Study investigates habitat conditions encountered by first farmers and monument-builders

Hunter-gatherers made use of open woodland conditions in the millennia before Stonehenge monuments were built, according to a study published April 27, 2022 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Samuel Hudson of the University of Southampton, U.K., and colleagues.1

The authors combine pollen, spores, sedimentary DNA, and animal remains to characterize the pre-Neolithic habitat of the site, inferring partially open woodland conditions, which would have been beneficial to large grazing herbivores like aurochs, as well as hunter-gatherer communities. This study supports previous evidence that the Stonehenge region was not covered in closed canopy forest at this time, as has previously been proposed.

  • 1. Much research has explored Bronze Age and Neolithic history of the region surrounding Stonehenge, but less is known about earlier times in this area. This leaves open questions about how ancient people and wildlife used this region before the famous archaeological monuments were constructed. In this paper, Hudson and colleagues reconstruct environmental conditions at the site of Blick Mead, a pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherer site on the edge of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.
Fig 1. Location, setting and key archaeology.
Fig 1. Location, setting and key archaeology. - A UK location of the Stonehenge Environs. Map of UK derived from OS open source administrative boundary data © Crown copyright, (Boundary Line 2021). B Eastern section of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site with key archaeological sites. Basemap 1m Lidar DTM topographic gradient over Hillshade Model (All Lidar basemaps derived from open source UK environmental agency data © Crown copyright, Environmental Agency 2017). C Location of the Blick Mead Site on the edge of the Wiltshire Avon floodplain with archaeological trenches and positions of sediment cores and transect. Basemap 1m Lidar DTM topographic gradient (SU14SW; SU14SE) over Hillshade Model (Environment Agency 2017). D Position of in-situ auroch hoofprints within the Mesolithic alluvium (Photo D. Jacques). E Evidence of butchery cut marks on auroch faunal remains (Reprinted from [2] under a CC BY license, with permission from D. Jacques, original copyright 2018).   

Samuel M. Hudson, Ben Pears, David Jacques, Thierry Fonville, Paul Hughes, Inger Alsos, Lisa Snape, Andreas Lang, Antony Brown. Life before Stonehenge: The hunter-gatherer occupation and environment of Blick Mead revealed by sedaDNA, pollen and spores. PLOS ONE, 2022; 17 (4): e0266789 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266789

The Neolithic and Bronze Age construction and habitation of the Stonehenge Landscape has been extensively explored in previous research. However, little is known about the scale of pre-Neolithic activity and the extent to which the later monumental complex occupied an ‘empty’ landscape. There has been a long-running debate as to whether the monumental archaeology of Stonehenge was created in an uninhabited forested landscape or whether it was constructed in an already partly open area of pre-existing significance to late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. This is of significance to a global discussion about the relationship between incoming farmers and indigenous hunter-gatherer societies that is highly relevant to both Old and New World archaeology. Here we present the results of plant sedaDNA, palynological and geoarchaeological analysis at the Late hunter-gatherer site complex of Blick Mead at the junction of the drylands of Salisbury Plain and the floodplain of the River Avon, on the edge of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. The findings are placed within a chronological framework built on OSL, radiocarbon and relative archaeological dating. We show that Blick Mead existed in a clearing in deciduous woodland, exploited by aurochsen, deer and hunter-gatherers for approximately 4000 years. Given its rich archaeology and longevity this strongly supports the arguments of continuity between the Late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers activity and Neolithic monument builders, and more specifically that this was a partially open environment important to both groups. This study also demonstrates that sediments from low-energy floodplains can provide suitable samples for successful environmental assaying using sedaDNA, provided they are supported by secure dating and complementary environmental proxies.