On 2007-09-08 16:54, Chyknel2 wrote:
The assertion that the Avenue did go right to the river is so often quoted I assume there is evidence, right or wrong. As I recall the river there is at the bottom of a steep slope so couldn't have moved much in one direction.

On 2007-09-08 16:05, ragnarok wrote:
I've just read an article in March/Aprils 'current Archaeology' magazine titled 'Before Stonehenge: village of wild parties' which is primarily about Durrington Walls.
There are various points made which I can find no evidential confirmation. I wondered if anyone else can? Or has anything further to add?

The article includes a plan suggesting/showing that the people from Durrington walls made a 'journey from life to death' down the River Avon to a point where the Stonehenge Avenue meets the Avon. (Then up the avenue to Stonehenge).
This is a journey of some 6 miles.
However I can find no evidence that the avenue actually went as far as the river. Nor that it started from the river & went to Stonehenge as this plan seems to directionally imply.

I understand that the original N.E. Avenue was laid out around 2,200 bc and extended, veering down towards the river around 1100bc but never completed.
This 'plan' shows the Avon as it is today - how about 4,500 or so years ago?

The article also states:
'radio carbon dates from the village (durrington walls) have come out at 2,600 - 2,500 bc, giving an exact match with the main building phases at Stonehenge, when the bluestones and the great sarsens were erected. '' We think we are looking at the village of the actual builders of Stonehenge'' said Mike Parker Pearson.'
However the dates I have found for the erection of the two unfinished circles of bluestones is 2,200bc. They were removed in 2,000 bc when the sarsen ring & thrilithons were constructed. Bluestones were then returned around 1600bc.
If this is correct then Parker Pearson is at least 300 years out in his calculations.
I also find it difficult to understand why any builders of Stonehenge would build their village so far away from the site? (2 miles if you're a crow!)

This bit reads like something out of a novel (or Time Team!):
'The use of timber posts at Durrington Walls symbolised life, the gradual rotting of the posts the passage from life to death. The grey, silent monoliths of Stonehenge were a memorial to the dead, the final destination on life's journey, the place where the ancestors dwelt forever.'
I think it would be reasonable to assume that the dwellings were built using wood as it was plentiful and quick & easy to work. After all we still use the stuff in our dwellings today!

Parker Pearson also states (with ref to Durrington): 'My guess is that they were throwing ashes, human bones, and perhaps even whole bodies into the water, a practice seen in other river settings' But some of the dead, perhaps only the important members of the community, must have been conveyed the whole way....'
I find this somewhat contradictory. Where's the evidence for this? Where else did they practice throwing ashes/bones/bodies into rivers in this country? Anyone know?

Thanks. Raggy.