It is often thought of as something not of this world, a magical, mystical place. But the Festival of Neolithic Ideas at Stonehenge will take a more scientific look at the great circle and the landscape it sits within.
Academics, engineers and craftspeople are among the dozens of experts who will give an insight into the science that ancient people used to create the monument and also explain the modern techniques that give a glimpse to modern humankind of what was going on there in prehistoric times.
Dominique Bouchard, English Heritage’s head of learning and interpretation, said the festival, which is being staged at Stonehenge in Wiltshire on the weekend of 11 and 12 November, was intended to help place the site in human history.
“It’s very easy to think of Stonehenge as something that is outside the history of science or engineering,” she said. “The history of science traditionally starts in the 16th or 17th century. That kind of unmoors Stonehenge.
“The consequence is it can feel like something that is magical and otherworldly. What we’re trying to do with the festival is remind people that the people of Stonehenge were like us.” They were planners, engineers, project managers but also worshippers and travellers who made pilgrimages to the stones and partied there. “Very much like us,” added Bouchard.
A central theme of the festival, the first of its kind, will be a fresh look at how Stonehenge was built. For example, how did they manage to get the lintels so remarkably level? Civil engineers today use lasers but how did ancient people place pairs of hefty stones into deep holes in uneven ground and manage to lower others on to the top with such precision?
And how did they manage to make sure the whole temple aligned so perfectly to the sunrises, sunsets, solstices and so on?
“This was a massive undertaking that required sophisticated understanding of the landscape, of materials, of the sky and how to build things,” said Bouchard. “I walk through a park and get lost but they could bring a massive stone hundreds of miles to the spot where it needs to be put in the ground and it’s exactly the right height and everything is lined up. All that without paper, without pencil – just incredible.”
But it will not only be about the building of Stonehenge. The festival will show how modern techniques such as radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis help illuminate prehistoric daily life, revealing diet, clothing, how society worked, even the values of the neolithic people.
For example, academics from the University of Cambridge, a partner in the festival, will explain how “chemical signals” locked into the tooth enamel have helped pinpoint where people connected to Stonehenge came from. The people of Stonehenge were not static but moved through the landscape, exchanging idea and technologies.
Cardiff University’s “guerilla archaeology” team is creating a “pop-up” prehistoric supermarket to highlight what food people ate back then, which included roast meat, flatbreads, dairy products but very little fish.
There will be an inflatable planetarium where academics from Bournemouth University will demonstrate how the sun, moon and stars played significant roles in beliefs and practices.
Manchester Metropolitan University and the Francis Crick Institute will explore family dynamics in the stone age people – what they may have worn, how they may have done their hair and how they may have decorated themselves and their houses.
There will be demonstrations of skills such as pottery, cooking, thatching, bronze casting and flint knapping. The National Trust is running a landscape tour to follow in the footsteps and delve into the minds of the builders not just of Stonehenge but the barrows – the burial mounds – that surround it.
Details can be found at english-heritage.org.uk. The festival is included in the price of an admission ticket.
