Stonehenge, Winter Solstice, over four thousand years ago. No shops round the corner and no restaurants - so just how did the people who built Stonehenge feed themselves? New research is aiming to find out.
A team of archaeologists have so revolutionised our knowledge of Stonehenge with their research they have now been given a further £800,000 grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to discover exactly how the people who built the stone circle lived, what they ate and where they came from.
At the time of the Winter Solstice they would have needed to have brought livestock with them to Stonehenge to feed on. Initial research suggests the animals were brought considerable distances to this ceremonial site at this time of year.
Funded by the AHRC as part of their annual large grants research scheme this new project, entitled ‘Feeding Stonehenge’ will, over the next 3 years, allow the team led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson from the University of Sheffield, to answer some key questions about Stonehenge. They will develop their research further by:
- analysing the bones of the cows slaughtered in the area 4,500 years ago to calculate where the cattle had been moved from and so give a better guide of where the people had travelled from to visit the site
- gaining a better understanding of the dressing of the sarsen stones
- Study how the public and private spaces at Durrington Walls differ from each other
- Establish in which season animals were culled at Stonehenge and Durrington Walls.
Professor Mike Parker Pearson said “The Stonehenge Riverside Project's results were well beyond anyone's expectations - archaeologists and general public alike. It has allowed us to completely re-write the story of Stonehenge. One of the unforeseen outcomes is the vast quantity of new material - flint tools, animal bones, pottery, plant remains, survey data, and chemical samples - which now needs analysing.
The new grant from the AHRC for the 'Feeding Stonehenge' project allows us to get the maximum information out of this unexpected wealth of remains. We are going to know so much about the lives of the people who built Stonehenge - how they lived, what they ate, where they came from. The AHRC's grants have been crucial for helping us find out more about one of the world's most important prehistoric monuments. They have enabled the project to develop in directions which could not possibly be predicted when we started digging.”
The Stonehenge Riverside project, which preceded this new research, strengthened the idea that nearby Durrington Walls was part of the Stonehenge complex. The large collection of cattle jaws that have been uncovered during the last few years excavations will now undergo strontium and sulphur isotope analysis to establish where they came from.
This project is studying the material resources required for building Stonehenge and the other henge complexes of Wessex. It will also try and ascertain whether Britain’s Copper Age started 50 years earlier than first thought. Circumstantial evidence points to copper tools being in use at Durrington Walls earlier than expected. Cut-marks on animal bones should reveal whether they were made by copper daggers as opposed to flint tools.
This research award is one of 34 major research grants made by the AHRC in 2009 to projects that will help further our understanding of human culture and creativity.
The four key investigators for this project are:
Professor Mike Parker Pearson, University of Sheffield, Archaeology - M.Parker-Pearson@Sheffield.ac.uk
Dr Umberto Albarella, University of Sheffield, Archaeology – u.albarella@sheffield.ac.uk
Dr Jane Evans, NERC British Geological Survey, Isotope Geosciences Laboratory - je@nigl.nerc.ac.uk
Dr Oliver Craig, University of York, Archaeology - oec500@york.ac.uk
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In early September the AHRC spent a day visiting the 2009 excavation near Stonehenge and interviewing the research team. A short video podcast is now online that offers viewers an insight in to the scale of the excavations undertaken during 2009.
You can learn more about the Stonehenge Riverside Project on their website.
AHRC Media Contact Jake Gilmore j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk Tel: 0797 099 4586
Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £102 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,350 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.