https://nypost.com/2019/11/04/myste...vPb9Dzd0P2mbNC3hcMiNeoKLuVm5n5l_u7lVQngAnOyd0
Britain’s “first city” was located near an ancient spring in Salisbury, England and its residents built Stonehenge, according to a new theory from archaeologists.
The scientists have recently unearthed over 70,000 stone tools from a site called Blick Mead, which is just a mile away from the famous stone circle.
Who is responsible for building Stonehenge is a mystery that archaeologists have longed to answer.
The monument is believed to have been constructed between 3000-2000 BC but its purpose and how prehistoric people were able to build it has baffled scholars for centuries.
Now, archaeologists are calling Blick Mead the “cradle of Stonehenge.”
“When you look at Stonehenge you think, ‘but where are the people?It makes sense that if you want to find the people who built it, the obvious idea is to look for where the water is,” Professor David Jacques of the University of Buckingham told The Telegraph.
At Blick Mead we found shed loads of stuff. Up until 2006 only 30 finds had ever been recovered from this period at any one site, and now we’re up to more than 70,000, so it’s been a total gamechanger. We’re talking about a very small area that people were coming to again and again and I think it was probably some sort of permanent settlement, so all our ideas of how hunter-gatherers move around in dispersed communities needs to be revised. This makes Stonehenge more interesting because it gives it a longer history, linking it back to people from the Mesolithic. Blick Mead really is the cradle of Stonehenge.”
The archaeologists think that Blick Mead’s proximity to water and good pastures for cattle grazing made it the perfect location for a permanent settlement.
They think prehistoric hunter-gatherers could have lived there up to 10,000 years ago.
Evidence that the site was used long-term includes a potential ceremonial platform that could have been used for rituals and lots of cattle skulls.
A potential Mesolithic ‘eco-home’ was also found underneath a fallen tree at the site back in 2015.
Dating from between 4336BC to 4246BC, it’s thought that the giant base of the fallen tree would have been used as the wall of the house and the roof was likely made of animal skins.
The Mesolithic, also called the Middle Stone Age, came before the Neolithic period and the Stone Age in which Stonehenge is believed to have been built.
One link between the builders of Stonehenge and Blick Mead is that lots of cattle skulls were found deliberately placed in ditches around the stone circle, suggesting they were considered to be sacred.
However, hunter-gatherers aren’t known for settling in one place so the researchers think there’s a chance the Blick Mead site was used as a base for sick people, children and the elderly.
Britain’s “first city” was located near an ancient spring in Salisbury, England and its residents built Stonehenge, according to a new theory from archaeologists.
The scientists have recently unearthed over 70,000 stone tools from a site called Blick Mead, which is just a mile away from the famous stone circle.
Who is responsible for building Stonehenge is a mystery that archaeologists have longed to answer.
The monument is believed to have been constructed between 3000-2000 BC but its purpose and how prehistoric people were able to build it has baffled scholars for centuries.
Now, archaeologists are calling Blick Mead the “cradle of Stonehenge.”
“When you look at Stonehenge you think, ‘but where are the people?It makes sense that if you want to find the people who built it, the obvious idea is to look for where the water is,” Professor David Jacques of the University of Buckingham told The Telegraph.
At Blick Mead we found shed loads of stuff. Up until 2006 only 30 finds had ever been recovered from this period at any one site, and now we’re up to more than 70,000, so it’s been a total gamechanger. We’re talking about a very small area that people were coming to again and again and I think it was probably some sort of permanent settlement, so all our ideas of how hunter-gatherers move around in dispersed communities needs to be revised. This makes Stonehenge more interesting because it gives it a longer history, linking it back to people from the Mesolithic. Blick Mead really is the cradle of Stonehenge.”
The archaeologists think that Blick Mead’s proximity to water and good pastures for cattle grazing made it the perfect location for a permanent settlement.
They think prehistoric hunter-gatherers could have lived there up to 10,000 years ago.
Evidence that the site was used long-term includes a potential ceremonial platform that could have been used for rituals and lots of cattle skulls.
A potential Mesolithic ‘eco-home’ was also found underneath a fallen tree at the site back in 2015.
Dating from between 4336BC to 4246BC, it’s thought that the giant base of the fallen tree would have been used as the wall of the house and the roof was likely made of animal skins.
The Mesolithic, also called the Middle Stone Age, came before the Neolithic period and the Stone Age in which Stonehenge is believed to have been built.
One link between the builders of Stonehenge and Blick Mead is that lots of cattle skulls were found deliberately placed in ditches around the stone circle, suggesting they were considered to be sacred.
However, hunter-gatherers aren’t known for settling in one place so the researchers think there’s a chance the Blick Mead site was used as a base for sick people, children and the elderly.
