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FourWinds F
FourWinds Aug 6, 2005 16:32:29
Replying to baza

It's quite possible that the purpose of the ditch was to provide soil for the bank! Once you defined your 'sacred goat enclosure' on the ground you wouldn't want to pile the soil up inside it would you :-)

Fill 'em with water and create an island inside. Myths are full of legends of far away magical islands. Could they have been the structures currently known as henges? Or could the henge be a representatin of such a place?

P Pilgrim
Pilgrim Aug 6, 2005 17:32:09
Replying to FourWinds

Hi, FourWinds,

<i>"It's quite possible that the purpose of the ditch was to provide soil for the bank! Once you defined your 'sacred goat enclosure' on the ground you wouldn't want to pile the soil up inside it would you</i> :-)"

Agreed! But why delineate the 'sacred goat enclosure' in the first place - if the site was accessible and known - to everybody but goats! - then would there be a need for it? Like Baz says, I think the "moat" or ditch is the key - and I like the idea of it being water-filled (surely a possibility in this soggy-bottomed land of ours - and yours over there!).

Pilgrim

P PeterH
PeterH Aug 6, 2005 17:36:20
Replying to FourWinds

Yes I'm sure that the ditch provided soil for the bank, but water? Wigborough Henge is on the side of a low hill - wouldn't be level. Water would slop over unless built up one side.

B baza
baza Aug 6, 2005 19:16:09
Replying to FourWinds

>It's quite possible that the purpose of the ditch was to provide soil for the bank!

I can't accept that as a possible explanation. Many of the ditches are dug out from bedrock. We know they weren't daft. They must have required an internal ditch, with a required minimum depth, in such circumstances.

Baz