Within the late Nineteen Fifties, a Dutch archeologist visited Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument in southern England. The large stone circle wouldn’t be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Website for one other three a long time, and there weren’t swarms of vacationers or a protecting fence.
The archeologist was the one one round that day. He parked his automotive on the aspect of the street and walked as much as the large stone circle. The world appeared distant, virtually deserted.
Scientists now know that when Stonehenge was first constructed 1000’s of years in the past, it was not remoted. It was a part of an space with different monuments, and scientists imagine it buzzed with building and different exercise.
However what in regards to the time earlier than Stonehenge? Was the realm wooded? Partially wooded? Or an expansive area very best for monument constructing? And what did that imply for the hunter-gatherer societies that when referred to as the realm residence?
Understanding an Icon
Many historians and archeologists think about Stonehenge an “icon” of British historical past. Regardless of its legendary standing, a lot in regards to the memorial has been misunderstood. As a result of it presently stands alone in open fields, many individuals lengthy assumed it was all the time set aside from human exercise.
Stonehenge was in-built what’s now Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. Scientists have come to grasp that Stonehenge was constructed in phases round 4,000-5,000 years in the past, and it was one among a number of different monuments within the neighborhood.
The opposite monuments have been created from much less sturdy supplies, equivalent to timber, they usually decayed after a number of centuries. Some, equivalent to a construction constructed close to the River Avon, have been additionally manufactured from stone however have been dismantled by prehistoric folks inside centuries of their building.
Stonehenge has lengthy been the final monument standing, and it has captured imaginations for 1000’s of years. Within the twelfth century, Historical past of the Kings of Britain described Stonehenge’s origins and claimed the stones got here from Eire and have become a part of a monument meant to honor the Britons killed by Saxons. Scientists now name this legend “fantasy,” partly as a result of the Saxons didn’t arrive till millennia later.
Though scientists can now separate Stonehenge truth from fiction, many unanswered questions stay. However there seems to be a promising reply for a query researchers have lengthy thought-about urgent — what was the realm like for historic hunters and gatherers earlier than the famed monument was erected?
Land Earlier than Time
In line with a 2022 research in Plos One, researchers have been in a position to get a greater thought of what the land round Stonehenge possible appeared like whereas hunter-gatherer societies nonetheless lived within the space.
To be taught extra about life pre-Stonehenge, a gaggle of researchers reconstructed the environmental situations. They examined animal stays, sedimentary DNA and different preserved historic samples equivalent to pollen and spores. Additionally they used optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon relationship to find out what the land resembled from 5,500 B.C. to 4,000 B.C.
One of many researchers’ main pursuits was figuring out whether or not the realm was open and conducive to animal grazing (like it’s now), partially wooded or as earlier research had recommended, completely lined in a cover forest.
By reconstructing the environmental situations, the researchers discovered the hunter-gatherers within the late Mesolithic interval would have almost certainly been in a partially-wooded space. Their evaluation discovered the realm was in a clearing of deciduous woodland inhabited for 1000’s of years by deer, cattle and the early individuals who hunted them.
This implies the earliest-known farmers within the space have been utilizing partially-open habitats that had already been utilized by earlier human populations. Thus, the land was lengthy useful to inhabitants earlier than Stonehenge was a factor. Stonehenge was then constructed in an area that was already partially cleared.
These partially cleared areas could have been very best grazing grounds for bigger herbivores equivalent to crimson deer, wild boar and aurochs — an extinct bovine species. Historic bones from aurochs have been discovered close to Stonehenge, together with fish bones, which possible contributed to the weight loss program of hunter-gatherers. In line with the research, this space could have served as a residence base for hunter-gatherers.
The discovering makes the monument much more useful to researchers who need to be taught extra in regards to the interactions between early farmers within the area and the hunter-gatherer societies they ultimately changed.
