Journeys through time
Frozen in time
The massive bulk of Stonehenge rising from Salisbury Plain represents to us a mysterious and ancient time when Neolithic peoples had the technology and the will to transport giant slabs of stone great distances and erect them according to precise calculations. Yet Stonehenge, 5,000 years old, is only a recent expression of a pool of knowledge common to Europeans for over 20,000 years.
The Secrets of the Stone Age programme explored prehistoric art
and artefacts such as the cave paintings of Lascaux in France and the
'Venus' figurines found in many countries. In doing so, it demonstrated
that the Upper Palaeolithic people of the last Ice Age had advanced technology,
superb craft skills, creative minds, a religious imperative and a complex
social structure.
Stonehenge
Amesbury
nr Salisbury
Wiltshire SP4 7DE
Between the A303 and A344
View
map
While Stonehenge has been studied by generations of archaeologists and other experts, the only certainties are those of measurement and geology. We know that the stones vary in size and weight from over 30m (100ft) and 50 tonnes to those no bigger than a human being, and it has been established that some came from as far away as south-west Wales. The purpose of this massive human endeavour, though, can still only be guessed at.
Stonehenge was built in three main phases over a period of more than 1,400 years, the first beginning in about 2950 BC and lasting until 2900 BC. At this stage, it comprised a bank-and-ditch about 100m (330ft) in diameter, enclosing a circle of wooden posts. During the next 500 years, in the second phase, timber was erected in the centre and at the north-eastern entrance to the circle.
The third phase, from about 2600 to 1600 BC, was the most dramatic and technologically challenging. First, a series of bluestones were installed in a double concentric circle inside the bank, with an avenue serving as the entrance to the bank. These stones, weighing up to 4 tonnes each, are believed to have been brought more than 200 miles from the Preseli Hills in Wales, though how this feat was managed remains a mystery. Given the enormous human effort involved in such a task, it seems extraordinary that this circle was dismantled not long after and replaced by a circle of 30 sarsen stones about 33m (108ft) in diameter. These trimmed sandstone blocks, of which 17 remain upright, were spaced 1-1.4m (3-4.5ft) apart and stood 4m (13ft) high. Their purpose was to support sarsen lintels that would have formed a continuous circle.
Inside this circle was set, in a horseshoe shape, the Trilithons, 10 upright stones arranged in pairs with a horizontal lintel on each. Finally, in the last stage, a bluestone oval and a bluestone circle were erected, respectively, inside and outside the Trilithon horseshoe. An arc of stone was subsequently removed from the oval to create another horseshoe, with a single stone known as the Altar Stone as its focal point, and a processional avenue was added. Most significantly, four Station Stones marked alignments with lunar cycles and the midwinter sunset, while two more marked the alignment with the midsummer sunrise.
Stonehenge seems to have been the focus of a ceremonial landscape that contains the remains of 450 ancient monuments. It is believed to have been a site for religious rituals as well as serving as an indicator of astronomical events. In the past, it was claimed to have been created by the Druids, although this has now been discredited as Stonehenge long predates them.
Nonetheless, it remains a place where the centuries of myth and legend that have become attached to it hold a powerful sway on the imagination.
Find out more
Stonehenge
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/
server/show/nav.876
Info from English Heritage, owner of the monument, on its background and how to visit it.
The Lascaux Caves
Les Grottes de Lascaux
Vallee de la Vézère
Dordogne
France
There are no fewer than 150 Palaeolithic caves scattered among the western edges of the Massif Central and the northern slopes of the Pyrenees in France.
Of these, Lascaux is the most famous. Located on the left bank of the Vézère River, the cave was discovered in 1940 by four teenagers who had decided to explore a hole in the ground that had been exposed by the fall of a big pine tree. Scrambling through a narrow crevice and over a fall of rock that had hidden the original entrance to the cave, they found themselves in what is now called the Great Hall of the Bulls, where their astonished eyes saw a mural of oxen, horses and stags extending 20m (65ft) round the walls.
The leading archaeologists of the day were soon on the scene to examine all the other chambers of the cave, which are similarly adorned with scenes that combined extraordinary vivacity with anatomical exactitude. They were painted with pigments made from charcoal, iron and manganese oxide, some painted on and some blown, with the artists using their hands as stencils.
After World War II, access to the cave became easier, but by 1955, it was evident that the paintings had begun to deteriorate under the impact of carbon dioxide from the breath of the many visitors. Consequently, the cave was closed to the public in 1963. In 1980, the Dordogne tourist authority created an exact replica nearby of the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Painted Gallery. In the original cave, meanwhile, a computerised system was set up to record any variation in temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide that might be caused by the limited number of academics who gain entry.
There is no sign of the cave ever having been used for human habitation, so it seems to have been a sacred site, where the Palaeolithic artists communed with the spirits that governed their world by painting their extraordinary murals. As such, it must have been of great significance, for the Painted Gallery shows signs that a wooden scaffold was erected to make access possible to the walls of the dark cavern. It had been thought that the use of perspective in art had begun at the time of the Renaissance, but in the cave of Lascaux, modern humans have found humbling proof that Palaeolithic artists had mastered the concept nearly 10,000 years earlier.
Find out more
The Caves of Lascaux
www.culture.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/
An excellent site with a virtual tour of the caves.
Niaux Caves
Grotte de Niaux
F-09400 Tarascon-sur-Ariège
Ariège
France
The caves at Niaux have been visited by tourists since the 17th century, although it was only in 1906 that the antiquity of the art within them was realised. Part of an underground system nearly 1.25 miles long, the main site of the murals is called the Hall of the Black Bison, or Salon Noir, painted during the Magdalenian era (14,000-7500 BC).
Most of the animals here were first sketched in charcoal, with manganese paint applied afterwards. The paintings were originally assigned to a date of 14,000 years ago on stylistic grounds, but carbon dating of the charcoal used for two of the bison has shown that one was created 13,850 years ago and the other was painted nearly a century later.
The cave is open to the public in groups of 20 at a time at specified times of the day, with one tour in English at 1.30pm. A ticket to the Niaux Caves gains you reduced admission to the nearby Prehistoric Park at Tarascon, but in fact, it is best to visit the latter first and see the replica there in order to make the most of the brief visit to the real thing.
Find out more
Grotte de Niaux
www.niaux.net
A description of the caves, the site and the museum (in French only).
Pech Merle Cave
Grotte de Pech Merle
Centre de Prehistoire/Grotte & Musee
F-46330 Cabrerets
Lot
France
The cave at Pech Merle is one of a dozen within 6 miles of Cabrerets village in Lot, France, and is the only one open to the public. It is huge – more than 1.5 miles long – though the upper part has no sign of prehistoric use. The lower part of the network, where the prehistoric galleries are situated, was discovered in 1922 and opened to the public five years later. The paintings cover 300m (984ft) of wall, with about 700 animals, symbols and anthropomorphic figures depicted.
Find out more
Centre de Prehistoire de Pech Merle
www.quercy.net/pechmerle
A description of the Pech Merle cave and museum, with opening times
and prices plus other useful information on the area.
Castel-Merle
The valley of Castel-Merle is located at Sergeac on the left bank
of the Vézère River, 5.5miles south of Montignac-Lascaux,
Dordogne, France
Castel-Merle, on the bank of the Vézère river in the Dordogne, was occupied almost continuously by Cro-Magnon peoples from 40,000 to 10,000 years ago. Classified as a national historic monument since the beginning of the 20th century, the valley also contains traces of Neanderthal, Neolithic, Bronze-Age and Iron-Age peoples, and from the Christian era, there is evidence of early medieval dwellings. There are guided tours to archaeological sites, one of which, Abri-Castanet, is the subject of an ongoing French-American excavation that has uncovered hundreds of stone tools, bone and antler weapons and ivory beads.
Find out more
Castel-Merle
www.castelmerle.com/
A site describing the archaeological sites of the valley of Castel-Merle.
Dolni Vestonice
nr Brno
Moravia
Czech Republic
This archaeological site – now a vineyard – 25 miles south of Brno in the Czech Republic was discovered in 1986, when three skeletons were found buried in ritualistic fashion. They were dated at about 27,600 years old, an Upper Palaeolithic period known as the Gravettian, when new types of stone tools and implements carved from bone, antler and ivory proliferated. In a large area surrounding the burial site, archaeologists discovered myriad carved and moulded images of animals and women and ornaments of various kinds.
This is also the site of the earliest known potter's kiln, and in the main hut was found the oldest known baked clay figurine, a goddess 11.4cm (4.5in) tall, with swollen hips and breasts. The Dolni Vestonice Venus – which can be seen at the Moravske Museum in Brno – is just one of a number of such figures found in Palaeolithic sites throughout Europe. Their ages range from 27,000 to 20,000 years old – a time when finer tools and points were developed – and they were carved in stone, ivory and wood. Many have the obese form of the Dolni Vestonice Venus, while others are thin but unmistakably pregnant. Suggestions for their significance range from fertility symbols to matriarchy symbols to hunter-gatherer tribes, charms or even portable pornography. The most famous of all is the Willendorf Venus, found in Willendorf in Austria and now in the Museum of Natural History, Vienna.
