The Sunday News
Pathisa Nyathi, Cultural Heritage
THERE are two prominent, parallel and seemingly related earth structures both at the Durrington Walls and Stonehenge itself. The pair comprises a circular ditch (trench) and a bank (mound) produced probably from earth removed from digging the ditch using deer antler picks. So far researchers are not very clear what the role of the two structures was. However, research is ongoing.
There is evidence from archaeological research that Stonehenge was built in stages. The ditch itself seems to have been built in stages as there is evidence of existing segments that were tackled at different times spanning several years using a labour force comprising thousands of workers.
The various scholars have argued that Stonehenge was used as a burial site, at best for part of its long history but most scholars believe it served other functions as well — either as a ceremonial site, a religious pilgrimage destination, a final resting place for royalty or memorial . . .’’
A closer look at what the scholars are proffering as the suggested roles will reveal that the said roles are related. There must be some common theme that ties together all the suggested roles. As we did say earlier, a cultural landscape such as Stonehenge will have co-ordinated and related cultural features that all add up to a whole scintillating and holistic theme.
It is most unlikely that there would be contradictory functions within the same cultural landscape. The implication therefore, is that the ditch and bank must have performed functions that were in tandem with the overall function(s) of Stonehenge.
What does seem to be a common running thread is the existence of burials both within Stonehenge and also in the surrounding areas where there are long barrows and a cursus. Once again, it seems the burials preceded the construction of the stones circles, even the initial bluestone circles built from stones quarried from western Wales.
We argue that the burials are therefore central to the function(s) of the overall cultural landscape. The ditches and banks too preceded other structures.
What this may suggest is that whatever the purpose was in the initial stages of construction were related to the bones of the dear departed ancestors. Perception regarding the role, meaning and significance of bones of departed ancestors played an important part. Precedence in construction and the physical centrality in location of the bones seem to give emphasis and primacy to bones.
That in itself will give credence to the postulation that the creators and builders of the cultural landscape held certain cosmological ideas that were built, expressed and symbolised through and around bones of their dear departed ancestors.
As shall be seen later, the burials were attended with funerary goods. It will be argued later, that the presence and meanings attached to these goods point to the ideas that were held by the people of the time. The placing of funerary goods certainly shows us that the people held a world-view that the grave was not the end, but the beginning of a long journey that had to be prepared for in terms of victuals and provisions.
The essence in the creation and construction of Stonehenge was present from the very beginning when the ditches and banks were constructed. As ideas relating to burials were advanced there were changes, not in design as circularity still existed and was pervasive. Changes were made in terms of materials that were used.
These had attended materiality which marked changes at the spiritual level. Careful tracing of developments at Stonehenge is tantamount to tracing the changes taking place within society at the ideological, economic, social, cultural and technological levels.
No wonder therefore, scholars begin to think royalty began to play a role. That is a reflection of changes at the political level when society underwent complexity and witnessed the emergence of a socio-political and economic hierarchy that had royalty at the apex.
That royalty began to embrace the idea of expressing its eternity through more powerful imagery, for example, movement from and in addition to ditches and banks, to have circular stone circles. The circular design of the ditch and bank was retained with the meaning and essence from the very beginning.
The developmental changes were in line with the changes at societal level and more importantly at the cognitive level. Architectural changes at Stonehenge mirrored changes taking place at the level of society at large.
We shall argue that the central ideas relating to spirituality were being developed, refined and aligned with the changes being wrought at societal level.
The stories of and about bones, circularity and eternity endured. Whereas in the beginning the ideas were expressed in the main through the presence of parallel circular ditch and bank, the stones were added to complement the role of ditch and bank and to more emphatically express the idea of eternity resident in the circular ditch and bank.
Nothing was being subtracted save for the type of material. Ideological ideas were being added and expressed structurally and architecturally. Ideas of eternity and spirituality were being expressed in a symbolically more powerful way, such as using stone and not wood.
When scholars refer to religious pilgrimages, to the Stonehenge as a ceremonial site, a place of royalty and honour to the ancestors they are harping on the same concept in its different manifestations and ramifications. In all the postulated ideas there are no contradictions at all.
If anything, they are giving the different but related aspects of the essence of Stonehenge. The common expressions will become even clearer when we look at the motifs that were engraved on the ceramic pots that were excavated within the cultural landscape.
It may be pointed out that when the ditch and bank were being constructed the stone circles were not in existence, not even the circles of bluestones, let alone the more colossal sarsen stone circles, made from stones that were locally quarried at Marlborough. Instead, there were Aubrey holes which held timber posts. The symbolism behind posts and holes was highlighted earlier on.
The meaning and symbolism is the same as that expressed in the design of the bank and ditch. The common theme is thus evident and what we see are architecturally symbolic representations of one and the same idea/concept through the timber-posts-in-holes and the circularity of the parallel ditch and bank structures.
The theme is that which may variously be expressed as continuity, eternity, endlessness, perpetuity and immortality. Circularity (in stone circles and ditches and banks), and the solidity of rocks express and concretise the one pervasive concept.
However, what should be realised is that the functional role of ditch and bank has not been unpacked and unravelled. When it comes to built structures there may be resident materiality that is meaning endowed on a physical structure or object.
At the same time, there may be practical or functional use of a constructed feature. The material object equates to the material body in a human being while materiality equates to the soul/spirit in a human being. As people go about creating and constructing they are doing so within the parameters and dictates imposed by their world-view, cosmology, beliefs and philosophy.
Spirituality, in the final analysis, has a functional role. It is at the same time engaged in enquiry like philosophy and Physics and indeed other science disciplines. It is concerned with the origin and destiny of humankind and the cosmos.
