What was Woodhenge?

[MrRING]

... and are there more than one?

I've been to Great Britian just once, in 1990. When we got to Stonehenge, we got a map that said there was a "Woodhenge" very close, so we went there and encountered a real eccentric who was selling maps of Woodhenge out of the back his car as well as handing out maps for pub walking tours for free.

The Woodhenge I saw had wooden posts in the ground, as well as explainitory diagrams about what it was supposed to be, which as far as I can remember it was a wooden meeting house.

Now, according to the Weird Wiltshire site, it was only discovered in 1999! Does this eman that what I saw was the same thing, only it hadn't been ratified by archaeologists until 1999? Or is what I saw not "the" Woodhenge but some kind of tourist trap thingie?

From the Wiltshire site:DISCOVERED by British archaeologists in 1999, Woodhenge is thought to have been a huge wooden cousin of the famous Stonehenge just 20 miles away.

A Neolithic wooden monument, where now lies deep holes, there once stood tall poles of red cedar wood. Like many of the henge monuments, the exact purpose of Woodhenge remains a mystery.

There was also two concentric stone circles which were destroyed in the 18th Century. In the centre of where these would have been, giant post holes have been found. They are up to six feet deep and could have supported wooden pillars up to 17ft high and six to eight rings appear to have existed. One theory is that they were supports for a ritual building but they are much thicker and closer together than would have been needed to hold up a roof.

The archaeologists believe they are more likely to have formed a free-standing "woodhenge". It is believed that there may have been about 40 similar wooden structures in the ancient kingdom of Wessex - some of them much bigger such as the complex at Stanton Drew, 10 km south of Bristol.

It consists of three circles, two of which have attached avenues and a 'cove' of three standing stones. Although the structure is undated, it is thought to be around the early-beaker stage.

Weird Wiltshire
Similar BBC report

 

[gyrtrash]

There's often some confusion over the term 'henge'.
I think the word means the banks and ditches of ancient earthworks (not the stones or wooden posts)- which gets confusing when the term is applied to places like Stonehenge to describe the trilithons there.

The henges at Thornborough were thought to have had wooden posts on them too. And there are post holes showing that avenues (a 'cursus') of wooden posts occured here and at other sites.

Wasn't 'Seahenge' a ring of wooden posts too?

 

[marion]

Its possible the wood henge at Stanton Drew had empty post holes and the wooden posts were moved around in them depending on what alignment was relevant for the current moon or sun phases.
I'm sure the Wood Henge near Stonehenge was found a lot longer ago that 1999, maybe the website is wrong?

EDIT I've found a site saying it was excavated in the early 20th Century so 1899 is a more likely discovery date!

 

[Jerry_B]

'1999' must be a typo, because I went to Woodhenge in 1993 and it was a known site then. One thing I find interesting is the earlier site which is, IIRC, on the site at Woodhenge. It consisted of 3 large wooden poles, stood next to each other - kind of like 3 giant wickets. Must've been quite a strange site to look at at the time. And yes, 'Seahenge' was a circle of closely-placed wooden poles - an enclosed space.

And I also agree with David about the way 'henge' is sometimes used incorrectly.

 

[marion]

You mean the three large post holes that maybe contained totem pole type structures whose positions are marked in the ground of the Stonehenge carpark? That is a different site to Woodhenge.

 

[Jerry_B]

Yep, that's them - trying to recall things from 11 years ago sometimes doesn't work in my ol' grey matter

 

[Anonymous]

woodhenge must have been a shit version of stonehenge....like the rip off versace sunglasses they sell in the market 'round the corner from work.

 

[naitaka]

I saw it in 1978. At that time there were concrete markers indicating where the posts had been. Like Mr. RING I hadn't known about it beforehand, just happened to notice a sign while on the way to Stonehenge.

Wikipedia says it was"excavated early in the 20th century, after being identified largely from aerial photography".

 

[Kondoru]

30s I think. it was the first major archalogical site to be discovered by air....

A henge is a bank and ditch complex, may have stone or woden posts, but the biggest henge, durrington walls, I believe has nothing at all?

Never been to stonehenge or woodhenge (lived in `Wiltshur` all my life!) but I am familiar with avebury and the sanctuary. (on the silbury hill road (A4) due south of the bit where the ridgeway meets this road. used to be a transport cafe there but I think its gone now.) this is similar to woodhenge but its last phase was a few stones.

Id look up my Hawkins but am busy today...

 

[Sertile]

There is more than one woodhenge in this world, BTW. The Native Americans also built woodhenges. In fact, I was able to visit one nearby just a couple of weeks ago. It's in Cahokia, in southern Illinois, which is thought to be the "capitol" of the pre-Columbian Mound-Builder civilization.

The Cahokian woodhenge is simply monstrous, having 75 or 80 posts and being spread out over about a quarter of a mile. It's thought to have been a kind of calendar (but then, what henge isn't?). The Indians there were mostly farmers, and It's set up to highlight the solstices and equinox (equinoi?)

I believe there are also some stone circles and the like up north, but people like to call them "glacial erratics" and blame them on natural forces. Can't give the natives too much credit, after all.

 

[Timble2]

Marion and Homo Aves are right.

I think the confusion is that another woodhenge was found in Wiltshire in 1999.

See:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/434821.stm

The first 'Woodhenge' is around two miles from Stonehenge

It was discovered in 1925, with pioneering use of aerial photography, and excated during the late 20s, and is the site with the concrete posts.

See:
http://www.this-is-amesbury.co.uk/woodhenge.html

Actually the term henge is a back formation from Stonehenge. As it says on the Amesbury site, the name Woodhenge was made up as an appropriate gesture to its stone cousin, and stuck.

Henges as DR points out are circular ditch and bank earthworks, like the Thornborough henges which probably had wooden poles like 'Woodhenge'. Again the name is a back formation from Stonehenge.

OT: In reconstructions, the posts are usually show as logs, and in 'Seahenge' which was a complete enclosure, that's what they were. It's interesting to speculate that if in structures like 'Woodhenge' or the giant wickets in the Stonehenge carpark, where the post are spaced out, whether they weren't highly carved like Totem poles - that's one of those 'we'll probably never know' questions.

Edited for horrible typos.

 

[marion]

I have a small book on Stanton Drew and the author feels that as contemporary pottery had beautiful spiral and other patterns on the surface that the wooden posts of the wood henge there were decorated in a similar way, ot maybe were decorated with other symbolic stuff like totem poles.

 

[Zilch5]

Time to resurrect another old thread (and probably watch it going back into obscurity within days):

Wooden "Stonehenge" Emerges From Prehistoric Ohio
Timber circles, like U.K. monument, aligned to summer solstice, study reveals.

Published July 20, 2010

Just northeast of Cincinnati, Ohio, a sort of wooden Stonehenge is slowly emerging as archaeologists unearth increasing evidence of a 2,000-year-old ceremonial site.

Among their latest finds: Like Stonehenge, the Ohio timber circles were likely used to mark astronomical events such as the summer solstice.

Formally called Moorehead Circle but nicknamed "Woodhenge" by non-archaeologists, the site was once a leafless forest of wooden posts. Laid out in a peculiar pattern of concentric, but incomplete, rings, the site is about 200 feet (57 meters) wide. (See a picture of reconstructed timber circles near Stonehenge.)

Today only rock-filled postholes remain, surrounded by the enigmatic earthworks of Fort Ancient State Memorial (map). Some are thousands of feet long and all were built by Indians of the pre-agricultural Hopewell culture, the dominant culture in midwestern and eastern North America from about A.D. 1 to 900.

etc etc

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... t-science/

 

[rynner2]

With amazing synchronicity - back to Wiltshire!!

Archaeologists unearth Neolithic henge at Stonehenge

Archaeologists have discovered a second henge at Stonehenge, described as the most exciting find there in 50 years.

The circular ditch surrounding a smaller circle of deep pits about a metre (3ft) wide has been unearthed at the world-famous site in Wiltshire.

Archaeologists conducting a multi-million pound study believe timber posts were in the pits.

Project leader Professor Vince Gaffney, from the University of Birmingham, said the discovery was "exceptional".

The new "henge" - which means a circular monument dating to Neolithic and Bronze Ages - is situated about 900m (2,950ft) from the giant stones on Salisbury Plain.

Images show it has two entrances on the north-east and south-west sides and inside the circle is a burial mound on top which appeared much later, Professor Gaffney said.

"You seem to have a large-ditched feature, but it seems to be made of individual scoops rather than just a straight trench," he said.

"When we looked a bit more closely, we then realised there was a ring of pits about a metre wide going all the way around the edge.

"When you see that as an archaeologist, you just looked at it and thought, 'that's a henge monument' - it's a timber equivalent to Stonehenge.

"From the general shape, we would guess it dates backs to about the time when Stonehenge was emerging at its most complex.

"This is probably the first major ceremonial monument that has been found in the past 50 years or so.

"This is really quite interesting and exceptional, it starts to give us a different perspective of the landscape."

Data from the site is being collected as part of a virtual excavation to see what the area looked like when Stonehenge was built.

Speculation as to why the 4,500-year-old landmark was built will continue for years to come, but various experts believe it was a cemetery for 500 years, from the point of its inception.

In 2008, the first excavation in nearly half a century was carried out at the iconic site on Salisbury Plain.

This latest project is being funded by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology, in Vienna, and the University of Birmingham, and is assisted by the National Trust and English Heritage.

Professor Gaffney said he was "certain" they would make further discoveries as 90% of the landscape around the giant stones was "terra incognita" - an unexplored region.

"The presumption was this was just an empty field - now you've got a major ceremonial monument looking at Stonehenge," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10718522

 

[owenwhiteoak]

New henge

My immediate thought on hearing this on BBC radio this a.m. and on seeing the story on the BBC site was - given its proximity to the Stonehenge we all know and love, perhaps it was a mock-up where they tried out ideas before final installation. Or the Waiting Room.

 

[Zilch5]

I for one can only conlclude that there was transantlantic interaction way before Columbus or Eric the Red.

The Olds were a bit more cluey than we give them credit for.

 

[rynner2]

The Olds were a bit more cluey than we give them credit for.

I may use that phrase as a tattoo! 8)

(I wonder how it would read in Latin? )

 

[skinny]

Radar imaging available here:
http://heritage-key.com/blogs/ann/neolithic-henge-discovered-stonehenge#images

The prehistoric map of the world is under rapid revision with geo-physical data at satellite level revealing more of the Earth's secrets each month. The implications for our understanding of the past are enormous.

And it's not just in Britain - now that radar imaging can be undertaken from space, there's less need for an Oxford-sized budget to fund exploration. The usual anglocentric cries of "this was the most important neolithic ceremonial site in Europe" will certainly be silenced when that massive network of henge structures within a 10km radius of one another is discovered next week in Germany, or Sardinia, or Norway. The silly notion that the size or symetricality of a site is all important ought to have been left in the last century anyway - thankfully most grown ups in 'the Field' recognise this already. The associations with surrounding material culture and socio-cultural associations surely outweigh how visually impressive a structure is.

Oh to be in archaeology today.

 

[stu neville]

The Olds were a bit more cluey than we give them credit for.

I may use that phrase as a tattoo! 8)

(I wonder how it would read in Latin? )

Senior teneo magis is as close as I can get (roughly the older know more.)

 

[Fluttermoth]

The Olds were a bit more cluey than we give them credit for.

I may use that phrase as a tattoo! 8)

(I wonder how it would read in Latin? )

Senior teneo magis is as close as I can get (roughly the older know more.)

Well, that's much better than I got from an online English/Latin translator,

"Olds erant aliquantulus magis cluey quam nos tribuo lemma promeritum pro"

How rubbish is that?! Unless 'olds' and 'cluey' come directly from Latin :lol:
Certainly be an epic tattoo though!

 

[Zilch5]

Another Henge discovered:

Bronze Age henge found in Hertfordshire

A Bronze Age henge has been discovered on land near Letchworth.

Archaeologists have found a circular area about 50 metres wide surrounded by a bank at Stapleton's Field in Norton.

North Herts Archaeology Officer, Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews said: "Henges are quite rare with only 60 known in the UK, so this is a significant find.

"It's interesting as the only other henge known locally is on the Weston Hills, which is visible from the site we are working on."

Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, leading the team working on the site, revealed how the henge which dates back to between 3000 and 2000 BC was discovered:

Archaeologists recording their finds in trench I
Working on trench one at the site

"Ariel [Hello Mr BBC editor - shouldn't that be "aerial"???] photographs of the area showed this rather extensive ring of chalk.

More and pics: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/threecounti ... 940216.stm

 

[rynner2]

Woodhenge: Is this one of the greatest discoveries of archaeology...or a simple farmer's fence?
By Alun Rees and Jonathan Petre
Last updated at 1:51 AM on 12th December 2010

The discovery of a wooden version of Stonehenge – a few hundred yards from the famous monument – was hailed as one of the most important archaeological finds for decades.

But now experts are at loggerheads after claims that what was thought to be a Neolithic temple was a rather more humble affair – in fact the remains of a wooden fence. :shock:

One leading expert on Stonehenge criticised the announcement of the ‘remarkable’ find in July as ‘hasty’ and warned it could become a ‘PR embarrassment’.

The discovery of what appeared to be a previously unknown ‘henge’, or earthwork, by a team of archaeologists conducting a multi-million-pound study of Salisbury Plain was widely reported amid great excitement.
The team said they had found evidence of a ring of 24 3ft-wide pits that could have supported timber posts up to 12ft tall, surrounded by an 80ft-wide ditch and bank.

They explained that, just like Stonehenge, the entrances to the site were aligned so that on the summer solstice the sun’s rays would enter the centre of the ring. Holes where the wooden posts once stood were identified below the ground using the latest high-resolution geophysical radar-imaging equipment.

Team leader Professor Vince Gaffney of Birmingham University said the ritual monument had been built about 5,000 years ago, making it roughly the same age as its stone counterpart 980 yards away, and it could have been used for Stone Age feasts or elaborate funerals.

He said the find showed Stonehenge had not existed in ‘splendid isolation’ and he predicted further discoveries during the three-year survey of five square miles of countryside around Stonehenge.

But sceptics have now suggested that the evidence is far from conclusive, especially as it appears from images of the plot produced by the Birmingham team that the ring of post holes was not arranged in a circle but was angular and more like a hexagon.

Mike Pitts, editor of the magazine British Archaeology and an acknowledged expert on Stonehenge, said he had been prompted to study maps of the area after receiving a letter from an American reader.

In the spot where Prof Gaffney had claimed to have uncovered his post holes, Mr Pitts said he and colleagues examined a Seventies Ordnance Survey map – and saw a fence marked out.

He thought it probably was an early 20th Century construction, erected by the then Government’s Office of Works or a local farmer to protect what was thought to have been the most important site in a cluster of burial mounds that were ancient but later than Stonehenge.

Mr Pitts said: ‘Vince Gaffney says his discovery encircles a burial mound within its circumference, but unless he has some unpublished material to substantiate his discovery, I am in no doubt that this was a modern fence line.
‘If I’m right then the post holes contained modern fencing stakes and they are actually in a hexagonal shape, not a circle.’

He added: ‘I think that perhaps what has happened is that the professor’s field workers have presented him with the wrong picture and he’s shot from the hip and made an over-hasty announcement. He’s generally known for the high quality of his work and his enthusiasm which, on this occasion, may have let him down.
‘The full publication of his results and small-scale excavations of the site would clinch the matter.’

But Prof Gaffney said: ‘We have mapped numerous fences and we know what they look like. The features appear to be 3ft across and as deep as 3ft. I have never seen a fence line that required holes that are 3ft across and 3ft deep.’

He said that in the fuzzy, black-and-white radar image the post holes appeared angular but that was partly due to the poor resolution of the picture and because such monuments were not perfect circles.

He went on: ‘The poles that would have stood in them would have been more like telegraph poles. You would not use them to build a fence.’
Prof Gaffney added that no metal such as old nails had been found in the holes, which would have been expected.
‘On balance, we would still suggest this is a ritual monument of the late Neolithic period.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... z17tYEHBAG

 

[ramonmercado]

A multi-purpose Woodhenge, Sacrifices & a Sauna.

A team of researchers led by freelance archaeologist John Tibbles has found evidence suggesting that a woodhenge discovered in Yorkshire several months ago might have been used for sacrifices, or perhaps as a sauna. Tibbles spoke to the Yorkshire Post recently, offering up details of the site and his ideas on its purpose.

The woodhenge was discovered at Little Catwick Quarry in Yorkshire, near a town called Harnsea, and was part of a site that has been under excavation since 1992. Even after surface excavation, however, it is still difficult to make out the configuration of the site—from the air, however, things become clearer. It forms a large circle with rectangles at its edges and a pile of small stones at its middle—the circle is made by a ditch and an outer sand bank. The site has been dated to approximately 4,000 years ago, putting it at the edge between the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Work done at the site, Tibbles reports, showed that the rectangles at the edges were bases for what appeared to be wood pole buildings or simple benches. There were also two entrances, one on the northwest side, the other on the southeast side of the circle. ...

https://phys.org/news/2018-01-year-old-woodhenge-yorkshire-sauna.html

 

[Coal]

A multi-purpose Woodhenge, Sacrifices & a Sauna.

A team of researchers led by freelance archaeologist John Tibbles has found evidence suggesting that a woodhenge discovered in Yorkshire several months ago might have been used for sacrifices, or perhaps as a sauna. Tibbles spoke to the Yorkshire Post recently, offering up details of the site and his ideas on its purpose.

The woodhenge was discovered at Little Catwick Quarry in Yorkshire, near a town called Harnsea, and was part of a site that has been under excavation since 1992. Even after surface excavation, however, it is still difficult to make out the configuration of the site—from the air, however, things become clearer. It forms a large circle with rectangles at its edges and a pile of small stones at its middle—the circle is made by a ditch and an outer sand bank. The site has been dated to approximately 4,000 years ago, putting it at the edge between the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Work done at the site, Tibbles reports, showed that the rectangles at the edges were bases for what appeared to be wood pole buildings or simple benches. There were also two entrances, one on the northwest side, the other on the southeast side of the circle. ...

https://phys.org/news/2018-01-year-old-woodhenge-yorkshire-sauna.html

Sounds like a house.