Stonehenge-Decoded.doc

Stonehenge DecodedNGC全民英檢:千古疑雲巨石陣(精華版)播出時間:1月24日 星期日 11:00-12:00For thousands of years,Stonehenge has been a mystery.Who built it? What was it for?Now archaeologist Mike Parker Pearsonhas a revolutionary new theory.Stonehenge was just halfof a vast religious complex.He believes Stonehenge was builtto house the spirits of the dead.That it was linked to anothermysterious sacred monumentand a prehistoric city lost for 4500 years.Now a team of the worldsleading archaeologists search for the evidence.After five millennia, they may be closeto unlocking the hidden storyburied in these ancient stones.Salisbury Plain in southern England.Twenty five hundred BC.At the same time as the pyramids in Egyptare under construction,workers here complete the outer circleof Stonehenge.They haul huge rocks, some weighingup to 45 tons, across rough terrain.They work each granite- like stone into shape.Then pull them upright to formthe great stone circle.Thousands of people worked onthis massive project.When they complete this phase,an inner horseshoe of 5 great archeswill be enclosed by a ringof 30 stone uprightsand topped by a circle of perfectlyhorizontal stones called lintels.But while we know this was an incredible featof engineering, who these people wereand why they built Stonehengehas remained one of the greatunsolved mysteries of the ancient world.In fact its only in the last 15 yearsthat scientists have known how oldStonehenge is.Using radio carbon analysisthey have dated the stone circleto 4500 years ago. This meansStonehenge was built long before the Romans,King Arthur or the druids.It dates to a time before writingand the invention of the wheel.The Stone Age.And still no-one has yet convincingly solvedthe mystery of what it was built for.In a farmers field a couple of kilometersfrom Stonehenge, archaeologistMike Parker Pearson and his teammay have finally found the answer.Can we start by uncovering the trenches?Take the polythene off, get the stones out,moved to one side, and then we willall get out there. Thank you.Hes leading one of the biggest archaeologicalinvestigations of modern times,a seven year project aimed at unlocking-once and for all-the mystery surrounding Stonehenge.Along with archaeologistshes assembled an army of surveyors,geophysicists, and 270 volunteers.But they do not dig at Stonehenge.Instead they excavatethe surrounding countryside.It is here Parker Pearson believestheyll find evidence to supporta revolutionary new theory.I think Stonehenge is such an iconic monumentthat most people dont realise thattheres a landscape out therethat is absolutely packedwith prehistoric monuments.And I think the really big jumphas been to say, hang on a moment,its not just a stone circleand thats all there is to it.Its actually part of somethingmuch bigger and realising thatthe building project for Stonehengewas just one element of a greater design.Stonehenge sits centre stageof a much bigger ceremonial landscape.A Grand Avenue connects the stone circleto the River Avon whilst standing stones,burial mounds and circular earthworkscalled Henges fill the surrounding area.Now archaeologist Mike Parker Pearsonbelieves Stonehenge was only halfof a vast religious complex.The other half was a mysterious circlebuilt of wood just a few kilometres away.At certain times in the year,Parker Pearson believes,thousands travelled to the areato take part in rituals marking the cycleof life and death.In great processions, they walked downthe wide avenues to the River Avonthat runs between these two monumentsOn this journey, they took their deadto join the ancestors at Stonehengeand in return received from the ancestorsthe gift of life and fertility.This is the theory.Now Parker Pearson must find the evidence.If this theory works then there should besome kind of settlement close to Stonehenge.*And there should be an avenuelinking it to the river*just as theres an avenuefrom Stonehenge to the river.So, are we going to find thatthere was actually a city there?Are we going to find that theres nothingthere at all? Or are we going to findsomething completely different?Its very important that we investigate.If hes right Parker Pearsons theorywill transform our understandingof the prehistoric world.One of the sites that was partof this sacred landscapelies just north of Stonehenge.Known today as the Cursus,this is the largest of the monumentssurrounding the stone circle.An earthwork enclosure stretching overtwo and a half kilometres.It was once thought to be a race trackfor Roman chariots, but Parker Pearsonbelieves it holds cluesto the meaning of Stonehenge.Today excavations along the sideof the Cursus uncover deep ditches.And now the team finds evidence thatbegins to unlock its secrets.At the very bottom of this great deep ditch,*down here beneath this chalk rubble,*weve found an antler, part of an antler pickwhich was one of the tools that was usedto excavate this ditch back in Neolithic times.And thats the first time we have gotproper dating evidence right on the baseof this ditch which is going to tell usprecisely when this ditch was dug.The radio carbon dating of the antler pickreveals the Cursus was builtfive hundred years before Stonehenge.Evidence this land had been sacredfor centuries.But it seems the Cursus played a special roleat the time of Stonehenge.Previous excavations have uncoveredburial sites south of the Cursuswhere the stone circle stands-but none to the north.To Parker Pearson, this suggeststhe Cursus became a dividing line-marking off the land surrounding Stonehengeas sacred.Parker Pearsons belief this is a sanctuaryfor the spirits of the deadchallenges the long-held view of Stonehengeas a temple to ancient gods or the sun.It also raises a fascinating possibility.You could see this as a city for the dead-a domain of the dead. A placethat was set aside for themwithin this dramatic landscapeand I thought well if thats the casethen theres got to be a domainfor the living.If Stonehenge is reserved for the spiritsof the dead, Parker Pearsonmust now find evidence of the living.No sign of a Stone Age settlementhas ever been found in the sacred landscapesurrounding Stonehenge.But archaeologist Mike Parker Pearsonsinvestigations lead him to a site2 and half kilometres awayfrom the stone circle.Across the Cursus, the boundaryParker Pearson believes definethis sacred zone, lies another monumentat a place called Durrington Walls.Here a vast circular earthwork,known as a henge, dominates the landscape.Twenty times the size of Stonehenge,it was surrounded by a ditch and bank,5 and half metres deep and over 9 metres wide.The outline is still visible today,stretching two and a half kilometresaround the perimeter. In previous excavations,archaeologists have dug inside the hengebut found no sign of settlement.Parker Pearson decides to look outside.My fellow archaeologists- when I explained that*we wanted to dig outside the henge-*thought this was rather silly.Everyone has always concentratedon the interior of hengesso for us digging outsideit was breaking all the rules.And I think they thoughtit was laughable actually.The following year,under the chalky top-soil,they find the faint outline of a house.2005 our luck changed.We not only found that we were excavating housesbut they were extremely well preserved houses-so well preserved that theres nothingthat comes close to them anywhere in England.Now Parker Pearson is discoveringthe true scale of the settlement.We knew this was a big villageand I was thinking maybe a few hundred houses,but what weve found out this yearis that it was really bigwe are looking at well over a thousand houses.Excavations around the hengereveal houses once covered all these fields.Parker Pearson has found the lost cityof the builders of Stonehenge.This is the largest stone-age settlementfound in northern Europe.From the density of houses hes discovered,Parker Pearson calculates the populationran into the thousands.Tribes gathered from across Englandfor the great communal project of the age-to build Stonehenge.What we are looking at hereis the foundations and the floorof a Neolithic house, 4500 years old.Heres the doorway. You can seesome of the holes that held the stakesand these would have supported a wall.And as I walk into the house,you can see how this bits really quite wornfrom people coming up into itand then here we are within the central part.We have these little kneeling holes here;the fact that they have survivedthrough all that time is just stupendousweve never seen anythinglike that before. And somebodymust have spent an awful lot of their timein front of the hearth tending itand cooking the food. And you can actually seewhere the soot from the hearthhas stained the plasterlook at these dark areas here.Now the great thing about this houseis weve actually got an ideaof where the occupants actually sleptso that on either side of uswe have zones off the plaster floorwhere there would have been box beds.Prehistoric sites usually yield few remains.Here the team find thousands.But the greatest revelationcomes from what they are not finding.The ancient people who came here were farmers.But there are no signs of farming activity.This tells Parker Pearsonthere is something unusualabout this settlement.I think what we are seeing is a communitythat are bringing all their stuff with them,coming here for short parts of the year.This isnt a full time permanent settlement.For just a few weeks in the year,thousands gather here from acrosssouthern Britain.They are drawn by one of the mostremarkable features- the Stonehenge itself.If wed been here at the mid-summer solsticewhat would have happened?*Now we dont have a time machine*but I think there are ways*that we can really get a glimmerof an understanding.And what I would imagineis that at dawnpeople gathered at StonehengeAnd that begins a really important day.It is Parker Pearsons belief thatthese farmers gather here to thanktheir ancestors for bringing lifeback to the land and making it fertileonce more.This is the moment they have been waiting for.On this day,Stonehenge aligns to the rising sun.The suns rays pass betweenthe standing stones placed on its perimeter-and directly through a vast central arch,now known as the Great Trilithon.But Parker Pearson believesthis sunrise ritual was just the startof the Mid-Summer celebrations.And this leads to his greatest revelation yet.Over three kilometres away from Stonehengeat Durrington Walls, Mike Parker Pearsoninvestigates a curious findthat has long puzzled archaeologists.In 1967, while they were building a new road,bulldozers unearthed huge holesdug into the Durrington bedrock.They are the post holes of anotherceremonial circle. But this oneis built out of wood.For years, its presumed thatthe wooden circle pre-dates Stonehenge-a trial-run in wood before building in stone.But in 2005, Parker Pearsons teamfinds another antler pick,the tool used to dig the holes.Carbon dating of the antlerreveals the wooden circle was builtat exactly the same time as Stonehenge.But that isnt all.Until last year we werent actually ableto see its entire planand it surprised us,it actually looks far more like Stonehengein wood than wed ever appreciated it.And the fact that our radio carbon datesshow that both are builtin that very same centuryindicates that this has to be partof a grand vision.With over 160 massive posts,the inner rings of this wooden circleare almost identical in shape and sizeto those of Stonehenge.And one feature in particularreveals they share anotherextraordinary similarity.With the sun now crossing the sky,he believes the worshippersleave Stonehenge and slowly make their wayto Durrington Wallsalong the banks of the River Avon.And what theyre bringing with themis the fertility that the ancestorspass onto themand the day is spent*working their way up streamAnd by the end of that dayas the sun is setting they reach Durrington.From here they move towardat an astounding near-replicaof Stonehenge built out of wood.The use of stone and wood is no accident-and gives Parker Pearson a fundamental insightinto the religious beliefsof these ancient people.So why might it have been importantfor them to have one in wood, one in stone?And I think it has to do with the materialsand what they meant to peoples lives,because of course wood is somethingthat doesnt last forever,just as our own lives wont last forever.But stone, thats gonna be therefor eternity and it set me thinkingas to well was one monument for the deadand one for the living.One in stone and one in wood.They are about to witness a remarkable featureof this wooden monument.Further evidence that the solstice celebrationscontinued here.Like Stonehenge this circlealso aligns to the sun, now setting in the west.At the stone circle, these ancient peoplepaid their respects to the dead.But at this wooden circlethey celebrate life.They thank their ancestors for the giftof fertility for their crops,their animals- and for themselves.I think what we would seeat this mid summer event is the riteof passage that we today call marriage.The remains of prehistorichalf eaten food cover this site.My guess is that they are having the timeof their lives because when we look atthe waste, the rubbish that litters this placeits excessive. Normally when youre digginga Neolithic site you find the odd bone,maybe a small shard of potterybut we have found it in vast quantities-and they are living almost knee deepin this stuff. Just the sort of thingyou find at a feast when too much foodis served.There would have been drinkingand over-eating and I imagine young peoplecoming to these events for the first timeand out of that, of course,comes the fertility, the reproductionof the next generationso that nine months laterthat new generation is bornat the same time as the animals tooare reproducing so that everythingis in harmony with humans and nature.Excavations continue to produce a vivid pictureof day-to-day life at Durrington Walls.Yes, we are just still slightly too high.But the thousands who travelled herehad not come just for the celebrations.Now when we look at the concentrationof population that we have in this one valleytheres one major task that they had to perform-and that is the building of Stonehenge,the construction of the great sarsen circleand the trilathons within it.In 2500BC,Stonehenge is still under constructioneven while it is being used for rituals.This is one of the largest building projectsin the prehistoric world.No-one knows how long it took.The great stones are sarsen-a dense rock as hard as granite.Each weighs up to 45 tons.Lifting them involves sophisticated engineering.But the construction workis only half the story.When we build big monuments todaythe stone thats collectedis just a commodity.*It is just a bit of useful rockthat we buy off somebody,somebody brings it along and puts it up.I think we are looking at somethingcompletely different at this timebecause the rocks are imbued with meaningand maybe even with soul and spirit.In the 1920s, early excavationsuncovered cremated human bones.They were buried in fifty-six holesaround the stone circleand in the ditch of the henge.Since then archaeologists have unearthedan estimated 240 human remains.Stonehenge is full of burials-*its our biggest cremation cemeteryfrom that time-theres nowhere else in Britainwith more cremation burials.Parker Pearson believes these ancient Britonstake the ashes of their dead to Stonehengeso that their spirits can join the ancestors.At the large prehistoric settlementclose to Stonehenge, Mike Parker Pearsonuncovers a fragment of potterythat has not seen the light of dayfor 4500 years.Its a form of pottery know as ?grooved ware.Unique to the British Isles,this simple geometric designis found widely across the country-evidence of an establishedand uniform culture.Its an island wide identitywherever you were, you would have feltat home.*They were very much British,at that time.*And all this was to change.Visitors are arriving in Britain-and they bring with them a new cultureand a new technology that will transformthe world of Stonehenge.In 2002, archaeologists discoverone of these visitors in a dramatic excavationat Amesbury, five kilometresfrom Stonehenge. What they findin this Ancient grave astounds them.I dont think you ever get two opportunitiesat something like this in your lifevery exciting. Very exciting indeed.It is a remarkable discovery;the richest burial ever found in Britainfrom the period. He was an archer.Arrowheads and a wrist guardlead to the man being dubbed,the Amesbury archer.The distinctive pottery found in his gravegives a clue as to where he comes from.Its known as ?Beaker, it is found widelyacross mainland Europe at this time.Archaeologists call these immigrantsBeaker people.But its the small objectsthey bring with them that are abou