Posted on 05/10/2014 2:20:13 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Giant bull, wild boar and red deer bones left at a settlement a mile from Stonehenge prove that Amesbury is the oldest settlement in Britain and has been continually occupied since 8820 BC, according to archaeologists who say the giant monuments were built by indigenous hunters and homemakers rather than Neolithic new builders.
Carbon dating of aurochs – a breed twice the size of bulls – predates the settlers responsible for the massive pine posts at Stonehenge, suggesting that people had first lived in Wiltshire around 3,000 years before the site was created in 3000 BC. Experts had previously thought the stones had been the work of European immigrants.
“The site blows the lid off the Neolithic Revolution in a number of ways,” said David Jacques, from the University of Buckingham, who led the dig at Vespasian’s Camp in the open basin of Blick Mead.
“It provides evidence for people staying put, clearing land, building and, presumably, worshipping monuments.
“The area was clearly a hub point for people to come to from many miles away, and in many ways was a forerunner for what later went on at Stonehenge itself.
“The first monuments at Stonehenge were built by these people.
"For years people have been asking 'why is Stonehenge where it is?' Now, at last, we have found the answers.”
Land clearing had been considered part of the farming culture introduced by continental Neolithic immigrants during the 5th millennium. The finds date clearances around an area of the spring to between 7500 and 4600 BC, when Mesolithic culture had been seen as nomadic.
“In effect, Blick Mead was the very first Stonehenge Visitor Centre, up and running in the 8th millennium BC,” said Jacques.
“The River Avon would have been the ‘A’ Road – people would have come down on their log boats.
“They would have had the equivalent of tour guides and there would have been feasting.
"We have found remains of big game animals, such as aurochs and red deer, and an enormous amount of burnt flint from their feasting fires. There’s also evidence for a multi-cultural population at the site.”
Around 31,000 Mesolithic worked flints were found in a 16-square metre during excavations lasting little more than a month.
“Tool types suggest people were coming to it from far to the west of Stonehenge and from the east,” added Jacques. “Another possible reason why people were attracted to the area was the striking bright pink colouring of the flint, which isn’t that colour anywhere else in the country.
“The colouring is caused by algae - Hildenbrandia rivularis - and it is due to a combination of dappled light and the unusually warm spring water in the area.
“It’s unique to have people of that time come from so many different faraway places. The site and the Stonehenge areas were very well-known places to visit for a very long time – the London of the Mesolithic.”
Professor David John, of the Natural History Museum, said that the constant spring water temperature at the site would have been between 10 and 14 degrees, giving the flint its pink tinge once it had been removed from the stream for several hours.
“It is a rather magical effect now,” said Jacques. “It may well have been seen so back then.”
So you add this up. Avon River runs through twenty-odd communities north and south of Amesbury. The folks around Amesbury have a herd of Auroch cows....a predominantly pre-historic breed, which is a pretty LARGE cow. All in existence at 8,820 BC (ten thousand years ago). It’s the dawn of a radical breed of man....who doesn’t wander around much and has taken to a stable life, real comforts, and trading (the first signs of capitalism).
The guys in Amesbury realize they’ve got the beef, and the trade...so build onto the commercial side. You throw up some stones, talk of moon cycles and mystic powers, and you got yourself a five-star draw. Folks come from days and weeks away....to see the whole thing, and munch down on some pretty good Auroch beef....grilled to perfection. Toss in some ale, and locally distilled whiskey, and it’s a man’s tourism dream.
Well, was it infested with Muslims and denizens of other third world crapholes as in London today?
So your saying it might be better to call it, the first ‘Euro Disney’?
Hotel room was very nice. Wifi in rooms is something that should be readily available in 8838BC, not just common areas. The restaurant was beyond disappointing. Staff were terrible. We were sat at a table for four - there were 2 of us and our infant in a high chair. Extra place settings including all flint knives were left on table and never removed (made worse given we had a small child). We were not asked if we would like more drinks. When waiter asked about our food he did so rushing by our table and didn’t even look at us for a reply. The aurochs was inedible and we left most of it. There was enough salt in it for a month supply. After sitting with napkins on plates and a crying baby for 10 min unable to get the attention of staff my husband and baby left the table so we wouldn’t miss the sacrifice at 8. I waited a further 5 min before moving to the lounge. Eventually I was able to get the waiter who said, I’d just asked my colleagues if you’d asked for the bill. The service was so terrible it is unlikely we will ever return to a Stonehenge Inn.
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5 out of 5
If you said, 7,500 years ago...”Jim, there’s this great valley three days walking from here...lots of ale, XXL beef-steaks, and some mystic ceremony stuff, and we only need to trade a bushel or two of apples for two days of excitement and adventure”.....man, I’d join up with you and do the Amesbury walk.
Go look at Loch Ness....tens of thousands of folks come monthly...just to look at some lake with a wannabe lake monster, and some local ale. The Brits know how to market and do it well.
Oh yeah! It has been known for a while now that Stonehenge was a pilgrimage sight (much later in time then we are talking about). I am sure the destination was awesome and there were tourist traps every step of the way...
Bring it on. I love tourists traps. No into the collectible spoons. I like the magnets, and I gotta have the t-shirt.
Does it strike you as odd that the level of astronomical knowledge, social organization and sophistication of ceremony was already in place at what is supposed to be the inception of civilization?
We call that "ice".
Throw in the mystical medical tourism industry aspect and you really have a home run destination.
In ancient times...
Hundreds of years before the dawn of history
Lived a strange race of people... the Druids
No one knows who they were or what they were doing
But their legacy remains
Hewn into the living rock... Of Stonehenge
and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats . . . .
I presume they mean 10 and 14 degrees Celsius which equates to 50 to about 57 degrees Fahrenheit.
David St. Hubbins: I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem *may* have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being *crushed* by a *dwarf*. Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object.
Ian Faith: I really think you're just making much too big a thing out of it.
Derek Smalls: Making a big thing out of it would have been a good idea.
There are no astronomical alignments at Stonehenge, that’s just a myth that arose from the Gerald Hawkins book.
OTOH, the age of these types of structures are pretty daunting to those who still hold with a fairly recent and rapid rise of our civilization’s roots in the great river basins, not least because the characters from the old Euro writing systems are found among the *cave paintings*.
Can you point to a site about what you mean?
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