The World of Stonehenge
After more than two years, we return to our occasional series, "Exhibitions Steven has enjoyed."
The World of Stonehenge opened recently at the British Museum in London. As the name suggests, it sets Stonehenge in a wider historical and archaeological context.
Stonehenge was constructed in several phases over a period of a thousand years or more, and is one of many similar sites all over Europe. The people who built it had no form of writing (that we know of), and their art was mostly non-representational. Any interpretation of what they left behind has to be more provisional and speculative than, say, ancient Egypt, but modern technology and methods are helping to reveal more about them than anyone would have dared to hope even a few decades ago.
The presentation is mostly chronological, and consists mainly of artefacts from Stonehenge and similar sites, along with a few skeletons (and some parts of skeletons, many of whose owners appear to have met violent ends). Many people were buried at or near Stonehenge, and isotope analysis of their bones indicates that they came from all over Europe. (That's just one example of something we couldn't have known until recently. We know from the types of artefacts that a lot of trade happened in this period, but we didn't know whether the people who brought them were "travelling salespeople" or whether they came to stay.)
Many cultures bury their dead with objects that were important to them in life, or that are supposed to help or protect them in the afterlife. The more important the person, the more and better the objects they usually have. But many of the burials near Stonehenge have few or no objects. Instead, caches of objects are buried separately from any grave. Does this mean that burial at Stonehenge was reserved for a certain class of people who followed a monk-like lifestyle? Or that the objects were too special or sacred to be allowed to be regarded as the property of one person?
One of the highlights is a selection of timbers from Seahenge, a circle of oak on the Norfolk coast, erected in about 2000 BC. There were many wooden circles put up around this time, but most of them are gone, leaving only the post holes, because of course timber rots fairly quickly in our climate. Seahenge, though, was flooded not long after it was built, which preserved it. As with Stonehenge, nobody really knows what it was for, although it must have been important. Dendrochronology tells us that all the timber was felled at the same time, and careful analysis of a 3D scan of the trunks shows that at least 50 different axes were used to cut them. So a lot of people must have worked together to make the monument.
Overall, presentation is good. Light levels are low, to protect delicate artefacts, but the labels are easy to read. There were a lot of visitors, but they kept moving, so I didn't get impatient waiting to look at something. (Though to be fair, we went on a Monday, in the hope that it wouldn't be too crowded.)
Allow 75 to 90 minutes to go around, or maybe a bit more than that if you're not going on a Monday. "The World of Stonehenge" runs until 17 July 2022.
The World of Stonehenge opened recently at the British Museum in London. As the name suggests, it sets Stonehenge in a wider historical and archaeological context.
Stonehenge was constructed in several phases over a period of a thousand years or more, and is one of many similar sites all over Europe. The people who built it had no form of writing (that we know of), and their art was mostly non-representational. Any interpretation of what they left behind has to be more provisional and speculative than, say, ancient Egypt, but modern technology and methods are helping to reveal more about them than anyone would have dared to hope even a few decades ago.
The presentation is mostly chronological, and consists mainly of artefacts from Stonehenge and similar sites, along with a few skeletons (and some parts of skeletons, many of whose owners appear to have met violent ends). Many people were buried at or near Stonehenge, and isotope analysis of their bones indicates that they came from all over Europe. (That's just one example of something we couldn't have known until recently. We know from the types of artefacts that a lot of trade happened in this period, but we didn't know whether the people who brought them were "travelling salespeople" or whether they came to stay.)
Many cultures bury their dead with objects that were important to them in life, or that are supposed to help or protect them in the afterlife. The more important the person, the more and better the objects they usually have. But many of the burials near Stonehenge have few or no objects. Instead, caches of objects are buried separately from any grave. Does this mean that burial at Stonehenge was reserved for a certain class of people who followed a monk-like lifestyle? Or that the objects were too special or sacred to be allowed to be regarded as the property of one person?
One of the highlights is a selection of timbers from Seahenge, a circle of oak on the Norfolk coast, erected in about 2000 BC. There were many wooden circles put up around this time, but most of them are gone, leaving only the post holes, because of course timber rots fairly quickly in our climate. Seahenge, though, was flooded not long after it was built, which preserved it. As with Stonehenge, nobody really knows what it was for, although it must have been important. Dendrochronology tells us that all the timber was felled at the same time, and careful analysis of a 3D scan of the trunks shows that at least 50 different axes were used to cut them. So a lot of people must have worked together to make the monument.
Overall, presentation is good. Light levels are low, to protect delicate artefacts, but the labels are easy to read. There were a lot of visitors, but they kept moving, so I didn't get impatient waiting to look at something. (Though to be fair, we went on a Monday, in the hope that it wouldn't be too crowded.)
Allow 75 to 90 minutes to go around, or maybe a bit more than that if you're not going on a Monday. "The World of Stonehenge" runs until 17 July 2022.
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