Pit alignments facts for kids

Pit alignments are a type of prehistoric monument found across the British Isles. These mysterious sites are made up of many pits, or holes, dug in a line. The pits are usually spaced out evenly and are not very deep.

Scientists and archaeologists are still trying to understand exactly what pit alignments were used for. They are often discovered using aerial photography, which means taking pictures from planes or drones. From the air, it's easier to see the faint outlines of these ancient features.

Some pit alignments stretch for very long distances, either in straight lines or gentle curves. Building them must have been a huge effort! It would have taken many people working together, or a smaller group working for a very long time. Some pits seem to have been left open for a while, not filled in right away. They also don't seem to have held large wooden posts.

Even if the soil from the pits was piled up to make a small bank next to them, these lines of pits wouldn't have stopped people from traveling. This suggests they were probably used more as markers or boundaries, rather than fences or walls. Sometimes, a small bank has survived next to the pits, and these are called embanked pit alignments. Some alignments are also made of several shorter sections following the same line; these are known as segmented pit alignments.

What Were Pit Alignments Used For?

Pit alignments come in two main types: single alignments and double alignments. Each type might have had different uses, or perhaps they were used for similar things at different times.

Single Pit Alignments

Many experts believe that single pit alignments mostly date back to the Iron Age. The Iron Age in Britain was roughly from 800 BC to AD 100. During this time, people might have used these single lines of pits as boundaries for their farms. They could have marked the edges of fields or separated different areas of land. This idea suggests that during the later Iron Age, there was more farming and more people living in the area.

Double Pit Alignments

Double pit alignments are thought to be much older. They likely date from the later Neolithic period (around 4000 to 2500 BC) or the Bronze Age (around 2500 to 800 BC). These double lines of pits are often found near other important ancient sites, like cursus monuments and henges.

• A cursus monument is a very long, narrow enclosure, often made of two parallel ditches and banks.
• A henge is a circular earthwork, usually with a bank outside a ditch.

Because double pit alignments are found near these special sites, many archaeologists think they had a ritual or ceremonial purpose. For example, at Thornborough Henge, a famous group of henges, a double line of pits stretches out from one of the henges. This might have been a special path or "avenue" for processions or ceremonies.

Dating and Purpose: A Puzzle

It's not always easy to tell the age or purpose of a pit alignment just by looking at whether it's single or double. At some archaeological sites, both single and double alignments have been found together. Sometimes, a single alignment even changes into a double alignment along the same line! This shows that the type of alignment (single or double) isn't always a clear way to figure out its age. The true purpose of these ancient lines of pits remains a fascinating mystery for archaeologists to solve.