Buried Heads (in the sand) By Cecil Amor
M
ay I wish you all a merry Christmas, a happy New Year to follow, and also a happy winter solstice. Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion at the University of Exeter, gave a talk on BBC Radio 4 in September about hundreds of male statues that have been excavated in the Middle East. Some are on thrones, some are only heads, usually red faced with long black hair in ringlets at the back of the neck, and a fringe. They had well trimmed beards and all have been dated from well before the time of Jesus Christ. The professor has published a book, God: an Anatomy. My immediate thought was why has nothing like this been found here? I cannot recall any finds of god like persons before the Romans came here and they had effigies of their leaders, some worshipped like gods. Before the Romans came here, the existing population was producing large open temples such as Stonehenge and Avebury with standing stones and a number of similar, less well known. Earlier we had enclosure ditches where burials or cremations took place, so both these and the stone circles had family, tribal and perhaps religious connotations. I have recently added a new book to my library of Stonehenge literature, with Stonehenge, an excellent book by archaeologist Francis Pryor, which brings us up to date with the flurry of excavation in the area and covers much of the earlier knowledge, pointing out the flaws. Francis Pryor includes a useful timeline, relative to Stonehenge, e.g. the arrival of farming in Britain about 4,200 BC at the end of the Mesolithic Period. Following the Early Neolithic period in Britain, the first megalithic tombs were built in Britain, 3,900 - 3,800 BC and then the main construction of long barrows here, 3,800 - 3,600 BC. One well known long barrow is at West Kennet, near Avebury, 20 miles north of Stonehenge, containing the cleaned bones of a number of various families. It has been suggested
28 The Marshwood Vale Magazine December 2021 Tel. 01308 423031
that bones of a particular family would be taken out for a ceremony and not always correctly replaced. In 3,800 - 3,400 BC the construction and use of causewayed enclosures took place in Britain, which Pryor suggests were not always produced in a single event but made by different families or groups digging their individual ditch segments. Pryor then suggests that this may have been the case with the Stonehenge ditch, which shows signs of frequent re-cutting when possibly later burials of family members were added, including cremation remains. Francis Pryor emphasises that the Stonehenge ditch was its earliest feature, surrounding the site and now only a slight depression in the grass. Radiocarbon dates it from 3,000 2,900 BC. It is not completely regular, but has an internal bank, as with causewayed enclosures. The suggestion that the ditch and banks are earlier than the rest of the monument is often not realised. Offerings have been found in the ditch, only to the west of the main entrance, which to Pryor indicates that the ditch cutting was not centrally controlled, but left perhaps to individual families. However he does suggest that the ditch was planned, based on a central point which must have been marked first. Before any stones were erected at Stonehenge many cremations were buried within the ditch and Pryor says that Stonehenge was one of the largest cremation cemeteries in Neolithic Europe, and by far the largest in Britain, with 63 known cremations and maybe 150 total. Three cremations have provided radiocarbon dates between 3,300 and 2,900 BC. Many cremations were found towards the southern ditch entrance and around the inner ditch bank. Before erection of stones, a number of post-holes have been found, but not in a circular pattern. Some were large. The post-holes have not been found to contain any stone chips, which seems to indicate that the stones arrived after the posts. However posts across the main entrance suggests
