Mike Parker Pearson: Stonehenge’s purpose and origins

UK professor of archaeology Mike Parker Pearson Photo: Supplied

Stonehenge discoveries have been numerous in recent years, with new techniques allowing us to learn more about a monument so ancient there are no records to explain why or how it was created. 

A leader in this research is archaeology professor Mike Parker Pearson. A specialist in the Neolithic British Isles, he is curator of exhibition Secrets of Stonehenge, opening at Auckland Museum December 15. It features over 300 objects from archaeological digs, including stone tools, antler picks, pottery, gold and bronze burial objects. 

Parker Pearson led the discovery nearby in 2005 of the remains of the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain - Durrington Walls. He says its houses provide insights into how the builders of Stonehenge lived. 

In 2020 a mysterious ring of pits, up to 10 metres across and five metres deep was discovered.  ‘Durrington Pits’ is 20 times bigger than Stonehenge and its construction has been dated to 2400-2500 BC. 

Beakers, Copper Age-Early Bronze Age, 2430-1850 BCE (PHOTO: supplied)

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Flint barbed-and-tanged arrowhead, Roundway G8, Wiltshire, Copper Age, 2450-2200 BCE (PHOTO: supplied)

Copper dagger, Roundway G8, Wiltshire, Copper Age, 2450-2200 BCE (PHOTO: supplied)

Grave goods of a beaker archer buried at Roundway, Roundway G8, Wiltshire, Copper Age, 2450-2200 BCE (Gold button, beaker, copper dagger) (PHOTO: supplied)

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Grave goods from a burial, Wilsford G8, Wiltshire, Early Bronze Age, 2000-3000 BCE (Gold button, Halbard pendent with amber handle, amber pendent, bone pendent with sheet gold cover, gold ring) (PHOTO: supplied)