Search

In a recent Antiquity article, Parker Pearson and colleagues (2021) presented results from excavations at Waun Mawn in south-west Wales, interpreting the site as a dismantled stone circle and source for some of the Bluestone pillars used in the Aubrey Holes at Stonehenge. Here, the author examines the evidence, showing that alternative interpretations are possible. Waun Mawn is argued to represent a series of smaller stone settings, typical of ceremonial sites in southwest Wales. Meanwhile the Aubrey Holes are shown to reflect a well-established regional sequence in which post circles are followed by pit circles. A Welsh 'source-circle' for Stonehenge cannot be excluded but, the author argues, the claim is unsupported by the current evidence. Keywords: Wessex, Pembrokeshire, Stonehenge, Waun Mawn, pit/post circles, standing stones, Introduction In the February 2021 issue of Antiquity, Mike Parker Pearson and colleagues reported on their investigations at Waun Mawn in the Preseli Hills of south-west Wales, arguing that they [...]

Debates about archaeological interpretation are always healthy and welcome, and when, as here, arguments are not killed off, they inevitably become stronger. Importantly, the comments by Magli and Belmonte (2023) [...]

Large-scale development-led archaeology has changed the very nature of archaeological datasets. In addition to the familiar positive evidence of structures and deposits, there is now a wealth of 'true-negative' evidence: the confirmed absence of archaeological remains. Making good use of such data presents a challenge and demands new ways of thinking. Using case studies based on recent developer-led work in the UK, the authors suggest that focusing on 'fingerprints' of past human activity at a landscape scale provides a useful approach. The results argue in favour of changes to existing recording systems, as well as the need to integrate more fully both positive and negative evidence in archaeological interpretation. Keywords: Development-led archaeology, archaeological fingerprints, interpretation, negative evidence, positive evidence, Introduction Suggesting to an archaeological readership that 'finding nothing' can be interesting might seem surprising. Here, though, we argue that 'negative' evidence is actually an important category of archaeological information, [...]

Scholars have long seen in the monumental composition of Stonehenge evidence for prehistoric time-reckoning--a Neolithic calendar. Exactly how such a calendar functioned, however, remains unclear. Recent advances in understanding the phasing of Stonehenge highlight the unity of the sarsen settings. Here, the author argues that the numerology of these sarsen elements materialises a perpetual calendar based on a tropical solar year of 365.25 days. The indigenous development of such a calendar in north-western Europe is possible, but an Eastern Mediterranean origin is also considered. The adoption of a solar calendar was associated with the spread of solar cosmologies during the third millennium BC and was used to regularise festivals and ceremonies. Keywords: Britain, Wessex, Stonehenge, solar calendar, time-reckoning, Introduction Located on the chalk downlands of southern Britain, Stonehenge has long been thought to incorporate some kind of calendar, although its specific purpose and exactly how it worked remain [...]

PAUL EVERILL & KAREN BURNELL (ed.). 2022. Archaeology, heritage, and wellbeing: authentic, powerful and therapeutic engagement with the past. Abingdon: Routledge; 978-1-032-02165-2; hardback 120 [pounds sterling]. Good health and wellbeing [...]

P.J. ASHMORE. Calanais: survey and excavation 1979-88. 2016. 1241 pages, 939 colour and b&w illustrations, numerous tables, 12 appendices. Edinburgh: Historic Environment Scotland. Available for free download at https://www.historicenvironment.scot/archives-and-research/ publications/publication/?publicationId=b6aee5fd-5980-4872-a2e0-a63c00cc7b68 [...]

Recent investigations at Stonehenge have been accompanied by new research on the origin of the famous 'bluestones', a mixed assemblage of rhyolites and dolerites that stand among the much taller sarsens. Some of the rhyolite debitage has been traced to a quarry site at Craig Rhosyfelin near the Pembrokeshire coast; but fieldwork on the upland outcrops of Carn Menyn has also provided evidence for dolerite extraction in the later third millennium BC, and for the production of pillar-like blocks that resemble the Stonehenge bluestones in shape and size. Quarrying at Carn Menyn began much earlier, however, during the seventh millennium BC, suggesting that Mesolithic communities were the first to exploit the geology of this remote upland location. Keywords: Britain, Preseli Hills, Stonehenge, Mesolithic, Neolithic, megalithic, bluestone, dolerite, meta-mudstone, prehistoric quarrying, Introduction For nearly a century it has been known that the 80 or so pillars of dolerite, rhyolite and tuff, collectively known as 'bluestones', that were incorporated into the structure [...]

We are pleased to present the latest account of the sequence of burial and construction at the site of Stonehenge, deduced by its most recent excavators and anchored in time by the application of Bayesian radiocarbon modelling. Five prehistoric stages are proposed, of varied duration, and related by our authors to neighbouring monuments in the Stonehenge environs. While it may never be possible to produce a definitive chronology for this most complex of monuments, the comprehensive and integrated achievement owed to these researchers has brought us much closer to that goal. It is from this firm platform that Stonehenge can begin its new era of communication with the public at large. Keywords: Britain, Neolithic, Beaker, Bronze Age, megalithic, Stonehenge, sarsen, bluestone, trilithon, radiocarbon, Bayesian modelling, Introduction Since the early years of the twentieth century it has been recognised that Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, UK, was a long-lived monument with several stages of construction. The [...]