Head To Head
Log In
Register
The Modern Antiquarian Forum »
Houses for the dead...what about the living?
Log In to post a reply

45 messages
Topic View: Flat | Threaded
Sanctuary
Sanctuary
4670 posts

Re: Houses for the dead...what about the living?
Sep 07, 2010, 10:19
tiompan wrote:
Sanctuary wrote:
tiompan wrote:
Sanctuary wrote:
The fact that the WKLB for instance was 'open for business' for something like a 1,000 years before being filled in MAY confirm that they were only intended for the special ones and not Joe Bloggs who would have filled it pretty quickly.


There was secondary activity at WKLB around 2400 BC at the latest but it is now considered that that the primary deposits were 3670-3635 cal bc and the last internments 3640-3610 cal bc with a suggestion that primary mortuary activity lasted only 10-30 years ,the chamber was then infilled within a century .


Yes and 46 disarticulated skellies is not much to show for it is it after all that time is it unless they were 'special' in one way or another! Whether that truly represented the total amount of internments or whether much was removed (other than the odd lngbone or skull) I don't suppose we'll ever know. The date of 2400BC is when it is believed Silbury 1 was started and in my opinion when beliefs changed as the newcommers arrived and Silbury rose up and 'challenged' the beliefs that the WKLB held! The Swallowhead Springs of course lay between the two and had, in my opinion again, a huge part to play in this!


Effectively the start of the Early Bronze Age , West Kennet Avenue also dates from the same period (2400/2500bc ) introduction of metals , beaker burials , sarsens at Stonehenge , bit like the late 60's really .



Yes and likely the Beckhampton Avenue as well and the stones to the Great Circle. They would seem unlikely not to. The Sanctuary timber rings supposedly preceded them but the stones again were probably contemporary with the other stone phases other than the WKLB of course which is from an earlier time. I've always thought that a timber 'complex' was not out of the question as a precursor to the 'real deal' in stone either but don't have much evidence for that I have to admit, but whatever they were trying to achieve could have been completed much sooner in timber!
Topic Outline:

The Modern Antiquarian Forum Index