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The Modern Antiquarian Forum » Henges and Bloodsports - by request |
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Rupert Soskin 234 posts |
Aug 25, 2009, 16:56
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Very grateful for the interest - I was going to rewrite this for the forum but am a tad under pressure at the mo so to save time, below is an excerpt from the final chapter "Temple? What temple? from Standing with Stones. You'll have to go and spend your hard-earned cash for the rest of it... either that or read it in Waterstones and put it back on the shelf in disgust if you are of the temple persuasion. ....................... The function of henge ditches has long been a topic of debate. Were they a further separation between spectator and spectacle, or inner ritual and outer mundane world? Or were they simply a supply for material to raise the banks? Realistically, it cannot be the latter. If the purpose was only to provide soil to create the bank, it would clearly be far less arduous to keep lowering the central arena until the amount of soil necessary for the height of the bank had been excavated. It appears that the ditches and banks were of equal importance. Whatever the function, it seems unlikely that a depth of thirty feet or more as at Avebury, would ever be a necessity. For any of the proposed theories, anything more than ten feet would be excessive, yet frequently we find ditches of fifteen feet or more in depth. It is reasonable to suppose that these ditches shared a common function, but why is there such a huge variation in their dimensions? Shallow and wide, deep and narrow, or multiple ditches where the outer tends to have been shallower and less regular than the inner. Soil analysis at Thornborough has shown that the bank was constructed with the earth from both ditches and the outer ditch seems to have been created with far less care for its appearance. Does this reflect shoddy workmanship? Or was the high level of precision shown inside the henge unnecessary for the purpose of the outer ditch. Perhaps the answer lies in the underlying geology. If the substrate is consistent and workable, as is the case with the tough but manageable chalk at Avebury for example, a ditch may be dug to any theoretical depth. But if bedrock is close to the surface, it will be far more difficult to excavate the necessary amount of material. In this situation, it would make sense to have shallower and wider ditches, making maximum use of the available topsoil. And what of the double-ditched henges such as Thornborough, Abingdon and Condicote? Interestingly, at Thornborough and Abingdon, the underlying material is gravel; indeed, Abingdon has been virtually destroyed by modern gravel quarrying. In contrast, Condicote rests on shallow clay soils over hard limestone. Is it possible that the double-ditched henges were a practical solution to more difficult working conditions, either because the bedrock was covered by shallow soil, or because in gravel, a deeper ditch would be unstable and more likely to collapse? Let’s say that a henge is built with a single ditch. The excavated soil is piled up to create seating for spectators. Years pass, the venue becomes more popular and possibly over a long period of usage, the population would also have increased. The easiest and most efficient way to increase the crowd capacity would be, depending on local conditions, either to deepen the existing ditch, or create a second, outside the first, providing the necessary soil to increase the volume of the original bank. If correct, this could certainly explain why so many ditches reached such seemingly unnecessary depths. Another factor which adds weight to the grandstand theory is the presence of a flat terrace at the foot of the bank, clearly visible at Avebury for example because it forms a level walkway for the audience to move around the circle whilst finding somewhere to sit. Thousands of years of erosion could have removed all evidence of how the banks may have been faced. And were they simple slopes or tiered? It may sound ridiculous to suggest that they could even have been lined with wooden benches but the five-thousand-year-old stone dressers, benches and recessed shelving at Skara Brae are now known to have been echoed in the wooden houses more recently excavated in Wiltshire. This shows that people’s ergonomic thinking at the time was far from primitive... .... The remarkable discovery of the concentric timber rings at Stanton Drew revealed such an enormous scale of design and effort that I became obsessed on a Stukeleyesque scale with their purpose. We have no way of telling how tall the posts may have been, but their distribution is almost perfect, suggesting that they were erected at the same time rather than being replacements or reinforcements over different time periods. It is possibly also significant that the rings of posts are so densely packed that if it was a building, the internal space would be almost entirely taken up by its own supports. For our ancestors, the transition from hunter-gatherer to homestead and domestic farming as a normal way of life was a long one. Neolithic communities may have been relatively large, but back then, farming was more akin to subsistence gardening. Like many indigenous tribal communities remaining in the world today, one of the most important aspects of daily life would have been hunting. It was not until the Bronze Age, when domestic farming was firmly in place, that defending territory grew in importance. Two centuries of Stukeleyism have made many people reluctant to view our ancestors as anything other than fundamentally spiritual. But this view is a luxury afforded by a society which can go shopping for food and never engage itself with the unpleasantness of butchery. To our ancestors it was normal – modern notions of unpleasantness do not apply. The major downside of hunting would be its potential dangers, the risk of counterattack from a wounded and angry animal meant that hunting skill would create status. The most efficient hunter, who regularly came home with a wild boar and without a scratch, would have been admired, respected and probably a regular topic of conversation ... in a land with widespread trading and communication. Over thousands of years, human understanding has evolved and expanded, but basic psychology has probably changed very little, if at all. Our primary animal instincts remain firm. We fight over the same things and we posture over the same things. Hierarchy is rooted in physical strength and abilities which set an individual or group apart. Gossip and rivalry are a strong combination which allows an exchange of stories on an almost mythical scale. “Have you heard about the great hunter of the north? He killed twenty boars the size of aurochs in a single day.” The inevitable Chinese whispers spreading from settlement to settlement along trade routes would have fuelled one of man’s greatest drivers: competition. An alternative interpretation of Stanton Drew could offer another possibility. This vast henge contained what we could justifiably call an artificial forest. It is not the only henge known to have contained timber posts, but here there were nine concentric rings of them, each post over three feet wide and set the same distance apart. The thickness of the posts at first seems to imply that they were intended to be tall, but if the banks were for spectators, why build an arena where their view would be obscured? The apparent forest must have been important for the spectacle itself, but if the timber posts were cut to the height of a man, the participants in the spectacle could still be in an enclosed forest whilst leaving the spectators a clearer view over the top from their position on the raised bank. So why create an artificial forest where the spectators could see but the participants could not? As already observed, this was a time when most of the country was still forested and killing animals to feed a family was a major part of daily life. As a consequence, the public display of hunting skill would be an almost inevitable result of basic human competitiveness. As well as any number of other possible social events, from rituals to markets, every feature of a henge can be interpreted as a requirement for public displays of bloodsports, and at Stanton Drew, the enclosed artificial forest could have provided a controlled, but nonetheless real, hunting ground. And if these monuments were for bloodsports, without a ditch the animals would easily have escaped up the bank and through the crowd. This could also explain why the ditches were virtually sheer sided and usually too wide to jump. It would take an extemely agile animal to negotiate a near vertical wall. The superhenge of Durrington Walls in Wiltshire is another site known to have had concentric rings of timber posts. Archaeological excavations here have uncovered animal bones in huge numbers, suggesting that feasting took place on a grand scale. In his book Hengeworld regarding excavations at Durrington, Mike Pitts writes: "The suggestion was that there was so much meat about that a lot remained unconsumed, and flesh still adhered to bones when they were carefully and immediately buried. Further study has revealed the curious fact that some of these pigs (over 95%), domestic – not wild, were apparently killed by archery. The tips of some of the arrowheads are embedded in pig bones. Pigs do not like to die, and make this fact pretty obvious. There must have been some spectacularly noisy and messy occasions in the vicinity of these large timber rings." Apart from Durrington, the usual lack of animal bones actually found within henges is no surprise. A bull is never butchered in a bullring.
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tiompan 5758 posts |
Aug 25, 2009, 17:08
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Thanks Rupert . Disagreeing does not necessarily entail being of the "temple " persuasion .
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Rupert Soskin 234 posts |
Aug 25, 2009, 17:11
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tis true... I jest
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fitzcoraldo 2709 posts |
Aug 25, 2009, 17:57
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Hi Rupert, thanks, that's an interesting theory and food for thought. I'm just wondering were small henges, some are quite tiny, mulitple henge complexes (6 or 7 in the Milfield Basin) and coves fit into it. I once visited Clive Waddingtons reconstructed henge, once the thin posts were in you could probably only have hunted voles with any great effect. Also the general archaeologically 'clean' nature of many henges i.e. the lack of finds, surely you would expect to find sat least some small amount of evidence of use within the structure or ditches if it was a public arena. just thoughts cheers fitz
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Rupert Soskin 234 posts |
Aug 25, 2009, 18:28
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Hi Fitz, I should say that I'm not suggesting all henges were murder and mayhem. The ditches would have served equally well to prevent a pitch invasion. Like you, I wondered about small versions, particularly the weeny henge in the corner of the field at Ballymeanoch. I don't think any site had a single purpose. Like today's stadia (sorry, can't remember whether I said this in the excerpt) being football one day, Jehovah's witnesses the next, followed by a rock concert and on to rugby. As for the archaeological cleanness, I'm not really sure it tells us anything. I would have thought that even a closed sacred meeting place would be as likely to offer some remains after a thousand years of useage. Of course it's always possible that the younger henges were a continuation of accepted style regardless of change of use. I did (in my film ramblings) ponder on the possibility that, as we still erect stone circles today in a homage to our ancestors, how do we know that many of the Bronze Age sites weren't follies built in homage to the mysterious remains left by their Neolithic ancestors... We don't know nuffin really, mine are just thoughts too. But bloodsports or no, the arena theory did seem to make good sense of the double ditch henges when I started looking into the underlying geology. I suppose it would be nice if they had filled the ditches with water and sailed round singing songs:-) Rupert
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tjj 3606 posts |
Aug 25, 2009, 18:41
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I watched about four of the Youtube links last night (including the blood sport one) and they made me feel more rather less inclined to buy the dvd (order placed last night). I have just read through your 'blood sport' theory which is extremely interesting; there is something biblical about it though and I have recently been considering some of the 'clues' given in the Old Testament that may throw light on life in ancient Britain. The presence of dolmens being something to consider ... I understand they exist in the Middle East and also as far as southern India. People were clearly moving around the trade routes etc. I had the great treat a month or so back of being taken around the Stonehenge complex by someone called PeteG (who posted here until quite recently). We started at the spring by the river Avon where the Avenue begins, we walked through the Durrinngton Walls site (easy to imagine a village with livestock existing there), walked towards Stonehenge along the Avenue until just the top came into view with no visitors, no cars, and no road visible. It almost felt like 'time travelling' (I do have a vivid imagination). Then we walked over to the barrows and along the cursus. Some of it was done by car but all in all we walked a lot of ground and, as you point out in your dvd, it is an enormous site. What came to life on that occasion was that Stonehenge was part of a community where life was lived on sorts of levels ...for me the midwinter alignments (heel stone and its missing partner) will always make the henge feel like some sort of temple as the midwinter solstice had always been the most important time of the year and why the Christians nicked it ... it was too important to leave lying around. I look forward to watching the dvd when it arrives and to sharing it with friends. Thank you for taking the time to make your post.
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Rupert Soskin 234 posts |
Aug 25, 2009, 19:08
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Lovely stuff! Don't forget that Stonehenge is ironically not actually a henge, despite giving rise to the name. At Stonehenge the ditch is on the outside of the bank, so a different animal altogether. Soskin returns quietly to work as confused as ever...
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fitzcoraldo 2709 posts |
Aug 25, 2009, 20:30
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Damn Rupert, you are far too reasonable. I was hoping that you may have picked up on my vole baiting ideas, I was going to introduce you to my beetle racing track theory for cups and rings. :-) fitz
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tiompan 5758 posts |
Aug 25, 2009, 20:37
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Another couple of problems that come to mind are timber circles ,which usually pe-date henges are quite common without henges or banks, and the number of hneges with timber circles is quite limited . I'm just an argumentative fucker and nothing personal .
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StoneGloves 1149 posts |
Aug 25, 2009, 20:51
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There's a New Age cowboy and indian book - that I'll never remember the name of. It vividly described a stand off between native indians and western settlers and described the beliefs and 'lifestyle' of the indians very well. Just alien (to us). Anyone watching the drama of a grouse shoot and talking to people involved in it will quickly realise that it is their religion.
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