The Pömmelte henge in Germany was active for some 300 years, beginning with 2300 BCE. A restoration is seen in 2016.( AP)
Sites such as Stonehenge are older than memory itself. Stories of Druids and wonderful rites developed long after the standing stones real function was forgotten.
Little can be presumed about the function such monoliths played in Neolithic cultures. We understand numerous were lined up to the Sun and stars. There are traces of ritualistic paths. Now, human sacrifice has actually gotten in the photo.
But brand-new excavations near the German town of Pömmelte are raising some troubling possibilities.
It’s the site of an ancient stone-age sanctuary, modern to Stonehenge itself.
It’s a complex of concentric-ring mounds, ditches and deeply sunken wood posts.
It’s simply one of a number of websites in Central Europe, Portugal and Spain that suggests circular henge monoliths are not distinctively British.
Ghastly events
Archaeologists state the German site appears to have actually been a meeting place for neighborhood occasions and routines.
A series of pits have actually been exposed including proof these activities. This consists of pieces of ceramic pots and cups, stone axes and animal bones.
They expose the Pömmelte henge was active for some 300 years, beginning with 2300 BCE.
But amongst the Pömmelte scraps were some troubling finds.
Thedismembered bodies of 10 women and children.
Lead scientist Andr é Spatzier states it appears the victims had actually been pressed into the pit. At least one of the teens had their hands bound together.
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While the archaeologists state they can not yet be specific of the function of their deaths, the concept of routine sacrifice was a likelihood. No men were discovered in the pits, and the products they were buried with revealed indications of having actually been ritualistically smashed.
A handful of male bodies were uncovered far from the pits, on the eastern side of the henge. These guys, aged 17 to 30, had actually been interred with terrific care, in their own tombs.
LikeStonehenge, the site itself was temporarily populated. There bodies were intact.
“The henge monuments of the British Isles are generally considered to represent a uniquely British phenomenon, unrelated to Continental Europe; this position should now be reconsidered,” the scientists compose in the journalAntiquity “The uniqueness of Stonehenge lies, strictly speaking, with its monumental megalithic architecture.”
German henge
The Pömmelte henge is a 115 m-wide series of concentric mounds. Many have proof of “wood-henge” design post holes sunk within them.
It was found from the air in 1991, however excavations just started just recently.
Excavations reveal it was constructed throughout the shift in between the Neolithic Stone Age to the early BronzeAge This is the very same age as Stonehenge.
Stonehenge is placed in such a method regarding mark the arrival of the summertime solstice.
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Pömmelte henge, nevertheless, has its 4 entryways lined up with dates half method in between the equinoxes and solstices. Spatzier states these were essential farming planting and harvesting dates.
Archaeologists think Pömmelte henge ended its days about 2050 BC in exactly what was most likely to have actually been a ritualistic decommissioning. The wood post holes had actually been filled with artefacts. One of the concentric pits was filled with ash– most likely from the charred posts.
“It looks like at the end of the main occupation, around 2050 B.C., they extracted the posts, put offerings into the post holes and probably burned all the wood and back-shoved it into the ditch,”Professor Spatzier informed LiveScience “So, they closed all the features. It was still visible above ground, but only as a shovel depression.”
This short article was initially released by news.com.au.
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