Stonehenge and its Environs forum 134 room
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Yes the "palisades" site is turning out to be rather interesting. If I were choosing sites for next year's dig (the last one before funding dries up - aaargh - what is wrong with this country's sense of priorities here), I'd put a lot of effort into this one. It is basically the featureless field directly west of the henge. Mostly it seems to contain a late Bronze age / early Iron Age settlement, perhaps from after Stonehenge had fallen out of use. There was a deep midden pit found so that has yielded a lot of dateable material. In due course we'll know a bit more about how it all fits together chronologically, including perhaps the chalk "pig". Perhaps there are older features that are contemporaneous with the henge, though it seems neat to think of the landscape as devoid of everyday habitation until it was deconsecrated, and then the farmers moved in.

......and another delicious snippet of information from the guide at Durrington Walls...... It seems that the pigs they sacrificed there at the Winter Solstice had very rotten teeth after only six months of life. Speculation is that they were fed a very sweet diet to fatten them up for the sport and feasting.


Honey roast ham anyone?

Jim.