Neolithic houses built at Stonehenge - but not without modern tools

Stonehenge has acquired new neighbours, four deceptively spacious detached houses, newly built in an area where planning permission even for a new cowshed is problematic.

The first fires have been lit, the first food – bread made from flour ground beside the hearth on a stone quern – cooked, and slightly to the surprise of their landlords, the first residents, some house martins, have moved in. From Monday visitors are welcome to duck their heads under the low lintels and come in.

English Heritage has based the four oval houses and a small store room on the foundations of real houses built 4,500 years ago at the nearby settlement of Durrington Walls, where archaeologists believe the people who built the most famous prehistoric monument in the world gathered for seasonal rituals and feasting. The height of the walls and the size of the roof could be estimated from the size of the foundations, but the roof structure remains guesswork – different techniques of thatch have been used on each house.

They were built over the winter





http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/jun/02/neolithic-houses-recreated-at-stonehenge