Neolithic Pilgrimage? Rivers, mobility and monumentality in the land between Avebury and Stonehenge: The Vale of Pewsey project

新石器时代晚期是人类历史上的一个关键阶段，处于石器时代和青铜时代之间。当时，一系列文化和意识形态的变化席卷了英国，包括第一件金属制品的引入。这些文化发展还包括迅速建造巨大的仪式纪念碑，这表明了一个强烈的宗教信仰时期。在不列颠群岛，这一点在今天的韦塞克斯景观中表现得尤为明显，在埃夫伯里、巨石阵和西尔伯里山上建造了主要的纪念碑。该项目将从一个新的角度理解韦塞克斯地区的史前景观，开创一种以连通性和流动性为中心主题的整体方法，挑战考古学对地点的传统关注(Leary 2014；卡多和Leary正在准备中)。该项目将考虑将新石器时代晚期和青铜时代早期的纪念碑作为仪式和朝圣联系的节点。它将重点放在水的神圣重要性和使用河流作为连接仪式和礼仪建筑的道路。它通过与河流的联系将这些古迹评估为相互关联的，代表了人们旅行到的一系列相互关联的邪教中心，因此将河谷和相关古迹作为一个单一实体进行研究。这与该地区只关注巨石阵(例如Darvill和Wainwright 2009)或巨石阵和杜灵顿墙之间的互动和二元性(如Parker Pearson和Ramilisonina 1998或Parker Pearson 2012)的主流观点形成对比，并转移到对中央集权的社会政治和固定的权力概念的讨论上。该项目由雷丁大学与威尔特郡博物馆和英国遗产合作领导，将研究埃夫伯里和巨石阵之间重要的史前景观，首次将同一世界遗产在空间上独立的组成部分连接起来。这项工作将集中在佩西谷的埃文河上游，最近的航空摄影工作在那里绘制了过多的史前纪念碑和仪式遗址。这些项目包括Marden Hege-一个大型的新石器时代的建筑群，具有非同寻常的内部特征，包括一个现已拆除的巨大土丘，一个内部的Hephge，以及一个最近发现的独特的新石器时代仪式建筑，以及相关的盛宴证据。该项目将分三个季节(2015年至2017年)进行，随后将进行完整的分析、归档和出版计划(2018至2019年)。它将包括各种嵌套尺度的调查。这将包括详细、有针对性的开阔区域挖掘，目的是了解古迹内部和之间的活动，以及一项旨在查明古迹与埃文河之间的联系的测试点位计划。一项沿着河流和更广泛的景观进行取心、测试和实地走动的计划将调查山谷的环境历史，测试在纪念碑综合体开发的地区自然和人类环境干扰的假设。该项目将成为雷丁大学实地学校的一部分，这是一个有学分的本科生模块；其运行和基础设施将由大学单独出资。将在每个季节结束时编写总结评估报告，并通过项目网站提供综合考古数据库。该项目的主要学术成果将是一部重要的专著。这项工作的综合将发表在《史前社会学报》上。其他产出将包括项目网站上的定期更新，包括实地工作摘要、博客、现场日记和查找报告。威尔特郡博物馆还将举办年度展览，并举行关于佩西谷考古的公开研讨会。

The Late Neolithic period represents a key stage in our human history sitting as it does on the threshold between the Stone Age and Bronze Age. At this time a suite of cultural and ideological changes swept through Britain, including the introduction of the first metalwork. These cultural developments also involved the rapid construction of enormous ceremonial monuments, indicating a period of intense religiosity. Nowhere in the British Isles is this more evident today than within the Wessex landscape, with the construction of the major monuments at Avebury, Stonehenge and Silbury Hill.This project will take a new perspective on understanding the prehistoric landscape of the Wessex region, pioneering a holistic approach that uses connectivity and mobility as central themes, challenging archaeology's traditional focus upon place (Leary 2014; Kador & Leary in prep). The project will consider Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age monuments as nodes in a ceremonial and pilgrimage nexus. It will focus on the sacred importance of water and the use of rivers as route-ways linking ritual and ceremonial architecture. It appraises these monuments as interrelated through their connections to the river, representing a linked chain of cult centres that people journeyed to, and therefore takes the river valley and associated monuments as a single entity for study. This contrasts with the dominant views of the area that focus on just Stonehenge (for example Darvill and Wainwright 2009) or the interaction and duality between Stonehenge and Durrington Walls (such as Parker Pearson and Ramilisonina 1998 or Parker Pearson 2012), and moves interpretation on from discussions of centralised social polities and fixed notions of power.The project, led by the University of Reading in collaboration with the Wiltshire Museum and English Heritage, will examine the internationally important prehistoric landscape between Avebury and Stonehenge, linking for the first time the spatially separate components of the same World Heritage Site. The work will focus on the upper reaches of the River Avon in the Vale of Pewsey where recent aerial photographic work has mapped a plethora of prehistoric monuments and ceremonial sites. These include Marden henge - a large Neolithic complex with extraordinary internal features, including a now demolished huge mound, an internal henge, and a unique recently discovered Neolithic ritual building with associated evidence of feasting.The project will take place over three fieldwork seasons (2015 to 2017), followed by a full programme of analysis, archiving and publication (2018 to 2019). It will comprise investigations on various nested scales. These will include detailed, targeted, open area excavations aimed at understanding activities undertaken within and between the monuments, and a programme of test pitting to discern linkages between them and the River Avon. A programme of coring, test pitting and fieldwalking along the river and in the wider landscape will investigate the environmental history of the Vale, testing hypotheses of natural and human environmental disturbance in areas where monument complexes developed.The project will form part of the University of Reading's field school, a credit-bearing undergraduate module; the running and infrastructure for which will be funded separately by the University. Summary assessment reports will be produced at the end of each season and the Integrated Archaeological Database will be made available via the project website. The major academic output for the project will be a substantial monograph. A synthesis of the work will be published in the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. Other outputs will include regular updates on the project website, including fieldwork summaries, blogs, site diaries, and finds reports. There will also be an annual exhibition in the Wiltshire Museum, and a public symposium on the archaeology of the Vale of Pewsey.