Talk:Durrington Walls

Template:Megalith
I've created a new template for megalithic sites, Template:Megalith, as used on Pikestones and Round Loaf. Some instructions on the template talk page, to show how to use it. Cheers! --PopUpPirate 13:24, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Marden henge is bigger —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.138.82.94 (talk) 04:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Geoff Wainwright
Who is he? The Green Man 20:58, 21 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Don't think we have a wikipage on him yet, but you can find out a bit about him here. Regards Ranger Steve (talk) 13:12, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

Village
Saw the Channel 4 documentary on the excavations in 2007. The article still doesn't reflect the discoveries that were made nearly 3 years ago, which is a shame, given the site's importance and the effort that had been put into the article. I could try to update, but I would have to use online reports. Be better if someone with better access could have a go. Folks at 137 (talk) 07:59, 25 March 2010 (UTC)
 * This article's on my list of things to do... one day. When I wrote it I wasn't so aware of referencing (although I can vouch all the info has come from the bibliography), so I really need to go through it and drag it up to better quality I think.  It does mention the village, but only briefly. I do want to expand that too when I get the chance.... Real Life is a bit hectic at the moment though! Ranger Steve (talk) 08:08, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Is it promotional in archaeological articles to mention the university leading an excavation?
Please see Wikipedia talk: What Wikipedia is not. Doug Weller (talk) 11:47, 7 September 2015 (UTC)

In the UK, where universities were not (traditionally) particularly "commercial" entities, probably not, and I think that's the relevant standard for a UK site. How to apply that for (say) a US institution leading excavations in Egypt, funded by a Malaysian magnate ... not so clear. Fortunately the question of where the finds end up has been settled (host country, with past finds to be repatriated ASAP).

Who would the university be promoting to? Alumni? well, they probably knew about it while it was going on (if they're likely to be influenced by a particular project) ; "investors" (should have done their "due diligence" already) ; future students (again, if they're likely to be influenced, they probably know already - both undergraduate and graduate students). I just don't see it as a relevant question. The tradition in citing authors in the formal literature has included the author's affiliation (institution) since the mid-19th century (some regional variation on that). Probably since the population of "science" reached a point that "Joe Bloggs" was not sufficient to distinguish between the Joe in Land's End or the Joe in John o'Groats.

AKarley (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 20:25, 24 March 2022 (UTC)

Questions about the new results raised at the official blog
This is very interesting. Some of the new questions raised:

the completion, or not, of the timber circle

if the posts were lifted vertically how they did this, and why?

the dating of raising and dismantling these posts (we await radiocarbon dates for the very handy antler in the posthole fill and the scapula at the bottom of the posthole for this)

the idea that a decision was made to replace the timber circle (complete or not) with a great henge monument

what happened to the timber posts after they were removed? Doug Weller talk 09:27, 23 August 2016 (UTC)


 * Words like "new" quickly become meaningless and shouldn't be used, imo. The official blog is now 4 years old, as of Mar 2022.FangoFuficius (talk) 20:13, 23 March 2022 (UTC)

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the new pits as of 2020/2021
Should a name be found for this find? My view is that the pits are too irregularly spaced and two few to constitute a monument - this is just an archaeologist's wishful thinking. Durrington Walls were a village and the pits are more or less the same distance from it. I think flint prospecting (how do they compare with Grimes Graves?) should be added to the theories. FangoFuficius (talk) 20:21, 23 March 2022 (UTC)

Why find a new name? They are pits, regardless of whether they were carved by water erosion, or small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. The comparison with various undisputed flint mining pits in the area is made in the formal publications (if the journalists don't mention it, that's their problem. Find a better journalist.) such as Gaffney.etal.2020.

Whether they're one monument, or two, or one monument with two "bosses" (in the setting out phase) remains somewhat a question, and people are still discussing it. The relative accuracy of the northern arc compared to the southern arc is a frequently-remarked point, but to my eye, the southern arc also appears to have a different centre of curvature to the northern one, a little to the WSW of Woodhenge, rather than near the centre of the Durrington Walls henge. But the presence of several similarly-distanced pits (well, geophysical anomalies) on the W side of the group does seem to unite the two groups into one structure, even if possibly with multiple crews.

Rather than obsessing over terminology for something of indeterminate completeness, I'd put effort into surveying "un-developed" areas which may be part of the larger structure. Of course, there may not be any undeveloped areas. That's always a potential problem with archaeology. Excavating one of the pits fully (which would include comprehensive shoring, because they're deep) to compare it with the excavated flint mines would be good. From what I understand of the remote sensing technologies used, they're not going to be very sensitive to tunnels more than a few metres below ground surface.

AKarley (talk) 23:12, 24 March 2022 (UTC)


 * It's not about terminology (can one question be an obsession?) - it's about following a new story and referring to it succinctly, since Stonehenge and its vicinity are riddled with pits and postholes. If you were surveying out from Durrington Walls in search of flint, one strategy might be to walk from the centre 1000 paces in different directions and dig. Calling it a structure is romance. Pyramidiots don't interest me. I prefer the prosaic. FangoFuficius (talk) 21:38, 25 March 2022 (UTC)


 * It's not on us to find a name for the features. If the academic reports use one we can use that, or if the media come up with something there's a case for using that too. But we should reflect what they say, rather than inventing a name ourselves. Ranger Steve   Talk  09:32, 26 March 2022 (UTC)

etymology
I would move the Etymology section, or at least most of it, to Durrington, Wiltshire, the village from which the site inherits its name. —Tamfang (talk) 20:34, 5 January 2023 (UTC)