The World of Stonehenge Exhibition British Museum London

PREVIEW VIDEO

Who have been the folks of Stonehenge? Curators Jennifer Wexler and Neil Wilkin take you on a tour of their British Museum exhibition The world of Stonehenge, to introduce you to some unimaginable those that constructed and lived across the time of the monument.

ENTER THE WORLD OF STONEHENGE

THE WORLD OF STONEHENGE – WHAT TO EXPECT?

Stonehenge was constructed someplace between 5000 and 3500 years in the past as a particular place the place folks got here collectively. Nowadays, the construction helps us to be taught extra concerning the historical past of this area, in addition to perceive extra concerning the lives of the individuals who lived and visited right here.

We all know that Stonehenge was one among many necessary ceremonial monuments constructed throughout Britain, Eire and continental Europe throughout prehistory. Within the exhibition, you discover narratives of connectivity, alternate, mobility and migration, via tales and objects that present the basic modifications in peoples’ relationships with the sky, nature and each other via the ages.

The exhibition is supported by bp and organised with the State Museum of Prehistory, Halle/Saale, Germany and consists of 430 artefacts from throughout Europe, many by no means seen within the UK earlier than, quick video illustrations (with textual content on display), atmospheric music, and plenty of info based mostly on latest archaeological and scientific work.

THE REASON FOR MY VISIT

One of many principal causes that made me determine to go to this exhibition was the show of the blue- and bronze Nebra Sky Disk, up to now the oldest illustration of our cosmos, made about 3600 years in the past.

A couple of years in the past, I visited the Nebra Sky Disk Museum within the small city of Wangen (within the Saxony-Anhalt area of Germany) and discovered extra concerning the story of this necessary archaeological discover.

The precise disk wasn’t on show on the info centre, so you possibly can think about how excited I used to be to get this opportunity to lastly see it up and shut in London!

Extra concerning the disk later on this article, first again to the start. Actually.

WALK-THROUGH THE WORLD OF STONEHENGE EXHIBITION BRITISH MUSEUM

PART I – A CHANGING RELATIONSHIP

The exhibition is split into themed sections, following a timeline from about 6000 to 2800 years in the past that tells the story of Stonehenge and the folks interacting with the sacred monument.

You begin on the part known as “Working with nature” (about 6000 years in the past), the place you possibly can see how communities in Britain redefined their relationship with nature going from looking and gathering to a farming life-style of migrant communities from the continent.

Amongst all of the modifications, monuments have been raised to point out possession of land and declare particular locations, for the primary time. Stone, wooden and clay objects have been each instruments and symbols of this new relationship between folks and nature.

The centre of the idea system that constructed Stonehenge was the solar and in one of many first stars (pun meant) of the present – a wonderful standing stone from Italy – you possibly can see it depicted in a scratching.

The iconography and symbols of solar worship come again in varied gadgets additional within the exhibition.

PART II – CONNECTIONS THROUGH ART

Within the subsequent part, known as “Sermons in stone” (round 5000 years in the past), you possibly can learn the way communities throughout Britain and Eire created long-distance connections via a brand new type of artwork.

Spirals, circles and geometric patterns have been utilized to tombs, home interiors, open-air rocks and objects. This new artwork type coincided with a flourishing of monument constructing at areas throughout Britain and Eire.

The structure and imagery drew collectively giant numbers of individuals in works of collaboration and creativity.

VIDEO – Impressed by Stonehenge and its World

Stonehenge’s construction and temper have impressed the nice artists of British Romanticism. Discover how and why Stonehenge and its world have stimulated inventive and literary responses, as much as immediately.

PART III – THE STORY OF STONEHENGE

The story of Stonehenge additionally begins round this time. The monument’s builders marked out the sacred floor by digging a ditch and throwing up rubble to type the outer encircling financial institution of the henge. Inside, they raised a circle of big noticed dolerite ‘bluestone’ boulders, moved 350 kilometres from the Preseli Hills in Wales.

This Stonehenge was a cemetery for the cremated stays of between 150 and 200 folks. Chemical evaluation means that a number of lived and died in west Wales earlier than their stays have been interred throughout the monument.

Aside from this web site, the broader panorama was used for spiritual devotion by farming communities. Observations of the solar performed a job even at this early stage. A monument often called a cursus was constructed with glistening white chalk sides stretching for 3 kilometres east to west, enshrining processions and the solar’s passage.

PART IV – ORKNEY

Round 5500 years in the past, Orkney (Scotland) turned a centre of cultural innovation. Its excellent tomb and settlement structure are among the many most spectacular in historical Europe.

Communities in Orkney constructed henges and developed a brand new sort of pottery known as “Grooved Ware”, utilized in ceremonial feasts. Each concepts, and the spiritual ethos they represented, have been adopted by teams all through Britain and Eire.

A number of the groundbreaking discoveries made throughout Orkney are proven on the exhibition for the primary time!

PART V – SEAHENGE

Have you ever ever heard of “Seahenge”? This wooden monument was erected by the shore in Norfolk in 2049 BC, round 500 years after the principle building of Stonehenge.

The picket circle consisting of 55 oak posts and an upturned tree trunk within the centre was lined in sand and peat till it re-emerged on a seaside in Norfolk in 1998.

On the exhibition, you possibly can rise up and shut with among the posts and see an virtually holographic show of the tree trunk. You may as well hear recordings made on the north Norfork coast, composed by sound artist Rob St. John in collaboration with artist and archaeologist Rose Ferraby.

That is the primary time Seahenge has ever gone on mortgage (from the Lynn Museum in King’s Lynn, Norfolk).

PART VI – STONEHENGE & LIFESTYLE

As you may know, Stonehenge and different monuments within the British panorama are precisely aligned to the dawn on the winter solstice. Many individuals would (and nonetheless do) collect there on the daybreak of the shortest day to propitiate the solar to resume their crops.

About 4600 years in the past, the communities who worshipped at Stonehenge settled at Durrington Partitions, an enormous monument encompassing two timber circles and many homes. From right here, pilgrims launched into a choreographed route, by boat alongside the River Avon after which by foot, to reach at Stonehenge. The timber circles at Durrington Partitions and close by Woodhenge have been alined on the summer season and winter solstices.

The distinction between these monuments and Stonehenge could replicate contrasting symbolic domains – perishable wooden for the dwelling and everlasting stone for the ancestors.

VIDEO – Historic DNA within the time of Stonehenge

What can historical DNA inform us about how folks lived within the time of Stonehenge? From weight-reduction plan to migration, the examine of historical DNA is offering new details about the lives of these within the Stonehenge panorama and past.

PART VII – PRECIOUS METALS

We’re at about 4500 years in the past now, within the part known as “Making metallic”.

You’ll be able to in all probability think about how the transformation of stone right into a molten metallic that might be solid into new kinds was a dramatic, and even magical, occasion for folks presently in historical past.

In addition to magic, it additionally enabled important improvements in carpentry, joinery and boat constructing, since metallic might be recycled and reshaped into gadgets corresponding to copper and bronze axes.

Stonehenge took its well-known type round this time. Greater than 80 huge sarsen stones, every requiring at the very least 1000 folks to move, have been introduced 25 kilometres from their supply. This effort required unprecedented communal labour, endurance and planning. It took generations to finish.

The constructing of the processional routeway, the Avenue, about 4400 years in the past confirmed Stonehenge’s sacred standing.

Stonehenge continued to be a spot the place the solar’s course was noticed and celebrated for a whole bunch of years. Nonetheless, few monuments with photo voltaic significance have been constructed within the centuries that adopted. over time, symbolism, and even solstice positions have been inscribed on moveable metallic objects.

PART IIX – GOLD LIKE THE SUN

As we transfer to the part “Below One Sky”, the significance (and sweetness) of our Earth’s valuable metals turns into much more apparent. Gold ornaments had the power to replicate and maybe even harness the ability of the solar, making certain wellbeing throughout the seasons, or so folks thought again then.

The introduction of metallic to Britain and Eire round 4300 years in the past enabled cosmological beliefs represented by Stonehenge and different monuments into a variety of moveable objects, a few of them on show on this part of the exhibition.

The influence of this was nice as earlier than there have been solely mounted monuments to look at and worship the solar at set instances of the yr – and now you might have your personal private connection to the heavens above by holding and even carrying its illustration in particular person.

PART IX – THE NEBRA SKY DISK

And there it lastly is: the Nebra Sky Disk in all her glory. On this beautiful map of the evening sky, you possibly can see the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) twinkle between the solar and a crescent moon – and the way stunning it’s!

You’ll be able to learn extra concerning the Sky Disk on our weblog “The Area Tester”. For instance, discover out right here what the Nebra Sky Disc is strictly and why it’s so necessary, go to the Nebra Sky Disk Museum in Germany with me (+ a extra in-depth report of the Arche Nebra Himmelsscheibe Museum right here), discover extra info and pictures of the Nebra Sky Disk on the British Museum or learn how ESA’s Mission Cosmic Kiss met the Nebra Sky Disk Onboard the ISS.

I can extremely suggest studying up concerning the historical past of the Sky Disc as a result of the story about how the invention was made is kind of thrilling!

PART X – A SUN CULT

The looks of recent objects and symbols about 3500 years in the past reveals {that a} extra complicated mannequin of the cosmos was growing.

Throughout Scandinavia, the solar, horse and ship have been the themes of non secular imagery. In central Europe, two water birds linked by a boat-shaped physique under a solar turned an necessary motif.

Gold discs turned symbols of a solar cult, marking out a believer or pilgrim coming back from websites like Stonehenge.

PART XI – BURIAL MOUNDS

Within the part “Elevating the useless”, I be taught that from about 4500 years in the past, burying folks with valued objects on sacred land turned the dominant method of expressing cultural and religious that means throughout Britain and Europe. At Stonehenge, a whole bunch of burial mounds have been raised for the illustrious useless.

The objects that mourners chosen for the grave ready souls for all times past this world. They have been markers of private id, ethnicity and success, however additionally they expressed hopes, needs, failed ambitions and long-distance pilgrimages.

New scientific research allow us to hint the tales, genetic relationships and actions of individuals via time, as they turned established lineages. Rows of burial mounds have been bodily manifestations of household bushes.

PART X – SUCCESS AND POWER

Outstanding and unique objects have been positioned within the graves of well-connected leaders from southern England, northern France and Germany between about 4000 and 3600 years in the past. The journeys made by these folks and their ambassadors have been marked by the alternate of items within the shadow of monuments like Stonehenge.

What was the premise of success and energy throughout this period? The grave items counsel cosmologically and spiritually-minded individuals who held positions bestowed upon them by their communities.

By about 3700 years in the past, Stonehenge shaped the guts of the densest focus of burial mounds in Britain, together with among the richest in Europe. The emphasis had shifted from constructing communal monuments to elevating mounds in cemeteries that staked claims to land, historical past and kinship.

The continental European custom of putting metallic objects in hoards with out our bodies started in southern England round this time. The Stonehenge sarsens have been inscribed with carvings of those new, treasured, objects. This daring act could have bordered on iconoclasm.

PART XI – TO THE SEA

About 3500 years in the past, the affect of the Stonehenge area started to wane. Communities on the south coast of England seemed to social and political relationships in continental Europe, which was turning into an more and more necessary supply of helpful bronze.

As these continental connections elevated, European metallic and unique items started to circulate throughout the North Sea and the English Channel.

As new sorts of objects emerged, so too did new concepts about providing valuable gadgets to repay or search safety from nature or ancestral spirits. This challenged older spiritual beliefs and the function of monuments like Stonehenge.

PART XII – STONEHENGE UNSETTLED

The arrival of the Beaker-using folks was a watershed second on the earth of Stonehenge. Though it’s attainable that among the first newcomers assisted or impressed the nice achievements in stone, additionally it is clear that they’d totally different priorities and beliefs.

Fragments of bluestone discovered on the web site from round this time counsel that the monument was being reworked and even vandalised. Elsewhere, henges have been being damaged up and dismantled. Monument buildings slowed dramatically as demise and the afterlife turned dominant cultural issues.

PART XIII – THE RISE OF WARFARE

Mounting pressures attributable to the growth of commerce networks and new land divisions gave rise to warfare throughout northwest Europe round 3300 years in the past. Skirmishes, raids and huge clashes of educated warriors turned a grim reality of life.

The ceremonial roles that monuments and burials performed have been now partly transferred to new arenas of violence and the dramatic destruction of helpful possessions. Injury was wrought to each our bodies and objects, together with frequent ritual deposition of metalwork in watery areas, maybe as symbolic killings.

Atlantic sea routes linked the ocean-facing communities of Europe, offering a serious community during which folks, applied sciences and objects might transfer.

Regardless of violence and uncertainty, elevated connectivity resulted in new social and cultural relations being solid 3000 years in the past.

Reward-giving and feasting turned necessary, offering the perfect setting for relationships between allies or feuding enemies to be settled or confirmed. Related by water, folks continued to reside dynamic and resilient lives regardless of the tumultuous and altering instances.

VIDEO – Dwelling on Water within the World of Stonehenge

Discover the idea of ‘dwelling on water’ all through the interval lined by The world of Stonehenge exhibition. Highlighting latest excavations and analysis from throughout this sweep of time at a lot of key water’s edge websites, together with the internationally well-known settlements at Star Carr and Should Farm, a panel of specialists will contemplate what made these areas engaging to folks and what advantages they introduced.

PART XIV – THE LAST OF THE LIGHT

By 2800 years in the past, the world of Stonehenge had modified. The stone circles nonetheless utilized in components of Britain and Eire now not attracted giant gatherings. European commerce networks carrying ritually-charged objects and supplies broke down.

This decline occurred as climatic and environmental change undermined social and financial confidence. The consequence was the top of the period charted by this exhibition.

Stonehenge stands not for a panorama, area and even nation, however for the generations of people that have made that means from an everlasting place in a altering world.

VIDEO – New scientific discoveries: reinterpreting Stonehenge

Uncover the newest analysis on the world-famous monument with main specialists on Stonehenge. Hear about fascinating discoveries from the previous couple of years, and the way excavations have revealed new particulars which have prompted reinterpretations of the ceremonial and non secular function the traditional stone circle has performed.

STONEHENGE EXHIBITION: PRACTICAL INFORMATION

PLANNING YOUR VISIT

Exhibition: The world of Stonehenge
Location: The British Museum, Nice Russell St, London WC1B 3DG, United Kingdom
Dates: 17 February – 17 July 2022
Entry Charge: 20 GBP (adults) / 18 GBP (pupil, 16-18 years, disabled) / Free (beneath 16 years, disabled particular person’s assistant)

Web site: britishmuseum.org

Exhibition Information: The World of Stonehenge Ebook from amazon.com or britishmuseumshoponline.org

VISIT STONEHENGE IN ENGLAND

Couldn’t see Stonehenge on the British Museum? Or excited to see it in particular person? Plan your journey to Stonehenge in Salisbury, England with assist of The Journey Tester!

Be certain to learn our prolonged article on visiting Stonehenge from London. Right here you’ll discover all the pieces you have to learn about transport choices, entry charges, opening instances and far more!