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The Archaeology of People: Dimensions of Neolithic Life, Whittle

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<< Text Pages >> Geelong Stone Setting - Standing Stones in Australia

Submitted by Andy B on Friday, 01 August 2008  Page Views: 10902

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Geelong Stone Setting
Country: Australia
NOTE: This site is 165.138 km away from the location you searched for.

Type: Standing Stones
Nearest Town: Geelong
Latitude: 38.14992S  Longitude: 144.361690E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
1

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Standing Stones in Victoria, Australia. It looks like a simple ring of carefully laid out stones, but an egg-shaped Aboriginal stone arrangement outside Geelong is being talked about by some as Victoria's own Stonehenge [Groaaan! MegP Ed]. While there are few records to explain its use, and little information about its age, it was thought to be an indigenous initiation site. But in recent years clues have emerged to suggest it could be an example of some of Australia's earliest astronomy.

After repeated observations, Victorian cultural historian John Morieson found that, viewed from three prominent stones, some smaller outlying stones seemed to indicate the position of the setting sun during equinoxes and solstices.

These observations were confirmed by CSIRO astrophysicist and Aboriginal astronomy researcher Ray Norris, who found the overall design of the circle also appeared to point towards the solstices.

Dr Norris describes the stone arrangement, Wurdi Youang, as "Aboriginal Stonehenge with a question mark". "There's enough evidence there that it looks like these people really did know about these special directions."

But he says the discovery of more rings with similar astronomical markers is needed to prove the hypothesis.

"The problem with all of this stuff is you are never 100% certain — are we constructing something with our 21st century minds that wasn't actually intended by the people who built it?"

Some members of the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative, which owns the site, are yet to be convinced by the Stonehenge theory, including cultural adviser Reg Abrahams.

"We just don't know," Mr Abrahams said.

Wurdi Youang is just one example of many sites across Australia being examined for potential evidence of indigenous astronomy.

They include a site called Ngaut Ngaut on the banks of the Murray River in South Australia, where dots and lines carved on rocks near engraved images of the sun and moon point to a possible lunar calendar. The changing skies may also be linked to seasonal patterns in animal and plant behaviour. One example is the "emu in the sky" made up of the dark clouds of the Milky Way.

This lines up with a rock engraving of an emu in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in NSW at the time of the year when emus lay their eggs.

In the lead-up to 2009, the International Year of Astronomy, there is growing interest in learning more about how indigenous Australians viewed the sky.

The Melbourne Planetarium is working on a new indigenous astronomy presentation, while Dr Norris and colleagues are planning an Aboriginal astronomy conference, and hope to establish a national working group on the subject.

He hopes increased awareness about indigenous astronomy could help to bring different cultures closer together. "It's about the sky, which everybody understands."

IMPORTANT NOTE: Location given is for the city of Geelong, please let us know if you have a location for this site

Source, with a photo: The Age.
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Nearby Images from Flickr
Joel Selwood Stand, Kardinia Park
Entrance to GMHBA stadium, Kardinia Park, Djilang/Geelong
Tree panos
Bulldogs @ Geelong
IMG_6459 N470 N472 N475 N456 N460 Geelong 7.3.24
IMG_6461 Y129 Geelong 7.3.24

The above images may not be of the site on this page, but were taken nearby. They are loaded from Flickr so please click on them for image credits.


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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 29.8km NNE 18° Wurdi Youang* Stone Row / Alignment
 315.9km W 275° Mount Gambier* Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
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 480.3km ENE 58° 57-4-0209 Stone Row / Alignment
 506.2km NNW 346° Mungo, Australia* Ancient Village or Settlement
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 697.7km ENE 56° 52-2-2245 Stone Row / Alignment
 718.5km NE 46° 44-6-0019 Stone Row / Alignment
 736.6km NE 50° Lawson Engraving Site* Rock Art
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 768.7km NE 52° 45-4-0217 Stone Row / Alignment
 775.4km NE 54° University of Sydney Nicholson Museum* Museum
 778.0km NE 54° Australian Museum* Museum
 778.6km N 7° 25-3-0057 Stone Row / Alignment
 778.6km NE 54° Berry Island* Rock Art
 778.6km NE 54° NSW Art Gallery* Museum
 778.7km NE 54° Cammeraygal Midden* Ancient Village or Settlement
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 780.6km NE 55° Tamarama Rock Art* Rock Art
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Long Barrows of the Cotswolds, Darvill

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"Geelong Stone Setting" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Stone circle near the You Yangs is attracting interest from tour operators by Andy B on Friday, 22 February 2013
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Japanese broadcasters have shown interest, according to the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative, while an English tour guide recently contacted the Geelong Advertiser seeking more information.

Tour guide Armyn Hennessy, who conducts tours of the original Stonehenge in the UK, said she wished to visit the Geelong site to be able to include it in her tour commentary.

Geelong Otway Tourism chief Roger Grant, who visited the You Yangs site last week, said the potential for tourism was exciting.

"At this stage, before it can be presented to the public, I think it just needs a huge amount of research," he said.

Mr Grant said he was really keen to work with the Wathaurong group to support that research, particularly a probe on what it was used for and how old it was.

The stone circle, said to be older than Stonehenge, is an astronomical marker. Its two straighter sides point to where the sun rises on the shortest and longest days of the year. Stonehenge dates from about 2500 BC, and the earliest pyramid in Egypt was built from about 2630 BC, suggesting the local Aborigines could have been the world's first astronomers.

Known as Wurdi Youang, the site lies on Wathaurong Co-Operative land.
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2013/02/20/359584_news.html

[I think we may have a double listing for this but hopefully we can get some more information on the other nearby sites mentioned]

Gavin Couzens adds "There are other sites similiar, however they are held in secret"
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Aboriginal Stonehenge: Stargazing in ancient Australia by AngieLake on Thursday, 06 October 2011
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"An egg-shaped ring of standing stones in Australia could prove to be older than Britain's Stonehenge - and it may show that ancient Aboriginal cultures had a deep understanding of the movements of the stars.

Fifty metres wide and containing more than 100 basalt boulders, the site of Wurdi Youang in Victoria was noted by European settlers two centuries ago, and charted by archaeologists in 1977, but only now is its purpose being rediscovered.

It is thought the site was built by the Wadda Wurrung people - the traditional inhabitants of the area. All understanding of the rocks' significance was lost, however, when traditional language and practices were banned at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Now a team of archaeologists, astronomers and Aboriginal advisers is reclaiming that knowledge.


This photo of the emu in the sky, above an aboriginal rock carving, was sent to every school in Australia They have discovered that waist-high boulders at the tip of the egg-shaped point along the ring to the position on the horizon where the sun sets at the summer and winter solstice - the longest and shortest day of the year.

The axis from top to bottom points towards the equinox - when the length of day equals night."

For more, read this BBC News Magazine article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15098959


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