ARCHAEOLOGISTS are set to build five authentic Neolithic houses at the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre to help people discover how our ancestors may have lived in the late Stone Age.
A group of archaeologists from Dorset’s Ancient Technology Centre (ATC) in Cranborne have been commissioned by English Heritage to build the houses, starting on January 27.
ATC staff designed and built three prototype houses at Old Sarum earlier this year to explore which materials and methods would work best.
The work was carried out by more than 60 English Heritage volunteers using a range of Neolithic tools, materials and construction methods to produce buildings, based on 4,600-year-old evidence from the excavated site of Durrington Walls.
They will have 12 weeks to construct the houses at the visitor centre and fit them out with furniture built from planks, including beds, doors and storage shelves.
The houses will form part of the visitor centre’s outdoor gallery, which is due to open in April.
ATC manager Luke Winter, who is leading the project, said: “It’s great to be working on this unique project and exciting to think that we’re creating these Neolithic buildings that will be seen by more than one million visitors to Stonehenge every year.
“Each house will be different and will bring history to life, helping visitors understand how Neolithic farmers lived 4,600 years ago while they built a landscape and monuments dedicated to their dead.”