Stonehenge: The Story of a Sacred Landscape, Francis Pryor, c. 2017.

Stonehenge: The Story of a Sacred Landscape, Francis Pryor, c. 2017.

Henges, page 62:

The best-known type of monument to be found in ritual landscapes is undoubtedly the henge (can be wooden or stone). Named after Stonehenge, henges are only found in Britain and Ireland. They consist of a circular ditch with an external bank and one or more entranceways. Very often they surround rings of standing stones or large timbers. Incidentally, neither Stonehenge nor Seahenge are henges, if you follow the definition rigidly: the ditch at the former has an internal bank and the latter lacks a ditch entirely. Stonehenge is generally grouped with other early henges under the general heading of "formative henges," which were constructed around 3200 - 2800 BC. Very often these early henges are associated with burials -- as indeed was the cast at Stonehenge.

Barrows, page 64: the equivalent of graves in a churchyard.

The 10,000 "pre-history" years that immediately followed the final Ice Age: four main periods and one shorter transitional period:

• The Mesolithic (meso = middle; lithic = stone): 10,000 to 4,200 BC
• The Neolithic: 4,200 to 2,500 BC
• The British Copper Age, or Chalcolithic: 2,500 to 2,200 BC
• The Bronze (Copper + Tin) Age: 2,200 - 800 BC
• The Iron Age: 800 BC - 43 AD -- the year the Romans arrived

Mesolithic: final period in British prehistory when people survived by hunting and foraging; developed the ubiquitous flint blades that define the mesolithic period; these flint blades are different than those found in the neolithic and help archaeologist separate the former from the latter
Neolithic: introduction of farming along the southern shores of Britain

Final three stages: marked by major technological changes

Domesticated dogs from wolves, by 9,000 BC

Farming spread quickly because hunting was so inefficient; spread to northern Scotland by 3800 BC

Concepts: religion; time;

Today: time, linear; numbers, important
Prehistory: time, cyclic; numbers, less important; what was important: the passage of the seasons

Over time, the complexity of religion during pre-history was found to be more complex than originally thought

Ancient "shrines" like Stonehenge were not like churches -- their modern equivalents; their pattern of use entirely different

Ancient "shrines" were constantly being "re-built": not finished like modern structures before being used; completion was never the intention

Chapter I: 8000 - 4000 BC

Humans abandoned the areas of northwestern Europe that were later to become the British Isles during the coldest spells of the Ice Ages. By about 10,000 BC conditions had become somewhat warmer; glaciers, for example, had all retreated, but not enough to tempt people to return.

But all that was to change around 9600 BC, when the climate suddenly warmed by some ten degrees Celsius. This remarkable event took place over a very short time -- maybe the lifetimes of just two or three generations. In fact, there is scientific evidence to suggest that by 8000 BC the climate may have been slightly warmer than it is today.

When I read that opening paragraph of the first chapter, the first thought that came to mind: the current "panic" over global warming has all the markings of superstition.

What was the singular event that provided so much new information regarding the peopling and the geology of the British Isles?

In December, 1969, oil was discovered beneath the seabed off the Norwegian coast at Ekofisk; later in the same month another oilfield was revealed in the North Sea, some 135 miles east of Aberdeen (Scotland).

These discoveries caused a new oil boom. This boom involved intensive geological prospection (sic) which was carried out by the different oil companies, using three-dimensional seismic survey.

Initially this information was very commercially confidential, but early in the 21st century it was make available to archaeologists who, unlike the geologists, were interested in the layers immediately below the seabed.

Fascinating, huh?

As the sea levels rose from the melting glaciers, the Brits had to move farther north to higher, dryer land. An example: to the area around the fringes of the now-drained glacial lake Flixton, in northeast Yorkshire, south of Scarborough, some 4 miles from the coast.

I spent much time in Yorkshire while in the US Air Force. I can safely say that the only place I would rather than any place else would be Yorkshire. Period. Dot. I hiked that area every weekend for several years. One memorable hike with a wonderful hiking partner was along the coast from Scarborough (Robin Hood's Bay) to Whitby (Dracula).

The Star Carr settlement in east Yorkshire.

One last bit of transcription.

In 1966 it was decided to enlarge the car park to cope with increasing numbers of visitors (to Stonehenge). Today this is the area where the shuttle buses turn round and collect passengers for the return journey, but in those days the route that the shuttle bus now takes from the Visitor Centre to Stonehenge was a public highway, the old Amesbury to Shrewton road, or A344.

This road was closed as part of the building of the new Visitor Centre, which opened to the public in December, 2013. 

Aurochs: wild cattle. The largest collection of wild cattle bones yet found on a British Mesolithic site -- at Blick Mead, near Stonehenge.