'Seahenge' shakes up archeologists in England

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
7/3/2014 (5 years ago)
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)

A Bronze Age wooden structure which had been discovered in Norfolk, England back in the late 1990s, has had tests recently preformed on it by the Norfolk County Council's historic and environment team which has confirmed that the object was made in 2049BC.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - These tests were preformed on timbers that were part of a circle that was 21ft in diameter, comprised of 55 closely-fitted oak posts, each originally up to 10ft in length.

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Much like Stonehenge, this "Seahenge" has made archaeologists and historians puzzled. Why did ancient people built these mysterious oak circles dearin the early Bronze Age.

"The felling date on them is the spring or early summer of 2049 BC," said David Robertson, historic environment officer with Norfolk County Council. "We have to try to understand not just why they were built, but what were they used for."

One theory is that an upturned stump in the center of the structure would be used as a resting point for a person after death, where the body would be allowed to decompose in open air.

There was controversy when scientists first began digging up Seahenge after its discovery in 1998. Protesters and archaeologists clashed as the posts and central stump were taken away to be preserved and put on display at the Lynn Museum in King's Lynn.

Seahenge is part of a series of discoveries which have put Norfolk on the archaeological map.

In 2000, a Paleolithic hand-ax was found embedded in clay at Happisburgh, and was dated back to 700,000 BC-pushing back the earliest known origins of human occupation of Britain.

An 850,000 year old set of foot prints, the oldest outside of Africa, where discovered in Happisburgh back in May of 2013.

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