<< Our Photo Pages >> Maumbury Rings - Henge in England in Dorset

Submitted by JimChampion on Thursday, 13 July 2023  Page Views: 24575

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Maumbury Rings
Country: England County: Dorset Type: Henge
Nearest Town: Dorchester
Map Ref: SY69018992  Landranger Map Number: 194
Latitude: 50.708083N  Longitude: 2.440248W
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
 4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 3 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.
 4 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
 5

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I have visited· I would like to visit

rowan1970 elad13 would like to visit

Upozi visited on 1st Apr 2024 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 5 In continuous use right up to recent years. Henge, ampitheatre, market, artillery fort, execution place, protest demonstrations etc.

DougJ visited on 20th Feb 2024 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Still in great shape!

RedKite1985 visited on 25th Jan 2023 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 5

SolarMegalith visited on 22nd Oct 2011 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 5

ForestDaughter visited on 1st Nov 1995 - their rating: Amb: 5 Access: 5

JohnLindsay visited Rather tucked away in the Pastscape text is the reference to Archaeologia 105. This is 99 pages of material. Search on Archaeologia web site takes you to Cambridge Journals which has a search and Maumbury is an uncomplicated term story. I remembered to type in the 5+1 = 6, though the six was already there, so let's see what happens, perhaps I should have done it as a word.

maddy AngieLake JimChampion rldixon TimPrevett NickyD have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.75 Ambience: 4 Access: 5

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Bladup : Maumbury Rings (Vote or comment on this photo)
Excavations between 1908 and 1913 indicated this site's origin to be a Neolithic henge. There was a wide ditch inside the circular bank, with a series of tapering shafts about 3 metres apart (suggesting 45 in total). Excavation of eight of the shafts revealed that they were deliberately filled, some containing red deer skulls (or skull fragments) and carved chalk objects.

The henge bank is nearly circular, with a diameter of over 100 metres. Its single entrance is to the northeast. An upright stone stood at the henge entrance (recorded in the 18th century).

Like many other ancient sites it was later adapted, first by the Romans to form an amphitheatre. It underwent further remodelling during the English civil war when it was used as an artillery fort, guarding the southern approach to Dorchester.

Access The earthwork and its surroudings are a scheduled ancient monument and public open space, next to Dorchester police station. Only a short walk (signposted) from Dorchester town centre, and both Dorchester railway stations are nearby.

Note: HengeFest 2023 at Maumbury Rings, Sun, 30th July all day
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Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by rldixon : Three pics stitched in photoshop to form a panoramic pic. (4 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by mattimpey : Maumbury Rings the remains of a Neolithic Henge in Dorchester. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Bladup : Maumbury Rings. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by ForestDaughter : Visited late 1995, on a rainy misty day, which made for a great atmosphere. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by TimPrevett : Maumbury Rings viewed looking north; the entrances run almost exactly on a north-south alignment. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Horatio : Entrance to the henge where a stone once stood

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Postman : 14.03 pm, 21st March 2020

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Postman : All the way round

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Postman : From one of the information boards, you just don't get these kind of archaeologists anymore.

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Bladup : Maumbury Rings.

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by SolarMegalith : Entrance to the Neolithic henge is opened to the north - view from the SE (photo taken on October 2011).

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by mattimpey : The entrance to Maumbury Rings. The Neolithic Henge in the middle of Dorchester has been used as a Roman Amphitheatre and during the Civil War as a defensive artillary base. The men in the picture are strimming the banks for Dorchester Council.

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by JimChampion : A low viewpoint makes the eastern side of the henge entrance look a bit Silbury-like. Very overcast and not a good day for taking pictures of this large grassy earthwork. The size of the bank is not a good indication of its original height - it was greatly added to when the Romans converted the henge into an amphitheatre.

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by bec-zog : Maumbury "Rings". Neolithic & Roman @ SY 690,899. Excavations 1908-1913 indicated the sites origin to be a Neolithic Henge which like many other ancient UK sites was adapted, in this case by by the Romans, to form an amphitheatre. Ref R.C.H.M. Dorset (1970) p589

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Bladup : After sunrise at Maumbury Rings

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Bladup : Maumbury Rings

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Bladup

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Upozi : April 2024. Looking North. The ramps were added during the Civil War to move artillery to the top of the ramparts

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Bladup : Maumbury Rings

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Bladup

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Bladup : Maumbury Rings, You can see the smaller banked henge under the later (built upon the henge) amphitheatre in this photo

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Bladup : Maumbury Rings and it's pits by John Hodgson

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Bladup : Maumbury Rings

Maumbury Rings
Maumbury Rings submitted by Bladup : Maumbury Rings, Where the Standing Stone used to be

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 739m NNE 23° Dorchester, Tudor Arcade* Timber Circle (SY693906)
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 3.6km S 185° Came Down* Barrow Cemetery (SY687863)
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HengeFest 2023, Sun, 30 July 2023 by Andy B on Thursday, 13 July 2023
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A family fun day in Maumbury Rings with activities that celebrate the sacred history of the space and its vibrant history - FREE ENTRY

Hengefest in Maumbury Rings is the final day of our Home of Hillforts & Henges series of events.

An epic day of discovery and family fun at Maumbury Rings, a venue used by locals to celebrate special occasions for millennia.

• Pebble Labyrinth
• Romans
• Medieval Grass Billiards
• Bushcraft
• Story Telling
• Ancient Wessex Network
• Wild Meadow Flower talks
• Nature Crafts
• Wild Foraging
• Nature Trails
• Dorset Portable Antiquities
• Dorset Butterflies
• Dorset Hillforts & Habitats
• Dorchester Yoga & Therapy Centre
• Sound Gong therapy
• Reiki Taster sessions
• Hair Braiding
• Live Music & Performance
• Trade Stands

FREE ENTRY - Tickets not required

Location: Maumbury Rings, Weymouth Avenue, Dorchester, Dorset, DT1 1QN
There is no parking at Maumbury Rings

Sun, 30 Jul, from 10:00 AM
https://www.archaeologyuk.org/festival/festival-event-listing/hengefest-1.html
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Maumbury Rings Lunar Model event by TimPrevett on Sunday, 14 July 2019
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7 metre diameter scale model of the moon at Maumbury Rings for one night http://moonburyrings.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Website-Version-Flyer.pdf
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Artefacts, Sex Objects and Psychoanalysis: Interpreting prehistoric phalli 1870-195 by Andy B on Monday, 05 June 2017
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Artefacts, Sex Objects and Psychoanalysis: Interpreting prehistoric phalli 1870-1951 - Helen Wickstead
Research Seminar, University of Manchester, 25th April 2017

Today, the notion of the "phallic symbol " is used to describe a wide range of objects – from cigarettes to sky scrapers. Few theories have exerted as enduring a grip on popular accounts of how material culture signifies in the contemporary world.

Yet few archaeologists are aware of the important part antiquarians and archaeologists played in constructing images of the phallic. This seminar reports on the results of a Wellcome Trust funded research project exploring the history of the modern phallic symbol after its invention by antiquarians and archaeologists.

The modern concept of the phallus emerged in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries as antiquarians built theoretical frameworks explaining similarities in material culture from across the world with reference to "generative organs " and fertility cults. This modern concept of the phallus was subsequently adopted by psychoanalysts, including Freud, who himself possessed a collection of ancient phalli along with antiquarian and archaeological literature concerning "phallic worship" that he cited in his work.

In this seminar I present a case study from my research focusing on selected prehistoric phalli excavated from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Britain. These objects were all once interpreted as representations of the human penis; however, some of them now appear highly ambiguous, and several are no longer discussed as phalli.

Since we cannot know the words used to describe these artefacts in the past, prehistoric phalli provide a useful starting point for exploring the history of the phallic symbol. The letters and diaries of archaeologists who identified phalli in the twentieth century reveal much about how material objects intervened in the sociality of archaeological knowledge production.

Identifying and displaying primitive sex objects showed prehistory to be untrammelled by the prudishness of wider society – much as psychoanalysis and sexology were. Working with their phallic artefacts prehistoric archaeologists produced an anti-bourgeois sexually liberated space for scientific practice. Some may have found this environment conducive at a time when divorce and homosexuality were widely stigmatized. The case study of British prehistoric phalli shows how archaeological artefacts participated in transforming sexuality, subjectivity and psyche in the modern era.

Little more at Academia, but does include a photo of the Maumbury Rings 'phallus', excavated 1912 here:
https://www.academia.edu/33287346/

See also Windmill Hill for a related paper / video from Helen
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=179#comments
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Re: Maumbury Rings by JohnLindsay on Friday, 15 April 2016
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Rather tucked away in the Pastscape text is the reference to Archaeologia 105. This is 99 pages of material.

Search on Archaeologia web site takes you to Cambridge Journals which has a search and Maumbury is an uncomplicated term story.
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Petition to save Dorchester's Archaeology by Andy B on Thursday, 15 January 2015
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A petition to ensure that a full archaeological investigation is carried out at the Charles Street redevelopment site before work commences.

West Dorset District Council has shocked and appalled archaeologists by insisting that the controversial Charles Street development be allowed to go ahead without an adequate archaeological investigation prior to the bulldozers moving in.

The site lies within the walls of the Roman town, and its archaeology is likely to include vital clues to our town’s history, from prehistoric times to the present. Flying in the face of English Heritage’s advice, and acting against the spirit of the law where archaeology and development are concerned, the Council has decided to squander a major opportunity to explore and enhance the understanding of Dorchester’s past. Instead of a thorough investigation of what remains below ground level, the site is to be destroyed and removed for landfill, after a mere cursory examination.

The Council employed consultants to provide a report which assessed the site as being of only ‘medium’ importance, despite the fact that it is bounded on one side by the remains of Dorchester’s Roman bath-house, and on another by a unique and internationally important Neolithic henge monument. This report contains many factual errors and omissions, and its ‘fitness for purpose’ has been questioned by an internationally renowned and respected archaeologist. By their own admission the consultants’ assessment was ‘refined in order to reduce expenditure and maintain the economic viability of the development scheme’. Hardly the statement one might expect of detached, unbiased professionals!

Plainly, the Council are determined to see the project through at any cost. So far this has included several millions of pounds of ratepayers’ money – now it seems as if it will also be at the cost of our town’s heritage, and the future opportunity for generations of residents, visitors, students and historians to enjoy, study and understand a vital part of Dorchester’s history.

Thomas Hardy only exaggerated marginally when he asserted that ‘It was impossible to dig more than a foot or two deep about the town fields and gardens without coming upon some tall soldier or other of the Empire, who had lain there in his silent unobtrusive rest for a space of fifteen hundred years.’ Prince Charles has written that ‘If you destroy the past, or consistently deny its relevance to the present, man eventually loses his soul and his roots’.

In the early nineteenth century, a group of Dorchester residents, led by the poet William Barnes, managed to avert the demolition of Maumbury Rings by Brunel’s Great Western Railway by forming a pressure group and lobbying against the wanton destruction of our town’s priceless heritage. Now we need to act again, to make sure that when development occurs, that heritage is treated with the respect it deserves, and is properly investigated, recorded and conserved.

Please support D.O.R.C.H.’s actions to try to make West Dorset District Council change its mind, and ensure that a full and thorough excavation is carried out. Our future as a unique historic town depends on it.

Petition here:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-dorchester-s-archaeology
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Re: Maumbury Rings by coldrum on Wednesday, 31 March 2010
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Re: Maumbury Rings by coldrum on Monday, 29 June 2009
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Pastscape entry:

http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=451843
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