apply. But the big ones with posts round them - sometimes they had little corridors leading to the entrance at an angle, so you couldn't have seen in from the outside.
none of this means anyone would have to have been permanently excluded, I suppose it just would have divided the space inside off from the outside world. Besides these superhenges were so bloody enormous you'd have had to have got the help of everyone to build them - they might not have been so keen to help if it was an exclusive club they wouldn't be allowed into.
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BrigantesNation
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Re: Henges designed to exclude?
Aug 01, 2003, 10:32
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That is my problem with the term ritual - to me the greatest ritual activities in Britain is football - like all sports ritual pervades to a deeply personal level throughout - players wearing lucky socks, fans driving a certain way to the ground etc. On a wider level, these personal rituals come together during a match to create a mass participation ritual activity that is more inspirational than religion.
Sport, would be my next choice as to reasons for building a henge, then as you say dancy stuff.
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Rhiannon
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Re: Henges designed to exclude?
Aug 01, 2003, 10:32
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I meant hindwell not durrington by the way.
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BrigantesNation
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Re: Henges designed to exclude?
Aug 01, 2003, 10:41
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I suppose we should not forget the animal enclosure theory.
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baza
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Re: Wood from the trees
Aug 01, 2003, 10:44
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The trouble with that theory (henges/internalised...stone circles/externalised) is that there are stone circles within henges.
Three that immediately come to mind, where large banks hide the circle, are Avebury, Arbor Low and the Devil`s Quoits in Oxon.
baz
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BrigantesNation
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Re: Henges designed to exclude?
Aug 01, 2003, 10:47
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One of my researchers is a very intuitive lady. The first time I took her to the central henge she immediately saw exclusion as a purpose for building the henges. There were some people inside (the season ticket holders) and many people outside (the skinheads).
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Rhiannon
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Re: Henges designed to exclude?
Aug 01, 2003, 10:49
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I take it with all this talk of sports and dancing and animal enclosures that we're not talking about the type of henges with burial pits, with posthholes all over them, with stone circles in them, etc? If they were for animals, why not just put up a fence? Surely the basic type 1 and 2 earth ring henges are just a cheaper simpler model of the more complicated ones with posts etc?
If you're saying they were for Very Important sports and dancing that's as good as saying they were for rituals.
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BrigantesNation
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Re: Wood from the trees
Aug 01, 2003, 10:53
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Another point is that henges may have had associated posts which may have performed the function of stone uprights.
Then again, the cronology is also important. Henges may have been built at a time when the internal event was important. Later, they may have been converted to be in accordance with the new external thinking.
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Rhiannon
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Re: Henges designed to exclude?
Aug 01, 2003, 10:54
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It's very difficult to speculate on what the henges were used for (well, it's easy to speculate, more difficult to know). Maybe it was for something (like sport) that personally I wouldn't consider very Serious, but the people involved with would consider very Serious indeed.
You'd still need the help of a lot of people to build the big henges - what about Mayburgh? That'd be perfect to play football in. Easy to build today, but would take years of concerted effort by a much smaller population who would really ahve to believe in what they were doing, and take time away from basic survival tasks.
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BrigantesNation
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Re: Henges designed to exclude?
Aug 01, 2003, 10:55
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Are all those features put in at the same time?
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