- Woodhenge
Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS =Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites
State Party =
Type = Cultural
Criteria = i, ii, iii
ID = 373
Region = Europe and North America
Year = 1986
Session = 10th
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/373Woodhenge is a
Neolithic Class I henge andtimber circle monument located in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site inWiltshire ,England . It is 2 miles north-east ofStonehenge in the parish of Durrington, just north ofAmesbury .Discovery
Woodhenge was identified in 1925 after an
aerial archaeology survey byAlexander Keiller andOGS Crawford .Crawford credits the discovery to an aerial photograph taken by Sqn Ldr
Gilbert Stuart Martin Insall VC in 1925 (Crawford, Air-Photography for Archaeologists, 1929).Maud Cunnington excavated the site between 1926 and 1929.Date
Pottery from the excavation was identified as being consistent with the Grooved ware style of the middle Neolithic, although later
Beaker sherd s were also found. So, the structure was probably built during period of cultural similarities commonly known as the "Beaker ". The "Beaker culture " spans both theLate Neolithic and the EarlyBronze Age and includes both the distinctive "bell-beaker " type ceramic vessels for which the cultural grouping is known as well as other local styles of pottery from theLate Neolithic and EarlyBronze Age .tructure
The site was believed by Cunnington to consist of a central burial, surrounded first by six concentric rings of
posthole s, then by a single ditch and finally an outer bank, around 85m wide. The burial was of a child which Cunnington interpreted as a dedicatory sacrifice although it was destroyed inThe Blitz (bombing by the Germans during World War II) and re-examination has not been possible. Cunnington also found a skeleton of a teenager in one of the ditch sections she dug. Another theory is that the site is the burial location of a Celtic royal family (although the site actually predates the appearance of Celtic culture in Britain by almost 2000 years).Most of the 168 post holes held wooden posts, although Mrs Cunnington found evidence that a pair of standing stones may have been placed between the second and third post hole rings. Recent excavations (2006) have indicated that there were, in fact, several standing stones on the site, arranged in a "cove". The deepest post holes measured up to 2m and the height of the timber posts they held has been estimated at up to 7.5m above the ground. The posts would have weighed up to 5 tons and the arrangement was similar to that of the
bluestone s atStonehenge .The positions of the postholes are currently marked with modern concrete posts which are a simple and informative method of displaying the site.Further comparisons with Stonehenge were quickly noticed by Cunnington; both have entrances oriented approximately on the midsummer sunrise and the diameters of the timber circles at Woodhenge and the stone circles at Stonehenge are similar making the reasons for the name more understandable.
Others
Subsequent to the discoveries of Mrs Cunnington, two further timber circles of comparable scale were later discovered no more than 500 metres away within the
Durrington Walls henge.There are various theories about possible timber structures that might have stood on the site and about, that they may have been aligned on positions of the Sun on the horizon. For many years work on the study of
Stonehenge had overshadowed any real breakthroughs in the understanding of Woodhenge. However, recent ongoing investigations as part of theStonehenge Riverside Project are now starting to cast new light on the site.ee also
*"Woodhenge" is also a piece of music on the 1979 album "Platinum by
Mike Oldfield .External links
*oscoor gbx|SU150434
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