Mystery Of Seahenge Solved? Bronze Age Circle "Built To End Endless Winter"

New research suggests that Seahenge, the mysterious timber circle uncovered on a Norfolk beach, was built as part of ancient rituals to fight off a period of severe cold weather.

Dr David Nance of the University of Aberdeen has published his findings in the journal GeoJournal, focusing on Holme I, commonly known as Seahenge, and a neighbouring site called Holme II. Both were built around 2049 BC and were revealed on Holme-next-the-Sea beach in 1998 after centuries of shifting sand.

Seahenge is made up of an upturned tree stump surrounded by 55 tightly packed oak posts. It was originally built on a saltmarsh, sheltered from the sea by dunes and mud flats, and was later preserved beneath a layer of peat.

Earlier theories suggested the site marked a death or was used for "sky burials", where bodies were left for birds to consume. Dr Nance instead argues that the timbers were felled in spring and aligned with sunrise on the summer solstice, at a time when Britain was suffering from falling temperatures and severe winters.

He believes Seahenge was designed to copy a folk tale about trapping an unfledged cuckoo, a bird linked to fertility, in order to stop it flying away and taking summer with it.

For Holme II, Dr Nance points to old legends of "sacred kings" from Iron Age Ireland and Britain, who were said to be sacrificed when misfortune struck their community. He suggests people at Holme-next-the-Sea carried out ritual sacrifices every eight years at Samhain, timed with the appearance of Venus, in an effort to restore balance and end the cold.

Although the two monuments appear to have served different purposes, Dr Nance says both were built with the same underlying aim, to bring an end to the extreme cold gripping Bronze Age Britain.