# Herders, not farmers, may have built Stonehenge



## Jabrosky (Sep 12, 2012)

Herders, not farmers, built Stonehenge

The argument here is that the people who built Stonehenge were mobile pastoralists (animal herders) who needed a common area to gather around to socialize with other clans, exchange spouses, and cross-breed animals. What I thought really neat was the idea that you don't need a big city of permanent houses in order to have monumental architecture such as this.

Anyway, this might serve as inspiration for world-builders who like pastoral groups.


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## J.P. Reedman (Sep 22, 2012)

Yes, this actually does seem to be the case. The Stonehenge people did have houses at the site of Durrington Walls 2 miles from the monument...enough to potentially hold 1-4000 people depending on family size, and this was where they did their feasting, not at the stones themselves...but Durrington was only occupied for specified times of the year, most notably Midwinter. They had pigs and cattle, with some of the cattle coming from as far away as Scotland.


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