"Most observers believe that much deeper changes are needed. “The whole system is built on using low-paid, badly exploited workers,” said James Ritchie of the International Union of Food Workers . “They may be charged excessive rent for their accommodation, or for transport from east Europe. It is dirty and dangerous work, and most people don’t want to do it. So companies have to go looking for people who are prepared to do it and put up with the wages.”
Gosh I am depressing myself, outside a myriad flowers exclaim the wonders of the natural world, Lucy is having one of her hysterical moments, she has locked herself in the bathroom - life is normal. So let us change the subject.
Stonehenge and Durrington Walls; You have heard of Stonehenge but may be not of Durrington Walls, a large Neolithic settlement not too far from the great circle but famed for the quantities of feasting material found on site. Cattle were driven down from Scotland and people from around the area gathered together and built this 'township' and the various stages of the circle. Some are beginning to wonder if not Stonehenge is a great religious centre, after all with all the barrows around it it could be called a necropolis.
Well the news is that a large circular area has been marked around Durrington with deep shafts. Archaeology often explains things in terms of death and ritual, so what are the shafts for? Later shafts in Iron Age have layers of offering such as birds but coring of the shafts have only revealed worked flint and bones.
"Coring of the shafts has provided crucial radiocarbon dates to more than 4,500 years ago, making the boundary contemporary with both Stonehenge and Durrington Walls. The boundary also appears to have been laid out to include an earlier prehistoric monument, the Larkhill causewayed enclosure, built more than 1,500 years before the henge at Durrington."
4500 years ago, people were gathering, as they do today, for feasting, maybe beer, they were coming together to build a prehistoric cathedral as well. They spread their genes as well as their viruses, I like to think that humanity does not change. The state today is letting us out to pubs, restaurants, hairdressers, etc to enjoy life, well that Neolithic crowd had fun as well.
You will note that there was a small circle called Woodhenge, well there is a burial under a stone cairn there of a three year old, somethings echo down through the ages...........
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| Woodhenge. The wooden posts are replaced by concrete markers |
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| Grave of the child |
Tomb of the unknown child essay by Professor Howard Williams
Great for stonehinge...even more tourists in the coming years! I guess that place gets visited way too much. The earth is creaking and we are breaking it down into its smaller parts.
ReplyDeleteTickets are expensive and there is a great fuss about the road that goes across the landscape. Stonehenge is a singular monument with the later barrows scattered around. You would have quite a long way to walk to Durrington Walls and associate Woodhenge. Stonehenge is shut down at the moment but I am sure it will open soon, but will the tourists come I wonder?
ReplyDeleteOur world is changing, that much is for certain, but how much will be for the better - especially for the natural world and the resources we rape so determinedly - we cannot say at this point. However, I cannot think of a better time for the world leaders to get their heads together and plan for a better future . . .
ReplyDeleteThe new gigantic monument surrounding Durrington Walls is amazing. I wonder if we will ever understand it? Durrington Walls and Stonehenge were the first archaeological sites I visited (with school, aged 10) and they fuelled a lifelong interest in Archaeology.
Pulled out Mike Pitt's Hengeworld, and he makes an interesting point, it is the 'process' of making the monuments that is important not their final form. One could almost say it is a bonding experience amongst the people with sacrifice and ritual slipped in along the way.
DeleteI wonder what they would think to the way we are treating the earth, the way we have dealt with all this.
ReplyDeleteThey would probably not have thought in those terms Pat, the palisaded enclosures and the Stanton Drew wooden circles took up an enormous amount of wood. They also in the early stages burnt down trees to get the land fertilised and then moved on to fresh ground, a bit like they are doing in the Amazon at the moment.
DeleteI feel privileged to have been to Stonehenge in the nineteen-sixties when you could walk right up to it and touch the stones.
ReplyDeleteAnd then 10 years of free rock festivals closed it down and you had to pay. £20 a ticket now not cheap, but English Heritage has taken on the mantle of ownership. There are not many outstanding stone circles in Yorkshire sadly.
ReplyDeleteIt does feel like Gaia is taking a megaphone to get through to our destructive species, doesn’t it! I loved that saying that was circulating about it being as if we’ve all been sent to our rooms to think about what we’ve done.
ReplyDeleteNice analogy, we are all sitting on the naughty step waiting to be let out, but a big bad wolf strides around outside snarling ;)
ReplyDeleteWe were watching a programme about Durrington Walls last night, a bizarre coincidence as I read this this morning. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHistory or prehistory slowly reveals itself but the real story is never quite captured. Like a jigsaw it needs building up.
ReplyDelete