THE WINTER
SOLSTICE MONUMENTS by J.P Reedman
The image
is iconic. Summer solstice at Stonehenge.
Crowds of up to 30,000 crammed within the megalithic circle on Salisbury plain, a sea of faces turned to the
north-east where the Heelstone marks the rising sun. As light blooms and the
horizon grows bright, horns blow and shouts of the throng echo through the
Stones and rise to the sky.
But…it
seems that Midwinter solstice may have been the more important day for the prehistoric
people of Stonehenge. Finds by the Riverside
Project show that at nearby Durrington Walls the time of the winter Solstice
was one of great communal feasting, with young pigs being slaughtered in a
ritualised hunt with bows and arrows. The arrows were of a particularly lethal
type, made to cause maximum blood loss rather than instant death and there
would have lots of squealing and shrieking. (Interestingly a man’s leg bone,
also pierced by a similar arrowhead, was founds amidst the bones of the pigs!) There
was so much food available to the community of Durrington (which may have
seasonally held several thousand inhabitants) that the people were tearing off
chunks of the best meat and then throwing away the rest—so that even the Neolithic
dogs, resembling modern terriers, had their share.
Durrington Walls itself was aligned on the
rising sun at the Winter Solstice, the light of dawn shining over the nearby
hills and lighting the metalled trackway that led down to the River Avon, which
may have been considered a sacred waterway like the Ganges, a deep place
inhabited by great chthonic spirits, a sacred space to deposit cremations and
other offerings.
However, whereas Durrington Walls and its long
vanished circular timber structures, possibly resembling Stonehenge in wood,
were aligned on the rising Sun…Stonehenge
itself is centred on the setting sun, the winter sun as it dies on the shortest
day of the year.
A journey to Stonehenge at Solstice in 2300
BC might have gone like this…after greeting sunrise at Durrington Walls, with
offerings of meat and milk placed in pots beside the entrances, the celebrant
or initiate might have travelled down the Avon
by boat or foot. Maybe he/she had drunk ‘mead’, the magic drink, the
Intoxicator, which gave its name to that famous mythic Irish Queen, Meadbh, or
perhaps he/she had taken hallucinogenics—mushrooms or ergot. On either side white
riverbanks would tower, strange and disorientating, while the sinuous winding
and twisting of the river would add to the otherworldly sensation. Reaching the
place where the even older henge monument known as West Amesbury henge once
stood (its banks would probably have been visible), the participant would have
then travelled up the between the parallel banks of the Avenue, a ceremonial
pathway that leads across by King Barrow ridge and down into the valley. For a while
Stonehenge itself vanishes from view, hidden by the swell of the land…but as
the traveller follows the Avenue onwards, it suddenly appears again, as its
builders truly intended it to be seen, rising in layers towards the south-west,
with the Great Trilithon, just over twenty four feet tall with its lintel in
place, standing pre-eminent over all.
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This is the place where the Sun would have
‘died’ at Midwinter, between the Great Trilithon’s
narrow arch and over the micaceous 16 foot block of the Altar Stone, now lying beneath
one massive fallen stone of the Trilithon. Even today, with one side collapsed and
the lintel tumbled on the ground, it is impressive to witness the winter sunset
from near the Heelstone, watching the sky bleed as the sun sinks through the
monument’s remaining stones and descends behind a later round barrow which had
a ‘totem pole’ on its top (obviously the grave of someone important connected
to Stonehenge in its later phases—a well built male, laid out on a wooden
plank.)
What could the symbolism be? It will always
been debated, as no written records exist, but as in most cultures, the sun was
seen as a life-giver. The winter solstice would have greater significance than
summer because the winter was a time when life was more fragile, when children
and the old might sicken and be carried off to the Land of the Dead. Greater
feasts and rituals would have to take place to placate the sun, which was
probably not seen so much as a ‘god’ with a human face, but a powerful non-anthropomorphic
entity. And then there were also the ever-present ancestral spirits (who, far
from being friendly Grandma’s ghost, were often seen as malevolent and in need
of constant placation!)
The two faces of Solstice, the rising sun
and the setting sun, figure prominently at the cluster of important monuments within
the Stonehenge landscape. This is mirrored at
the Boyne complex in Ireland.
At the Irish tomb of Newgrange, about 600 years older than Stonehenge, the
rising sun on the Winter Solstice shines down a 60ft passage to light up the
chamber at the end; nearby, at the passage-grave of Dowth (the Hill of
Darkness), the alignment is on the winter solstice sunset, as it is at
Stonehenge. Interestingly Newgrange and its satellite temple-tombs are also
near a ‘sacred river,’ the Boyne, whose
mythological deity was Boann, the White Cow.
One
wonders if the Great Trilithon, built several hundred years later than
Newgrange’s famous Lightbox, was meant in some way to represent the mouth of an
earlier chamber tomb (this is thought to be the case in monuments such as the
Cove at Avebury), having a similar function but with some of the emphasis
passing from the more funereal to multi-functional, from Ancestors to deities,
from events hidden from living eyes within encasing stone to something that
that could be witnessed by people standing outside the monument on the Avenue.
Recently there have been some local
attempts to recreate a procession down the Stonehenge Avenue on the night before
Solstice as the sun sets. Unfortunately problems over land access has caused
the route to be changed this year, but the solstice walk will now take in a
section of the Avon where the ancient people would have passed on their processional
route and also the ‘sacred pool’ recently discovered at Vespasian’s camp (on
private land) where deposits of a Roman curse and bronze age dagger, like
Excalibur thrown into the waves, followed a massive ancient deposition of flint
by Mesolithic hunters who feasted there, eating wild boar and giant Aurochs…the
pre-Stonehenge people, who may have made this part of Wiltshire a ‘sacred
Ancestral Space.’
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~ J.P. Reedman, Solstice 2013
Last years Solstice Lantern Parade from Stonehenge to Amesbury
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This years Solstice Fairy, Cara Druce
Janet Reedman is author of two historical novels, STONE LORD and MOON LORD, which
take place at the time of Stonehenge but
utilize the Arthurian legends as a basis. She is also author of various short stories and poetry relating to myth and prehistory, available as e-books.
- Richard Denning : The Darkest Years of the Dark Ages: what do we really know? Plus a Giveaway Prize!
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A most interesting and informative post, Janet. Stonehenge is on our To Visit List in 2014!
ReplyDeleteThere's an all new visitor's centre there now, with a great display of artefacts and the recon structed head of a neolithic man who some folk think looks like Charlton Heston!
ReplyDeleteGosh, I'd never realised the role of the Avon before - the ancient equivalent of the Ganges! I live a couple of hours from Stonehenge and often take overseas visitors there, and they never fail to be moved by it, whatever the weather or the season (the last couple of times, no trace of sun and in pouring rain - still impressive though at any time of year!) Looking forward to seeing the new visitors' centre.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the river was really the key to the link between the sites. In old books Stonehenge, Woodhenge etc were always treated seperately, but it seems they were all part of a huge complex connected by the Avon. I think it's telling that the river's name simply means 'River' as if it had some special importance as THE river, rather being named for its attributes like many other waterways like the Clyde (cleanser) and the the Dove (dark).
DeleteA fascinating reimagining of Winter Solstice at Stonehenge, thank you.
ReplyDeleteThis is a thrilling account of the solstice, enhanced by your photos. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteInformative as ever, Janet. You have some of the best posts! Happy Solstice.
ReplyDeleteNice post - interesting with the river/monument link.
ReplyDeleteLove these photos Janet - and Stonelord is a great book!
ReplyDeleteI'm always eager to learn about Stonehenge. I think the best way to learn more would be to follow that ancient route and experience it for myself.
ReplyDelete