An ordinary meeting of the Society was held at the Ampfield Golf Club on Wednesday 8th January 2020. The President was in the chair. The meeting started with a minutes silence in the memory of Dr Richard Buckle. The President then introduced the speaker Dr Ben Chan PhD who spoke to the title ‘From Stonehenge to Orkney - Understanding the Great Monuments of the 3rd Millennium BC’. This is, he said, the middle Neolithic period when the first farming communities appeared in Europe and monuments started to be built.The monuments at first were long barrows for burials such as West Kennet and over the following 2000 years ceremonial monuments, which are round, were built such as at Windmill Hill. The late Neolithic period is the most interesting as the monuments became bigger and bigger and the end of this period overlapped with the introduction of copper metallurgy and the two cultures existed side by side from a time. Dr Chan discussed the functions of monuments. Stonehenge is still the subject of lots of competing interpretations ranging from Mycenaean practices through astronomical calculations to a gathering place for exchange of livestock for breeding. Stonehenge has an avenue down to the river Avon and another to Durrington Walls the largest henge in the country. [Stonehenge is not a henge.] Durrington Walls has houses and probably 1000 people lived there. No-one lived at Stonehenge. He described the construction of Durrington Walls and what had been found there. The pottery and middens all suggest lots of feasting especially at midwinter and Stonehenge has a midwinter setting. Isotope studies have been done on the pig and cattle teeth found which indicate people came with their animals from all over Britain. The southern circle is massive, requiring 300 hundred trees, thirty thousand stakes and miles of watling for the houses - something never done before in our history until then. Dr Chan then discussed the Ness of Brodgar which is comparable to Stonehenge and was active between 3200 and 2300BC. Twenty three buildings have been identified so far but there may be over 100. Most are larger than domestic dwellings and the quality of the stonework is exceptional. The floor deposits suggest they were used for a long period of time and that many may have been workshops. The similarity of the pottery and stonework all over Britain suggests there was a considerable movement of people at this time.

The President thanked Dr Chan for his fascinating talk. There being no other business the meeting ended at 10.15pm.