Next up it’s the Neolithic or New Stone Age. The beginning of tribal living, farming, war and organised religion. This piece (which must have been written over several sessions in my first term, late 1979) is immediately more ambitious than what’s come before, with its colourful depiction of people making clay pots, the detailed picture of Stonehenge at the end and the unforgettable image of the tribesman and his dog on Page 4. Naturally, what with the New Stone Age being closer in time to now than the Old Stone Age, there’s less pie-in-the-sky making-things-up-as-we-go-along, and more cold, hard, boring fact. But still fairly vague fact. An air of mystery clearly still surrounds Stonehenge. Back in the 1970s, no one was entirely sure how the stones were actually carried to Salisbury Plain. Of course, we now know exactly how the stones got there. In fact, we know a completely different way they did it just about every year now. Please explore the links below for more of that deep modern understanding… FURTHER READING Stonehenge: so how was it actually built? The stones were moved using an ancient moat system The stones were moved by land, not water No, it was actually water, because Britain was an Ancient Waterworld The stones were carried all the way from Wales The stones were pulled by an ancient Welsh machine No, actually, it was originally built in Wales, then moved to England wholesale Building Stonehenge was actually a piece of piss And actually, it wasn’t just one Stonehenge - there were loads of them! PREHISTORIC WARFARE Prehistoric warfare History of weapons War in the Neolithic Mass graves in Ancient Europe Stone age massacre in Kenya PREHISTORIC RELIGION Prehistoric religion More prehistoric religion English Heritage The death cults of Prehistoric Malta Neolithic religion Prehistoric religion in NE England Prehistoric religion in Ireland Druggy self-mutilation in Stone Age France

The Bronze Age >

< The Old Stone Age (3)

WAEN SHEPHERD Who was this strange little boy?

GEOGRAPHY 1 Sept 1979 - Feb 1981

Bonfire Night Waen’s first time at the annual village fireworks display

December 1979

The New Stone Age

TERM 1 A day-by-day account of Waen’s first term at Fairburn School

TERM 2 The birth of the 1980s - Blake’s 7, Blondie and battles in space

The Fugitive A man runs - but who is he? And what is he running from?

The Flame in the Desert An evil fire threatens the safety of the world

Florence Nightingale What if Florence Nightingale had lived in the Year 2000?