Feasts were a crucial part of life in prehistoric Britain, involving long-distance travel, spectacular ceremonies and vast quantities of food.
Read on to find out more about what the people who built and used Stonehenge ate, how they cooked and served their food, and the cutting-edge science behind these discoveries.
Meat Feasts
Around 2500 BC, the people who built and used Stonehenge probably lived at Durrington Walls, a large settlement about 2 miles away. Over 38,000 discarded animal bones have been found there – probably representing at least 1,000 animals. Analysis of these bones can tell us a great deal about where the food came from, and how people prepared their meals.
Of the bones and teeth excavated at the site, 90% were from pigs, and the rest mostly from cattle. Many still had meat attached to them when they were discarded, suggesting that there was more than enough food to go round. Some of the bones have cut-marks made by flint tools, showing that beef was cut up into pieces. Burnt foot bones suggest that pigs were often roasted over open fires.
This was not regular, everyday consumption. Many of the pigs had been killed at about nine months old. Since the piglets were most probably born in the spring, they were therefore all being slaughtered at midwinter. This suggests that people were gathering for feasts at this time of year. Both Stonehenge and some of the timber monuments at Durrington Walls were built to align with the movements of the midwinter and midsummer sun. Were people feasting at Durrington Walls, before processing to witness the midwinter sunset at Stonehenge?
A reconstruction drawing of Durrington Walls, near Stonehenge. People were probably travelling over long distances to take part in the feasts and ceremonies here
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