Timber circle - Definition

In archaeology, a timber circle is a circular arrangement of wooden posts.

Timber circles in the British Isles

Timber circles in the British Isles date to the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. The posts themselves have long since disappeared and the sites are identified from the circles of postholes that they stood in. Aerial photography and geophysical survey have led to the discovery of increasing numbers of the features. Often a postpipe survives in the posthole fill aiding diagnosis.

They are usually more than 20m, and up to 60m, in diameter and the posts that constituted them were generally more than 0.5m wide. Technically, they always consist of at least two concentric circles or ovals of timbers although there are exceptions such as Seahenge and that at Arminghall, both in East Anglia. They are interpreted as being either complexes of freestanding totem poles or as the supports for large circular buildings. Wider gaps between the posts are thought to have served as entrance routes. The builders replaced the posts as they decomposed and in some cases stone circles were adopted instead during later phases.

They appear either alone or in the context of other monuments, namely henges, such as that at Woodhenge and henge enclosures such as those at Durrington Walls. The only excavated examples of timber circles that stood alone from other features are Seahenge in Norfolk and the early phases of The Sanctuary in Wiltshire.

They probably served ritual purposes. Animal bone and domestic waste found at many timber circle sites implies some form of temporary habitation and feasting. They were built on high ground and would have been very conspicuous. Isolated burials have been found but not enough to suggest a strong funerary purpose.