4080 x 4408 px | 34,5 x 37,3 cm | 13,6 x 14,7 inches | 300dpi
Date de la prise de vue:
juin 2008
Informations supplémentaires:
Arbor Low is one of the most important prehistoric sites in Derbyshire. The site is similar in some ways to Stonehenge and Avebury in Wiltshire, and is easily as important and unique, it is probably for this reason that it has sometimes been referred to as the 'Stonehenge of the Peak District'. The site consists of a high circular bank, enclosing a partially silted ditch, which in turn encloses a flat plateau. Within this flattened area is a recumbent stone circle of white weathered limestone blocks, resembling the fallen corroded teeth of an ancient titan. In the centre of the circle is a group of four stones, which may be the remains of a cove. This unique arrangement has led some people to describe the circle as resembling a clock face, especially when seen from above. It is not known whether the stones were ever in an upright position, and archaeological evidence has been inconclusive (no socket holes have ever been discovered). Arbor Low dates to the Neolithic / Early Bronze Age period, and the surrounding landscape is littered with barrows from the Late Bronze Age, constructed around a thousand years after the henge was completed. One of these barrows was incorporated into the henge bank, and the largest barrow known as Gib Hill, is only a short walk away towards the South. The site was excavated from 1901 - 1902 when a human burial was discovered close to the stones that are thought to form a cove, but there were no other major discoveries. There were earlier excavations at the site; in 1845 Thomas Bateman excavated the tumulus attached to the bank, and three years later he led an excavation at Gib Hill.
