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PeterH

1180 posts

Evidence and interpretation

Dec 20, 2005, 11:32

Indulge me for a moment and forget about Avebury, Stonehenge and anything else with stones. I don't see stone circles as corrals as I said a long time ago. Consider instead, a small circular bank with one or more entrances and an internal ditch. What could that be?

Here is the evidence: A circular space surrounded by a shallow ditch and a high bank. There are three entrances, two of which are opposite one another. The area is clean with very few finds (Ishmael's point), there are no gates and no sign of continuous habitation. The entrances may or may not align with sun or moon sets and rises or with other built or landscape features. There are similar enclosures elsewhere and some are much larger.

Here is the interpretation: It is a ritual enclosure.

Here is the reality: http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=a312&file=index&do=showpic&pid=17419&orderby=dateD
If there were no written records of the Roman world, archaelogists might well have interpreted the excavated evidence as a ritual enclosure rather than as a place of public entertainment. I grant that there is an element of ritual in theatre or arena, but that is not their prime function. Challenge the established "ritual" view that betray lazy thinking. If we don't know what it is - call it "ritual" and forget it! Get the ritualists to offer evidence for ritual use.

In reply to:
Re: Henge corrals? (Littlestone)

Replies:
Re: Evidence and interpretation (Littlestone)

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