Stonehenge’s Prehistoric Landscape: Deer, Elk, and Open Woodland, New Study Reveals
New research suggests that red deer, elk, and wild boar would have roamed the open woodland and meadow-like clearings near Stonehenge 4,000 years before the iconic standing stones were constructed.
Scientists from the University of Southampton have examined Blick Mead, a Mesolithic archaeological site about a mile away, and found that the area had not been covered in dense, closed-canopy forests.
Instead, they believe that it would have been populated by grazing animals and hunter-gatherers.
Lead researcher, Samuel Hudson, of Geography and Environmental Science at Southampton, explained: “There has been the intensive study of the Bronze Age and Neolithic history of the Stonehenge landscape, but less is known about earlier periods.
“The integration of evidence recovered from previous excavations at Blick Mead, coupled with our fieldwork, allowed us to understand more about the flora and fauna of the landscape before construction of the later world-famous monument complex.
“Past theories suggest the area was thickly wooded and cleared in later periods for farming and monument building.
“However, our research points to pre-Neolithic, hunting-gatherer inhabitants, living in open woodland which supported aurochs and other grazing herbivores.”
The research team analyzed pollen, fungal spores and traces of DNA preserved in ancient sediment (sedaDNA), combined with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating to produce an environmental history of the Wiltshire site.
Using this evidence, they built a picture of the habitat in the area from the later Mesolithic (5500 BC) to the Neolithic period (from 4,000 BC).
A university spokesman said: “The study indicates that later Mesolithic populations at Blick Mead took advantage of more open conditions to repeatedly exploit groups of large ungulates (hoofed mammals) until a transition to farmers and monument-builders took place.
“In a sense, the land was pre-adapted for the later large-scale monument building, as it did not require clearance of woodland, due to the presence of these pre-existing open habitats.
“The researchers suggest there was continuity between the inhabitants of the two eras, who utilized the land in different ways but understood it to be a favorable location.”
The findings of the Southampton team, working with colleagues at the universities of Buckingham, Tromso, and Salzburg, are published in the journal PLOS ONE.
