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Stonehenge: Uniting communities across millennia | Harriet Guinn Jennings | TEDxClapham


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their places in the landscape that have
stood as monuments through time watching
as history passes them by
and often influencing the landscape
around them
we have a duty to use these as a source
of knowledge a connection to the past
and a way to develop our future but what
if they can have a great impact on our
present can these historical monuments
in landscapes really impact me and this
community in such a way as an
archaeologist
I’m very interested at looking at the
people who came for us we have always
been human and no matter what have the
same basic needs and desires that is
something that I believe makes us
fundamentally human but within
prehistory we lacked the written record
to show you this connection but it’s the
same case if a tree falls in a forest
and there’s no one there to hear it does
it nice out as archaeologists we don’t
hear the sound but we search for the
echo now let me take you back to the
Mesolithic or the middle Stone Age this
period began 12,000 years ago when
Britain began to be repopulated after
the last ice age it lasted an incredible
six thousand years until the
introduction of farming and the
Neolithic or late Stone Age this is the
period that began the building of some
of Britain’s most iconic monuments like
Stonehenge Stonehenge began construction
four thousand nine hundred years ago but
it didn’t have something similar to its
iconic stone configuration until four
hundred years later is then added and
adapted to throughout the Bronze Age to
get to something like we see today it is
crucial to think
Stonehenge within its landscape of
monuments and not as a singular entity
to really understand why people built it
to be honest we don’t really know why
people built it or what it was used for
but many people have many different
ideas some believe that it’s a temple
for the dead
especially as cremated remains have been
found within it others believe it’s an
astrological temple as the winter
solstice alignment is undeniable and you
could really imagine people traveling
through the landscape to celebrate the
end of winter and the beginning of
spring but why is a place where it is
well two trees fell two kilometres apart
and that became the journey of this
incredible landscape to the world
heritage site we see today now the trees
are what really interests me I’m great
fun at parties but two kilometres away
from Stonehenge a spring line close to
the river
Aven has produced the earliest
residential and occupation site in this
world heritage site this has changed our
understanding of the birth of this
incredible landscape this is blitz made
it is evident that bleak Mead was an
important cultural location as the
carbon date range here spreads an
incredible 4,000 years not only does
this transcend the introduction of
farming and the first Neolithic
monuments in the landscape but also the
first monuments found in the landscape
to a three posts on what would later
become the Stonehenge car park now these
are unusual within the Mesolithic period
and they share a connection to blick
meat because you guess that they both
have two fallen trees much like this one
but it’s found on King Barry bridge
overlooking Stonehenge I’m looking very
much like this one at liquid they would
have utilized the route wall and the
route hollow created to create a
structure here’s a reconstruction I’ve
produced of what I believe this camp
would have looked like you can see the
spring line and a cobbled Flint surface
that they built alongside earth which
had ceremonially placed Oryx hooves
within it these were a breed of wild
cattle that lived on the Salisbury
Plains
I also believe that they would have used
the hides for these to cover the shelter
are you seeing the entrance there’s a
hearth I doesn’t seem sensible to have a
fire right where you’re trying to get
into your building but from the evidence
we think that they would have heated the
coals outside and transferred them in so
that you would reduce the risk of a fire
spreading but what’s more interesting
about this her is that it’s an earlier
tree through hollow and we know that
they would have known what it was
because it had a ceremonially place the
axe at the base now not only other
radiocarbon dates found here amazing but
some of the finds because they really
tell a story about the humans that
inhabited this space these are people
like us these are people who were only a
couple of generations from those that
built Stonehenge maybe they came here
because of these pink Flint’s a
phenomenon found in the spring at Lake
Mead because of a rare type of algae
present after they’ve been submerged and
then dried they turn this amazing hue we
have to think that this may have been
the only place in Britain at that time
where you could have seen this color
isn’t that amazing how far would you
have traveled to see this phenomenon
because people were awfully obviously
traveling from far and wide to get here
because otherwise how would a Sands
going talk probably from the West
Midlands
a slate version of a flint Horsham point
probably from Devon and a works awesome
probably from the Mordred Al’s all end
up a bleak Mead
well the answer showing just how far
people traveled to get to blick Meade
came from a single dog’s tooth this –
depicted the oddest journey of man and
his best friend from somewhere like
Yorkshire down to blick Mead now this is
definitely a hunting dog and not a
handbag Yorkshire Terrier but its
journey as a domestic job shows that the
origins of its human companions
how much further people were travelling
to get to blick Mead is unknown but it’s
obvious it was an important cultural
location to share ideas objects and
possibly genes pick cheddar man whose
DNA was analyzed earlier this year have
travelled from somewhere like Somerset
tube Lake Mead possibly to hunt these
wild aurochs and feast on them I think
that that’s probably incredibly likely
as this was obviously an important
meeting place where people traveled from
across the country as people travel from
across the world today to discover the
secrets that Lake Mead holds now then I
began writing this I thought that the
idea we’re sharing was that of these two
trees falling being the birth of this
incredible landscape but then I realized
it’s not this the first place in the
Stonehenge landscape would not have been
found about its community support the
Bleak Mead date came from humble origins
when in its first few years it lasted
only your weekend a year with a 500
pound budget as on the goodwill as the
local community who dedicated their time
money and skills that built the dig to
what we see today these are people with
no archaeological training who just
wanted to be a part of their local
community
instead of watching yet another TV
program about it and ten years on some
of these people have created careers out
of archaeology and others managed
what’s more impressive is that ninety
percent of the residents of Amesbury
voted to have their taxes rise so that a
purpose-built building would be erected
showing fines from Lake Mead and nearly
six years ago the first exhibition of
these finds was found in what would
later become the Amesbury History Center
alongside them the ins bream Museum and
Heritage Trust sort out the volunteer
work force and health and safety for the
deck each year but more importantly they
organized community events so that
people can celebrate that ancestral
connection to blick Mead community
events like the lantern parade held on
the winter solstice each year so that
people can travel through the landscape
to be to blick Mead for a ceremony but
this doesn’t really show the impact that
the volunteers have on the fines we have
to think back to the Pink Ladies this
phenomenon would not have been found for
that volunteer one person just thought
that they saw an interesting fling in
the spring and picked it up to show an
expert later on when they got to the
point to show the expert it miraculously
turned pink
and without one woman’s curiosity we
would never have found possibly the
reason that people were travelling to
this landscape possibly the reason that
Stonehenge is placed where it is now the
spirit of bleak Mead is amazing and the
way that the community have got behind
their heritage is inspiring in the
modern world it can be hard to just stop
and think about the heritage that
surrounds us but it can be a rewarding
perspective
to think about Clapham has an amazing
heritage beginning as a small Saxon
village called Clapham in the fifth
century AD – the town that fought to
abolish slavery Clapham has literally
changed the world with William
Wilberforce and his group of local men
fighting to challenge society’s accepted
morality and bring about the end of
slavery
Pippa named Adam have come from wealthy
Dane as good crapper
these daughters local wedding feast so
King harthacnut died from excessive
drinking on a Saturday night it doesn’t
seem like that much has changed here but
what else could be discovered and how
could that change your community for the
better so stand up take ownership of
your shared local heritage because it is
us the communities who have built these
stories across centuries it is our
responsibility to protect these to build
new stories and new communities so go to
your local museum volunteer at an
archaeological dig and visit historical
properties because you don’t know what
you may discover then you don’t know how
that could inspire you because from tiny
acorns mighty oaks grow thank you
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