Henge - Forms

Forms

Henges may be classified as follows:

• Class I henges have a single entrance created from a gap in the bank;
• Class II henges have two entrances, diametrically opposite each other;
• Class III henges have four entrances, facing each other in pairs.

Sub groups exist for these when two or three internal ditches are present rather than one. Henges are usually associated with the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, and especially with the pottery of this period: Grooved Ware, Impressed Wares (formerly known as Peterborough Ware) and Beakers. Sites such as Stonehenge also provide evidence of activity from the later Bronze Age Wessex culture.

Henges often contain evidence of a variety of internal features, including timber or stone circles, pits or burials, which may pre- or post-date the henge enclosure. A henge should not be confused with a stone circle within it, as henges and stone circles can exist together or separately. At Arbor Low in Derbyshire, all the stones except one are laid flat and do not seem to have been erected, as no stone holes have been found. Elsewhere, often only the stone holes remain to indicate a former circle.

Some of the finest and best-known henges are at:

• Avebury, about 20 miles (32 km) N. of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire;
• The Ring of Brodgar in Orkney;
• Thornborough Henges complex in Yorkshire;
• Knowlton Circles henge complex in Dorset;
• Maumbury Rings in Dorset (later reused as a Roman amphitheatre and then a Civil War fort).
• Mayburgh Henge in Cumbria;

Henges sometimes formed part of a ritual landscape or complex with other Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments inside and outside the henge. Earlier monuments associated with a later henge might include Neolithic monuments such as a cursus (e.g., at Thornborough Henges the central henge overlies the cursus) or a long barrow such as the West Kennet Long Barrow at Avebury, Wiltshire, or even, as in the case of Stonehenge, Mesolithic post holes. Later monuments added after the henge was built might include Bronze Age cairns as at Arbor Low. Examples of such ritual landscapes are:

• Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites, the UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Wiltshire, England.
• Heart of Neolithic Orkney, the UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Mainland, one of the islands of Orkney, Scotland;
• Balfarg in Fife, Scotland;
• Dunragit archaeological excavation site in Wigtownshire;
• already mentioned: Thornborough Henges, Knowlton Circles, Stanton Drew stone circles, Arbor Low;

Burials have been recorded at a number of excavated henges, both pre-dating the henge and as a result of secondary reuse. At Avebury, at least two very disturbed inhumations were found in the central area. At King Arthur's Round Table, Cumbria, a cremation trench lay within the monument. At Woodhenge, a central burial of a child was interpreted by its excavators as a dedicatory offering. Phosphate surveys at Maxey henge suggested that burials may also have been present within this monument. Cairnpapple and North Mains both had burials before the henge, as well as after.