Amesbury

Amesbury is the nearest town to Stonehenge, and was itself once a key part of the Stonehenge landscape. The River Avon, which formed part of the processional way between Durrington Walls and Stonehenge, flows through the town and was a focus for many of the elaborate Bronze Age burials in the area, as high-status people claimed a place in this most revered landscape.

Many of these graves are now lost forever under housing estates and gardens. Those which have been excavated give an inkling of the once richness of this area.

Merlin and Vortigern.

Pseudo-historian Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed that Stonehenge was built by Merlin, wizard, sorcerer or shaman. In another legend, Merlin advised the British leader Vortigern, who was building a castle on the site, that its continual collapse was due to two dragons who were buried beneath the site.

This legend, often thought to be invented by Geoffrey, may have an older origin. Amesbury derives from ‘Emrys’s burgh’ or settlement, and Emrys was a title commonly applied to Merlin. Amesbury, therefore, was known from Saxon times as ‘Merlin’s settlement’. Perhaps the ancient legend has a grain of truth.

The river at Ratfyn

The Avon runs through a steep gorge near Ratfyn, the northern part of Amesbury, and a series of square structures, comprising four wooden posts around five metres high, have been discovered. They may have been huge wooden platforms used for the exposure of bodies to be devoured by kites and crows before they were cremated. Pits nearby contain the bones of cattle, pig and dogs, perhaps the remains of funeral feasts.

The cliff top, hidden by the trees of the gorge.

The Amesbury Archer is the town’s most famous discovery. The adult man, who died between 2500-2280BC, had lived in the Stonehenge area but had spent his childhood in the Alps or Bavaria. He had then made the arduous journey of over a thousand miles to Britain. Genetic analysis shows his son was also buried nearby.

The man was buried with twelve arrows, two archer’s wrist-guards, five beakers, three copper daggers, a metalworking anvil and a pair of gold earrings or hair ornaments, making it one of the richest burials found in the area. His importance was immense. Perhaps he was one of the first people who travelled to Britain, bringing the new skills of metal-working which would eventually overturn Britain’s infrastructure in every way. Thousand-year-old monuments were sealed up, new ones were built, and a new spiritual way of life redefined people’s lives even as their practical lives changed forever. Perhaps this man was the instigator of it all.

The Amesbury Archer