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tiompan T
tiompan Dec 13, 2010 20:11:10
Replying to Littlestone

Littlestone wrote:
I don't believe the banks of henges were built to accomodate specators . It could work at at some of the medium sized henges but if there was anything to be seen at Avebury they would have needed giant screens to relay it as it's 200 m from bank to the centre , Marden and Durrington are even bigger . At smaller henges some are 5-7 m in diameter there would only be room for immediate family .
That only holds true at Avebury if you assume the ‘activity’ took place at the centre of the Henge. We don’t know that was the case, in fact the Obelisk and the Cove are not at the centre of the Henge but closer to the Banks of their respective quadrants. As such each may have offered different ceremonial/spectator venues at different times (perhaps in sync with the seasons?).

Anyone who’s been at Avebury at summer solstice will know that the ‘activity’ takes place in the south-east quadrant. Dancers, drummers, fire-eaters, jugglers etc perform close to the Obelisk, while loads of spectators sit and enjoy the performance from the south-east Bank – as such the Bank in that quadrant is most definity suited to a spectator event, while the other three quadrants at this time are practically deserted. It’s not hard to imagine something similar happening in Neolithic times :-)

Maybe those few sites with sufficiently high banks too far from the centre saw a parade around the perimeter of the soon to be interred skulls at the entrances .The modern activities at Avebury don't really give us a clue as to original functions anymore than standing on the stones during the Stonehenge celebrations do .

L Littlestone
Littlestone Dec 13, 2010 20:50:16
Replying to tiompan

The modern activities at Avebury don't really give us a clue as to original functions anymore than standing on the stones during the Stonehenge celebrations do .
Actually I think they do give us a clue. Your point (unless I’ve misunderstood it) was that, “It could work at some of the medium sized henges but if there was anything to be seen at Avebury they would have needed giant screens to relay it as it's 200 m from bank to the centre...” In actual fact it’s demonstrably the case that spectators on the south bank of the south-east quadrant are able to see clearly any activities going on in or around the Cove because the line of sight is probably as good from there today as it was in the Neolithic (so too presumably are the acoustics). Given that the Bank was even higher in the Neolithic it’s probably not unreasonable to assume that both would have been even better at that time.

All’s the world a stage (except at Avebury were there were probably at least four, “That ends this strange eventful history... Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything” ;-)