Sunday 7 May had been a glorious warm and sunny day but as the 25 of us assembled at Stonehenge for entry into the womb of the monument at 6.30 p.m. the sky had darkened and rain was threatening. Rosemary Wyeth, principal Stonehenge guide of the Guide Friday Tour Company led everybody in, and as she began her usual energetic and mobile lecture Peter Glastonbury and Terence Meaden moved aside to carry out observational research of their own. Pete wanted to obtain a full panoramic view from the inside of the monument. Terence wanted to study the surfaces of the four sides of trilithon stone 54, in particular close-up aspects of the western side with its carved face. Rosemary began her lecture at the edge of the circular earthwork that surrounds the monument, and then moved to the Heel Stone and Slaughter Stone before entering the circles from the direction of the midsummer sunrise. She explained the meaning of the sunrise axis as interpreted by Terence who has studied the symbolism and religions of ancient agricultural peoples in some depth. His explanation is based on the concept of Divine Marriage between Earth Mother (the stones of Stonehenge with its focal stone the Altar Stone) and Sky Father (the light and heat energy of the rising sun) which is completed by the intermediary of the Heel Stone involving actual visible consummation of the Heel Stone’s shadow with the Womb Stone (Altar Stone). Everyone then entered the ‘womb’ to arrive at this stone --- the sacred hub of the stone arrangements, the raison d’etre of the building programme. Soon after this the first thunder was heard, and in the course of the next 15 minutes the frequency of thunder rose as a lightning storm approached from the east. Until about 7 o’clock photography had been no problem (Pete got his panoramic views very well), but quickly the light became too poor for further good photography. Light rain started falling but it became heavy only from about 7.20. The trilithon arches provided some shelter for a while, but towards 7.30 everyone was willing to get away from the open plain and seek the shelter of their cars. Many of us met again down in Amesbury where we enjoyed a meal together.
EXCURSION number 5. THE NEOLITHIC-EARLY BRONZE AGE EXCURSION OF 29 APRIL 2000
THE MEGALITHIC SOCIETY AT THE STONEHENGE: THE CURSUS (why was it built?), THE AVENUE, THE ROUND BARROWS, AND ROBIN HOOD’S BALL CAUSEWAYED ENCLOSURE.
The weather for this Saturday outing of the Megalithic Society was again excellent -- warm and almost cloud-free throughout, as it was three weeks earlier when we walked the entire lengths of the Kennet and Beckhampton Avenues at Avebury.
The Round Barrows by the Cursus Starting from the Stonehenge car park with its markings of the sites of pine-tree post-holes known to be between 9000 and 10 000 years old over ten of us set off at 11 a.m. for the bell barrows which are ranged along the southern side of the Stonehenge Cursus. These are well-preserved examples from the Early Bronze Age and included two which were ‘dug into’ by William Stukeley almost 300 years ago. At these and the other barrows visited that day reference was made to Leslie Grinsell’s booklet The Stonehenge Barrow Groups [ca 1978] concerning the contents of the barrows as known from antiquarian and modern excavations.
The Cursus Panoramic Photo The Stonehenge Cursus We then followed the southern edge of the Neolithic Cursus westwards to the remains of the much denuded Cursus Terminal (SU 109 429). But for the intervention of Julian Richards in the late 1980s who restored the terminal to its 1920s state, nothing would be seen of this terminal today, for it had been flattened earlier this century by the manoeuvres of the military. The Stonehenge Cursus is 2700 metres long and 100 metres wide at the terminals (maximum width 130 metres). To construct it in the third millennium BCE the people cut ditches into the chalk bedrock that were some 2 metres deep, 2 metres wide and a total of 5600 metres in length. It is likely that many thousands of trees were in the way as well. What could have motivated this huge endeavour? Indeed, how did it come about that communities throughout Neolithic Britain felt a need to have a cursus of their own, because over 100 cursuses are known to have been made - many of them over difficult ground, several of them crossing water courses? A New Hypothesis: Until recently no testable proposal has been put forward. Only simple statements like "possibly a ceremonial processional way" or "athletics race course" or "hippodrome" have been made. But Dr Terence Meaden has set out at length a case for cursuses being prepared as memorial sites for tornado-ground-contact tracks, and that they were created in an epoch when the community believed in a Sky Father and an Earth Mother as part of their religion. The Florida Indians, the Cuban Indians and others are known, as a result of research interviews by anthropologists, to have adored the terrifying tornado funnel because they viewed it as the Sky God’s phallus. A similar belief could have been held throughout Neolithic Britain including the society living in the vicinity of Stonehenge. References and details are given in "Stonehenge: The Secret of the Solstice" (1997) and "The Stonehenge Solution" (1992), and summarised in http://www.stonehenge-avebury.net Tornadoes are not uncommon in Britain as a whole, although rare at any one place. On average 35 tornadoes a year are reported in Britain. Most British tornadoes track from W to E or from SW to NE, which is the same trend as for the cursuses. In fact, wind-direction roses and cursus-direction roses are so similar that one cannot tell them apart (loc. cit.). Seeing that tornado funnels tear down thousands of trees when passing through woodland, one can appreciate that the labour of cursus building is greatly diminished if carried out along the track left by the tornado. The tornado’s ‘phallus’ has done the hardest work for nothing - i.e. as a ‘divine gift’. In terms of early religious belief (note that a knowledge of ancient religions and ‘primitive’ symbolism is useful for helping to solve problems of the ancient world), it is proposed that the descent from the sky of a tornado to the ground may have been construed as the point of interaction --- equivalent to Sacred Marriage or Consummation --- between Sky and Earth or Sky Father and Earth Mother. This could have been reason enough to compel communities to record for posterity the place where the Sky God had descended to earth -- by marking out the area of contact for the purpose of future ceremonies and establishing land claims for their descendants for ever after. As regards the vicinity of Stonehenge, the last tornado to strike nearby went through a plantation in Figheldean in 1979, leaving a track some 50 metres wide with square ends at the points of entry and exit into the plantation. Next, the group walked the full length of the Stonehenge Cursus (2.7 km), and stood on top of the long barrow (SU 136 432) perpendicular to it just east of the Eastern Terminal but which is now a lane (i.e. the lane follows along the top of the length of the barrow (partly excavated by Julian Richards in the 1980s). Stonehenge Avenue and Bluestone Fragments We followed the lane passing the Old King Barrows until we reached the New King Barrows close to which is the line of the Stonehenge Avenue. At this point we were 1.5 km from Stonehenge as measured along the course of the Avenue which we wanted to follow next. After only 80 metres or so Eileen had a stroke of good fortune. Thrown out by energetic moles there lay exposed in molehills in the middle of the Avenue two pieces of bluestone, both spotted dolerite and weighing circa 120 g together (SU 1335 4250). Much farther on, as the Heel Stone was neared, two smaller pieces of bluestone were found (by Mark and Pete). One was spotted dolerite, the other possibly rhyolite. Terence Meaden suggested, by the way, in his 1992 book The Stonehenge Solution that bluestones may have lined a section of the avenue during the long rebuilding period of Stonehenge when the great sarsens were arriving and being prepared. Was the straight section of the avenue a Bluestone Avenue? The Face on Trilithon 54 The time was 2 p.m., so we rested for lunch and then visited the stones of Stonehenge. The weather being so sunny the time of day was optimal for witnessing the carving of the distinguished face which is then clearly visible on the west-facing side of Trilithon Stone 54. The Barrows of Normanton Down At 3.15 p.m. we left Stonehenge, again on foot, for the barrows of Normanton Down, almost 2 km south of the monument. The well-preserved disc barrows are best seen in the winter or early spring when the grass does not interfere with their beauty as happens later (SU 114 410). Nearby is Bush Barrow, the huge bowl barrow that was raided by Cunnington and his men in the early nineteenth century. The rich interment was that of a man aligned north-south, but, unlike so many others, the head was to the south instead of to the north. The other barrows in this group embraced all species apart from pond barrows for which a visit to the cemetery at nearby Winterbourne Stoke Crossroads (SU 100 415) is warranted (not visited on this day). Normanton Down Barrows Group Robin Hood’s Ball Causewayed Camp To end the day, we went by car from Stonehenge north-westwards to the Bustard Hotel on the Downs and then another kilometre to the Neolithic causewayed enclosure called Robin Hood’s Ball (SU 102 460). This interesting double-banked site enclosing some 7.5 acres has at last been fenced round to ensure that tanks and military vehicles no longer cross it. The protected site is used as a sheep penning so the grass is short and the earthworks more visible now than they have been for a long time. A paper reporting the results of a small-scale excavation by Nicholas Thomas was published in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, vol. 59, 1-27 in 1964. And so the day ended, the sun still shining strongly, at 6.15 p.m.
Panoramic Photo
The Stonehenge Cursus We then followed the southern edge of the Neolithic Cursus westwards to the remains of the much denuded Cursus Terminal (SU 109 429). But for the intervention of Julian Richards in the late 1980s who restored the terminal to its 1920s state, nothing would be seen of this terminal today, for it had been flattened earlier this century by the manoeuvres of the military. The Stonehenge Cursus is 2700 metres long and 100 metres wide at the terminals (maximum width 130 metres). To construct it in the third millennium BCE the people cut ditches into the chalk bedrock that were some 2 metres deep, 2 metres wide and a total of 5600 metres in length. It is likely that many thousands of trees were in the way as well. What could have motivated this huge endeavour? Indeed, how did it come about that communities throughout Neolithic Britain felt a need to have a cursus of their own, because over 100 cursuses are known to have been made - many of them over difficult ground, several of them crossing water courses?
A New Hypothesis: Until recently no testable proposal has been put forward. Only simple statements like "possibly a ceremonial processional way" or "athletics race course" or "hippodrome" have been made. But Dr Terence Meaden has set out at length a case for cursuses being prepared as memorial sites for tornado-ground-contact tracks, and that they were created in an epoch when the community believed in a Sky Father and an Earth Mother as part of their religion. The Florida Indians, the Cuban Indians and others are known, as a result of research interviews by anthropologists, to have adored the terrifying tornado funnel because they viewed it as the Sky God’s phallus. A similar belief could have been held throughout Neolithic Britain including the society living in the vicinity of Stonehenge. References and details are given in "Stonehenge: The Secret of the Solstice" (1997) and "The Stonehenge Solution" (1992), and summarised in http://www.stonehenge-avebury.net
Tornadoes are not uncommon in Britain as a whole, although rare at any one place. On average 35 tornadoes a year are reported in Britain. Most British tornadoes track from W to E or from SW to NE, which is the same trend as for the cursuses. In fact, wind-direction roses and cursus-direction roses are so similar that one cannot tell them apart (loc. cit.). Seeing that tornado funnels tear down thousands of trees when passing through woodland, one can appreciate that the labour of cursus building is greatly diminished if carried out along the track left by the tornado. The tornado’s ‘phallus’ has done the hardest work for nothing - i.e. as a ‘divine gift’. In terms of early religious belief (note that a knowledge of ancient religions and ‘primitive’ symbolism is useful for helping to solve problems of the ancient world), it is proposed that the descent from the sky of a tornado to the ground may have been construed as the point of interaction --- equivalent to Sacred Marriage or Consummation --- between Sky and Earth or Sky Father and Earth Mother. This could have been reason enough to compel communities to record for posterity the place where the Sky God had descended to earth -- by marking out the area of contact for the purpose of future ceremonies and establishing land claims for their descendants for ever after. As regards the vicinity of Stonehenge, the last tornado to strike nearby went through a plantation in Figheldean in 1979, leaving a track some 50 metres wide with square ends at the points of entry and exit into the plantation.
Next, the group walked the full length of the Stonehenge Cursus (2.7 km), and stood on top of the long barrow (SU 136 432) perpendicular to it just east of the Eastern Terminal but which is now a lane (i.e. the lane follows along the top of the length of the barrow (partly excavated by Julian Richards in the 1980s).
Stonehenge Avenue and Bluestone Fragments We followed the lane passing the Old King Barrows until we reached the New King Barrows close to which is the line of the Stonehenge Avenue. At this point we were 1.5 km from Stonehenge as measured along the course of the Avenue which we wanted to follow next. After only 80 metres or so Eileen had a stroke of good fortune. Thrown out by energetic moles there lay exposed in molehills in the middle of the Avenue two pieces of bluestone, both spotted dolerite and weighing circa 120 g together (SU 1335 4250). Much farther on, as the Heel Stone was neared, two smaller pieces of bluestone were found (by Mark and Pete). One was spotted dolerite, the other possibly rhyolite. Terence Meaden suggested, by the way, in his 1992 book The Stonehenge Solution that bluestones may have lined a section of the avenue during the long rebuilding period of Stonehenge when the great sarsens were arriving and being prepared. Was the straight section of the avenue a Bluestone Avenue?
The Face on Trilithon 54 The time was 2 p.m., so we rested for lunch and then visited the stones of Stonehenge. The weather being so sunny the time of day was optimal for witnessing the carving of the distinguished face which is then clearly visible on the west-facing side of Trilithon Stone 54.
The Barrows of Normanton Down At 3.15 p.m. we left Stonehenge, again on foot, for the barrows of Normanton Down, almost 2 km south of the monument. The well-preserved disc barrows are best seen in the winter or early spring when the grass does not interfere with their beauty as happens later (SU 114 410). Nearby is Bush Barrow, the huge bowl barrow that was raided by Cunnington and his men in the early nineteenth century. The rich interment was that of a man aligned north-south, but, unlike so many others, the head was to the south instead of to the north. The other barrows in this group embraced all species apart from pond barrows for which a visit to the cemetery at nearby Winterbourne Stoke Crossroads (SU 100 415) is warranted (not visited on this day).
Normanton Down Barrows Group
Robin Hood’s Ball Causewayed Camp To end the day, we went by car from Stonehenge north-westwards to the Bustard Hotel on the Downs and then another kilometre to the Neolithic causewayed enclosure called Robin Hood’s Ball (SU 102 460). This interesting double-banked site enclosing some 7.5 acres has at last been fenced round to ensure that tanks and military vehicles no longer cross it. The protected site is used as a sheep penning so the grass is short and the earthworks more visible now than they have been for a long time. A paper reporting the results of a small-scale excavation by Nicholas Thomas was published in Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, vol. 59, 1-27 in 1964. And so the day ended, the sun still shining strongly, at 6.15 p.m.