Pottery at Stonehenge

In June 2024, Youth Action Wiltshire visited Stonehenge to learn about its history and try their own hand at making Neolithic-inspired pottery!

Stonehenge is the world’s best-known ancient stone circle. Built around the same time as the Great Pyramid in Egypt, 4,500 years ago, this huge monument of stone has provoked mystery and intrigue for hundreds of years! No one knows exactly how the huge sarsen stones were moved and put into this formation (though there are lots of convincing theories).

The Neolithic time period refers to the period of human culture that began around 10,000 years ago, where humans began to farm and domesticate animals and develop crafts such as pottery and weaving. Neolithic people primarily used polished stone tools.

Pottery at Stonehenge

Lots of Neolithic pottery has been found near Stonehenge, including grooved ware, and flat-bottomed style pottery with simple geometric designs. It’s thought that the pottery around Stonehenge would have been used for feasting and serving; through chemical analysis, scientists can work out what sort of foods they would have held through fats that have been absorbed into the pottery!

Examples of pots from the Neolithic time

Geometric design

With Stonehenge volunteer, Flo, we learnt about the process of making these clay pots and had a go at creating our own in a Neolithic hut, which was very authentic.

At first glance, a Neolithic bowl looks like a very simple pot (and some of them are). They would have been hand formed from coarse natural clay and would have probably spent several days in a Neolithic hut drying out before being ‘fired’.

Luckily we had air-drying clay so it was a bit easier! We all got stuck in and remarked on how much more fiddly the activity was than we had expected. Have a look at the pictures below to see what we created.