Archaeology
Study suggests Seahenge was built to control climate change
A recent study published in GeoJournal proposes that Seahenge was built to conduct rituals aimed at prolonging the summer during the extreme climatic changes of the 3rd millennium BC.
Seahenge, also known as Holme I, is a prehistoric timber circle monument located on the English coast in the county of Norfolk.
Seahenge, along with the nearby timber circle, Holme II, was built during the early Bronze Age around 2049 BC. Seahenge consists of fifty-five small split oak trunks forming a circular enclosure with an upturned tree root in the centre.
The monument would have been positioned in an area protected from the sea by sand dunes and mud flats. This swampy area created a layer of peat which slowly covered the timbers, protecting them from decay.
Over the centuries, changing sea levels have meant that the inland monument is now located on the coast, which has become exposed due to eroding sand and peat.
The study also looked at Holme II, a much larger monument consisting of two concentric timber circles surrounding a hurdle-lined pit containing two oak logs.
Previous theories propose that Seahenge and Holme II were constructed around the same time, either as burial markers or for sky burials, where the deceased would be placed in the monument to be gradually consumed by carrion-eating birds.
Study author, Dr Nance, proposes an alternative explanation. He suggests that both monuments were constructed during a bitterly cold climatic period for rituals, intended to extend the summer and the return of warmer weather.
Dr Nance explains: “Dating of the Seahenge timbers showed they were felled in the spring, and it was considered most probable that these timbers were aligned with sunrise on the summer solstice.”
“We know that the period in which they were constructed 4,000 years ago was a prolonged period of decreased atmospheric temperatures and severe winters and late springs placing these early coastal societies under stress.
“It seems most likely that these monuments had the common intention to end this existential threat but they had different functions.”
He points to the alignment of Seahenge with sunrise on the summer solstice and suggests that its function was to mimic the ‘pen’ described in folklore for an unfledged cuckoo with the intention to keep the bird singing and thereby extend the summer.
“Summer solstice was the date when according to folklore the cuckoo, symbolising fertility, traditionally stopped singing, returned to the Otherworld and the summer went with it,’ Dr Nance added.
“The monument’s form appears to imitate two supposed winter dwellings of the cuckoo remembered in folklore: a hollow tree or ‘the bowers of the Otherworld’ represented by the upturned oak-stump at its centre.
“This ritual is remembered in the ‘myth of the pent cuckoo’ where an unfledged cuckoo was placed into a thorn bush and the bird was ‘walled-in’ to extend the summer but it always flew away.”
For Holme II he points to legends of ‘sacred kings’ described in Iron Age Ireland and northern Britain who were sacrificed if misfortune fell on the community, as happened at Holme-next-the-sea, in an attempt to appease the goddess of Venus to restore harmony.
He said: “Evidence suggests that they were ritually-sacrificed every eight years at Samhain (now Halloween) coincident with the eight-year cycle of Venus.
“The fixtures in Holme II that were thought to hold a coffin, are orientated towards sunrise on Samhain in 2049 when Venus was still visible.
“Both monuments are best explained as having different functions and associated rituals, but with a common intent: to end the severely cold weather.”
Header Image Credit : Alamy (Under Copyright)
Sources : Nance, D.A. Holme I (Seahenge) and Holme II: ritual responses to climate change in Early Bronze Age Britain. GeoJournal 89, 88 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-024-11088-5
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the APSARA National Authority have uncovered a guardian statue at the Banteay Prey Nokor temple complex in Kompong Cham, Cambodia.
Known locally as the temple of “Wat Nokor in Khum of Kompong Siem”, or “Wat Angkor”, Banteay Prey Nokor was constructed during the reign of Jayavarman VII (AD 1181–1218), the first king devoted to Buddhism in the Khmer Empire.
The complex covers an area of 37 acres and consists of a central tower surrounded by four laterite wall enclosures made from sandstone and laterite.
In addition to being the largest ancient temple complex in Kampong Cham Province, it has several distinguishing features. One of the most notable is its construction from black sandstone, which sets it apart from other temples of the period, typically built from brick or reddish sandstone.
Image Credit : Phouk Chea / Chea Sarith
Archaeologists from the Department of Preservation and Archaeology at the APSARA Authority recently excavated one of the gateways of Banteay Prey Nokor, clearing away layers of rubble from the collapsed upper structure.
Upon removing the rubble material, a guardian door statue was uncovered to the right of the eastern entrance to the gateway. The statue is broken into six pieces – breaking at the neck, the left forearm, the waist, and below the knees of both legs.
According to the researchers, the statue, which originally stood at a height of around 1.6 metres, is of the Bayon style, in reference to the Bayon state temple of Jayavarman VII at the centre of Jayavarman’s capital, Angkor Thom.
“The sandstone gate guardian will now be stored at the Preah Norodom Sihanouk-Angkor Museum,” Angkor Wat’s heritage police said in a statement. “It will be preserved and studied further.”
Header Image Credit : Phouk Chea / Chea Sarith
Sources : APSARA National Authority
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology (LDA) of Saxony-Anhalt have rediscovered the Mallerbach Chapel at the site of the Kaltenborn monastery.
Between 1524 to 1525, a large number of peasants, urban lower classes, and lesser nobles living in the German-speaking areas in Central Europe rebelled against a combination of economic, social, and religious factors. These include:
Economic hardship and inequality: Peasants faced heavy burdens from taxes, dues, and rents imposed by landlords, the church, and secular rulers.
Feudal oppression: Many peasants grew increasingly resentful of the limitations placed on their freedoms by feudal lords, including restrictions on hunting, fishing, and access to communal lands.
Religious influence: The Reformation inspired many peasants who saw in it a call for social and economic reform against a corrupt church.
Legal grievances: Peasants sought greater control over local governance and justice. They were frustrated by the arbitrary decisions made by their lords and demanded more influence over the laws and rules that governed their daily lives.
Image Credit : LDA
Following the outbreak of the Peasants’ War, insurgents from the nearby villages of Riestedt and Emseloh plundered the Kaltenborn monastery near Allstedt in the German district of Mansfeld-Südharz, leading to the monastery’s decline and eventual dissolution in 1538.
According to a press statement by the LDA: “It’s destruction – an act of rebellion against the Cistercian convent of Naundorf, which was in charge of the Chapel of St. Mary and to which the Allstedt residents were subject to taxes – can be seen as the first flare-up and harbinger of the coming uprising of the ‘common man’ against the authorities.”
Recent excavations at the monastery site have located the 12th/13th century Mallerbach chapel, a sacred place of worship for pilgrims who came to witness a weeping image of the Virgin Mary.
Archaeologists have uncovered the original floor plan of the chapel, which measures around 17 metres in length with a rectangular choir and semicircular apse. Excavations have also found the altar foundations, as well as traces of burning from the time of the German Peasants’ War.
Header Image Credit : LDA
Sources : State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology (LDA)
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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