Observations placeholder
The Ancestors - Arminghall henge - Dr Christopher and Jacquetta Hawkes
Identifier
021858
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
In 1929 a prehistoric timber circle and henge monument site was discovered 1½ miles (2½ km) northwest of Arminghall village by Gilbert Insall VC who had been taking air photos of the area in search of new archaeological sites. Whilst flying at around 2,000 feet (600 m) he noticed cropmarks of a circular enclosure made of two concentric rings with a horseshoe of eight pit-like markings within it. The entire site was around 75 m in diameter. The site was visited a week later by O.G.S. Crawford, who pronounced it to be the Norwich Woodhenge but it was not until 1935 that it was first excavated, by Grahame Clark. His work established that two circular rings were ditches, the outer one 1.5 m deep and the inner one 2.3 m deep, with indications of a bank that once stood between them. The pits in the middle were postholes for timbers that would have been almost 1 m in diameter. The site dates to the Neolithic, with a radiocarbon date of 3650-2650 Cal BC (4440±150) from charcoal from a post-pit. The henge is orientated on the mid-winter sunset, which, when viewed from the henge, sets down the slope of nearby high ground, Chapel Hill.
The photos are intended to provide food for thought
A description of the experience
The Ancestors – Arminghall henge –Dr Christopher and Jacquetta Hawkes
Another site where the eastern type of architecture is naturally found in its purest form is at Arminghall near Norwich. This monument must in its day have been most impressive, for within its double ditch was a horseshoe setting of gigantic oak trunks, sunk 7 feet into the ground and probably rising as much as 20 feet above it. Kindred embanked monuments can be seen at Gorsey Bigbury on the Mendips, the Stripple Stones in Cornwall, Arbor Low in Derbyshire, and even as far afield as Stennis in Orkney; of these only the first is known to have been built by the Beaker Folk, but the probability is that they had some share in the inspiration of them all, and the raising of these temples throughout Britain is further proof of the widespread religious conformity that this people enjoyed.
The source of the experience
The AncestorsConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Symbols
Science Items
Sacred geographySacred geography - ancient trees
Sacred geography - barrows
Sacred geography - cross
Sacred geography - crossroads
Sacred geography - henges
Sacred geography - ley lines
Sacred geography - natural hills
Sacred geography - sacred grove