Emily Chan
“A monument of this scale suggests that Crowland was an important ceremonial center and focal point in the late prehistoric period,” Duncan Wright, a co-author of the study, said.
“In prehistoric times, the henge would have formed a large circular enclosed space with a huge bank and ditch running around the outside. It may have had one or more burial mounds built inside it during the Bronze Age.”
At some point, the henge seemed to have been abandoned but was occupied again around the time of Guthlac’s life.
Excavations at the site revealed many artifacts, including pottery, two bone combs, and glass fragments from a drinking vessel.
Additionally, the remains of a 12th-century hall and chapel built by the abbots of Crowland were unburied, signaling the importance of the site.
“Although the Anglo-Saxon objects we found cannot be linked with Guthlac with any certainty, the use of the site around this time and later in the medieval period adds weight to the idea that Crowland was a sacred space at different times over millennia,” Wright said.
