Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom.
School of Humanities, The University of Buckingham, Buckingham, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2022 Apr 27;17(4):e0266789. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266789. eCollection 2022.
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.
新石器时代和青铜时代的巨石阵景观的建造和居住在以前的研究中已经得到了广泛的探讨。然而，人们对新石器时代以前的活动规模以及后来的大型建筑群占据“空旷”景观的程度知之甚少。长期以来，人们一直争论不休的是，巨石阵的大型考古学是在无人居住的森林景观中创造的，还是在已经具有一定意义的前存在的部分开放区域中建造的，这些意义对晚期的中石器时代狩猎采集者来说。这对于关于即将到来的农民与本土狩猎采集者社会之间关系的全球讨论具有重要意义，这与新旧世界的考古学都高度相关。在这里，我们介绍了在干燥的索尔兹伯里平原和埃文河泛滥平原交界处的 Blick Mead 晚期狩猎采集者遗址复合体进行植物 sedaDNA、孢粉学和地质考古学分析的结果，该遗址位于巨石阵世界遗产地的边缘。这些发现是在基于 OSL、放射性碳和相对考古年代测定的时间框架内提出的。我们表明，Blick Mead 存在于落叶林的空地中，大约 4000 年来，一直被野牛、鹿和狩猎采集者利用。鉴于其丰富的考古学和长寿性，这强烈支持了晚期中石器时代狩猎采集者活动与新石器时代纪念碑建造者之间存在连续性的论点，更具体地说，这是一个对两个群体都很重要的部分开放环境。这项研究还表明，来自低能量泛滥平原的沉积物可以提供适合使用 sedaDNA 进行成功环境分析的样本，前提是它们得到可靠的年代测定和互补的环境指标的支持。
