Durrington Walls

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Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Durrington Walls, seen from Woodhenge
State Party	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, ii, iii
Reference	373
Region†	Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription	1986 (10th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. † Region as classified by UNESCO.

Durrington Walls is a prehistoric henge enclosure monument situated close to Woodhenge on Salisbury Plain. It is a Class II henge and measures around 500m in diameter. Along with the other giant examples at Avebury, Marden and Mount Pleasant in Dorset it is one of the 'super-henge' group of monuments, defined as those with a diameter greater than 300 metres.

Durrington Walls was first occupied during the middle Neolithic. At least two rings of concentric timber circles are known to have originally stood within the henge; the southern circle of four rings of timbers which was replaced by a five circle layout later in the Neolithic, and the northern circle consisting of two timber rings with an avenue of posts leading into it.

It has been suggested that the timbers supported roofs and that the two circles represent large buildings that stood within the henge around 2500 BC. It is also possible that the structure was unroofed. Only post holes remain so we are unlikely to discover the structure of the monument above ground level. Recent excavations have suggested that these timber circles predate the construction of the henge banks, which have themselves have been found to overlie abundant evidence of earlier Neolithic occupation. This evidence includes what are believed to be the oldest house floors in England.

Since the Summer of 2004 archaeologists from the Universities of Bournemouth, Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield and UCL working on the Stonehenge Riverside Project, have located a number of hearth sites in sub-circular and rectangular wattle and daub huts and palisade postholes, identifying what may be an ancient village at Durrington Walls. Distinct differences have been noted between the occupation floors at the centre of Durrington Walls and those around periphery of the site. Those towards the centre are suspected by some researchers to have had a more ritualistic function than the more domestic-looking structures near the edge of the henge.

Carbon dating suggests occupation somewhere around 2600 BC, making it essentially the same age as the earliest Stonehenge formation,^[1] which is about two miles away. Early interpretations suggest that it was the settlement of the workers who erected Stonehenge.[1] A circle of ditches and earthen banks at Durrington Walls enclosed concentric rings of huge timber posts. The archaeologist in charge of the excavation, Mike Parker Pearson said that the evidence “shows us these two monuments were complementary” and that “Stonehenge was just one-half of a larger complex.”^[2]

The interpretations of Professor Parker-Pearson's team are contested however, and alternative interpretations of Stonehenge have recently been proposed by Professor Timothy Darvill and Professor Geoffrey Wainwright (the original excavator of Durrington Walls).

The majority of Durrington Walls is now owned by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, forming part of its Stonehenge Landscape estate, and access to the monument is therefore free and open.

Both Stonehenge and Durrington Walls have pathways to the Avon River, making movement between the two very possible and likely.

[edit] Notes

^ More precise radiocarbon tests now date the first constructions at Stonehenge to 2600 to 2400 BC, which is more than 600 years earlier than previous estimates.
^ The New York times, "Traces of Ancient Village Found Near Stonehenge" 30 January 2007