The site in Northern France known as Gournay-sur-Aronde can be classified as a site similar to Stonehenge or similar to Cahokia. Gournay-sur-Aronde is similar to Cahokia and Stonehenge as to the way it is setup. Although Cahokia is not a ritual site, Stonehenge is, as well as Gournay-sur-Aronde and all three are built according to the alignment of the stars. The site at Gournay-sur-Aronde was built by the warlike tribe called Belgae dating to the ending of the fourth century to the beginning of the third century BC. The ritual site was built as a center for the Celts; they positioned the site in the pathway of the sun and the location of the Pole star in the night sky. The ritual site at Gournay-sur-Aronde in ancient Gaul was rectangular in shape, surrounded by a ditch of two meters and a wall that was 150 feet by 125 feet. The site is located near a marshy swamp, because the Celts believed their gods preferred the dead stench of the water. On the eastern wall was a entrance and once inside it contains one large pit surrounded by three pits to the North, three pits to the West, and three pits to the South. There is evidence that the entire site was decorated and painted according to Celtic standards.
The main purpose of this ritual site is sacrificial, sacrificial to humans, animals, and other items. The Celts rituals had a variety of meaning, there is fact that a single old oxen was sacrificed in the large central pit and left to decompose. They performed this ritual as an offering to the underground divinities to ensure the potential fertility of the Celts oxen herds. The nine pits located to the West, North, and South is where the Celts deposited their animal victims, and the sacrifice of weapons. This is a peculiar ritual the Celts performed, the sacrifice of weapons and armor, up to 500 different sets of armor have been found at Gournay-sur-Aronde, swords are broken, shields are twisted, scabbards busted, helmets dented. It is not understood as to whether this armor is an offering to gods or taken from an enemy. What was taken from the enemy is evident, the Celts were bloodthirsty and they beheaded their enemies after death as a punishment. It is believed they did this to honor the divinity. They hung the heads of their enemies above the eastern entrance as archaeological digs suggest. Finally, the ditch surrounding the wall plays an important part as well, human remains along with animal remains suggests this is where they dumped victims that were no longer necessary, and so the next ritual could begin.
Bibliography:
www.soa.org.uk/main.forum.htm
www.geomancy.org/ezines/ezine_7/ezine_71.html
www.adnkronos.com/news/prod/bolletti/history/2001/ottobre/cuiott1.htm
www.archaeology.org/magazine.php?page=0103/abstracts/blood
Written by Adam Erickson 10/16/02