In
fairness, it was reasonable to expect as much since we know that the
advent cattle husbandry began as early as the tenth millennia. This
led directly to stable land ownership and boundaries and a natural
need for monumental works.
The
site then had to also be important as a population center long before
the building of Stonehenge. This now becomes a fresh focus for new
archeology. It is also a reminder of the productivity of cattle
husbandry even by itself.
The
more interesting question is just now crude were the astronomical
alignments? Just aligning a couple of poles and observing shadows
and sunrise each year will show long term predictable patterns easily
discernible in a lifetime. All of this had agricultural value and
was certainly applied.
I do
not know when grain growing made its first appearance, but surely no
later than the advent of the Bronze Age and its shipping. It would
be nice to know just how far that may be pushed back.
Stonehenge was
occupied by humans 5,000 years EARLIER than we thought
By MARK PRIGG
18 April 2013
Human beings were
occupying Stonehenge thousands of years earlier than previously
thought, according to archaeologists.
Research at a site
around a mile from Stonehenge has found evidence of a settlement
dating back to 7500BC, 5,000 years earlier than previous findings
confirmed.
And carbon-dating of
material at the site has revealed continuous occupation of the area
between 7500BC and 4700BC, it is being revealed on BBC One's The
Flying Archaeologist tonight.
Research at a site
around a mile from Stonehenge has found evidence of a settlement
dating back to 7500BC, 5,000 years earlier than previous findings
confirmed
Experts suggested the
team conducting the research had found the community that constructed
the first monument at Stonehenge, large wooden posts erected in the
Mesolithic period, between 8500 and 7000BC.
Open University
archaeologist David Jacques and friends started to survey the
previously-unlooked at area around a mile from the main monument at
Stonehenge, when they were still students in 1999.
The site contained a
spring, leading him to work on the theory that it could have been a
water supply for early man.
He said: 'In this
landscape you can see why archaeologists and antiquarians over the
last 200 years had basically honed in on the monument, there is so
much to look at and explore.
'I suppose what my
team did, which is a slightly fresher version of that, was look at
natural places - so where are there places in the landscape where you
would imagine animals might have gone to, to have a drink.
'My thinking is where
you find wild animals, you tend to find people, certainly
hunter-gatherer groups, coming afterwards.
Research at a site
around a mile from Stonehenge has found evidence of a settlement
dating back to 7500BC, 5,000 years earlier than previous findings
confirmed. And carbon-dating of material at the site has revealed
continuous occupation of the area between 7500BC and 4700BC.
'What we found was the
nearest secure watering hole for animals and people, a type of all
year round fresh water source.'
He described the site
as 'pivotal'.
Dr Josh Pollard, from
Southampton University and the Stonehenge Riverside Project, said he
thought the team may have just hit the tip of the iceberg in terms of
Mesolithic activity focused on the River Avon around Amesbury.
'The team have found
the community who put the first monument up at Stonehenge, the
Mesolithic posts 9th-7th millennia BC.
'The significance of
David's work lies in finding substantial evidence of Mesolithic
settlement in the Stonehenge landscape - previously largely lacking
apart from the enigmatic posts - and being able to demonstrate that
there were repeated visits to this area from the 9th to the 5th
millennia BC.'
The Flying
Archaeologist is being shown on BBC One (West and South) at 7.30pm
tonight.
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