Neolithic Roadway, Possibly a Ritual Site, Discovered in England

[Jovialis]

When archaeologists arrived on the scene of an unassuming field in Suffolk, England, they didn’t expect to find much in the way of significant archaeological relics. They had been hired by the energy company ScottishPower to make sure that the area was clear of artifacts before beginning a planned construction project. But “[the field] didn’t really point to much being there,” Claire Halley of Wardell Armstrong, the company that oversaw the dig, tells Rory Smith of CNN. “It didn’t register as a site of great potential.”

Sometimes, looks can be deceiving.

As they dug into the field, archaeologists hit upon what appeared to be a wooden walkway, which they initially believed was built during the medieval period. But radiocarbon dating of the wood revealed that the construction was, in fact, a Neolithic trackway that dates to approximately 2300 B.C.

Around 100 feet of the timber walkway and a host of other intriguing artifacts were unearthed during the excavation, according to Maev Kennedy of the Guardian. Archaeologists found wooden posts that seemed to mark the route of the trackway, which seemed to lead up to a platform, Kennedy writes. Along the trackway were white pebbles not commonly seen in the area, indicating that they were transported there deliberately. The team also discovered the hulking skull of an aurochs, an extinct wild ox, which had been cut in a way that suggests it sat atop a pole or was used as a headdress. The skull was already 2,000 years old when the trackway was built, so it likely held profound significance to the people who brought it to the area.

These artifacts offer compelling evidence to suggest that the trackway was a ritual site. Neolithic peoples “weren’t living here,” Vinny Monahan, one of the archaeologists involved in the excavation, tells Kennedy. “[T]hey made this place deliberately and they were coming here because it was important to them.”

Natural water springs, which were unearthed by the dig, have kept the trackway in remarkably good condition. According to a ScottishPower statement, the wood is in such good condition that archaeologists can identify two different sets of markings; one set, archaeologists believe, was made by an apprentice, while the other was made by a more experienced craftsman who took over the job. The presence of the springs may also explain why the site was chosen “as a special place” more than 4,000 years ago, the statement notes.

The site was used for hundreds of years by several ancient cultures. A Neolithic enclosure found in the area was built 500 years before the trackway. Archaeologists also found a Bronze Age enclosure, an Iron Age ditch, Roman ditches and the remains of Saxon buildings. According to Kennedy, the site was filled in the 11th century, which buried the springs and the artifacts that surrounded them.

The wood and other relics uncovered by the excavation have been sent off for further analysis, and they may one day be displayed in local museums.

“Undoubtedly this is a site of international archaeological significance,” Richard Newman, associate director at Wardell Armstrong, said in the statement. “It is exceptionally rare to find preserved organic materials from the Neolithic period, and we will learn a great deal from this discovery.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...bly-ritual-site-discovered-england-180969493/

 

[Angela]

When archaeologists arrived on the scene of an unassuming field in Suffolk, England, they didn’t expect to find much in the way of significant archaeological relics. They had been hired by the energy company ScottishPower to make sure that the area was clear of artifacts before beginning a planned construction project. But “[the field] didn’t really point to much being there,” Claire Halley of Wardell Armstrong, the company that oversaw the dig, tells Rory Smith of CNN. “It didn’t register as a site of great potential.”

Sometimes, looks can be deceiving.

As they dug into the field, archaeologists hit upon what appeared to be a wooden walkway, which they initially believed was built during the medieval period. But radiocarbon dating of the wood revealed that the construction was, in fact, a Neolithic trackway that dates to approximately 2300 B.C.

Around 100 feet of the timber walkway and a host of other intriguing artifacts were unearthed during the excavation, according to Maev Kennedy of the Guardian. Archaeologists found wooden posts that seemed to mark the route of the trackway, which seemed to lead up to a platform, Kennedy writes. Along the trackway were white pebbles not commonly seen in the area, indicating that they were transported there deliberately. The team also discovered the hulking skull of an aurochs, an extinct wild ox, which had been cut in a way that suggests it sat atop a pole or was used as a headdress. The skull was already 2,000 years old when the trackway was built, so it likely held profound significance to the people who brought it to the area.

These artifacts offer compelling evidence to suggest that the trackway was a ritual site. Neolithic peoples “weren’t living here,” Vinny Monahan, one of the archaeologists involved in the excavation, tells Kennedy. “[T]hey made this place deliberately and they were coming here because it was important to them.”

Natural water springs, which were unearthed by the dig, have kept the trackway in remarkably good condition. According to a ScottishPower statement, the wood is in such good condition that archaeologists can identify two different sets of markings; one set, archaeologists believe, was made by an apprentice, while the other was made by a more experienced craftsman who took over the job. The presence of the springs may also explain why the site was chosen “as a special place” more than 4,000 years ago, the statement notes.

The site was used for hundreds of years by several ancient cultures. A Neolithic enclosure found in the area was built 500 years before the trackway. Archaeologists also found a Bronze Age enclosure, an Iron Age ditch, Roman ditches and the remains of Saxon buildings. According to Kennedy, the site was filled in the 11th century, which buried the springs and the artifacts that surrounded them.

The wood and other relics uncovered by the excavation have been sent off for further analysis, and they may one day be displayed in local museums.

“Undoubtedly this is a site of international archaeological significance,” Richard Newman, associate director at Wardell Armstrong, said in the statement. “It is exceptionally rare to find preserved organic materials from the Neolithic period, and we will learn a great deal from this discovery.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...bly-ritual-site-discovered-england-180969493/

The importance of water does indeed explain it, I think. Areas where springs appear have had cult-like, religious significance all the way down to the Romans.

This is a thread on holy wells in Etruscan and Roman history.

https://www.eupedia.com/forum/threa...and-Roman-civilization?highlight=holy+springs

Unfortunately, the pictures have disappeared.

Clitunno:

The Tempietto. I still find it extraordinary that it's just sitting there. My children clambered in and around it. I felt guilty, but there wasn't even a sign saying don't enter or touch it.

 

[Jovialis]

The importance of water does indeed explain it, I think. Areas where springs appear have had cult-like, religious significance all the way down to the Romans.

This is a thread on holy wells in Etruscan and Roman history.

https://www.eupedia.com/forum/threa...and-Roman-civilization?highlight=holy+springs

Unfortunately, the pictures have disappeared.

Clitunno:

The Tempietto. I still find it extraordinary that it's just sitting there. My children clambered in and around it. I felt guilty, but there wasn't even a sign saying don't enter or touch it.

In the archaeology.org article it mentions that the auroch skull was submerged into the spring as part of a ritual.

SUFFOLK, ENGLAND—The Guardian reports that a 4,300-year-old wooden trackway was discovered in eastern England during the construction of a wind farm. A 4,800-year-old causewayed enclosure and a later ring ditch were also found nearby. Situated on a slope near a river, the wooden path appears to have led to a level platform, also made of timber, surrounded by the spring water that preserved the wood. “Some of the wood is so well preserved we can clearly see markings made by an apprentice, before a more experienced tradesman has taken over to complete the job,” said Richard Newman of Wardell Armstrong. Archaeologists think the objects recovered during the excavation, such as pieces of metal, pottery, and an aurochs skull, had been dropped into the water from the platform in some form of ritual activity. The massive cattle skull, which was about 2,000 years old when it was submerged, had been modified in a way that suggests it had been affixed to a pole or was part of a headdress. Masses of white pebbles that appear to have been carried to the site were also recovered. In the eleventh century, the site was covered over and leveled off, which buried the springs and helped preserve the timbers. For more on Neolithic England, go to “The Square Inside Avebury’s

https://www.archaeology.org/news/6755-180628-england-aurochs-skull

Interestingly, the skull itself was ancient by the time it was used in the ritual. It is 6,300 years old:

The skull was already ancient when it went into the water – tests dated it to about 2,000 years older than the track. Masses of white pebbles that would have been brought specially to the site were also found.
https://www.theguardian.com/science...s-stumble-on-neolithic-ritual-site-in-suffolk

 

[Ygorcs]

Wow, this is really interesting and a rare find, especially because it is a relatively well preserved wooden construction from so long ago! Even stone constructions are often lost 4,000 years later. It's also very interesting that the site probably retained some cultural significance for thousands of years, when there were so many cultural and genetic upheavals in the intervening years (and the auroch skull was even much older, dating to the Neolithic, but submerged in a ritual only in the Bronze Age). Is that maybe a sign that the Neolithic population of Britain may have mostly disappeared after the BA Bell Beaker influx, but they still managed to leave some cultural influence onto the more numerous immigrants, especially in terms of beliefs associated with the land itself (sacred groves, springs, local deities associated with natural landscapes)?

 

[Jovialis]

Wow, this is really interesting and a rare find, especially because it is a relatively well preserved wooden construction from so long ago! Even stone constructions are often lost 4,000 years later. It's also very interesting that the site probably retained some cultural significance for thousands of years, when there were so many cultural and genetic upheavals in the intervening years (and the auroch skull was even much older, dating to the Neolithic, but submerged in a ritual only in the Bronze Age). Is that maybe a sign that the Neolithic population of Britain may have mostly disappeared after the BA Bell Beaker influx, but they still managed to leave some cultural influence onto the more numerous immigrants, especially in terms of beliefs associated with the land itself (sacred groves, springs, local deities associated with natural landscapes)?

I find it interesting how widespread and far back in time the worship of the aurochs was.

Aurochs are depicted in many Paleolithic European cave paintings such as those found at Lascaux and Livernon in France. Their life force may have been thought to have magical qualities, for early carvings of the aurochs have also been found. The impressive and dangerous aurochs survived into the Iron Age in Anatolia and the Near East and were worshipped throughout that area as sacred animals; the earliest survivals of a bull worship are at neolithic Çatalhöyük.
The bull was seen in the constellation Taurus by the Chalcolithic and had marked the New Year at springtide by the Bronze Age, for 4000–1700 BCE.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_bull

They had a massive range 10,000 years ago:

https://blogs.biomedcentral.com/on-biology/2015/10/27/gruelling-hunt-aurochs-genome/