The Neolithic (in a nut shell) (c. 6000 - 4000 B.P.)
The monuments considered in this web site began to appear in a period of history called the Neolithic, often referred to as the new Stone Age. The Neolithic period began when people stopped being nomadic hunters and took up an agricultural way of life. The date when the transition took place cannot be exactly pin pointed and there would have been communities of both hunter-gatherers and farmers living in Britain. The early Neolithic period began around 6000 years ago and lasted for 2000 years. The following periods of time are commonly known as the Bronze and Iron ages. The metal categorisation is misleading as more recent archaeological information has shown that metals particularly copper were in use during the Neolithic and that the bronze and iron ages overlapped.
Moving to farming was not an easy adjustment to make. Farming is harder work than hunter gathering, forests need to be cleared and the fields cultivated. The change must have come about from a need to sustain larger sedentary communities. Some of the earliest areas in the world to be settled in this way have been found in Ireland near the Irish World Hill, ‘Knocknarea’ and further west in the Ceide fields of Mayo. Food would have been plentiful with oysters and shellfish easily collected from Donegal bay. Although currently in debate the oldest monuments in this area could date back almost 9000 years and others have been shown to remain in use into the Iron Age. The coastlines of Britain and Ireland not only provided food but also transportation. Technology travelled with trade and a certain style and approach to life developed specific to these islands.
With settlement came a sense of place and belonging. Community projects began to take place and large-scale civil engineering tasks were undertaken. There is no doubt that the domestication of animals and the use of oxen would have been required to move the megaliths (large stones) they erected.
The type of monument built changed over time, the earliest being the causeway enclosures. These enclosures date back to the earliest stage of Neolithic and consist of large circular ditches with causewayed entrances. The ditches have been dug in sections and then offerings or family mementos of importance placed in each section and covered. Gatherings of people and animals obviously took place and the remains of the feasting then neatly placed in the ditch and covered over. A more detailed description of the archaeology of these sites can be found in the book by Francis Pryor, ‘Britain BC’. I like the idea that these where festival sites were people got together to have a good time; it’s what we like to do today so why should it have been different then. How many of us travel back to our native places for family celebrations at specific times of the year.
The early farmers began building large collective monuments for the dead, a type of burial not found in inland Europe but common on the Atlantic seaboard from Spain to Sweden. The earliest of these communal tombs can be found in Brittany. Boats would have been the fastest way to travel and the Atlantic coastline appears to have been a busy seaway. In Bryan Sykes book, ‘Blood of the Isles’, it is proposed that a high proportion of the DNA within Britain and Ireland has a commonality with these regions. These early communal tombs known as long barrows consisted of wooden or stone built chambers, which were then covered over by a long mound of earth. Some of the chambers are very impressive and often seem to have been used for many centuries. The bones found in these tombs are normally disarticulated and incomplete and would have been brought to the barrow after the body had first decomposed elsewhere. Located overlooking the fields of the settlement the long barrows would have linked the living through their ancestors to the land. As time moved on singular complete burials or cremation became common and grave goods began to be interred with the dead. This burial type is known as a round barrow. It is most likely that the size and location of the tumuli reflected the status of the individual and can be anything from 50m in diameter to a small cairn of stones. Monuments seem to have attracted burials, examples of these are the large round barrows around Stonehenge which most likely hold the remains of the community leaders or kings. There is one more type of barrow, the ring barrow, and the ring cairn, these have been shown to house predominantly female burials.
The most intriguing monuments and the ones which attract most attention and speculation are the circles. These monuments again are specific to these islands and the people who lived here. The first built, date back to the neolithic and continued to be built or modified through to the bronze age. Styles vary in time and location, some have central pillars, others rings within rings, a recumbent block, a rubble bank, outliers, avenues, some are well spaced others close together. Many circles have been destroyed for building materials or by zealots, others still stand. Not all areas would have had sufficient sources of local stone so they either imported or construct from other materials such as wood. Unfortunately the wooden monuments have rotted away and in most cases the traces have been ploughed away by modern agricultural machinery. However just a few have been found such as Woodhenge and Seahenge. A henge is a specific type of circle that consists of a circular ditch and outer raised bank. The term henge is derived from Stonehenge and most likely originates from a Saxon description or name for the monument 'Stoneheng' meaning hanging stone. Nevertheless the term henge now describes this type of circular earthwork. Many of these circles would have required a colossal amount of work and are great feats of civil engineering. Circles like Avebury, Stonehenge, Stanton Drew and Clannish took many life times to plan and build. The impressive part is not just the surplus man effort and infrastructure to enable these works but that the people planned and carried out an activity on a time-scale that would require many life times. Something I doubt we could achieve today. The ditch alone at Avebury would have taken around 19 million man hours to construct. Stonehenge was built in stages expanded taken down and rebuilt. Like Stonehenge some of the later circles have been shown to have astronomical alignments. These could have acted as calenders ensuring farming tasks, the festival or fair took place at the appropriate time. Nearly all the circles I have visited have clear 360º panoramas and perhaps an alignment to a valley or hill. Perhaps these were the community meeting place, the court room or the location of weddings. Based on the amount of effort that went into their construction, like a town hall, I believe they would have had multiple uses. The classic gazetteer for stone circles is Aubrey Burl's book , 'A guide to the stone circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany'.
Towards the end of the bronze age a change occurred and the construction of monuments and circles seems to have ceased. The way of life moved on. I doubt that the sites would have been totally abandoned or dismantled. But to maintain and upkeep monuments of this scale would have been a significant effort and the likes of Stonehenge began to decay. These would have become ancient places surrounded by folk law and myth. The sacred landscapes and monuments began to be divided up into farms and the graves were no longer as spectacular. By the time the Romans landed in this country 1500 years had passed since the building work at Stonehenge had been abandoned.
So what about the Druids and their involvement in the building of stone circles? This is essentially accidental and is based on the thoughts of the 18th century antiquarian William Stukeley. Realising that the monuments where older than the Roman occupation he accredited it to the people described in the Roman writings. Stukeley went on to form the British order of the Druids a sort of old boys club. Nevertheless this raised the profile of the monuments and even influenced architectural design such as the crescent in Bath. Today the circles, barrows and earthworks remain as a reminder of the way the people of the past changed the landscape in which they lived. What ever your interest is, whether archaeological, new age or a biker druid from Liverpool visiting these sites makes for an interesting day out and provides an insight into the people who once lived on the islands of Albion and Eire.