Bournemouth UniversityA series of reconstructed Neolithic houses have opened at the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre, with Bournemouth University research used as the basis for the reconstruction.
Original remains of Neolithic houses were uncovered at the Stonehenge site during the Stonehenge Riverside Project, which involved Bournemouth University staff and students. The houses, at Durrington Walls, date to the time in which Stonehenge was constructed and are likely to represent the houses of those who were involved with building the monument.
Dr Kate Welham, one of the Co-Directors of the Stonehenge Riverside, said, “I feel immensely proud that the hard work by our archaeology students has ultimately contributed to this fantastic visitor experience at Stonehenge. To see the result of our research presented in such an imaginative way is extremely exciting, and for it to be such as major part of the visitor experience is a real reflection of just what an important part of the Stonehenge story this work is.”
There are over a million visitors to Stonehenge each year, and the new Visitor Centre, including the work of academics and students from BU, was created to give more information and context about the history of Stonehenge. The new houses take centre stage at the Centre as they are based just outside.
Dr Kate Welham continued, “The houses are really important and such a key feature of the World Heritage Site that English Heritage decided to make them a major part of the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre. They have reconstructed them and there are five houses which visitors can go into and explore what it might have been like to be living in the Neolithic time. They have been carefully reconstructed using traditional techniques and the original plans and finds from our excavations.
“It is also extremely unusual to find houses from this period and therefore they are extremely important archaeologically, beyond even their relationship with Stonehenge.”
To engage with the Stonehenge Landscape and learn more about the houses and the Stonehenge Riverside Project, download the Google Earth layer – Seeing Beneath Stonehenge.