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A mysterious Bronze Age wooden rotary experience as " Seahenge " on England ’s east seacoast was built more than 4,000 days ago in an attempt to take back warmer weather during an uttermost moth-eaten spell , a new report suggests .
The hypothesis is a new attempt to explain the bury structure — a rough circle about 25 foot ( 7.5 metre ) across , made from 55 split up oak tree short pants surrounding a " horseshoe " of five large oak mail service around a large inverted oak stump — that was controversially dug up and locomote into a museum in 1999 .
Studies show that the ancient timber circle, dubbed “Seahenge,” was built in 2049 B.C. It was excavated from a salt marsh near a beach on England’s east coast in 1999.
Other researchers have suggested it was build up to remember an important soul who had died , or that it was a seat for " sky burials , " where the dead would be peck by carrion - consume birds .
But the idea that Seahenge and another rophy of buried timbers regain beside it were built to " protract summer " check with what ’s bonk about the climate at the time , saidDavid Nance , an archeologist at the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom and the author of the new study .
Related : Prehistoric henge unexpectedly discovered in England in search for Anglo - Saxon hermit
The 4,000-year-old excavated remains of Seahenge on display.
The construction take place during " a prolonged period of decreased atmospherical temperatures and stark winters and in late springs grade these early coastal beau monde under stress , " he said ina argument . " It seems most likely that these memorial had the common intention to end this experiential threat . "
Nance detailed his survey of the two Seahenge structures — known officially as Holme I and Holme II — in a research paper published April 2 inGeoJournal .
Ancient timbers
Nance order see with dendrochronology — a proficiency that studies the annual growth rings of tree still visible in ancient timberland — showed that both Seahenge circles were built from trees felled in the bounce of 2049 B.C.
He note that the shoe of five larger Emily Price Post inside the independent Seahenge rotary seems to have been aligned withsunrise on the summer solstice . It may have mimic a John Milton Cage Jr. for a young cuckoo , design to extend summertime by keep the bird singing — a belief described in ancient folklore , he evoke .
Nance explained that the twat — a symbol of fertility to the ancient Britons — was believed to stop sing on thesummer solsticeand to rejoin to the " Otherworld , " taking the tender summertime conditions with it .
He proposed that Seahenge and the second wooden lot built beside it were used for different rite , but with the same intent : " to finish the seriously cold weather . "
Seahenge gained national attention in late 1998 when erosion at the internet site near the small town of Holme - next - to - the - Sea expose its timbers and primal tree stump . However , local people had jazz about it for many year .
The social system got its name from British newspapers , which likened it to the famousStonehengemonument in Wiltshire that many archaeologist now think was a Neolithic ceremonial center and burial ground .
Controversial excavation
But the excavation was controversial because many people mean the repository should have stayed in place , andquestions have been raisedabout the use of the archaeological television show " Time Team , " which featured the dig in a special episode .
Partly as a result of that controversy , the ancient wooden circle built next to Seahenge — Holme II — has been leave in place near the beach and is being monitored for eating away .
ArchaeologistBrian Fagan , a prof emeritus at the University of California , Santa Barbara who was n’t postulate in the latest study , told Live Science that fine - grained climate data from recent subject area have in mind researchers could now look more intimately at links between archaeologic sites andclimate changein a mode that would have been unthinkable even a contemporaries ago .
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" This is an imaginative face at a complex problem , which bring in interpretations from the impalpable as well as climatology , " he say in an email . " It ’s an original glide slope , but it is tie down to be controversial . "
AndStefan Bergh , an archaeologist at the University of Galway in Ireland who also was n’t involved , enjoin the paper created a " highly utilitarian framework " for insights into the belief and religions of Bronze Age peoples .
" We as archaeologist too often shy away from pushing the gasbag beyond our puff geographical zone of strong cloth grounds , " he told Live Science in an email . " It is , however , often when reaching outside that consolation zona that archaeology really comes awake , which Nance ’s composition is an first-class example of . "
