We’ve all heard of Stonehenge, but did you know that Dorchester once had its own henge, a huge ring of stones or timbers, about a mile north of Dorchester Abbey? It developed during the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age (c3500-1000 BC) when people had moved from hunter-gathering to live settled lifestyles, and to farm for food.

The henge site, probably aligned on the winter and summer solstices, was used to track the seasons for crop planting, to mark important astrological events, to carry out rituals and ceremonies, and for pilgrimage. Burials have revealed human remains and beakers, pottery and copper or bronze knives.

Ancient human remains have been found within an even earlier, nearby cursus, a processional or ceremonial route comprising two parallel earthen banks and extending a mile from the River Thame.

Sadly, little remains of this significant ‘ritual landscape’. The ‘Big Rings’ disappeared under water when gravel was extracted in the 1950s/60s, while the cursus was destroyed by the Dorchester by-pass in the 1980s.

This important site was never excavated to today’s exacting standards. However, a recent dig on the only accessible part of the former cursus uncovered a very large funerary beaker, like the one on display in the museum, containing cremated remains.

The ‘invisible’ henge continues to inspire. A ‘henge’ event, held in Dorchester’s Hurst Water Meadow in 2019 at the autumn equinox, comprised a torchlight procession, with almost magical illuminated paper lanterns representing prehistoric standing stones, followed by an evening of poetry, music and dance.