Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – Stonehenge is widely known as one of the crucial well-known historical stone circles, but it isn’t the one Neolithic round construction created by our ancestors. In truth, comparable historical formations, some even older, have been found at numerous websites. Latest analysis highlights that Flagstones in Dorset dates again to three,200 BC and supplies new insights into the origins of monumental structure through the Neolithic interval.
Credit score: Greaney S, Hajdas I, Dee M, Marshall P., Antiquity
Archaeological investigations on the prehistoric burial web site often called Flagstones have recognized it as Britain’s earliest identified massive round enclosure. Located close to Dorchester, this monument has been redated to round 3,200 BC—roughly two centuries sooner than beforehand estimated—because of superior radiocarbon evaluation of artifacts discovered there, together with human stays, pink deer antlers, and charcoal. This evaluation signifies that Flagstones may need served as a prototype for later monuments comparable to Stonehenge.
Flagstones enclosure seen shortly after building within the center Neolithic interval. Reconstruction by Jennie Anderson.
“Flagstones is an uncommon monument; a wonderfully round ditched enclosure, with burials and cremations related to it,” says Dr Susan Greaney, a specialist in Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments, in Exeter’s Division of Archaeology and Historical past. “In some respects, it appears to be like like monuments that come earlier, which we name causewayed enclosures, and in others, it appears to be like a bit like issues that come later that we name henges. However we didn’t know the place it sat between a majority of these monuments – and the revised chronology locations it in an ancient times than we anticipated.”
Aerial shot of excavation of Flagstones – courtesy of Dorset Museum
Flagstones was uncovered within the Nineteen Eighties through the building of the Dorchester bypass. Excavations revealed that it consists of a round ditch, 100 meters in diameter, produced from intersecting pits and certain accompanied by an earthwork financial institution. At the moment, half of this web site is beneath the bypass, whereas the opposite half lies beneath Max Gate, Thomas Hardy’s former residence now owned by the Nationwide Belief. Flagstones is acknowledged as a scheduled monument with its artifacts and excavation data preserved at Dorset Museum.
The location contained not less than 4 burials inside its enclosure pits: one cremated grownup and three non-cremated kids. Moreover, there have been three partial cremations of adults discovered elsewhere on-site. Resulting from its resemblance to Stonehenge’s preliminary part relationship again to round 2900 BC, it was initially assumed that Flagstones is likely to be from an analogous interval.
Credit score: College of Exeter
A brand new scientific relationship program led by Dr. Greaney and Dr. Peter Marshall—previously Scientific Relationship Coordinator at Historic England—concerned collaboration with laboratories at ETH Zürich and the College of Groningen, leading to 23 new radiocarbon measurements being obtained for additional evaluation.
By integrating radiocarbon relationship with archaeological findings, it has been decided that early Neolithic actions, comparable to pit digging, occurred round 3650 BC. Following a big hiatus of a number of centuries, a round ditched enclosure was constructed round 3200 BC, and burials had been promptly carried out inside this area. Notably, roughly 1,000 years after the enclosure’s preliminary use, a subsequent burial of a younger grownup male came about beneath a big sarsen stone on the middle of the location.
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“The chronology of Flagstones is crucial for understanding the altering sequence of ceremonial and funeral monuments in Britain,” stated Dr Greaney. “The ‘sister’ monument to Flagstones is Stonehenge, whose first part is sort of similar, nevertheless it dates to round 2900 BC. Might Stonehenge have been a duplicate of Flagstones? Or do these findings counsel our present relationship of Stonehenge may want revision?”
Flagstones supplies insights into connections with different notable websites, comparable to Llandygái ‘Henge’ A in Gwynedd, Wales, and particular areas in Eire. That is urged by the artefacts and burial practices found. These findings underscore the interconnectedness of Neolithic communities throughout Britain and past, illustrating a community of cultural trade throughout that interval.
The examine was printed within the journal Antiquity
Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Workers Author
