Ancient Village Unearthed Near Stonehenge

cityhunter007 writes to point out coverage on CNN.com about an ancient village discovered two miles from Stonehenge that may have housed workers building the monument, or perhaps visitors after it was constructed. The village, at a site known as Durrington Walls, dates from about the time Stonehenge was built, 2600 BCE. The article says: "The researchers speculated that Durrington Walls was a place for the living and Stonehenge — where cremated remains have been found — was a cemetery and memorial... Stonehenge was oriented to face the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset, while the wooden circle at Durrington Walls faced the midwinter sunrise and midsummer sunset."

The Druids

[ENOENT (25325)]

Nobody knows who they were
Or what they were doing...

(But they did have the sense to make Stonehenge a bit taller than 18".)

Re:The Druids

[by Anonymous Coward]

Stonehenge!
Where the demons dwell
Where the banshees live and they do live well
Stonehenge!
Where a man is a man
and the children dance to the pipes of pan
Stonehenge!
Tis a magic place
where the moon doth rise with a dragon's face
Stonehenge!
Where the virgins lie
and the prayer of devils fill the midnight sky

And you my love, won't you take my hand
We'll go back in time to that mystic land
Where the dew drops cry and the cats meow
I will take you there
I will show you how

Re:The Druids

[Opportunist (166417)]

But these are not the Druids you're looking for.

(Yes I know, lame joke and not in context, but then, how often do you think you get the chance to post that joke on /.?)

Sinister

[Lord Prox (521892)]

FTA: an ancient village discovered two miles from Stonehenge that may have housed workers building the monument, or perhaps visitors after it was constructed.

No, it was something far more sinister. The SPLA: Stonehenge Project Licensing Authority official gift shoppe.

A friend of mine. Silulu. Hot Polynesian Geek Chick. [scitechpulse.com]

Re:Sinister

[kfg (145172)]

The SPLA: Stonehenge Project Licensing Authority official gift shoppe.

"My parents visited Stonehenge and all I got was this lousy cloak"

KFG

Re:

[Darby (84953)]

How long ago was the birth of Christ?

Error: NAN
There never was such a person. [rationalrevolution.net] Not even to the people alive at that time.

Re:

[Darby (84953)]

So, in 30 minutes you read that whole (long) article, examined the vast amount of research documented in the footnotes ( you couldn't claim "poorly researched" otherwise) , ignored all of that documentation which *you* just claimed was "poorly researched" (you couldn't claim "unsubstantiated" otherwise) and then go on to claim that, due to you contradicting yourself in one simple sentence, he must be some wacko conspiracy theorist?

Wow, you're truly amazing. Not only do you make no sense (you'd have given a

Re:

[CmdrGravy (645153)]

The junk mainly. I think they would probably prefer to be known as Wyirdoes but I destroy them too when I come across them.

Finally!

[DaveJay (133437)]

Now we will truly know how well the banshees lived; that they did live well. Stonehenge!

A place for the living?

[sczimme (603413)]

The article calls Durrington Walls a "place for the living"? The houses appear to have been abandoned while still intact, given the artefacts found within them.

Silly question: where did everyone go?

Re:A place for the living?

[QuantumG (50515)]

It's pretty obvious isn't it? The wind knocked over one of the stones. One of the Druids came back and told a few of his mates over a beer. The word got around and people figured the sky was falling, so they ran for the hills.

And with absolutely no evidence either way, that story is as good as any other.

Re:

[Mongoose (8480)]

Pro'lly the bleed'n Romans, mate. BUGGER ALL!

Re:A place for the living?

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

Silly question: where did everyone go?

More importantly, does anyone know who they were, or what they were doing?

Re:A place for the living?

[Bluesman (104513)]

I think the problem just may have been that they were in danger of being trampled by a dwarf.

Re:

[kfg (145172)]

Silly question: where did everyone go?

Brighton.

KFG

Re:

[jd (1658)]

Well, I wouldn't get too caught up in the theories from the archaeologists on this. The buildings are associated with Stonehenge by proximity in time and location, but only just. The area is littered with relics from the past (Avebury - which makes Stonehenge look like a roadside memorial, Silbury Hill - one of the largest man-made hills of ancient times, Woodhenge, the White Horse, the Giant, a veritable forest of longbarrows and roundbarrows, a giant meeting center roughly a hundred feet high and twice th

Re:A place for the living?

[TapeCutter (624760)]

"The history of the area is confusing, though less because of the facts and more because of a desire to dramatize. There really isn't any need to make things sound more amazing than they really are, and all the archaeologists do when they do that is make themselves look stupid to anyone who knows even a little of the history of the region."

One of the "facts" is that the buildings showed no real evidence of people living in them (ie: no domestic waste from "holiday makers"). That kind of shoots down your "I know better than the archeologists" rant that is based on a little knowledge and an apparent predisposition to translate everything into modern cultural terms. Occam's Razor may be good for deciding the simplest theory that explains a particular phenomena but it's is of no real use when talking about human behaviour in a very distant culture. (eg: A rain dance may be performed repeatedly until it rains at which point it is declared to have "worked", the dance is simply a random ritual and as such is more or less immune to a logic tool that removes unessasary random components).

"There really isn't any need to make things sound more amazing than they really are, and all the archaeologists do when they do that is make themselves look stupid to anyone who knows even a little of the history of the region."

I agree that a little knowledge can lead people into wild fantasy, but I don't think that particular problem lies with the archaeologists in this case. The archaeologists evidence for their version of events may be weak, your questions may be pertinent but your bald assertions don't even register.

Maybe it was really a place for the dead?

[Opportunist (166417)]

Quite a few cultures have whole towns for their dead, where they 'live'. And of course they need their usual tools for their everyday (after)life.

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that this was just that: A town for the souls of the deceased.

Stonehenge would be more a place for the living and the worship of the various nature phenomenons that can be observed from various points inside the megalith monument. The stones are aligned with key points of the yearly changes in sunrise and sunset, and a few other

Re:

[chris_sawtell (10326)]

Silly question: where did everyone go?

Perhaps a precursor of H5N1 got them all. I seriously wonder about the wisdom of excavating and opening tombs. Havn't people gotton seriously sick after going into the Pyramids?

Re:

[sumdumass (711423)]

Wouldn't it be ironic if they did find a disease that was killing all these inhabitants and stonhenge was a marker were they burned the infested bodies desinged to leave a reminder never to go back and live there again.

anecdote

[OriginalArlen (726444)]

Nothing to do with Stonehenge per se, just an anecdote. We have a neolithic stone, known as the Long Stone, a ten minute walk down the road from where I'm writing this, which is on the edge of the Wye Valley , right up against the Welsh border. It's a single stone, sticking up at an angle of about 75 degrees, perhaps seven feet tall. A few years ago I had to walk from my village to the nearest town to sign on the dole - a tedious 40 minute slog along unmaintained road verges - but passing the stone, I always felt compelled to reach out and give it a pat. I'm a hardcore, Dawkins-type rationalist, but I don't see any contradiction between that and a consciously irrational but of behaviour like patting the stone... it fits my brain, somehow, and it feels good to be connected with the people who lived here four thousand years ago. Poor bastards, it must have been miserable during the winter nights.

Re:

[CheeseTroll (696413)]

I say that those who mod you down are just jealous!

Re:anecdote

[AlHunt (982887)]

We have a neolithic stone, known as the Long Stone, a ten minute walk down the road from where I'm writing this, ... and it feels good to be connected with the people who lived here four thousand years ago

And, of course, some whistledick modded you down.

Connection to the past is kind of the point of preserving Stone Henge and other historic' places. I live in a house built around 1875 and even that short time is a great connection to the past.

It's easy to stand somewhere like Stonehenge, Long Stone or my parlor and imagine all the people that went before you. It creates a sense of place, of permanence, a sense that long after you're gone people will be standing in the same place doing the same thing you're doing.

Re:

[jd (1658)]

What's so irrational about feeling a degree of kinship with neolithic geeks? Very hardy neolithic geeks, too. There's also an element of the unknown, too, which is something that also tends to appeal to those who are in any way intelligent or curious. And talking of curiosity, I'll bet you almost anything that nobody has carried out even a basic archaeological survey of the area.

Re:

[exp(pi*sqrt(163)) (613870)]

I'll bet you almost anything that nobody has carried out even a basic archaeological survey of the area

Well let's start. Does someone have the coordinates and I'll look it up [nationalgeographic.com] on google...

Re:anecdote

[jd (1658)]

There are 132 neolithic sites at the end of the Wye river, so it took me a while to find. There's a short writeup and some photos at The Modern Antiquarian [themodernantiquarian.com]. The Ordinance Survey coordinates are SO559120, and Yahoo maps places it somewhere along the Gloucester to Monmouth Road [yahoo.com] which I'm taking to be the Little Dean Road/Speech House Road, although the A4151/A4136 would also fit the description. I'm pretty bad at converting the OS system to long/lat, but if you have a calculator that can do that, you'll be better off using those.

The Long Stone description shows no indication of any archaeological findings and a reference by BBC Gloucester only talks about ley lines.

Re:

[TapeCutter (624760)]

I was born in the UK but grew up in Australia, I visited the UK last year for the first time since 1966. I know exactly what you mean, I had a chance to wander through a neolitic village near John O'Groats (the guy at the B&B told us how to find it), it was all overgrown by long grass as it had only recently been excavated and partialy reburried, it was larger and in similar condintion to the nearby Skara Brea (including the Flintstone style furniture). You cannot visit places like that and fail to feel

Re:

[alan_dershowitz (586542)]

I want to thank you for your thoughtful comment. It made me feel good today, especially when contrasted with the "Jim Gray Is Missing" posting where the majority of posts are yukking it up about a man who right now may be dying alone in the ocean. Emotional connection to others and empathy, I think these are traits that make us better than animals. Some people feel a connection to people 4,000 years ago, and some people don't even feel a twinge when they hear about people suffering right now.

Previous henges

[Ambitwistor (1041236)]

Before Stonehenge, there was Woodhenge and Strawhenge, but a big bad wolf came and blew them down, and three little piggies were relocated to the projects.

Re:

[numbski (515011)]

So where does Carhenge [wikipedia.org] fit in?

Re:

[jellisky (211018)]

Still one of my all-time favorite spots to stop on a storm-chase day where you need to waste an hour or two! After all, it's not like you have all that much to really /do/ out in that particular middle-of-nowhere.

-Jellisky

Re:Previous henges

[Opportunist (166417)]

Actually, there is a Woodhenge [wikipedia.org]. Strawhenge, I guess, would be hard to find after so many years.

Though I doubt Stonehenge was built because of that. Wolves are extinct in Britain.

Ain't it lovely how to kill a joke with facts? :)

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

let me continue to weigh down a joke with more facts:
There's a Seahenge, too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seahenge [wikipedia.org]
What really fascinating is that it can be "confidently" dated to exactly SPRING or SUMMER 2049BC!

Re:

[KoldKompress (1034414)]

Wolves are extinct in Britain now, but they were not extinct at the time of Stone Henge. In fact, wolves lived in England until they were finally fully exterminated in 1760. So for all you know, a wolf with a particularly bad case of flatulence might.. well, no, not really.

Re:

[2sheds (78194)]

Druids? Long white robes, long white beards... early transvestites - didn't get their shaving together.

4607 years, and we still commute to work

[G4from128k (686170)]

2 miles of walking is about half an hour each way. So the Stonehenge workers spent a hour-a-day getting to and from work.

Some things never change.

Re:

[aztektum (170569)]

"2 miles of walking is about half an hour each way."

What's worse is it was uphill both ways in snow, but they didn't have to worry about being fat because of "sprawl" [slashdot.org]

Re:

[jomama717 (779243)]

Some things never change.

This is exciting because the 2 mile stretch in between sites should be rife with ancient coffee shops.

Re:4607 years, and we still commute to work

[wall0159 (881759)]

...except that they walked in beautiful countryside, whereas we drive in noisy steel boxes and breathe pollution.. ahhh - progress!

oldnews

[destroygbiv (896968)]

no pun intended (or is there?)

Definate signs of a city

[edwardpickman (965122)]

The presence of an early Starbucks proves it was a city and likely to be one of the earliest geek sites.

Back taxes

[macdaddy (38372)]

Boy I bet the ancestors of the Stonehenge builders will be pissed when they get the bill for the delinquent VAT taxes on Stonehenge and the new village.

Biggest find

[tbone1 (309237)]

... is Keith Richards' birth certificate.

Re:

[AndroidCat (229562)]

Yup, there's various periods of Stonehenge, including when they got by with wood markers. I hear that all the tourists asking why the place was called Stonehenge drove the druids to do the later versions.

BY2K?

[EmbeddedJanitor (597831)]

BCE WTF?? At least Y2K is both culturally OK and well understood. I vote for BY2K.

Re:

[ChrisMaple (607946)]

CE and BCE have the advantage of not being religion-based. In paticular, AD is offensive, as Domini is the root for dominate : unsuitable for free minds.

Re:

[FooAtWFU (699187)]

Besides, you can always just say CE as "Christian era" to annoy someone anyway. :)

And, IMHO, it makes at least as much sense as 'common era', since the numbering of the era is intrinsically tied to Christianity, and wrapping it in the name "common" doesn't really change that (and hey, are you trying to be some sort of Western imperialist declaring your era numbering to be the one "common" system and implying other alternative calendars are uncommon? Well, not that they aren't, but... :D)

Re:

[Roger W Moore (538166)]

CE and BCE have the advantage of not being religion-based.

No they are religion based because of the choice of zero year. Renaming them does not alter that and to be honest seems more insulting because it seems to suggest that a non-christian will somehow be stupid enough not to notice what you are doing!

All the major religions have their own system of years so either we ought to use one and call it that for cultural reasons or else choose a non-religious event of world significance (invention of print

Re:

[drsquare (530038)]

CE is offensive as it implies that people born in the last 2007 years are common.

Re:BCE

[by Anonymous Coward]

Actually, domini is Latin for "lord". So AD, which in Latin stands for anno domini, means "Year of Lord". Not as ominous as you'd have it sound..

Err. What is it you think a Lord does to his subjects? Suggest things nicely? "Would you like to pay taxes, please?" "Do as I tell you, if it's no trouble?"

The OP didn't say Domini wasn't Latin for "Lord", he said:

Domini is the root for dominate

Which is entirely separate from what you're saying, and correct, to boot.