Within the rather picturesque Vale of Pewsey in the UK – halfway between the famousStonehengeand the likewise band Avebury monument – rest the Cat ’s Brain long barrow . This inquisitively named Neolithic body structure date back to around 3,800 BCE , and this summer , the University of Reading ’s Archaeological Field School got the hazard to dig it .
The site made headlines late after it was claimed that the long rows , similar in form to what are think to be funerary construction in other places , meant that it was some sort of“house of the dead ” . As pointed out by Dr Jim Leary , director of the Archaeological Field School at theUniversity of Reading , no human remains have been found – so what exactly was this position ?
During the barb , a massive timber hall up to 20 meters ( 66 feet ) across was identified . This suggests that mass used to regularly come here , not convey their dead here .
The building itself is – or was – fairly sizable and full-bodied , implying a becoming number of people used to live or visit it 5,800 years ago , but it ’s not clear who they might have been . Either mode , for their time , they were architectural pioneer .
It ’s unclear that it ’s a house , though , one that people lived in in the longsighted term . It could have been a communal quad for social events of some sorting , although again , the evidence here is circumstantial and wondering .
Still , it ’s a tantalizing hypothesis , and one that Leary leans on hisGame of Thronesproclivities to shed light on on somewhat .
“ The news ‘ house ’ is often used as a metaphor for a wider societal chemical group , ” he explain in a opus onThe Conversation , cite the very real House of Windsor and the very fictionalHouse Lannister .
“ In this sense , these great timbre halls could typify a collective identity , and their building a mechanics through which the pioneering community of interests first established that indistinguishability . ”
So is the Cat ’s Brain long barrow congresswoman of a Neolithic House Lannister of some kind ? Perhaps .
verbalize to IFLScience , Leary explains that “ it ’s pretty well ground now that the other Neolithic was what anthropologists call a ' house society ' . ” He sum up that as well as pre - existing evidence elsewhere for these community - built timber halls , “ we also have evidence for communal get - togethers and feast within ' causewayed enclosures ' . ”
Leary does bestow , however , that “ the archaeologic grounds for the early Neolithic is comparatively poor , ” so they are doing the effective with what they have .
Another view of the web site from above . Adam Stanford / University of Reading
Incidentally , there ’s still a hazard that the “ house of the stagnant ” idea is n’t too far off either . Leary ponders whether this structure could be some kind of church service - corresponding construct in which experience people mingled with artefact of their ascendent .
Much of the site rest enigmatic . Take the incised crank stones , for example , found on several occasions during the dig .
Are these carvings emblematic or linguistic , or are they just damaged soft rock ? Leary suspect that the flesh and material body are the production of “ human workmanship ” and “ were of import ” , but beyond that is anyone ’s surmise .
It ’s clean that , justly now , Cat ’s Brain bring up more question than it answers . Thanks to this excavation , however , we ’re closer to witness out more about ourlong - move ancestorsthan ever before .
Something no - one really seems to have an answer to is the etymology of the area ’s name . accord to extracts from the English Place Name Survey dug up by Leary , it could be an dumb reference to the local geology – but the text also adds that “ the reason for the name is obscure ! ”
