Neolithic

Salisbury Museum flint axes from Old Sar

Tucked away in a storage box in Salisbury Museum [1] are several Neolithic flint axes that have been discovered on Old Sarum, providing evidence that skilled people lived in this area at some time between 4,000 BCE - 2300 BCE.

The main phase of the construction of Stonehenge (only 8 miles to the north of Old Sarum) has been estimated to have begun around 2,600 BCE, the late Neolithic period. [2]

Neolithic style huts at Old Sarum 2013.j

In 2013 three Neolithic-style huts were built at Old Sarum to offer an insight into how Stonehenge's builders lived.[3]

Flint tools Old Sarum image Salisbury Mu

The huts, made of chalk and straw daub and wheat-thatched roofing, were based on archaeological remains found at Durrington Walls, near Stonehenge. Inside, the project team used a variety of different daubs, made of pig dung or chalk and straw, and construction techniques that would have been used by Neolithic people.

"Often people think 4,500 years ago is a long time ago, which of course to us as modern people it is, but it's well into beginnings of agriculture. We're looking at people that were farming, keeping cows and domesticating cereal crops, and of course houses were an important thing." Luke Winter, Project leader [3]

[1] Images of finds and storage boxes - Salisbury Museum Twitter March 2021

[2} English Heritage www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history

[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-22424880 Image: BBC