Stonehenge Stone Circle News and Information

Chemical tests on teeth from an ancient burial near Stonehenge indicate that the person in the grave grew up around the Mediterranean Sea.

The bones belong to a teenager who died 3,550 years ago and was buried with a distinctive amber necklace.

 “The position of his burial, the fact he’s near Stonehenge, and the necklace all suggest he’s of significant status”

End Quote Professor Jane Evans British Geological Survey

The conclusions come from analysis of different forms of the elements oxygen and strontium in his tooth enamel.

Analysis on a previous skeleton found near Stonehenge showed that that person was also a migrant to the area.

 The findings will be discussed at a science symposium in London to mark the 175th anniversary of the British Geological Survey (BGS).

The “Boy with the Amber Necklace”, as he is known to archaeologists, was found in 2005, about 5km south-east of Stonehenge on Boscombe Down.

 The remains of the teenager were discovered next to a Bronze Age burial mound, during roadworks for military housing.

“He’s around 14 or 15 years old and he’s buried with this beautiful necklace,” said Professor Jane Evans, head of archaeological science for the BGS.

 “The position of his burial, the fact he’s near Stonehenge, and the necklace all suggest he’s of significant status.”

 Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick, of Wessex Archaeology, backed this interpretation: “Amber necklaces are not common finds,” he told BBC News.

“Most archaeologists would say that when you find burials like this… people who can get these rare and exotic materials are people of some importance.”

 Chemical record

Professor Evans likened Stonehenge in the Bronze Age to Westminster Abbey today – a place where the “great and the good” were buried.

 Tooth enamel forms in a child’s first few years, so it stores a chemical record of the environment in which the individual grew up.

The amber to make the beads almost certainly came from the Baltic Sea

Two chemical elements found in enamel – oxygen and strontium – exist in different forms, or isotopes. The ratios of these isotopes found in enamel are particularly informative to archaeologists.

Most oxygen in teeth and bone comes from drinking water – which is itself derived from rain or snow.

In warm climates, drinking water contains a higher ratio of heavy oxygen (O-18) to light oxygen (O-16) than in cold climates. So comparing the oxygen isotope ratio in teeth with that of drinking water from different regions can provide information about the climate in which a person was raised.

Most rocks carry a small amount of the element strontium (Sr), and the ratio of strontium 87 and strontium 86 isotopes varies according to local geology.

The isotope ratio of strontium in a person’s teeth can provide information on the geological setting where that individual lived in childhood.

By combining the techniques, archaeologists can gather data pointing to regions where a person may have been raised.

Tests carried out several years ago on another burial known as the “Amesbury Archer” show that he was raised in a colder climate than that found in Britain.

Analysis of the strontium and oxygen isotopes in his teeth showed that his most likely childhood origin was in the Alpine foothills of Germany.

People were visiting Stonehenge from afar during the Bronze Age

“Isotope analysis of tooth enamel from both these people shows that the two individuals provide a contrast in origin, which highlights the diversity of people who came to Stonehenge from across Europe,” said Professor Evans.

 The Amesbury Archer was discovered around 5km from Stonehenge. His is a rich Copper Age or early Bronze Age burial, and contains some of the earliest gold and copper objects found in Britain. He lived about 4,300 years ago, some 800 years earlier than the Boscombe Down boy.

 The archer arrived at a time when metallurgy was becoming established in Britain; he was a metal worker, which meant he possessed rare skills.

 “We see the beginning of the Bronze Age as a period of great mobility across Europe. People, ideas, objects are all moving very fast for a century or two,” said Dr Fitzpatrick.

 “At the time when the boy with the amber necklace was buried, there are really no new technologies coming in [to Britain]… We need to turn to look at why groups of people – because this is a youngster – are making long journeys.”

 He speculated: “They may be travelling within family groups… They may be coming to visit Stonehenge because it was an incredibly famous and important place, as it is today. But we don’t know the answer.”

 Other people who visited Stonehenge from afar were the Boscombe Bowmen, individuals from a collective Bronze Age grave. Isotope analysis suggests these people could have come from Wales or Brittany, if not further afield.

 Merlin @ Stonehenge
The Stonehenge Stone Circle Website

Stonehenge wasn’t the only mammoth circle in southern England 5,000 years ago. Using new radar imaging equipment, scientists have identified what was once a nearby circle of huge timbers.

Stonehenge, the mysterious circle of mammoth stone pillars in the middle of the English countryside, now has a slightly smaller twin.

Scientist have discovered a second henge formation that once existed nearby made from huge timbers.

And there could be many more henge-type circles yet to be found in the vicinity, says archeologist Vince Gaffney of the University of Birmingham, which is leading an expedition of the site along with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Austria.

“We didn’t expect to find another henge. There’s always been some presumption that the stones existed in splendid isolation,” Professor Gaffney says.

On July 16, just two weeks into their four-year project, Gaffney’s team discovered ‘Timberhenge,’ a 25-meter (82-foot) diameter, circular series of holes that were once filled with 24 huge wooden poles. It sits about 900 meters away from Stonehenge in southern England.

“Stonehenge isn’t the only henge monument in the area. There are several in the immediate vicinity,” says Dr. Gaffney, reached by phone today from Stonehenge.

‘Henge’ refers to a circular ditch with an external bank from the Neolithic period.

Archaeology without a shovel

Notably, not a bit of earth was dug up to make the discovery.

Gaffney’s ground-mapping project uses radar-imaging equipment, which is placed a wheels and pulled over the fields surrounding Stonehenge. His team plans to scan a 14-square-kilometer (nearly 9 mile) area at a cost of $500,000 to $1 million.

“We will not dig anything. The technologies we use will allow us to look at volumes of soil,” he says.

The new Timberhenge appears built on the same orientation as Stonehenge, with entrances to the northeast and southwest. Archaeologists say it was a worshipping site and burial ground, but Gaffney says the precise role of the structures remains unclear: Was it for commoners or tribal leaders, worshippers or religious leaders?

The radar-imaging project will provide a map of the area’s structures and a clearer idea of its size and functions.

Scientists have repeatedly unearthed new finds at Stonehenge.

In October 2009, the Stonehenge Riverside Project uncovered a 10-meter (33-foot) diameter stone circle of bluestones, brought from the Preseli mountains of Wales, 150 miles away, and dubbed ‘Bluestonehenge.’ The stones, now missing, once marked the end of an avenue that leads from the River Avon to Stonehenge, a nearly 2-mile-long processional route constructed at the end of the Stone Age.

Another Woodhenge

Nor is this the first wooden henge found in the area. Two miles northeast of Stonehenge sits the so-called ‘Woodhenge,’ a six-ringed circle of 168 timber holes identified in 1925. Another timber circle nearby was identified in 1966.

But Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield, director of The Stonehenge Riverside Project, says it’s premature to describe this latest find as another “Woodhenge.”

“No one has any idea if these were circles of posts, stones or just pits. Nor do we know what date they are other than broadly 3000-1500 BC. They are both great finds but we know too little about them as yet (without excavation) to say how they will change our understanding,” he says via email. “As we found last year with Bluestonehenge, there is still much to be found around Stonehenge.”

Gaffney agrees that much remains unknown.

“Despite the fact that this is probably the most studied landscapes in the world…we know nothing about it,” says Gaffney. “Having said that, we felt we needed to know much more about what was happening between the monuments to know how it’s organized.”

On Thursday, however, southern England’s summer rains had delayed further scans of the area, and sent Gaffney running for shelter in a car.

“It’s raining heavily, so we’re not doing anything at the moment,” he told the Monitor. “It’s a British summer: what do you expect?”

Merlin @ Stonehenge
The Stonehenge Stone Circle Website