AN ANGLO-SAXON DECAPITATION AND BURIAL AT STONEHENGE 



143 



Stonehenge execution. Indeed, the shire and 

 hundredal units ofWessex are generally considered 

 to represent an administrative and political 

 landscape whose origins lie in the 7th century 

 (Yorke 1995, 89-90, 125-6). The eastern boundary 

 of the Domesday Hundred of Underditch is hard 

 to define (Darlington 1955, 180; Jones 1865, 188; 

 Pitt 1999, figure 3; Thorn and Thorn 1979, map; 

 RCHME 1980, xxix). Nevertheless, the various 

 attempts at reconstruction of the hundredal pattern 

 of the region all agree over the position of the 

 hundred's northern boundary with that of 

 Amesbury. 



It might be suggested, then, that the Stonehenge 

 execution and burial took place not only at a highly 

 visible place, but also close to the edge of a 

 contemporary territory in a landscape characterised 

 by a range of earlier monuments. Indeed, many of 

 the Bronze Age barrows and linear earthworks 

 around Stonehenge are incorporated into the 

 boundaries of Anglo-Saxon estates and hundredal 

 units. Whether the hundredal units reflect a post- 

 Roman tribal landscape of so-called 'micro- 

 kingdoms', or an administrative structure planned 

 on a grander scale as early as the 7th century is 

 difficult to judge, but either model allows for the 

 Stonehenge burial to be placed in the context of 

 locally, and probably regionally, recognised political 

 geography. 



CONCLUSION 



There was nothing in the archaeology or folklore 

 of Stonehenge to suggest that anything like the 

 incident documented here had taken place (Pitts 

 2001, 308-9; Grinsell 1976). Geoffrey of 

 Monmouth's story, recorded about 1136, that 

 Stonehenge was a memorial to native soldiers killed 

 by Saxon invader Hengist, and subsequently the 

 burial site of Aurelius Ambrosius and 

 Utherpendragon, has been regarded as myth rather 

 than history (Piggott 1941); neither of the last two 

 men is said to have been decapitated. 



This is, then, a dramatic case of an apparently 

 simple archaeological find raising important 

 historical questions. It is the oldest indication we 

 have that Stonehenge had significance in recent 

 centuries, at least 440 years before the first written 

 references by Henry of Huntingdon and Geoffrey 

 of Monmouth in the 1130s. Previously only the 

 name itself (one possible derivation being from Old 



English for stone gallows) testified to earlier interest 

 (Chippindale 1994, chapter 1). Equally it is clear 

 that archaeological information will be instrumental 

 in any further understanding of the man's death, 

 both from judicial or sacrificial execution grounds 

 and other burial locations, and from Stonehenge 

 itself. It is remarkable that conclusive evidence for 

 a decapitation and burial at Stonehenge in the 7th 

 century AD should have survived nearly 80 years 

 only now to have been recognised. There could 

 hardly be greater indication of the importance of 

 excavation archives. 



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 



Pitts would like to thank all other contributors, 

 whose work was only partly compensated by 

 television fees or himself, and the Natural History 

 Museum for their support of this project, including 

 the photos reproduced as Figures 4 and 5. The 

 radiocarbon dating was kindly funded by English 

 Heritage. Reynolds and Semple thank Alex 

 Langlands for Figure 7. 



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