Amesbury is perhaps less known internationally than Stonehenge, but it is the village nearest to the remarkable neolithic monument. It has been found that people having been living here since at least 8820 BC… that’s nearly elven thousand years of habitation. There aren’t many remains which present themselves to the eye as being where people might be living,. The little town itself is very attractive and interesting, but it is what lies beneath the present ground level which reveals the secrets from long ago.
People of that time are often thought of or portrayed as wandering aimlessly from place to place, hunting and gathering as they went. However their lives would have been far more organized; there would have been particular hunting grounds where they would go to find the animals they wanted. The animals they killed would have offered them much more than just meat and skin; sinews, horn, bile, intestines, stomach bags, bladders, hair… nothing would have been wasted, not even the tails! They would know when to go to rivers and streams for trout or salmon, and where they would find shell fish, they would have understood the migration of birds and known when there would be plenty to trap with nets and in other ways, and when there would be eggs. Every plant, tree, moss even lichen would have had a use and they would have been able to ‘read’ their environment in a way which is lost to us. The weather would not be a mystery, they would understand wind direction, cloud formation, the position of the sun in the sky… things which again, are totally lost to us.
They may not have permanent settlements as we imagine them, but tehre would have been settled ‘hubs’ usually at a significant or maybe religious site, or maybe a site associated with ancestors. There is an interesting article on the BBC site, about a programme to be shown later this year… how exciting!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-27238503
Lois Elsden 