Are these Neolithic knee prints? It is very exciting when archaeological evidence allows us to reconstruct or imagine small intimate details of the lives of people who lived thousands of years ago. The hard chalk floors of the Neolithic Houses excavated at Durrington Walls shed light on some of the domestic activities of the people who lived there – the people who may have built or used Stonehenge. In one of the houses, just by the central hearth, two indentations were found and some archaeologists suggest that these are knee prints - from somebody spending long hours, day after day kneeling by the fireplace, tending the fire and cooking. It is unlikely we will ever be able to prove or disprove this theory but reconstructing these houses has allowed us to see how the materials work. When the houses open in June, we will begin to observe the impact that general use and people coming in and out of them, will have on the chalk floors. The fires will be lit, the floors will be swept, people will be walking through, and generally interacting with the houses. What do you think? Are these knee prints or are they just naturally occurring indentations in the hard chalk floor? Thanks very much to Kate Welham of Bournemouth University and the Riverside Project for letting us use these two images of the floor of House 851 - which show the beam-slot indentations where wooden furniture once stood around the edge of the floor. The knee-shaped indentations are visible to the left of the circular hearth.
Posted on: Fri, 23 May 2014 12:00:01 +0000
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