Probably long before there were stone henges there were wooden henges, just posts. |
|
The three banked and ditched circular enclosures or henges are scheduled ancient monuments and rival the World Heritage site Stonehenge. |
|
Making monuments, henges, and stone circles required an immense amount of labour and the coordination of effort. |
|
The henges are ancient monuments made up of circular earthworks, each 260 yards in diameter. |
|
The henges represent the largest collection of Neolithic monuments outside southern England. |
|
Standing stones and circles, henges, cup-marked stones and dolmens have intrigued us for generations, but there is little real evidence of their true purpose. |
|
Water infatuation is implicit in the location of many henges, while the massive palisaded enclosures at West Kennet, partly visible from Silbury, straddled the Kennet. |
|
Excavations in 1870 revealed a primary inhumation burial accompanied by a food vessel, a flint scraper, and a flint knife suggesting a date slightly later than the henges. |
|
Processions and alignments were important in henges and stone circles. |
|
Dr Harding says the henges are a mirror image of Orion in its highest position with the southern entrances framing Sirius as it appeared over the horizon. |
|
As with ordinary henges, they are thought to have served ritual purposes and are thought to be of late Neolithic date. |
|
Archaeologists define henges as earthworks consisting of a circular banked enclosure with an internal ditch. |
|
There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. |
|
A henge should not be confused with a stone circle within it, as henges and stone circles can exist together or separately. |
|
He notes that henges and the grooved ware pottery often found at them are two examples of the British Neolithic not found on the Continent. |
|
But as henges are present from the extreme north to the extreme south of Britain, their latitude could not have been of great importance. |
|
Henge enclosures often contain or lie close to one or more ordinary henges. |
|
The stone circles, henges, cairns and other standing stones in the area are often grouped at nodes of communication routes. |
|
This was achieved through placing flanking stones or avenues at entrances of some henges, or by dividing up the internal space using timber circles. |
|
Finally, some henges appear to be placed at particular latitudes. |
|
|
It has been suggested that the stone and timber structures sometimes built inside henges were used as solar declinometers to measure the position of the rising or setting sun. |
|
Neolithic people in the British Isles built long barrows and chamber tombs for their dead and causewayed camps, henges, flint mines and cursus monuments. |
|
Henges sometimes formed part of a ritual landscape or complex, with other Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments inside and outside the henge. |
|