Who were these Neolithic people that laid out the ancient sites in the Vale of Glamorgan (and many other places) with such great precision?

In truth we know very little about them but it appears that their civilisation was widespread on the western fringe of Europe stretching from Shetland in the north to Galicia (Spain) in the south. All the countries that are now thought of as Celtic, or which have Celtic provinces – Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, France, Spain are all on the list.

The civilisation seems to have been an enduring one. The Tinkinswood Burial Cairn has been dated at around 4,000 BC – that is some 6,000 years ago. But clearly, given the sophistication of that site, the civilisation must have been in place sometime before that. Stonehenge is thought to have been built about 1,000 years later – about 3,000 BC – and the civilisation no doubt endured beyond the building of Stonehenge. So maybe this Neolithic civilisation lasted for some 2,000 years – from 4,500 until 2,500BC.

However long it lasted, this civilisation was clearly one of great success and skill. These people had the technology to survey and measure the land with great accuracy; they also knew how to measure the circumference of the earth. From this we deduce that they must have had knowledge of the mathematical theories and constructs that underlie such technology. They also could travel large distances – we know that tin was brought from Cornwall – remnants of Cornish ore are reputed to have been discovered at Merthyr Mawr close to the river Ogmore – and whoever built Stonehenge ordered a particular type of stone found only some 200 miles away. That implies an ordered knowledge of what is where and, in addition, the means to quarry, transport, position and erect stones.

We have no idea how the Neolithic people did this, especially without tools made of metal. Modern efforts to imitate such feats have been singularly unsuccessful. My own theory is that they moved the heavy stones in winter, when the ground was frozen and ice was available on which to slide a sledge.

To do all this implies writing. It is inconceivable that such actions could have been undertaken without it. Yet why have we not found any of this writing? Nobody would want to chisel mathematical calculations into stone. Bark, leather or vellum would have provided more suitable materials on which to write. And these would simply have decayed over time. Not finding any writing does not therefore imply that these people couldn’t write. But the question remains why none of the monuments are marked with the names of people, the manes of the builders, for instance? It is not that they could not chisel stone for there are elaborate spiral patterns cut into the rocks at the burial chamber in New Grange in Ireland, for instance. This is a great-unanswered question.

If a society can spare enough time to solve complex mathematical problems and to develop surveying technology it follows that it is highly probable that its people employed an equal sophistication in their domestic arrangements. We don’t know what sort of houses these folk inhabited but one imagines that they were well ordered, probably stone built, heated and clean.

Some people have difficulty in imagining such a sophisticated society. They point to the iron age peoples who, though living 2,000 years later, undoubtedly lived in far more primitive conditions, at least if they had no rank. The phrases ‘mud hut’ and ‘living with the animals’ come to mind and conjure a picture of reasonable accuracy. Many people assume that this Iron Age model must have been the norm for all early British societies – despite evidence to the contrary available in other parts of the world.

But this, of course, is not true. Life in the Iron Age appears to have been very tough. The primary use of iron seems to have been to enable groups of people to fight each other. So the energies of society had to be put to fighting and defence – alternatively to fighting and to raiding. Writing, mathematics, laying out sites in harmony with the countryside, were redundant skills. Were a group of Neolithic people to be attacked by an army of Iron Age warriors, the result would not have been in doubt. This diversion of energies into fighting may well have led to the impoverishment of Iron Age society as a whole despite its initial success on the battlefield.

Society probably does not progress in a straight upward line from generation to generation, technology to technology. Civilisations prosper and decay and new civilisations take their place. As they do they forget the old ways of living. In the past there must have been warlike and peaceful civilisations. Warlike civilisations prosper by transferring resources from the peaceful civilisations that they conquer. Peaceful civilisations, not needing to put their energies into fighting, have the time for advancement and invention. But, once conquered, the sophistication that peace allows such civilisations to develop is lost. And so it appears that more warlike peoples obliterated the sophisticated society of the Neolithic people, and the secrets of their gentler technology were lost.

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