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<< Our Photo Pages >> Damerham Ceremonial Complex - Long Barrow in England in Hampshire

Submitted by Andy B on Thursday, 21 November 2013  Page Views: 15483

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Damerham Ceremonial Complex Alternative Name: Damerham Archaeology Project, Damerham Long Barrows
Country: England County: Hampshire Type: Long Barrow
 Nearest Village: Damerham
Map Ref: SU08841534
Latitude: 50.937439N  Longitude: 1.875564W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
1 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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Damerham Ceremonial Complex
Damerham Ceremonial Complex submitted by Andy B : Damerham Excavation 2011 credit: © Damerham Archaeology Project (Vote or comment on this photo)
Complex of Long Barrows and other monuments in Hampshire. Given away by strange, cropmarks seen from the air, a huge prehistoric ceremonial complex discovered in southern England has taken archaeologists by surprise. A thousand years older than nearby Stonehenge, the site includes the remains of wooden temples and two massive, 6,000-year-old tombs that are among "Britain's first architecture," according to archaeologist Helen Wickstead, leader of the Damerham Archaeology Project.

For such a site to have lain hidden for so long is "completely amazing," said Wickstead, of Kingston University in London.

Archaeologist Joshua Pollard, who was not involved in the find, agreed. The discovery is "remarkable," he said, given the decades of intense archaeological attention to the greater Stonehenge region.

"I think everybody assumed such monument complexes were known about or had already been discovered," added Pollard, a co-leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project.

At the 500-acre (200-hectare) site, outlines of the structures were spotted "etched" into farmland near the village of Damerham, some 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Stonehenge.

Discovered during a routine aerial survey by English Heritage, the U.K. government's historic-preservation agency, the "crop circles" are the results of buried archaeological structures interfering with plant growth. True crop circles are vast designs created by flattening crops.

The central features are two great tombs topped by massive mounds—made shorter by centuries of plowing—called long barrows. The larger of the two tombs is 70 meters (230 feet) long.

Estimated at 6,000 years old, based on the dates of similar tombs around the United Kingdom, the long barrows are also the oldest elements of the complex.

Such oblong burial mounds are very rare finds, and are the country's earliest known architectural form, Wickstead said. The last full-scale long barrow excavation was in the 1950s, she added.

The Damerham tombs have yet to be excavated, but experts say the long barrows likely contain chambers—probably carved into chalk bedrock and reinforced with wood—filled with human bones associated with ancestor worship.

During the late Stone Age, it's believed, people in the region left their dead in the open to be picked clean by birds and other animals.

Skulls and other bones of people who were for some reason deemed significant were later placed inside the burial mounds, Wickstead explained.

"These are bone houses, in a way," she said. "Instead of whole bodies, [the tombs contain] parts of ancestors."

Other finds suggest the site remained an important focus for prehistoric farming communities well into the Bronze Age (roughly 2000 to 700 B.C. in Britain).

Near the tombs are two large, round, ditch-encircled structures—the largest circular enclosure being about 190 feet (57 meters) wide.

Nonintrusive electromagnetic surveys show signs of postholes, suggesting rings of upright timber once stood within the circles—further evidence of the Damerham site's ceremonial or sacred role.

Pollard, of the University of Bristol, likened the features to smaller versions of Woodhenge, a timber-circle temple at the Stonehenge World Heritage site.

Damerham also includes a highly unusual, and so far baffling, U-shaped enclosure with postholes dated to the Bronze Age, project leader Wickstead said.

The circled outlines of 26 Bronze Age burial mounds also dot the site, which is littered with stone flint tools and shattered examples of the earliest known type of pottery in Britain.

Source: National Geographic.

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Note: Damerham Archaeology Project finds unusual monument with no direct parallel in the UK and the first henge-type structure to be found in Hampshire
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Damerham Ceremonial Complex
Damerham Ceremonial Complex submitted by DaveTooke : DAP August 2012 094 Dampney Longbarrow under excavation August 2012 Excavation of Dampney Longbarrow, Damerham 2012. Flanking ditch in lower right. View from North West Image copyright: Dave Tooke, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API. (Vote or comment on this photo)

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SU0815 : Bench Mark, Stapleton Farm by Maigheach-gheal
by Maigheach-gheal
©2011(licence)
SU0815 : Wall, Stapleton Farm by Maigheach-gheal
by Maigheach-gheal
©2011(licence)
SU0815 : Damerham, Stapleton Farm by Mike Faherty
by Mike Faherty
©2011(licence)
SU0815 : Ball Hill Copse by Toby
by Toby
©2006(licence)
SU0815 : Footpath from Stapleton Farm by Toby
by Toby
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 2.3km N 349° Soldiers Ring (Dorset)* Misc. Earthwork (SU084176)
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"Damerham Ceremonial Complex" | Login/Create an Account | 8 News and Comments
  
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Re: Damerham Archaeology Project by Zooks777 on Saturday, 21 August 2021
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Although of undoubted high interest, the structures on this site would not be noticed on Environment Agency lidar (grey icon next to CamRA). Zooming out reveals a surrounding area with clear signs of ancient field boundaries
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    Re: Damerham Archaeology Project by Andy B on Saturday, 21 August 2021
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    Interesting. These structures were spotted on conventional aerial photos as a result of crop patterns I think.
    [ Reply to This ]

Damerham Archaeology Project: New Discoveries (various sites) by Andy B on Thursday, 09 April 2015
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Damerham Archaeology Project: New Discoveries (various sites) By
Martyn Barber (English Heritage) and Helen Wickstead (Kingston University, London)

Prehistorians increasingly explore the strange uses to which Neolithic and Bronze Age people put features of the natural world in their architecture. The colour of monuments has long been seen as an interesting aspect of their construction, especially so in chalkland areas, where it is historically known that the whiteness of chalk was related to distinct building traditions. New findings close to the village of Damerham, on the chalk of Cranborne Chase, highlight the uses to which prehistoric people put differently coloured natural features, revealing some surprizing aspects of their building practices. Coincidentally, the way Neolithic people made use of different kinds of coloured earth at Damerham led to the creation of two very different preservational environments. Consequently, some sites at Damerham have considerable scientific potential of for advancing understandings of past landscapes.

More in New Discoveries - Archaeology in Hampshire 2013
Page 20 onwards
https://www.academia.edu/11861653/Damerham_Archaeology_Project_New_Discoveries._In_Stoodley_N._ed._2013_Archaeology_in_Hampshire._Hampshire_Field_Club_and_Archaeological_Society
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Re: Damerham Archaeology Project 'Sink Hole of Evidence' by AngieLake on Wednesday, 27 November 2013
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This interesting article from http://www.kingston.ac.uk
came up in my inbox with the daily Google Search 'Stonehenge'.

http://www.thealmagest.com/archaeological-dig-near-stonehenge-uncovers-sink-hole-evidence-neolithic-period/4402
Click on the above link for more:
(Sample):
"An archaeology team led by an academic from London’s Kingston University has delved back into a Neolithic site at Damerham, Hampshire, and uncovered a sink hole of material that may hold vital information about the plant species that thrived there 6,000 years ago.

Dr Helen Wickstead said the find was completely unexpected and had initially confused the team digging on the farmland. This is the sixth year of the project at Damerham, located about 15 miles from the iconic British monument Stonehenge, with four areas of a temple complex excavated during the summer. The surprise came in the largest of the openings, approximately 40 metres long, where careful extractions revealed a layer of uncharacteristic orange sand and clay. Typically the archaeological survey would involve mapping and cataloguing such finds as bone, pottery and tool-making waste fragments.

“The site at Damerham is on chalk land, so we don’t often find materials like this that capture and preserve the plant remains – pollen or phytoliths – from a specific time period,” Dr Wickstead explained. “The sink hole contained orange sand with a yellow and grey clay and we are very hopeful that, within this material, there will be evidence of plant life that will help us continue to piece together the puzzle of human habitation on this significant site.”

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Damerham Archaeology Project find unusual monument with no direct parallel and henge by Andy B on Thursday, 21 November 2013
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Wickstead, H. and Barber, M with Bayer, O and Carey, C. (2013)
Damerham Archaeology Project 2013, English Heritage Highlight Report (DRAFT COPY)

This report summarizes the highlights of archaeological fieldwork undertaken between 5th
and 30th August 2013 on an important, newly mapped prehistoric monument complex near the village of Damerham, Hampshire. The 2013 programme was the sixth year of fieldwork by the Damerham Archaeology Project, its aims and objectives being developed from this previous work on the complex.

The fieldwork revealed new unexpected, findings highlighting the considerable scientific potential of certain sites within the complex for advancing our understanding of prehistoric environments.

Trench 1 (D in the Project Design) investigated an unusual form of monument, which has no precise morphological parallel in Britain (the closest known parallel is in the Pas de Calais, France). Aerial photographs and geophysics revealed a circular ditch c20 metres in diameter with an inner concentric circular ditch circa 12.5 metres in diameter.

In Trench 2 the principal features included the ditch of a henge-like enclosure (likely to be a henge) with two concentric ditches towards the centre of the henge-like enclosure. The morphology of the larger enclosure indicates that it belongs broadly to the category known as henges. This would make it the first to be discovered in Hampshire, though not on the chalk of Cranborne Chase.

Other trenches investigated various ring ditches (presumably ploughed out barrows). The work undertaken on site involved up to 50 volunteers; many from Damerham and other nearby villages. Volunteers participated in as wide a range of on-site activities as possible.

Read the full (draft) report at Academia.edu
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Talk: Damerham Archaeology Project: more to find in the Wessex heartlands? 08 Nov by Andy B on Monday, 03 October 2011
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Damerham Archaeology Project: more to find in the Wessex heartlands?
When: 08 Nov 2011 19:30
Where: Lecture Hall - Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum

A talk by Dr Helen Wickstead, Kingston University and Martyn Barber, Aerial Survey, English Heritage.

This talk reports on the latest findings from Damerham Archaeology Project, which has been investigating a remarkable complex of previously unknown prehistoric monuments on the eastern edge of Cranborne Chase. Aerial and geophysical survey - followed by exploratory excavations - has revealed more than 40 individual monuments. These include two early Neolithic long barrows, more than 30 Bronze Age round barrows, a system of linear ditches and an enclosure of probable Iron Age date.

The lecture gives an exclusive preview of discoveries from this summer’s excavation, which ended only weeks ago. These trenches focused on the setting of Damerham’s largest long barrow – which is 80 metres long and survives up to 2m in height – and merely began to address the many questions surrounding these complex and enigmatic structures.

That so many sites had previously escaped the documented attentions of archaeologists is surprising, Cranborne Chase is a classic prehistoric landscape of Wessex; one of the historic heartlands of British Archaeology. Many have been tempted to suggest there is little new to find in this area. Damerham Archaeology Project, and other recent work, suggests this is not the case – there may be much more waiting to be discovered.

A lecture in the Salisbury Museum Archaeology Lectures (SMAL) series. SMAL lectures are held on the second Tuesday of each month from September to April.

Booking: No booking necessary, payable on the door

Cost: Museum members £2.00; non-Members £3.50; payable on the door
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Ancient tombs discovered by Kingston University-led team by Andy B on Sunday, 21 June 2009
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A prehistoric complex including two 6,000-year-old tombs representing some of the earliest monuments built in Britain has been discovered by a team led by a Kingston University archaeologist. Dr Helen Wickstead and her colleagues were stunned and delighted to find the previously undiscovered Neolithic tombs, also known as long barrows at a site at Damerham, Hampshire.

Some artefacts, including fragments of pottery and flint and stone tools, have already been recovered and later in the summer a team of volunteers will make a systematic survey of the site, recovering and recording any artefacts that have been brought to the surface by ploughing.

Dr Wickstead said that further work would help to reveal more about the Neolithic era. “We hope that scientific methods will allow us to record these sites before they are completely eroded”, she said. “If we can excavate, we’ll be able to say a lot more about Neolithic people in that area and find out things like who was buried there, what kinds of lives they led, and what the environment was like six thousand years ago.”

She said the find was particularly rare because it was close to Cranborne Chase, one of the most thoroughly researched prehistoric areas in Europe. “I was really excited. It’s rare to find sites of this kind and the tombs are likely to be of national importance,” said Dr Wickstead. ”What’s really extraordinary is the location – it’s one of the most famous prehistoric landscapes, a mecca for prehistorians, and you would have thought the archaeological world would have gone over it with a fine tooth comb.”

Dr Wickstead, a visiting researcher in the Faculty of Science, is also project manager of Damerham Archaeology Project, an educational body set up last year to discover more about the archaeology of the area around Damerham village.

The importance of the site at Damerham first emerged in 2003 when English Heritage spotted crop marks – which can indicate buried archaeological sites - on aerial photographs of the area. Dr Wickstead volunteered to begin geophysical tests of the area and it was while her team was planning the work that Martyn Barber, a member of the Damerham Archaeology Project, looked at a Windows Live Map of the area to find the car park where he was due to meet his colleagues and was astonished to see another tomb a few hundred metres from the first. “To find any new monuments of this date still visible as humps on the ground is unusual,” said Dr Wickstead, “But to find two is fantastic – we were flabbergasted.”

Work on the site is in its early stages but Dr Wickstead said the tombs may contain human bones, while nearby there are cropmark traces of some larger circular enclosures which may have been built at the same time as the prehistoric monument at Stonehenge, which is 15 miles away.

In Neolithic times, a ritual burial involved leaving a body out so the flesh would decay. Some of the bones were later put in a tomb, or relatives may even have kept some bones as a special talisman. ”We don’t know whether these sites contained chambers with bones in them - some long barrows never contained bones at all, rather like cenotaphs today. We may also find that any chambers have been destroyed by ploughing – only by excavating could we find out for sure,” said Dr Wickstead.

She said her team were sensitive to the emotions stirred by discovering human remains. “The recovery of ancient human remains is always handled sensitively,” said Dr Wickstead. “We feel respect for the dead people we study, and we treat their remains,with care.”

Source: Press Release
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Damerham Archaeology Project by Andy B on Sunday, 21 June 2009
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Discovering Damerham: Prospecting New Sites in West Hampshire
Aerial Photograph of Damerham

Cranborne Chase is one of the most famous later prehistoric landscapes in Europe. Yet new discoveries continue to come to light in this well known area, extending knowledge of prehistory in exciting new directions. In 2003 aerial survey by Martyn Barber revealed an extraordinary complex of cropmarks close to the Chase at Damerham in the far west of Hampshire. The cropmarks focus on a circular enclosure (57m dia.) defined by a substantial ditch 5m across.

Surrounding and to the south east of the enclosure are at least 26 ring ditches and barrows. Among these are two sets of conjoined ring ditches - one set containing circular post settings. An oval ditch nearby suggests the remains of a Neolithic oval barrow or mortuary enclosure. At the south east edge of the complex is a long mound (78m long) flanked by two ditches, to the north a prehistoric field system.

Many of these sites seem likely to prove Neolithic or Bronze Age in date. The long mound suggests an Early Neolithic date, while the circular enclosure is comparable with Late Neolithic henges excavated at nearby Knowlton. Unfortunately these remarkable remains are suffering plough damage, which is progressively eroding the archaeological deposits.

More at
http://www.damerhamarchaeology.org/
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