ABSTRACT
The strength and spiritual wealth of the culture were such that it may seem surprising that it ever came to an end. Yet eventually the earth and stone circles fell silent for the last time and the great timber roundhouses collapsed in ruins. The temple-barrows at the arable boundaries were ploughed down or allowed to decay. The megalith-bearing sledges were left abandoned, their rawhide hawsers thrown down in the grass. Christchurch Harbour was empty, deserted by the sea-going craft that had brought in salt, pottery and greenstone axes for Durrington Walls. The fires went out for ever at Skara Brae and the salt wind blew over the cold stone hearths. Silt and grass gradually filled the ditches of barrow and henge, while the special numinous relationship between sky, earth and Stonehenge people petered out.
