Mike Pitts' take on Henges (from Hengeworld 0099278758):

<i>"Technically, they are earthwork enclosures in which a ditch was dug to make a bank, which was thrown up on the outside edge of the ditch. To the military-minded, this excludes any practical, defensive function for the ditches and banks.</i>

later....

<i>"These may have been sacred places, but they were not built to a common blueprint like medieval churches."</i>

and

<i>"......So much for the official definition. I prefer to think of them simply as circular enclosed spaces."</i>

As far as I'm concerned, they - Henges - serve as a locus - a "centre or focus of great activity or intense concentration" - and the inner ditch perhaps an attempt to connect the happenings inside the circle with the (exposed?) "ancestral" ground. As has been said, the bank - if it were high enough - would act as a "view blocker" - which would aid concentration.

Henges with posts (The Sanctuary, Woodhenge, Stanton Drew) could be - in my opinion - echoes of the forest, their density designed to re-affirm the intimate connection with the "edgeworld" of the first clearings.

Peace

Pilgrim

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