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Seahenge Update

13 June 2024
Archaeology

At https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-seahenge-structure-in-uk-may-finally-be-explained … tidal erosion exposed the Bronze Age structure known as Seahenge. It had a companion that has since been lost to the sea. However, seahenge was preserved and moved to a museum where it was treated to preserve it for future generations. The location was Holm in Norfolk and it was uncovered by the tide shifting sand and sediment on the beach. Bear in mind this area is in the Fens – and was once marshland protected from the ravages of the tide. In fact, it is thought this was the environment when it was built – in a sort of liminal location, by the sea – but separated from the sea. Presumably by sand dunes.

It consists of a huge upturned oak stump – its roots looking upwards towards the sky. It is surrounded by 55 split trunks of the same tree. One idea at the time was that it may have been struck by lightning – hence the upside down situation. Lightning from out of the sky. No doubt this appeared too simplistic and we now have a new theory. One key might be the date. It claims it was constructed in an exact year, 2049BC. The structure was eventually buried in silt and sand – possibly peat also. Peat would wash out to sea. Peat formation seems to have occurred rapidly on several occasions in the past. For instance, farms from the Roman period were dug out of peat in the Fens, and is attributed to the onset of a very wet environment in the 5th and 6th centuries AD. The same sort of thing happened in the second half of the third millennium BC. It was very wet and locations in Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and the Low Countries experienced an encroachment by the sea. Scottish lochs and Irish loughs expanded. This in turn caused disruption in human environments affected by flooding and sea encroachment. The so called Beaker Folk movements are associated with the initial phase of cool and wet weather in Europe – especially NW Europe. Migrations in the second half of the third millennium BC were global in scale and not confined to one location. Something was going on. In this research paper that something is defined as climate change – which was definitely involved. It is what caused the change in climate that will eventually define why Seahenge was constructed.

In NW Europe, as an example, the climate became cooler and wetter. However, in the Near and Middle East, and even in Egypt, the climate became drier – and drought became a fixture. This involved a shift in the monsoon track towards the south. This seems to occur when the polar zone expands south, squeezing the temperate zone, which cannot move south far enough to dislodge the tropical zone. It meant wetter weather in the African sudan habitat, a tract of savannah that is located from one side of North Africa to the other, below the Sahara desert. The dry deserts of North Africa and Arabia seem to have become even drier, and Nile flow was reduced. In Egypt the First Intermediate Period is one of civil upheaval, drought, and famine. The same sort of thing affected the Levant and what is now Iraq. The end of dynastic Sumeria, for example, is associated with site destructions from Syria to Iran, and from the Transcaucasus to the Gulf. Migration from Syria led to the rise of the Akkadian dynasty in what had been Sumeria. It was fairly short lived – perhaps a hundred years, or more. Its demise was also associated with many site destructions and the city of Akkad has never been discovered. It was followed by further inroads by hostile immigrants – the Guti. They appear to have arrived from the north. As the environment stabilised once again the Sumerians inaugurated a revival – the so called Ur III period. However, that too fell to drought, famine, and tribal inroads. Mainly West Semitic speaking people from the Syrian steppe zone. Basically, eastern Syria, and inhabited by pastoralists with their herds of sheep. These were sold to the surrounding peoples as offerings in their temples – animal sacrifice. Farming and sheep pasture did not go together and there was a breakdown, once again, in civic order. This was reciprocated in Egypt at the same period. So, we had a fairly long  period that included three major environmental upheavals. Where does Seahenge fit in. Well, the date of 2049 would suggest it occurred  fairly late in the sequence.

That explains the context of Seahenge within a world in upheaval. What was going on we don’t currently know. Mostly because mainstream refuse to look at catastrophism as a genuine area of research. They can only get away with that by looking at sites in isolation. For example, Seahenge is treated as having no connection with events, not just thousands of miles away, but even just a few miles apart. The similarity with the 6th century AD is quite remarkable as the Picts were clearly affected by a rising water table and migrated into SW Scotland in order to get away from those lochs that had expanded into giant bodies of water, flooding the decent farm land. The same thing was going on in Ireland, and on the other side of the North Sea. It led to the so called Anglo Saxon settlement of what is now England. Roman Britain was lost. It disappeared – just as the Sumerian period in Iraq disappeared and was superceded by dynasties established by newcomers such as the Akkadians.

One clue may lie at the bottom of page 4 of the above link. There is a reference to Holm II, the similar structure that was left alone and was lost to the tides. It held a coffin, we are told, that was orientated towards sunrise at Samhain – now known as Halloween. Was something  dangerous associated with that point of time in the year?

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