Senin, 14 Mei 2012

Rolling Stoneagers: How neolithic Britons invented the art of raving at tribal gatherings

Rolling Stoneagers: How neolithic Britons invented the art of raving at tribal gatherings

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 06:07 EST, 13 May 2012 | UPDATED: 06:46 EST, 13 May 2012

. A woman dances at Glastonbury in 2005

A woman dances at Glastonbury in 2005

Neolithic Britons were responsible for inventing the art of raving, according to the latest research.

In gatherings equivalent to Glastonbury festival, stone-age man would spend several days eating, drinking and dancing.

Men and women from different communities would meet up on causewayed enclosures built after our ancestors brought farming to Britain about 6,000 years ago.

Herds of cattle were slaughtered to provide food and dancing would continue late into the night, during the summer months.

Researchers, led by professor Alasdair Whittle of Cardiff University and Dr Alex Bayliss of English Heritage, used a revolutionary technique for dating remains to create a time-line from when the first farmers arrived in the UK.

As agriculture spread there were a number of social changes, including the construction of the enclosures where priests and chieftains held ceremonies.

'We knew the first long-barrow chambers, often used for communal burials, and the first causewayed enclosures appeared not long after the first farmer started taking over the land from existing hunter-gatherer tribes,' said Mr Bayliss to The Observer. 'But we thought these processes took hundreds of years.'

Archaeologists only recently discovered when farming started in Britain and how long it took to create the enclosures.

However, it is believed the process from agriculture to the development of long barrow chambers and causewayed enclosures happened much quicker than originally thought.

Hambledon Hill could have been one of the places where the neolithic gatherings occurred

Hambledon Hill could have been one of the places where the neolithic gatherings occurred

The location would not have been the same as Glastonbury but the intention was to have fun

The location would not have been the same as Glastonbury but the intention was to have fun

Mr Bayliss said the new information would help scientists understand the exact social and political revolution and it's timing with agricultural arrival.

The technique developed by the researchers is known as Bayesian chronological modelling and uses the theory of 18th Century mathematician Thomas Bayes which allows pieces of wood and bones to be dated with an accuracy of a couple of decades.

The team have now won a £2m grant from the European Research Council to date neolithic sites and will showcase their ability to date ancient events.

Farmers first arrived in Kent from Britain at around 4050BC and once farming was established ideas from the rest of Europe were introduced.


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Going backwards, I see...

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Evidence?

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Raving has always felt tribal - a gathering of like minded people enjoying being alive - marvellous stuff. Not surprised at all it has been happening since the Stone Age

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It is probably an annual dating festival to spread the genetic code wider instead of mating solely within ones own tribe. It probably cemented inter-tribal relationships. Isn't nature wonderful!.

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They used to call them trade union congresses or Labour party conference .

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I always the British was a primitive, neanderthal race..this proves it!

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julius caesar wrote about Britain, advising that the Britons favorite pastime was to drinking to excess, which they did at every opportunity. He also advised the Britons loved to fight, and if they were no fighting a common foe, they were fighting each other. No change there then:)

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Must have been loads off shrooms back then,an the originall beat-bleep was called acid house ,oh what fun we had,,,

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Stonehenge at WINTER Solstice was the biggest bash from archaeological evidence of animal bones, shelters etc. Must have been nice to gather to gather for a festival without the Wiltshire police beating the hell out of you in a bean field (No we have not forgotten!!)

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I was telling my daughter how 20 years ago we would put generators in the sandbach service station- we would be there raving away till the next day. If I had a camera then - just seeing the faces of families coming to fill their cars instead they see hundreds of people off their heads dancing away- so funny !

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