A Review of Henge Monuments in the Light of Recent Research

At the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. there became established in Britain the tradition of constructing ceremonial circles of earth, stone or timber. However, circular enclosures were being built much earlier in the 3rd millennium, which on account of their interrupted ditches have been called causewayed camps. These enclosures are unlikely to have been fortified village sites or cattle pounds as was originally suggested, but the pottery evidence from Windmill Hill and Robin Hood's Ball, to mention only two sites (Smith, 1965; Thomas, 1964), points to visits by groups of people coming from other regions. It has been suggested, therefore, that these camps may have served as centres or rally points for a fairly wide area where tribal ceremonies could be performed (Smith, 1965, 17–21). At Windmill Hill in particular, the abundance of pottery, grain-rubbers and querns and the remains of slaughtered animals testify to the consumption of food on a large scale and therefore possibly to communal feasts.

If this interpretation be correct then one could suggest that the ceremonial circle tradition of the 2nd millennium derived ultimately from these earthworks. Both are essentially a British phenomenon, although the causewayed camps can be compared with causewayed ditched enclosures in the Michelsberg culture, and appear to represent indigenous traditions with no external influences. However, although the quantity of animal bones and domestic refuse from Durrington Walls and Gorsey Bigbury in the Mendips confirms the practice of feasting in connection with ceremonial circles, these sites are virtually unique in the quantity of human debris they have produced.