Visiting the Past: Finding and Understanding Britain's Archaeology
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Stonehenge submitted by AngieLake This is a good one to consider while we wait for the outcome of the new plan to reinstate Stonehenge into its wider landscape by removing the car park and visitor centre!
[From 'Prehistoric England' by Grahame Clark, F.S.A., 4th edition 1948. (Ist edition was 1940, btw).]
Stonehenge submitted by AngieLake Stone 16's 'Pregnant Belly', in profile, looking towards NW, so this is SE side, of course. Notice the 'flowing robe' effect here. Part of my evidence in believing this stone is a feminine fertility focal point of the sarsen circle.
It lies adjacent to the axis, and is closest to sunset on Winter Solstice.
Taken at dawn on 6.12.06, it shows the setting moon, which was the most northerly risi
Stonehenge submitted by AngieLake A pair of photos showing the 'Sun-Dagger' (or 'Axe') from slightly different angles.
(See triple set photos posted today, regarding the axe shape)
These were taken just after dawn on 6.12.2006 while on private access. Reason = trying to photograph the 'goddess image', as Burl described the rectangle on Stone 57. I didn't notice the sun-dagger until after, while looking at the photos. (Same mo
Stonehenge submitted by AngieLake In October, while visiting Oriel Ynys Mon at Llangefni on Anglesey I saw a display of ancient axes [replica shafts, I guess!], and one of these made me wonder if what I'd photographed at Stonehenge on private access at dawn on 06.12.06, might have been the outline of an axe, not a dagger.
This sunlight-shape, projected onto Stone 57, looked like a dagger, dropping toward the Altar Stone as the su
Stonehenge submitted by AngieLake Captured this shot of sunrise on Summer Solstice in 2001 on my camcorder*. You'll see the Heel Stone just to right of pic. *Excuse the slight blurriness of the still.
Stonehenge submitted by davidmorgan Just for a laugh - myself at Stonehenge summer solstice 1981.
In a Nigerian riga from the 1940s...
http://www.adireafricantextiles.com/agbadainfo.htm
Stonehenge submitted by timfromhoveactually View through Trilithon 56 and a bluestone to stone 16.
Stonehenge submitted by timfromhoveactually Sun sets through trilithon 21/22 in the outer circle.
Picture taken on 4th Sep 2009 on an access visit.
Stonehenge submitted by timfromhoveactually Stone 56 with the socketed bluestone in front. Did this stone once have a mate?
Picture taken on 4th Sep 2009 on an access visit.
Stonehenge submitted by timfromhoveactually Stone 56, the tallest Trilithon. Cate, 5' 3", is included for perspective. The stone weighs around 40 tons. Cate's weight is classified information. Her hair is short following chemotherapy. Let's hope Wainright and Darvill were right and the stones have healing powers.
Picture taken on 4th Sep 2009 on an access visit.
Stonehenge submitted by timfromhoveactually Stone 16 with setting sun.
Picture taken on 4th Sep 2009 on an access visit.
Stonehenge submitted by timfromhoveactually The henge ditch and bank. That is archaeologist and Stonehenge expert Julian Richards climbing out of the ditch!
Picture taken on 4th Sep 2009 on an access visit.
Stonehenge submitted by timfromhoveactually The causeway across the henge showing the ditch.
Picture taken on 4th Sep 2009 on an access visit.
Stonehenge submitted by timfromhoveactually The so-called "Slaughter" Stone at the causeway across the henge ditch and bank. It weighs 28 tons. Picture taken on 4th Sep 2009 on an access visit. These are just the most recent 15 photos of Stonehenge. If you were logged in with a free user account you would be able to see our entire collection.
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Re: Stonehenge (Score: 1) by gormer on Saturday, 01 November 2003 (User Info | Send a Message)
I don't think anyone could truly be disappointed by Stonehenge, but it is more commercial than one might expect (I'm wincing as I write this, knowing what commercial horrors we Americans are responsible for--I hardly feel fair critiquing the U.K.!). For however crowded it may get, it's a different kind of magic being able to explore the site and share the experience with so many other people of different nations and backgrounds. Even surrounded by tourists sporting Stonehenge t-shirts and scribbling notes in Stonehenge notepads, the circle doesn't seem to have lost its dignity.
Re: Stonehenge (Score: 1) by Ruan on Wednesday, 29 December 2004 (User Info | Send a Message)
Just a thought, in light of recent events ( undersea earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis) , was Stonehenge damaged by earthquakes at some stage between its building and present day ? Not unlikely and could explain present ruined condition . In the Bronze Age there was much seismic and volcanic activity , particularly in The Aegean , resulting in the end of the hitherto powerful Minoan culture and destruction of Santorini/Thera (Atlantis?) . As the dinosaurs were possibly wiped out by giant meteors , was much of the once powerful Minoan and later Mycanaen cultures destroyed not by their enemies , but by the Gods (forces of nature) ?
Re: Stonehenge (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, 18 August 2005
Has anybody considered that Stonehenge may have been roofed with massive timbers? The plan of the major stones are very similar to those of circular houses of the time. Might this not be the house of deity?
corn writes:
Stonehenge, like all stone circles etc., has no connection with the Celts or their priests - Druids. These sites were long abandoned by the time the Celts arrived around 500 b.c. and their holy places were not temples but natural locations such as rivers, glades and woods.They would not have used them anymore than Moslems would use a Church of England as their holy place.
Stonehenge had 5 different building phases/changes. Dates vary depending on whose information you read, mine are from two reliable books
PHASE 1: was built 2,500 to 2,200 b.c. Consisted of a simple ditch and bank with break in bank to N.E. 30m outside the 'Heel Stone', a natural sarsen some 15 ft. tall, was erected - probably the only substantial above ground feature and used as a 'location' marker for site. On outer side of ditch 56 holes (Aubrey holes) were dug, some later held cremations. Site probably abandoned.
PHASE 2: was built by the 'beaker' people about 1,620 b.c. A double row of blue stones (82) were set up with a N.E. entrance. Unfinished stone holes show that this phase was never completed.
PHASE 3: which was divided into 3 stages between about 1,600 to 1,240 b.c.
3a: The double row of bluestones were dismantled and site levelled off. Great sarsen blocks were brought from Marborough Downs and set up in the circle and horseshoe formation we see today - 30 uprights linked by 5 trilithons.
3b: saw the return of 20 of the bluestones which were set in an oval within the horseshoe sarsens. Possibly the remaining 62 bluestones were intended to be placed in two circles outside sarsen circle, but was never completed although the holes to receive the stones were dug.
3c: the final phase about 1300b.c. saw the oval setting of bluestones taken down. The bluestones were then erected in a circle between the horseshoe and outer sarsen circle and a horsehoe of 19 bluestones erected within the 5 trilithons. The largest of the bluestones, some 12ft tall, was stood upright in front of central trilithon but subsequently fell...now mistakenly known as the Altar Stone.
Henge Centre Revived (Score: 1) by coldrum on Monday, 10 July 2006 (User Info | Send a Message)
Renewed moves by English Heritage to create a world class visitor centre at Stonehenge seem certain to get the go-ahead today, marking an amazing U-turn by councillors.
Salisbury District Council's Planning Committee will approve an application for the landmark £67.5million visitor centre at Countess East, just under two miles from the 4,500-year- old henge.
The scheme is exactly the same one the council threw out last summer following objections from residents.
A key reason for rejecting the scheme was that a land train taking people from the monument to the centre would have an adverse impact on nearby residents.
But in the light of a forthcoming public inquiry, the authority reappraised its decision and invited English Heritage to resubmit the original plans.
Last week the council's Northern Area Committee recommended that the Planning committee should today approve the scheme, with a number of conditions.
These include the condition that the visitor centre should only go ahead if the Government approves the A303 Stonehenge Improvement Scheme, the cost of which has now spiralled to £200million.
Old Aerial Photos of Stonehenge to be Revealed (Score: 1) by Andy B on Monday, 17 July 2006 (User Info | Send a Message)
English Heritage is celebrating the centenary of the first aerial photographs of Stonehenge with a touring exhibition opening at the Neolithic site.
Dozens of vintage and modern photographs will tell the story of the first images and explore the world of aerial photography in Victorian, Edwardian and wartime Britain, and will look at how they have helped our understanding of 6,000 years of British history and pre-history.
“Aerial photography is most useful in helping us understand the human use and development of the landscape around Stonehenge,” said Dave Batchelor, chief Stonehenge archaeologist at English Heritage.
Stonehenge visitor plan approved (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Tuesday, 18 July 2006
Plans to build a new visitor centre, with its own rail link, at Stonehenge have been approved by councillors.
English Heritage's original application was refused by Salisbury District Council amid fears a rail link would damage the environment.
But after an appeal, planners on Monday approved the scheme with conditions.
The development cannot start until the government has sanctioned improvements to the nearby A303, including a tunnel through the Wiltshire countryside.
Leave our glimpse of Stonehenge alone (Score: 1) by Andy B on Thursday, 27 July 2006 (User Info | Send a Message)
An opinion piece in the Telegraph by Philip Johnston: Later today, all being well, we will leave behind the oppressive heat of London and head west to enjoy the cooling breezes of the north Devon coast.
It is a journey we have made many times; and the highlight of the long drive has always been the first glimpse of Stonehenge as the car crests the hill on the A303 just after the Amesbury roundabout, laying bare the panoramic Wiltshire landscape. As a child, I vaguely remember stopping for a picnic among the stones, something that seems astonishing when you consider that, today, they are fenced off and can be viewed close up only while walking around them in circular procession along a set path. It is strictly no touching.
We no longer stop. It has become, depressingly, the Stonehenge Experience, with the inevitable (if inadequate) visitor centre and opening hours. The idea that an ancient monument can have opening hours is bizarre. Stonehenge lies between two roads, the busy A303 and the A344, a more ancient route to the north. For almost as long as anyone can remember, there has been controversy over what, if anything, should be done to remove these roads both to ease the summer congestion and to allow the monument to stand in glorious isolation, to be gawped at by thousands of tourists without traffic in the background. We are, supposedly, approaching the moment of truth when the Government will make a decision after decades of dithering. Those who have followed this saga will believe it when they see it.
EH: Support for the 2.1 km tunnel at Stonehenge continues (Score: 1) by Andy B on Thursday, 27 July 2006 (User Info | Send a Message)
English Heritage are trying to rabble-rouse in favour of the Stonehenge tunnel, and their 'rabble' includes Aubrey Burl, Mike Pitts and Julian Richards (a letter to the Times from 23 February 2006)
Support for the 2.1 km tunnel at Stonehenge continues
English Heritage and many others believe that the published scheme, which involves the building of a 2.1km long bored tunnel past Stonehenge, would bring immeasurable benefits, both practical and cultural. We also believe that, in the absence of any other viable or affordable scheme, rejection of this one would invite decades of inactivity, or, worse still, an expedient transport solution which would be genuinely damaging.
Fight for Stonehenge takes to the air (Score: 1) by Andy B on Thursday, 27 July 2006 (User Info | Send a Message)
A hot-air balloon will rise over Salisbury Plain tomorrow (Monday 24th July) on a trip that will mark one of the country's strangest scientific breakthroughs: the 100th anniversary of the first aerial photograph of Stonehenge.
The 1906 flight was the first use of air reconnaissance for studying ancient monuments in Britain, and will be commemorated with a balloon flight of English Heritage officials and other VIPs. 'Aerial photographs are our main method for finding new [archaeological] sites,' said Martyn Barber, of English Heritage's aerial survey unit. 'They are invaluable for studying the past.'
But the trip has another purpose. It is to form part of an unofficial campaign by English Heritage to maintain public awareness of the World Heritage site. They are anxious to press ministers who have promised they will decide in the next few months on what to do with the main roads that run near the 5,000-year-old stone circle.
English Heritage is particularly worried because Unesco, the United Nations education and cultural body, has warned it may remove the monument's World Heritage status unless Britain tackles the serious problem of traffic passing right beside Stonehenge, which is one of the world's richest reservoirs of Stone Age circles, henges and alignments.
Re: Dispatches from Abroad: Student is awestruck by otherworldly Stonehenge (Score: 1) by bat400 on Friday, 28 July 2006 (User Info | Send a Message)
Jeeze-Louise! Thanks, Andy, for alerting our international peers to another American Idiot, leering for the camera in front of a Monument of the Ages. However, I'm far more annoyed that Penn would host this fool's comments on their website than with the fool himself.
And after all, go back and look at this site's forum pages. There are comments that imply some of our own members doubt that the pyramids (for one example) were built by the hands of man. Perhaps this fellow from Penn should join us.
Re: Dispatches from Abroad: Student is awestruck by otherworldly Stonehenge (Score: 1) by PeteG on Thursday, 27 July 2006 (User Info | Send a Message)
>A hot-air balloon will rise over Salisbury Plain tomorrow (Monday 24th
>July) on a trip that will mark one of the country's strangest scientific
>breakthroughs: the 100th anniversary of the first aerial photograph of
>Stonehenge.
Re: Dispatches from Abroad: Student is awestruck by otherworldly Stonehenge (Score: 1) by TheCaptain on Friday, 28 July 2006 (User Info | Send a Message)
Oh, shame. I was looking forward to a picture of the orignal event 100 years ago !But thanks anyway !
Re: Dispatches from Abroad: Student is awestruck by otherworldly Stonehenge (Score: 1) by PeteG on Friday, 28 July 2006 (User Info | Send a Message)
wait a while.
I'm awaiting the trip in the balloon to do before and after photos.
If you can't wait a week then check out P11 of Beyond Stonehenge for the original pics of the balloon and the photos.
PeteG
A Step towards Stonehenge being stripped of its World Heritage Status? (Score: 1) by ShropshireTraveller on Saturday, 04 November 2006 (User Info | Send a Message)
BBC News website records that 'The Unesco World Heritage site Stonehenge is "a destination in trouble", a new survey has found.' For more details see here.
Re: Earliest Sketch of Stonehenge (Score: 1) by MickM on Tuesday, 28 November 2006 (User Info | Send a Message)
Interesting to see that the drawing shows a fourth standing trilithon. If correct it probably shows the stones numbered 59-60 by Flinders Petrie. This is the most northerly trilithon whose stones now lie in pieces & which had fallen by the time John Aubrey planned the site in 1666. It is unlikely to show stones 55-56, the other fallen trilithon at the southeast which forms the centre of the horseshoe as these are believed to have fallen before the Romans arrived. Also interesting to see that the mortice joints are shown.
Stonehenge ‘No Place for the Dead’, Says Darvill (Score: 1) by Andy B on Friday, 01 December 2006 (User Info | Send a Message)
Professor Timothy Darvill, Head of the Archaeology Group at Bournemouth University, has breathed new life into the controversy surrounding the origins of Stonehenge by publishing a theory which suggests that the ancient monument was a source and centre for healing and not a place for the dead as believed by many previous scholars.
Inquiry opens into fate of Stonehenge visitor centre (Score: 1) by Andy B on Friday, 08 December 2006 (User Info | Send a Message)
English Heritage has called on the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Ruth Kelly to seize a once-in-a-generation opportunity' and approve plans for the controversial Stonehenge visitor centre. More at http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146412740
Early celebrations for Solstice (Score: 1) by coldrum on Wednesday, 17 January 2007 (User Info | Send a Message)
Around 60 people turned up to celebrate the Winter Solstice at Stonehenge - on the wrong day.
After negotiating with site-managers English Heritage, the crowd performed traditional solstice activities on Thursday morning, and left peacefully.
One reveller, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "We formed a ring and held hands, and touched the stones. The man with the green cloak was there.
"But there were an awful lot of red faces," she said.
The Pagan celebration of Winter Solstice is one of the oldest winter celebrations in the world.
The Solstice is actually at 0022 GMT on Friday, and some crowds are expected at Stonehenge on Friday morning.
"I don't know if I'll go back," the reveller said.
A spokeswoman for English Heritage, which looks after the site, said: "People assume because the Summer Solstice is the 21st June, the Winter Solstice will be the 21st December.
"They should always check."
Stonehenge is currently competing against other iconic buildings and structures, ranging from the Statue of Liberty to the Great Wall of China, in a global hunt for the New Seven Wonders of the World.
The poll is being organised by the Swiss-based group New7Wonders and the winners will be announced in July 2007.
Last year, planning permission was refused for a new visitor centre at Stonehenge but English Heritage plans to appeal against the decision in December.
It also said that the much-needed improvements to the A303 - which have been endorsed at a public inquiry - were now subject to a government review as a result of cost increases.
Stonehenge ceremonies start early (Score: 1) by coldrum on Wednesday, 17 January 2007 (User Info | Send a Message)
Some had turned up in flowing robes while others were wearing lovingly-crafted winter solstice wreaths decorated with berries and ivy.
The problem for the assorted pagans, druids and pantheists who arrived at Stonehenge yesterday morning to celebrate the winter solstice was that they had arrived a day early.
Around 60 people had gathered at the stone circle, cloaked in frost and fog, to celebrate what they believed was the winter solstice. The staff who guard the precious monument in Wiltshire explained they were 24 hours early.
However, they allowed the disappointed, and in some cases embarrassed, celebrants on to the site anyway to take part in rather muted ceremonies.
The winter solstice tends to be more muted than its summer equivalent anyway. Almost 20,000 people showed up this summer whereas last year 1,500 came to the winter version.
As it always does, English Heritage had discussions with druid and pagan groups to decide when the winter solstice should be celebrated.
Many people think it always falls on December 21. However, the solstice varies and the time when it ought to be celebrated is open to different interpretations.
The astronomical moment of the solstice was actually at 22 minutes past midnight today - and so English Heritage and many pagans believed the solstice celebration ought to have been celebrated at sunrise this morning. They had asked celebrants to arrive at 7.45am today.
The head of the Druid Network, Emma Restall Orr (also known as Bobcat), said: "Pagans are not entirely scientific. They are more guided by nature."
Re: Ancient housing settlement discovered near Stonehenge (Score: 1) by coldrum on Saturday, 03 February 2007 (User Info | Send a Message)
Stonehenge Settlement Found: Builders' Homes,
A major prehistoric village has been unearthed near Stonehenge in southern England.
The settlement likely housed the builders of the famous monument, archaeologists say, and was an important ceremonial site in its own right, hosting great "feasts and parties".
Excavations also offer new evidence that a timber circle and a vast earthwork where the village once stood were linked to Stonehenge—via road, river, and ritual. Together, the sites were part of a much larger religious complex, the archaeologists suggest.
Stonehenge isn't a monument in isolation. It is actually one of a pair—one in stone, one in timber ," said Mike Parker Pearson, leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, a joint initiative run by six English universities and partially funded by the National Geographic Society.
The Late Stone Age village—the largest ever found in Britain—was excavated in September 2006 at Durrington Walls, the world's largest known "henge," a type of circular earthwork. A giant timber circle (photo) once stood at Durrington, which is 1.75 miles (2.8 kilometers) from the celebrated circle of standing stones on Salisbury Plain.
At Durrington the archaeologists discovered foundations of houses dating back to 4,600 years ago —around the time construction began on Stonehenge.
Excavations revealed the remains of eight wooden buildings. Surveys of the landscape have identified up to 30 more dwellings, Parker Pearson said.
"We could have many hundreds of houses here," he added.
The initial stone circle at Stonehenge—the so-called sarsen stones—have been radiocarbon-dated to between 2600 and 2500 B.C.
Re: Ancient housing settlement discovered near Stonehenge (Score: 1) by coldrum on Saturday, 03 February 2007 (User Info | Send a Message)
Stonehenge 'party village' unearthed in Wiltshire
Mark Bridge
Archaeologists have unearthed remains of a huge ancient settlement that they believe housed the hundreds of construction workers needed to build nearby Stonehenge.
Piles of animal bones found at the Neolithic village in Wiltshire, the largest of its kind ever found in Britain, suggest it was also the place to go for a lavish feast, featuring spit-roast pork and beef.
"We’re talking Britain’s first free festival. It’s part of attracting a labour force – throwing a big party," Professor Mike Parker Pearson, of the University of Sheffield, lead archaeologist, told Times Online.
He said that the village’s Neolithic inhabitants – who he believes are likely to be among the ancestors of modern Britons – were not primitive "cave men".
They were well-dressed in "smarter than you'd imagine" leather clothing and capable of enormous feats of engineering – notably the transport of the huge stones of Stonehenge 240 miles from Wales's Preseli Mountains to Salisbury Plain.
The excavations have unearthed hundreds of well-preserved houses with imprints of beds and wooden dressers still present on the clay floors.
The finds were made at Durrington Walls, less than two miles from Stonehenge, where a second massive monument – a circle of huge timber posts more than a thousand feet across – once stood.
Magnetic scans of the area revealed that the valley at Durrington Walls was densely populated. Experts had never before found evidence of human habitation near Stonehenge.
The houses have been radiocarbon dated to 2600-2500 BC, the same period Stonehenge was built. They were 16-foot square, and made of wood, with a clay floor and central hearth.
The team also excavated a paved avenue between Durrington Walls’s timber circle and the River Avon. The 90-foot wide pathway mirrors one that links Stonehenge with the same river.
But while Stonehenge’s avenue is lined up with the midsummer solstice sunrise, Durrington’s is aligned with that day’s sunset.
Similarly, where Stonehenge’s giant markers frame the midwinter sunset, Durrington’s timber posts would have given Neolithic people a perfect view of the sun rising on the same day.
Re: Ancient housing settlement discovered near Stonehenge (Score: 1) by coldrum on Saturday, 03 February 2007 (User Info | Send a Message)
Ancient housing settlement discovered near Stonehenge
Evidence of a large settlement full of houses dating back to 2600 BC has been discovered near the ancient stone monument of Stonehenge in southwest England, scientists said on Tuesday.
They suspect inhabitants of the houses, forming the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain, built the stone circle at Stonehenge – generally thought to have been a temple, burial ground or an astronomy site – between 3000 and 1600 BC.
"We found the remains of eight houses," Mike Parker Pearson, a professor of archaeology at Sheffield University, UK, said in a teleconference to announce the discovery.
"We think they are part of a much larger settlement. I suspect we can identify 25 likely house sites. My guess is that there are many more than that," he added.
Village of builders
During excavation at Durrington Walls, about 3 kilometres from Stonehenge, scientists working on the seven-year Stonehenge Riverside Project detected dozens of hearths.
They also uncovered the outlines of box beds and wooden dressers or cupboards and 4600 year-old debris, including burnt stones and animal bones strewn on the clay floors.
"We think we are looking at the village of the builders of Stonehenge," he added.
The houses measured about 5 metres (16 feet) square and were located in a small valley north of Stonehenge that leads down to the River Avon. They are on either side of an avenue that leads from the river to a wooden version of Stonehenge.
"We think our discovery is very significant for understanding the purpose of Stonehenge. What we have revealed is that Stonehenge is one half of a larger complex," said Parker Pearson, referring to the stone and wooden circles.
Feasts and parties
The scientists believe Stonehenge and Durrington Walls were complementary sites. Neolithic people gathered at Durrington Walls for massive feasts and parties while Stonehenge was a memorial or burial site for the dead.
"We are looking at least a century, probably several centuries of use, at both sites," said Parker Pearson. "Stonehenge is our biggest cemetery from that period. There is a very interesting contrast in terms of life and death."
Stonehenge's avenue is aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise, while the Durrington avenue corresponds with the midwinter solstice sunset, according to the researchers. Tourists are drawn to Stonehenge throughout the year but the most popular day at the site is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.
Druids, a pagan religious order dating back to Celtic Britain, gather at Stonehenge, about 160 km west of London, during the summer solstice because they believe it was a centre of spiritualism.
"This is a place of enormous importance that has been remembered over a long period of time," said Julian Thomas of Manchester University, who also worked on the project.
Re: Ancient housing settlement discovered near Stonehenge (Score: 1) by coldrum on Saturday, 03 February 2007 (User Info | Send a Message)
Stonehenge builders' houses found
A huge ancient settlement used by the people who built Stonehenge has been found, archaeologists have said.
Excavations at Durrington Walls, near the legendary Salisbury Plain monument, uncovered remains of ancient houses.
People seem to have occupied the sites seasonally, using them for ritual feasting and funeral ceremonies.
In ancient times, this settlement would have housed hundreds of people, making it the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain.
The dwellings date back to 2,600-2,500 BC - according to the researchers, the same period that Stonehenge was built.
But some archaeologists point out that there are problems dating Stonehenge itself because the stone circle has been rebuilt many times.
Consequently, archaeological material has been dug up and reburied on numerous occasions, making it difficult to assign a date to the original construction.
But Mike Parker Pearson and his colleagues are confident of a link.
"In what were houses, we have excavated the outlines on the floors of box beds and wooden dressers or cupboards," he explained.
The Sheffield University researcher said this was based on the fact that these abodes had exactly the same layout as Neolithic houses at Skara Brae, Orkney, which have survived intact because - unlike these dwellings - they were made of stone.
Re: Ancient housing settlement discovered near Stonehenge (Score: 1) by coldrum on Sunday, 04 February 2007 (User Info | Send a Message)
A major prehistoric village has been unearthed near Stonehenge in southern England.
The settlement likely housed the builders of the famous monument, archaeologists say, and was an important ceremonial site in its own right, hosting great "feasts and parties".
Excavations also offer new evidence that a timber circle and a vast earthwork where the village once stood were linked to Stonehenge—via road, river, and ritual. Together, the sites were part of a much larger religious complex, the archaeologists suggest.
"Stonehenge isn't a monument in isolation. It is actually one of a pair—one in stone, one in timber," said Mike Parker Pearson, leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, a joint initiative run by six English universities and partially funded by the National Geographic Society.
The Late Stone Age village—the largest ever found in Britain—was excavated in September 2006 at Durrington Walls, the world's largest known "henge," a type of circular earthwork. A giant timber circle once stood at Durrington, which is 1.75 miles (2.8 kilometers) from the celebrated circle of standing stones on Salisbury Plain. Measuring some 90 feet (27 meters) wide and 560 feet (170 meters) long, the avenue linked the site of the former massive timber circle at Durrington to the River Avon. The road mirrors a similar avenue at Stonehenge that connects to the Avon downriver of Durrington.
As reported by James Owen for National Geographic News. January 30, 2007 Aerial-Cam
'Vote for Stonehenge' urges boss (Score: 1) by coldrum on Friday, 09 February 2007 (User Info | Send a Message)
A tourist manager is reminding people that historic Stonehenge could still take the prestigious title of one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.
The ancient monument in Wiltshire is one of 21 finalists in the race to elect the new wonders.
Stuart Maugham, Stonehenge head of visitor ops, said: "This is a wonderful opportunity for Stonehenge to receive lasting international recognition."
The New 7 Wonders of the World will be announced in Portugal on 7 July.
Mr Maugham added: "If you haven't yet voted and would like to see Stonehenge amongst the winners of this prestigious title, there is plenty of time to vote, so pick up your mouse or phone now and help make history."
Currently, the top finalists are: the Colosseum, the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, the Pyramids at Giza, Petra, the Statues of Easter Island and the Taj Mahal.
Re: 'Vote for Stonehenge' urges boss (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, 21 June 2007
...smiles at all the comments above...for certain the most correct leading to the mystery is the fact that it is a spiritual centre...but with what does spiritualism have to do with the past and the future this will guide you all to the true answer of stonehenge...EARTH is an important factor, the HEAVENS is another understand those and the TRUTH LIES WITH-IN.
Stonehenge confirmed as top site (Score: 1) by coldrum on Monday, 12 November 2007 (User Info | Send a Message)
Stonehenge confirmed as top site
TOURISM bosses in south Wiltshire expressed delight this week after Stonehenge came out top in a nationwide poll of Britain's best historic sites.
The result of the major TV and website survey, by the UKTV History Channel, was welcomed by Salisbury and Stonehenge Tourism Partnership chairman, Mary Webb: "This is confirmation that Stonehenge is Britain's favourite visitor destination," she said.
"The stones have fascinated people for thousands of years, and continual archaeological discoveries in the landscape around the site make the megalith as captivating and intriguing as ever.
"Having Britain's favourite historic attraction in the area will boost tourism to Salisbury and south Wiltshire - welcome news for members of our Salisbury and Stonehenge Tourism Partnership."
The final result was revealed by TV presenter Alan Titchmarsh in a special programme. Stonehenge came in ahead of such attractions as HMS Victory, Liverpool Cathedral, Hadrian's Wall and York Minster in the rankings compiled by the History Channel's Britain's Best show.
More than 600,000 votes were received via the web, red button, post, phone and SMS over the past six months, and Stonehenge received 15 per cent of the overall votes - making it Britain's Best.
advertisementEnglish Heritage, which manages Stonehenge, has thanked viewers for voting in the poll. They believe the summer features and poll has encouraged the public to visit and appreciate the wonderful array of heritage sites Britain has to offer.
It hopes the survey results will further strengthen the case to improve visitor facilities at Stonehenge.
Salisbury and Stonehenge Tourism plan to use the news to highlight the heritage of the area and encourage visitors to Stonehenge to discover the other nearby attractions and book short breaks in Salisbury and the surrounding countryside.
Re: Stonehenge confirmed as top site (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Tuesday, 13 November 2007
Anyone tell me what the access rights are for Winter Solstice - I am feeling a calling and must see the sun rise and set over this magical ur temple. I have asked English Heritage but they have not replied . . .
Re: Stonehenge confirmed as top site (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Tuesday, 13 November 2007
Just found out access rights for Winter Solstice - they are letting us in at about 7.30am til 9am on 22nd and no admission at all to see the sunset. Feel free to write/call English Heritage to see if they will let us in for sunset (a most important time according to recent re-creation research). Stonehenge number: 01722 343 830
See you all in the frosty and probably foggy murkiness of Wiltshire for a faint glimmer of sun and a massive glimmer of heartfelt excitement and joy - the wheel is turning . . .
The Megalithic Yard in the Geometry of Triangles,
Circles and Pi-Pyramids.
by
hewpop
Professor Alexander Thom’s Megalithic Yard (hereafter designated ‘MY’), will in this exercise be taken as π√3/2 (2.720699.....).English Feet, (E.ft.) , and English Inches (E.in.).It will be also divided into 36 Megalithic Inches (M.in.). of .906899...E.ft.
The first triangle to be described is an Isosceles with base angles of 30 degrees and a base length of 20,000 E.in. This will give a vertical height of 10,000 E.in. *30 tan, = 5773.5... E.in.. When this vertical height is used as the diameter of a circle, it will have a circumference of 18137.99... E.in., or 20,000 M.in..
The second triangle is the Pi-Pyramid with the same vertical height as the previous triangle, namely 5773.5... E.in., so it’s circle circumference is the same 20,000 M.in. But a feature of a Pi-Pyramid is that the number of units in the base side is half the number of units in this circumference, so the base is 10,000 M.in..***.
The base is thus 277.77... MY, and the vertical height is 277.77... * √3 E.ft..
The base is 277 MY plus 28 M.in..
The base is 100,000 MY / 360
Thus √3 E..ft ÷1.3603... E.ft. (or MY/2) = invtan 1.2732... = 51°51'14.3. , the perfect Pi Pyramid angle of slope.
The height of 5773.5... E.in. = 481.125...E.ft. = 146.6... metres, the Gt. Pyramid height.
So for every √3 units in the Pi-Pyramid’s height, there will be a 2.720699... unit in the base side..
*** Petrie’s average length for the base side of the Great Pyramid was 9069 English inches, and Cole’s average was within a whisker of this measure. As noted in the second triangle above, the Pi-Pyramid base was 10000M.in., or 9068.99... E.in.., an astonishing coincidence.
The third triangle is an equilateral triangle with the same vertical height and circle circumference. The base angles equal 60°. The triangle sides will be 20,000 M.in. ÷ π√3/2 = 73551.052... M.in., or 6666.66....E.in, or 555.555... E.ft..
(If one divides the number of M.in. in the circle’s circumference by 3, the answer will be the same number as there are EI in the equilateral triangle’s base.)
This type of triangle is important for Stone circles, for if the base is laid out in any number of E.ft., then the circle circumference on the vertical height as diameter, will always be the same number of MY.
Example.:- An equilateral triangle with sides of 1 E..ft., will have an apothem of √3 / 2 E.ft. And a circle circumference of √3 / 2 * π = 2.720699...E.ft.
If a circle needs to be divided say into 360 divisions, each of 1MY, then the base side of the construction triangle will need to be 360 E..ft. long, or proportionate. Use a base triangle of say , 18.E..ft., giving an apothem (diameter) of 9 √3 ft. , 20 of these diameters will give the required circumference.
Once a circumference is marked out in 1MY divisions, these divisions can be projected by strings or siting sticks to any size exterior or interior circle or to landmarks on the horizon. Polygons and star-shapes can be marked with ease.
When is a Megalithic Yard not a Megalithic Yard?
Anne Macaulay, in her ‘Megalithic Measures and Rhythms’, used three ‘yard sticks’ in her re-evaluation of Professor Alexander’s survey of stone monuments in NW Europe. As well as Thom’s well documented megalithic Yard and Megalithic Rod ( 2.5 MY), a Roman Foot of 11.66 English inches was introduced, which seemed to work well when used in connection with Fibonacci numbers in the formation of polygons within Stone circles.
A Megalithic Rod was said to be made up of 7 Roman feet.
Is there, was there, a Megalithic Yard in the first place? It was taken by Thom to be 2.72 +/- .003 English feet. Now if I may be permitted to introduce another measure , the Eng
Is Stonehenge Roman? (Score: 1) by coldrum on Wednesday, 21 May 2008 (User Info | Send a Message)
Is Stonehenge Roman?
After a gap of some forty four years, Stonehenge is once again being excavated. Admittedly, this time it is only a very small hole, and is only being dug for a fortnight, but it is a very important hole, and on April the 9th, we were invited down to Stonehenge to inspect it. It was a wonderful trip, not least because the weather was perfect. After the heavy snow fall at the weekend the sun decided to shine and since we were allowed inside the circle, I took the opportunity to take hundreds of photographs.
The excavations are being conducted by Geoffrey Wainwright (ex-English Heritage) and Tim Darvill (Bournemouth University), following up their research into the sources of the blue stones in the Prescelly Mountains in Pembrokeshire: but as they are being funded by the BBC TimeWatch programme, they are being carried out with the maximum publicity.
Image
Where are the excavations? They are on the other side of the monument to the road. In this panoramic view, the road is to the left, and the excavations can be seen (just!) to the right.
It must be said that it is a very small trench.
What they are looking for is evidence for the dating of the arrival of the blue stones at Stonehenge. The blue stones story is a complicated one, as the present circle of blue stones is not in the original position. There is a circle of blue stone pits known as the Q and R holes, where it is assumed that the stones were originally set before they were put in their current position. However there is no good dating evidence for the Q and R holes, so the present excavations aim to uncover the base of one of the blue stone holes in the hopes that they may find an antler-pick for radiocarbon dating.
However the most surprising discoveries so far have been Roman. In a small pit containing a small bluestone in the corner of the trench, itself cut into the main socket of one of the uprights, they found a Roman coin. Even more alarming, was the excavation of the large pit in the centre of the excavation, where right near the bottom they found a very small piece of what was indubitably Roman pottery. Was there a major reordering of the site in the Roman period? As Geoffrey Wainwright said, their small trench looked like an urban excavation, there were so many intercutting pits.
Were the Romans rather like English Heritage, people who abhor untidiness, and when they came to Stonehenge, they found a somewhat decrepit monument in need of tender loving care, and said: Oh these wretched druids, they never look after their ancient monuments properly – we had better send along a gang to tidy it up and pay due respects to whatever gods were originally worshipped there? But just how extensive was this tidying up? How much of the plan of Stonehenge that has come to us is due to Roman interference?
But Stonehenge is not the only site in the complex that is being excavated. After the official tour, we went on to Woodhenge and to Durrington Walls, back to the site where Geoffrey Wainwright first came face to face with Stonehenge when he carried out major excavations 40 years ago in advance of a new road: we had just launched Current Archaeology at the time, and we reported on it in CA 5 way back in 1967. More recently Mike Parker-Pearson of Sheffield University has also been digging at Durrington, with remarkable results – the full details are still embargoed as his excavations are part-funded by National Geographic magazine. But he has two sites, one down by the river where he is uncovering an approach processional way to the site from the river and the other site is within the great enclosure itself where he is discovering large numbers of very small house platforms: he would like to see them as the workers huts for the building of Stonehenge, even though the pottery is Grooved Ware, which is uncommon at Stonehenge.
So we now have two major research projects being undertaken in the Stonehenge area, both driven
Consultation for public to have a say in future of Stonehenge (Score: 1) by Andy B on Thursday, 10 July 2008 (User Info | Send a Message)
The public can have their say on the future of Stonehenge, in a three-month consultation to improve the site.
People can give feedback on road proposals near Stonehenge and the location of new visitor facilities.
English Heritage Corporate Communications spokesperson Renee Fok said people needed to have a say because of global interest in the site. Ms Fok said the consultation was crucial in preparing the site for the 2012 Olympic Games.
English Heritage expects people visiting England for the Olympics in London will also visit other well-known tourist sites, such as Stonehenge.
Re: 5,000-year-old Fence discovered at Stonehenge (Score: 1) by AngieLake on Sunday, 31 August 2008 (User Info | Send a Message)
From The Mailonline website:
Revealed: The 5,000-year-old, 20ft-high fence which hid Stonehenge from its nosy Stone Age neighbours
By Alun Rees
Last updated at 10:19 PM on 30th August 2008
Tourists who complain about the fence put up around Stonehenge in the Seventies should spare a thought for their Neolithic ancestors... they couldn’t even see the site because of a huge wooden barrier.
Archaeologists have found traces of the 20ft-high timber fence that snaked almost two miles across Salisbury Plain and hid sacred ceremonies from unworthy locals more than 5,000 years ago.
Now trenches have been dug along the line researchers believe the palisade took as it stretched from the east of the ancient stone circle, past the Heel Stone, to the west before heading south.
Exposed: Stonehenge was once shielded from sight by a two-mile-long fence which kept the site private from nosy neighbours
And experts believe that the time and energy taken to construct such a barrier, which has no other practical or defensive use, meant that it was designed to hide religious ceremonies from prying eyes.
Dr Josh Pollard, of Bristol University, who is co-director of the dig, said: ‘The construction must have taken a lot of manpower.
‘The palisade is an open structure which would not have been defensive and was too high to be practical for controlling livestock.
‘It certainly wasn’t for hunting herded animals and so, like everything else in this ceremonial landscape, we have to believe it must have had a religious significance.
‘The most plausible explanation is that it was built at huge cost to the community to screen the environs of Stonehenge from view. Basically, we think it was to keep the lower classes from seeing what exactly their rulers and the priestly class were doing.
‘Perhaps we should call Michael Eavis in from the Glastonbury Festival as a consultant because the huge metal fence erected there every year is the nearest modern equivalent.’
Enlarge Holy site: One theory suggests the barrier kept the 'lower classes' from seeing activities of the priestly class
Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology Magazine and author of the book Hengeworld, said: ‘This is a fantastic insight into what the landscape would have looked like. This huge wooden palisade would have snaked across the landscape, blotting out views to Stonehenge from one side. The other side was the ceremonial route to the Henge from the River Avon and would have been shielded by the contours.
‘The palisade would have heightened the mystery of whatever ceremonies were performed and it would have endowed those who were privy to those secrets with more power and prestige. In modern terms, you had to be invited or have a ticket to get in.
‘We hope to learn more about the structure, which we lose track of on the other side of the main A303 trunk road because any remains were obliterated by the construction of a wartime airfield.’
Meanwhile, another team of scientists led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University is working on a collection of partly cremated bones found at Stonehenge in the Thirties by amateur archaeologists.
Midsummer worship: Thousands still gather to see sunrise over Stonehenge on the Summer Solstice
The task has been made very difficult because the remains have been put in two sacks and reburied in one spot.
Mr Pitts said: ‘They were the remains of 50 burials at Stonehenge which were reburied in one hole in a complete mix-up. We think they were the bones of 50 kings and queens and may represent burials over a period of 1,000 years. Professor Parker Pearson has speculated that we may be looking at a dynasty at Stonehenge.
‘Retrieving and sorting this out will make a jigsaw look simple. It represent
The ancient Salisbury Plain Baseball Field had a fence. Everybody knew that. But only 20ft (6m) high, now that is news. "The Green Monster" left field wall (often known simply as "The Monster" or to natives of New England as "The Monstah") at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox, is over 37ft (11m) tall. So the news is that a Home Run over 20ft (6m) ancient Salisbury Plain Baseball Park (home to the Stonehenge Yankees / Woodhenge Sox) left field wall was easier than a Slammer over "The Monster"!
British Minister critical of Stonehenge facilities (Score: 1) by coldrum on Thursday, 11 September 2008 (User Info | Send a Message)
British Minister critical of Stonehenge facilities
Facilities at Stonehenge have come under fire from Margaret Hodge,
Britain's tourism minister. She criticised hotels across the country
saying they are of 'worrying' quality and she said in particular the
facilities at Stonehenge were not befitting of a World Heritage Site.
She said the Department of Culture, Media and Sport was making efforts
to improve facilities at Stonehenge, which is the subject of a long-
running wrangle about how best to develop the site for visitors.
Last December the Tories warned Stonehenge could lose its status as a
World Heritage Site if the problem of what to do about the busy A303,
which runs parallel to the site, were not solved.
The comments come as a public consultation on the future of the
site continues and a man who has legally changed his name to King
Arthur keeps up his one man fight for an improvement to visitor
facilities at the site. English Heritage wants to know what people
across Wiltshire want to see happen at the protected site – plans
floated at the moment include the closure of the A344, which runs just
metres from the stones. A report shaped by public comments on the
proposals will go to Government by November and a reply will be
published by the end of the year.
Update on Stonehenge Environs Project (Score: 1) by TheCaptain on Tuesday, 07 October 2008 (User Info | Send a Message)
From hailstones.
Visited 10th September, just a few days before the end of excavations for this year. A visitors tent had been set up with finds from the area. The chalk artifacts were very interesting with their geometric patterns. These were found in stratigraphic sequence.
Pat Shelley tour guide for Stonehenge Riverside Project greeted us and gave us all the latest information on excavations. We then set out to visit all the trenches in the environs. Anomalies had been found with Geophys at the end of the Cursus but nothing was found. Then on to Longbarrow (Amesbury 42) across the road. Large piece of antler found at bottom of ditch. Barrow made in one go not two as previously thought. Returned to SH and visited the Palisade excavations. Late BA/Early IA.
Then on to the most exciting dig at West Amesbury in garden/field at back of Antrobus House by the River Avon. Paleolithic and large amount of Mesolithic artefacts found here. Mike Parker Pearson was supervising here and a ring ditch feature/barrow? may have contained a stone or wooden marker. There was also cobbled flint which has never been seen by archaeologists before! Consent for more excavation is needed from SM. A report may be out next year in February or March.
Ghastly English Heritage book to be pulped. (Score: 1) by TheCaptain on Tuesday, 14 October 2008 (User Info | Send a Message)
The Government body responsible for maintaining the nation's historic monuments has been forced to withdraw a children's guide to Stonehenge because it was littered with factual errors. The book, called The Ghastly Book Of Stonehenge, has become a laughing stock among archaeologists because of its many blunders. English Heritage, which receives £129million a year in Government funding, has recalled 4,500 copies of the £3 book and now plans to pulp them.
Stonehenge Partiers Came From Afar, Cattle Teeth Show (Score: 1) by coldrum on Friday, 23 January 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Prehistoric cattle remains found close to Stonehenge suggest that partying pilgrims brought the animals from afar, scientists report.
The remains support a theory that the megalithic monument near Salisbury, in southern England, drew ancient peoples from distant regions to celebrate important feast ceremonies. And the feasts, it seems, were movable.
Cattle slaughtered during ritual festivities at the site may have come from as far away as Wales, Jane Evans of the United Kingdom's Natural Environment Research Council announced this week at the British Association Festival of Science in Liverpool.
The discovery is based on 4,500-year-old cattle teeth and bones recently unearthed at a late Stone Age village at Durrington Walls (learn more), less than two miles (three kilometers) from the famous stone circle.
"We are seeing physical evidence of the movement of populations into the [Stonehenge] area for the feasting," said Evans, a member of the research team.
Probably Wales
Researchers analyzed isotopes, or different varieties, of atoms of the chemical element strontium that was preserved in the animals' tooth enamel. These atoms provide a chemical insight into the geology of the region where the animal lived.
The findings indicate all but one of the cattle studied were raised beyond the chalky, limestone-rich lands that surround Stonehenge and define much of southern England, Evans said.
And teeth samples from two cattle suggest they came from outside England altogether.
"These animals were grazing on soils that developed on relatively old rocks," Evans said, adding that the nearest locations where such rocks are found are Wales and Scotland.
Wales is the likelier of the two, Evans said, because it is closer to Stonehenge and has other archaeological connections. For instance, the Stonehenge monument includes bluestones that were transported from southwest Wales.
The new findings, which have yet to be published, are based on the work of Sarah Viner, a graduate student who was working under the supervision of animal archaeologist Umberto Albarella at Britain's University of Sheffield.
The new chemical analysis wasn't precise enough to pinpoint the prehistoric cattle's exact origins, but the results prove that people were taking their livestock to Stonehenge from elsewhere in Britain, Albarella said.
"People were gathering from quite a large region," he said.
Furthermore, cattle bones excavated at the ancient settlement revealed no evidence of newborn calves. "If you have a site where animals were actually reared, you will almost certainly find a number of newborn casualties, but we are not finding that at all," Albarella said.
"So I'm pretty confident this is a consumer site," he added. "It is a site with a special purpose—where people are gathering, probably for feasting and eating an awful lot of meat."
Albarella is one of a large team of experts working on the Stonehenge Riverside Project, a continuing archaeological investigation led by Mike Parker Pearson, also from the University of Sheffield.
Parker Pearson, who has received funding from the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, proposes that Stonehenge and Durrington Walls were intimately connected. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)
The archaeologist said the two sites had corresponding standing circles—one of stone, and one of timber—that symbolized the realms of the living and the dead to ancestor-worshipping ancient Britons.
(Related story: "Stonehenge Was Cemetery First and Foremost, Study Says" [May 29, 2008])
Pagan Partying
The hundreds of prehistoric dwellings recently discovered at Durrington are thought to represent a seasonal village that accommo
New row hits Stonehenge (Score: 1) by coldrum on Friday, 30 January 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
New row hits Stonehenge
Heritage bodies' clash over site of visitor centre threatens to delay project beyond 2012
A last-gasp attempt to build a "world-class visitor centre at Stonehenge in time for the 2012 Olympics is in tatters because of a major row between the country's two leading heritage organisations over its location.
After spending £38 million of public money over almost 20 years on aborted schemes, including most recently one by Denton Corker Marshall, then architecture minister Margaret Hodge promised last December to have a £20 million temporary centre ready for the influx of tourists during the 2012 games.
But with little more than six months remaining before a planning application needs to be submitted, the project is in deadlock after the National Trust and English Heritage clashed over which site it should be built on.
A major announcement was expected from Hodge's successor Barbara Follett last week, but was postponed until January because several stakeholders, includingthe National Trust objected to the centre being built at the archaeologically significant Fargo Plantation.
The Fargo proposal is also controversial because it is in the world heritage site. Objectors want the centre further from the stones.
Local MP Robert Key, who with EH and the Department for Culture Media & Sport backs the Fargo site, said: "I met Barbara Follett last Wednesday. She had hoped to announce a decision [last week], but the National Trust would not agree to the proposals.
She is now banging heads together.
"This [the Fargo site] is the only game in town. If we want to make progress, it's the only option."
“The project is in deadlock after English Heritage and the National Trust clashed over which site should be chosen”
The National Trust, which owns much of the land around Stonehenge, would not comment on its objections to the Fargo site, but the Council for British Archaeology described it as "the least acceptable" option.
Director Mike Heyworth told BD: "There's a conspiracy to make the National Trust look isolated - It’s nonsense. Every archaeology body except EH opposes Fargo.”
One expert in heritage law has even claimed EH’s preferred site could breach international law.
Peter Alexander-Fitzgerald, a member of the International Council on Monuments & Sites (Icomos) world heritage committee, said: “Constructing the centre within the world heritage site is contrary to international law. The agreement the government entered into was that it would not encourage development within it.”
An EH spokeswoman said: “There are differences, but they’re not insurmountable. We’re aware of the tight deadline, and hope to come to an agreement in the new year.”
A DCMS spokesman strongly denied that development within the site was contrary to international law, adding that ministers would meet next month to decide on the “next steps”.
As BD revealed earlier this month, practices including Denton Corker Marshall, Edward Cullinan, White Design, Make and Bennetts Associates, have been shortlisted for the visitor centre.
Acoustics unlock clues to Stonehenge, lecturer says (Score: 1) by coldrum on Friday, 30 January 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Acoustics unlock clues to Stonehenge, lecturer says
A LECTURER from Huddersfield says he is slowly unravelling the truth behind Stonehenge by using an innovative approach.
Dr Rupert Till, an expert in music technology and acoustics, is using cutting-edge acoustic technology to try to decode the secrets of the stones and expose aspects of Neolithic culture previously only guessed at.
His research shows certain sounds would have been more easily produced and encouraged, which could give an insight into what kind of activities took place at the site.
Dr Till said: “There are two main theories about what Stonehenge was used for – one is that it was a healing space, the other that it was a place of the dead, both implying ritual activity.
“Our research shows that there are particular spots in the site that produce unusual particular acoustic effects, intimating that perhaps a priest or a shaman may have stood there, leading the ritual.”
He also said the study may tie the two main competing theories together as rhythms were discovered that point to a place of healing and of dead.
“Archaeologists have been able to gather evidence about the tools that were used and the way the stone was shaped, but everything is usually based on visual aspects of the site, and it’s important to look at other elements too,” he said.
“Stonehenge is unique now, but at the time there would not have been anything quite like it in Europe, and it had a very unusual sound.
“By simulating this sound we can hope to understand more about English culture from 5000 years ago, and perhaps better understand both our ancestors and our culture today.”
The Big Question:What do new discoveries tell us about Stonehenge (Score: 1) by bat400 on Friday, 13 March 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Originally submitted by coldrum: a summary of recently proposed theories and discovered facts about Stonehenge.
Why are we asking this now?
Archaeologists have recently excavated a small area within Britain's most famous Stone Age site and found evidence to suggest that Stonehenge was once a centre of healing, where people would come from far and wide in the hope of being cured of their ills. The scientists have also been able to date the construction of the first stone circle to between 2600BC and 2400BC. This would mean that the ring's original bluestones, carried to the site on Salisbury Plain from a quarry in South Wales, were put up about 300 years later than previously thought.
What is the evidence that Stonehenge was a healing centre?
It is not very straightforward, but then again nothing ever is with this mysterious ancient monument. The two archaeologists, Professor Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright, first of all noted the abnormal number of corpses found in tombs nearby Stonehenge that display signs of serious physical injury or disease.
The two archaeologists also found that about three times as many stone chipping were taken from the bluestones compared to the Sarsen stones. "It could be that people were flaking off pieces of bluestones, in order to create little bit to take away... as lucky amulets," Prof Wainwright said.
Are there any other speculations about Stonehenge?
Lots, but we won't go into the more outlandish ones. What is obvious is that Stonehenge was built to celebrate or mark the summer and winter solstices. The alignment of the stones are designed to mark the two solstices, and hence the points at which summer and winter reach their mid-points. Some scholars have gone further to suggest that Stonehenge was a far more sophisticated astronomical instrument that could, for instance, be used to predict lunar eclipse. They believe that the inner "horseshoe" of 19 bluestones at the centre of the circle acted as a long-term calendar to calculate when the next lunar eclipse would occur.
Another theory is that Stonehenge was an elaborate burial site for important people. Professor Mike Parker Pearson, an archaeologist at Sheffield University, believes that the stone structure was the "domain of the dead", whereas the nearby "wooden henge" structure at Durrington Wells a couple of miles away was the "domain of the living".
So was there more than one ancient structure in the vicinity?
Yes. In fact the stone circles came after an even earlier wooden structure which of course has not survived. But in addition to this, the Durrington Wells site nearby also had a wooden henge, a circular structure that also marked the solstices. Durrington Wells was also the site of a large, 300-house seasonal village, according to Prof Parker Pearson.
This would have made it one of the biggest settlement in north-west Europe at that time. No human burials have been found at Durrington Wells, although 29 cremation burials have been found at Stonehenge during excavations that took place in the 1920s. Some archaeologists believe there may have been 240 people buried at Stonehenge during prehistoric times and that they may be the descendents of a single family who over several generations were awarded the privilege of having their remains interred at the sacred site.
"I don't think it was the common people getting buried at Stonehenge," Prof Parker Pearson said. "It was clearly a special place at that time. One has to assume that anyone buried there had some good credentials. … Archaeologists have long speculated about whether Stonehenge was put up by prehistoric chiefs, perhaps even ancient royalty."
What else is known about the site?
It was almost certainly a gathering place for many years for people from all over southern Britain and possibly Europe. Jane Evans of the British Geological Survey has found evidence for instance that people brought their
Stonehenge tunnel & visitors centre update. (Score: 1) by bat400 on Friday, 13 March 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Submitted by graemefield:
Mention the "Stonehenge saga" and most people think of decades of frustrating delay, indecision and inactivity. But we're inclined to take a more cheerful view. It looks possible that an announcement is imminent that will mark an important stage - not the end of the discussions but an end, at least, to the worst of the threats to the monument.
There have been two. For a long time the "official" push was for a "short tunnel" involving building two miles of new roadway over the World Heritage Area in defiance of the wishes of UNESCO and practically every archaeological and heritage body. So much for public consultation! Thankfully, finance came to the monument's aid and the plan was abandoned.
Relief was short lived. Another "official threat" speedily replaced it. Following a public consultation on where the new Visitors Centre should be built it became clear that the "official" view was that it should be built at Fargo Plantation - not only in the middle of the World Heritage Area but close to the stones and terribly intrusive - once again in defiance of the wishes of UNESCO and practically every archaeological and heritage body. So much for public consultation - again!
Very fortunately, it seems that the National Trust has stuck its toes in and thanks to them it may now be built further away, somewhere near Airman's Cross.
Re: Stonehenge tunnel & visitors centre update. (Score: 1) by AngieLake on Friday, 13 March 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Durrington WELLS ?!! Steve Connor from the Independent obviously hadn't done his homework properly!
...and this item is from a newspaper published in Sept 2008.
Angie Lake Comment (Score: 1) by bat400 on Saturday, 14 March 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Can you help me here? I don't see any reference to "Durrington WELLS" or Steve Connor. The submitted article seems to be a January reprint from Heritage Action, discussing the plans as they stood following the end of the public comment period last year. Is the link taking you somewhere other than "Heritage Action"?
Re: Angie Lake Comment (Score: 1) by AngieLake on Sunday, 15 March 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Sorry bat400, I added the comment to the wrong item! Going senile!!
Should have been with the previous one you posted.
'The Big Question: What do new discoveries tell us, etc...'
Touching the stones. Also, replicas elsewhere. (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Friday, 08 May 2009
There are times when it is permitted to go right up to the stones at Stonehenge, although English Heritage doesn't publicise this as much as they should: Can you touch the stones at Stonehenge?
Stonehenge centre gets go-ahead (Score: 1) by Andy B on Thursday, 14 May 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
A £25m plan to revitalise the world-renowned Stonehenge in Wiltshire, including diverting a nearby road, has been announced by the government.
Also included in the plan from the Stonehenge Programme Board are proposals for a new visitor centre at nearby Airman's Corner.
The news means work can start on design, seeking planning permission and raising cash to deliver the project.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the project in the Commons.
Funding will be provided through a range of private and public sources, including English Heritage, Heritage Lottery Fund and the Highways Agency
Our vision for Stonehenge has always been a simple one: to restore a sense of dignity and wonder to its setting
English Heritage
The chosen site at Airman's Corner is about one-and-a-half miles (2.4km) west from the current visitor centre, at the edge of the World Heritage Site.
The announcement is still subject to a detailed business case, planning permission and funding.
A spokesman for English Heritage said its vision for Stonehenge has always been a simple one: to restore a sense of dignity and wonder to its setting, and provide visitors with a really high quality experience.
Stonehenge centre plans welcomed
"I believe the plans announced today will do this, and significantly improve what we have there at present."
In 2000, two projects were planned - to remove roads from around Stonehenge by placing the nearby A303 in a tunnel, and to relocate visitor facilities to a new centre, away from the stones.
But in 2007, the government announced it would not continue with a published scheme for an A303 tunnel in view of the estimated cost of around £500m.
The project board was re-convened and in December 2008, and following public consultation on the future of Stonehenge, two options for the location of a new visitor centre were proposed - Fargo Plantation and Airman's Corner.
Re: Stonehenge centre gets go-ahead (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Tuesday, 02 June 2009
Good Time Team last night. Seemed to give some good answers. Particularly interesting that the sarsens were finished a few hundred yards from the monument and that the chippings were left in situ. To me, this implies an effort to remember the work that had gone into shaping and raising of the stones. Also nice to confirm that there were about 1000 'houses' within Durrington. No mention of astronomical alignments apart from the obvious Solstice sunrises and sunsets. There are certainly many alignments at Stonehenge and it would have been nice to hear their views on them in relation to their recent digs.
Stonehenge summer solstice will not be like G20, police pledge (Score: 1) by coldrum on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Stonehenge officers try to quell 'zero tolerance' fears
Sceptics say use of spy drones will ruin event
Police today tried to allay growing concern that a "zero tolerance" approach during the summer solstice celebrations at Stonehenge could lead to serious trouble.
Officers maintained they would police the ancient site in a fair and sensitive manner and played down comparisons to the tense build-up to last month's G20 protests and to notorious clashes of the past such as the Battle of the Beanfield in 1985, when police stopped a convoy of new age travellers who were hoping to get near the henge for the solstice.
At a meeting today between police, English Heritage, druids and others who attend the event, fears were expressed that trouble could be provoked if the police at the site in Wiltshire clamped down heavily on offences such as possession of cannabis and being drunk and disorderly.
There were also worries that the new police tactics, which include using an unmanned drone that will fly above the stones, and the reintroduction of police horses, could spoil one of the great English celebrations.
At the meeting in Salisbury, Chief Inspector Jon Tapper, of Wiltshire police, admitted that "tactics and methods" were changing. But he promised that policing of the solstice would be very different from the operation in London last month at the G20 protests.
Tapper said: "We are not looking for confrontation."
He said that the solstice would be policed by Wiltshire officers who would not attempt to hide their badges to avoid identification, as happened at the G20 demonstrations. The drone would be used to help make sure the 30,000 people who were expected to attend the celebrations were safe; and there would be only three police horses, also there for "public safety" reasons rather than any crowd control.
Asked whether it was "zero tolerance" policing, Tapper said officers would deal with people committing crimes or acting in an antisocial way at the solstice in the same way they would if offenders were causing trouble in Salisbury city centre on a Saturday night.
Not all were impressed. Arthur Pendragon, a prominent member of the druidic community, said: "The drone will be seen as a spy in the sky and the perception is that horses are used for crowd control."
Pendragon said he had heard that the chief constable, Brian Moore, wanted to see more arrests at the event. Tapper said he would prefer there to be no arrests at all because everyone had behaved well.
But Pendragon said: "You are not policing Salisbury, you are policing Stonehenge for the summer solstice."
He said many members of the pagan community had told him they were staying away from the solstice event because they were afraid there would be trouble.
However, others were reassured. Frank Somers said he had been horrified when he had looked at old clips of the Battle of the Beanfield. But he was feeling calmer after hearing what Tapper had said. He backed the police's stated aim of clamping down on antisocial behaviour, but added: "Stonehenge isn't the centre of Salisbury. It's even more special."
After the meeting, Peter Carson, head of Stonehenge for English Heritage, said the gathering showed that all those interested in the monument could work together. But there remained concern from some that the new tactics could lead to trouble and spoil the feel of the event.
Brian Viziondanz, for the group Infinite Possibility, which supports peaceful protest, said he took the police reassurances with a pinch of salt and added: "There's a shroud coming down on our freedom. There is more and more control over our lives. It's a monster coming into our society."
New Exhibition: Inspired by Stonehenge (Score: 1) by coldrum on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
New Exhibition: Inspired by Stonehenge
A new exhibition featuring memorabilia about Stonehenge opens at Wiltshire Heritage Museum on 16 May 2009.
Inspired by Stonehenge focuses on the changing ways the monument has inspired and been experienced by visitors throughout the past two centuries. Well-known archaeologist and broadcaster Julian Richards, who has publicised extensively about Stonehenge, has, as guest curator, compiled the exhibition and written the exhibition catalogue. It is hoped the exhibition will rekindle not only concern for the monument, but a willingness to embrace and take care of Wiltshire’s wilder heritage.
The exhibition contains a variety of objects, graphics, music and moving images including postcards and guidebooks, clothing, paperweights and snow globes, jigsaw puzzles, horse brasses, toasting forks and even a stamp from the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan that shows Disney characters Mickey Mouse and Pluto at Stonehenge. There is also a quantity of souvenir china – some more attractive than others. Once visitors have viewed the exhibition they can vote for the item they consider to be in the worst possible taste!
Youngsters are encouraged to be ‘Inspired by Stonehenge’, and are invited to send in photographs of their own Stonehenge models for display in the Museum over the summer.
The exhibition has been jointly put together by Wiltshire Heritage Museum and Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum and was funded by a grant from the HLF. As part of the exhibition a number of special events have been planned to involve the local community more closely with local heritage and encourage them to visit historical sites and museums. Julian Richards will be presenting a lecture ‘Souvenirs of Stonehenge, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ at Devizes Town Hall on 18 July at 2.30pm. The Museum’s Summer Family Day on 2 August will have events and activities linked to Stonehenge.
Lisa Webb, Curator, who is also involved in preparing the exhibition said “it has been a pleasure to work with Julian Richards on this exhibition and to consider Stonehenge from an inspirational viewpoint rather than as an archaeological puzzle”
The exhibition runs from Saturday 16 May to 20 September. Usual admission charges apply. Tickets for Julian Richards’ lecture are available from the Museum and cost £10. The Family Day will take place on Sunday 2 August, 11am – 4pm.
Sacred stones: unravelling Stonehenge (Score: 1) by coldrum on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Stonehenge is one of the world's best known monuments. But why it was built remains a riddle – one that the first archaeological dig in 40 years sought to solve.
The druids arrived around 4 pm. Under a warm afternoon Sun, the group of eight walked slowly, to the beat of a single drum, snaking from the visitor's entrance toward the looming, majestic stone monument.
With the pounding of the drum growing louder, the retinue approached the outer circle of massive stone trilithon 'arches' – each made up of two huge pillars capped by a stone lintel – and passed through to the inner circle.
They were greeted by Timothy Darvill, professor of archaeology at Bournemouth University, and Geoffrey Wainwright, president of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
For two weeks, the pair had been leading the first excavation in 44 years of the inner circle of Stonehenge – the best-known and most mysterious megalithic monument in the world. Now it was time to refill the pit they had dug. The Druids had come to offer their blessings, as they had done 14 days earlier before the first shovel went into the ground.
"At the beginning we warned the spirits of the land that this would be happening and not to feel invaded," said one of their number who gave his name only as Frank. "Now we're offering a big thank-you to the ancestors who we asked to give up knowledge to our generation."
The Druids tossed seven grains of wheat into the pit, one for each continent, and offered a prayer to provide food for the world's hungry. The gesture seemed fitting, given the nature of the excavation; while other experts have speculated that Stonehenge was a prehistoric observatory or a royal burial ground, Darvill and Wainwright are intent on proving it was primarily a sacred place of healing, where the sick came to be cured and the injured and infirm restored.
Darvill and Wainwright's theory rests on bluestones – unexceptional igneous rocks, such as dolerite and rhyolite – so called because they take on a bluish hue when wet or cut. Over the centuries, legends have endowed these stones with mystical properties. The British poet Layamon, inspired by the folkloric accounts of 12th-century cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth, wrote in 1215: The stones are great; And magic power they have; Men that are sick; Fare to that stone; And they wash that stone; And with that water bathe away their sickness.
We now know that Stonehenge was in the making for at least 400 years. The first phase, built around 3000 BC, was a simple circular earthwork enclosure similar to many 'henges' (sacred enclosures typically comprising a circular bank and a ditch) found throughout the British Isles. Around 2800 BC, timber posts were erected within the enclosure. Again, such posts are not unusual – Woodhenge, for example, which once consisted of tall posts arranged in a series of six concentric oval rings, lies only a few kilometres to the east.
Archaeologists have long believed that Stonehenge began to take on its modern form two centuries later, when large stones were brought to the site in the third and final stage of its construction. The first to be put in place were the 80 or so bluestones, which were arranged in a double circle with an entrance facing northeast. "Their arrival is when Stonehenge was transformed from a quite ordinary and typical monument into something unusual," says Andrew Fitzpatrick of Wessex Archaeology, a not-for-profit organisation based in Salisbury.
The importance of the bluestones is underscored by the immense effort involved in moving them a long distance – some were as long as three metres and weighed four tonnes. Geological studies in the 1920s determined that they came from the Preseli Mountains in southwest Wales, 225 km from Stonehenge. Some geologists have argued that glaciers moved the stones, but most experts now believe that humans undertook the momentous task.
Historic Stonehenge, Amesbury, Wiltshire: Walk (Score: 1) by coldrum on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Historic Stonehenge, Amesbury, Wiltshire: Walk ID 4755
Walk in a nutshell
This is a walk steeped in history that takes you through sweeping National Trust-protected downland, past a number of exceptional prehistoric sites and alongside the world-famous Stonehenge.
Walk ID 4755
1. Classification Moderate
2. Distance 11.3km (7 miles)
3. Typical duration 3 hours 30 minutes
4. Height gain 146m
5. Starting point Parish church of St Mary and St Melor, Amesbury
6. OS grid reference SU152413 (Explorer map 130)
Why it's special
The walk starts in the town of Amesbury, said to be where Arthur's queen Guinevere ended her days, and leads you through picturesque countryside littered with grassy ridges and mounds that are actually ancient burial chambers and mysterious earthworks. You'll pass through the King Barrows, a collection of round and long burial mounds situated on a prominent ridge and divided into two groups by what's known as the Stonehenge Avenue. By step 6 of the walk you'll be in the centre of the Cursus, a massive earthwork 3km long and 100m wide that's aligned with the equinox sunrise and is several hundred years older than the earliest phase of Stonehenge. Towards the end of the route you'll pass the Normanton Down Barrows, a cemetery of round burial mounds dating from 2600BC to 1600BC with a clear line of site to Stonehenge about a kilometre away.
Keep your eyes peeled for
The great bustard, extinct in the British Isles since 1832 and reintroduced to Salisbury Plain in 2004. The males have a wingspan of 2.5 metres.
But bear in mind
Access into the stone circle at Stonehenge is only possible if you book and pay in advance, and happens outside normal visiting hours.
Recover afterwards
Spitting distance from the end of the walk is the Antrobus Arms hotel, where you can grab a doorstop sandwich in the bar or fill up at the Sunday carvery.
If it's tipping down
Head 30km west to Longleat Safari Park. The lions and tigers may be soaking wet but you'll be nice and dry in the car. Or give up on the outside all together and explore the nooks and crannies of the house.
longleat.co.uk
How to get there
By car
Amesbury is on the A345, 8km north of Salisbury. There is a small public car park near the parish church.
By public transport
Buses run to Amesbury from Salisbury train station and take about 15 minutes.
1. With the parish church of St Mary and St Melor on the right, walk towards the bridge over the river Avon, then on a little further.
2. Round a bend, go along Stonehenge Road on a pavement passing Park Farm, then beside a dual carriageway (still on a pavement) for a short distance. Pass the thatched cottages and cross the road with care.
3. Take a footpath through a walkers' gate into a National Trust area where the New King Barrows stand on the right.
4. Turn left on a track signed to Cursus and Larkhill and walk beside a wooded area to a corner.
5. Turn left and take the stile ahead on a National Trust-permitted path to follow a fenceline in pastures. Cross a stile, then another, before bearing slightly left to head for a stile in the distance.
6. Climb over it and turn left, now at the centre of the Stonehenge Cursus. Walk on to pass the car park of Stonehenge, cross the road to continue on a track, Stonehenge just over to the left and the Normanton Barrows in view ahead.
7. Cross the road and take the track directly in front of you, walk along it for a short way and turn left at a signpost marked Amesbury across the field (at this point you are walking parallel with the A303). Cross this field to the next boundary and turn right.
8. Turn right on to a green track on a steady incline.
9. Turn left on a permissive path. Bear left from a marker
British government plans $44-million makeover for Stonehenge (Score: 1) by coldrum on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
The British government has announced plans for major improvements at Stonehenge to be completed ahead of the 2012 Olympics, when hordes of visitors are expected.
The hotly debated plans call for one of the roads near the prehistoric monument to be closed and grassed over to make the site more tranquil and to link the mysterious stone circle to the rest of the site.
In addition, the antiquated visitor’s centre right next to the site will be shut down and replaced by a modern reception centre about 2.5 kilometres from the stones. Visitors will be able to use the centre and then take a bus to the site, officials said.
The plan is expected to cost about 25 million pounds ($44.3 million), officials said.
Stonehenge is a World Heritage Site that is one of the most visited monuments in Britain.
Gateway to the infinite (Score: 1) by coldrum on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Gateway to the infinite
Nowhere evokes Britain's long-gone past so powerfully as Stonehenge. But was this really a place of sacrifice? Jonathan Jones explores.
There is a hollow in the fields to the north of Stonehenge where time stops. As sheep trot away from the intruder, their baas are barely interrupted by the distant rumble of traffic. On the crest of the slope that rises before you, the stones are black against the bright sky. You can't see people around them from this angle. Their setting is such that, behind them, the earth seems to vanish. Stonehenge: gateway to the infinite.
It is no accident that such a perfect view of Stonehenge rewards the walker at this spot. Where you're standing is in fact a turning point on an ancient route, formally marked out by earth banks, that seems to have been the sacred approach to the standing stone circle on Salisbury Plain. It has been called the Avenue since it was first noticed by 18th-century antiquarians. In spring it's almost impossible to see the lines of the Avenue in the new-grown green, but in a winter frost, the course of the ancient earthwork is far more visible.
At this point at the bottom of the prominence known as King Barrow Ridge, pilgrims in the Neolithic age would have turned to face Stonehenge and their hearts might have filled with awe at the final approach towards the most ambitious architectural structure in the northern Europe of their day. Despite all the modern mismanagement of Stonehenge - the roads, the car park, the shabby visitor centre far too close to the ruins - just by going for a walk near the ruins you can still experience something of this ancient wonder.
A walk in the vicinity of Stonehenge, like the 11km circuit you'll find overleaf, is not just a nice stroll in the country with a stone circle as backdrop. It's the best way to appreciate the mystery of Britain's greatest monument. By walking these largely National Trust-managed fields, studded with enigmatic barrows - earthen mounds containing tombs - of various shapes and sizes, arranged in eerie, crop circle-like patterns, you get a deeper and more evocative glimpse of the world that created Stonehenge than you do by a quick visit to the megalithic structure.
Companions ancient and modern can illuminate your walk. William Stukeley was an 18th-century visionary - or nutcase, depending on your point of view - who first created the modern myth that Stonehenge is a temple of the druids where human sacrifice was performed. In reality, it was built in different stages between about 3000BC and 1600BC. The druids emerged at least a thousand years after its latest construction phase. Stonehenge is the creation of remote and elusive people of the late stone age and the bronze age. They left no literary records, so everything that is known of Stonehenge is known through archaeology, the study of physical remains in their context. By walking near Stonehenge you can play at being an archaeologist for a day (but don't take that too literally ... no shovels please).
Eccentric as he was, Stukeley was a great observer of the British landscape. He marked out the course of the barely visible Avenue and, to its north and west, noticed an incredibly long, narrow earthwork arena named the Cursus. Walk along the low, fragmentary traces of this structure and you encounter some of the weird barrows that constellate around Stonehenge. The Cursus barrows are circular mounds arranged in a line parallel to the earthwork. It's quite eerie standing beside them in the long grass. Follow the Cursus still further, to its western end, and you find a solitary, regal-seeming barrow where it's easy to imagine a powerful chief lies interred.
More than two centuries on from Stukeley's haunting engravings of this landscape, it is among the barrows and earthworks of these fields that many modern archaeologists seek the meaning of Stonehenge, and as you walk the fields it becomes powerfully apparent that ancien
Bill is working on a series of exhibitions related to Stonehenge. These include 'an intimate portrait' of the monument which draws the viewer closer and closer to the Stones, and a multimedia visual poem which approaches the place of Stonehenge in the modern cultural landscape and explores the people associated with the monument. The online exhibition comprises images for an intimate portrait and a small number of elemnts of the visual poem. The work is the result of a personal journey of discovery made at the Stones during one week in September 2007. i hope you enjoy. Bill 2009.
LECTURE: Souvenirs of Stonehenge - 18th July 2009 (Score: 1) by coldrum on Friday, 26 June 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Saturday 18th July 2009
LECTURE: Souvenirs of Stonehenge - the good, the bad and the ugly
by JULIAN RICHARDS. A special lecture linked to the 'Inspired by Stonehenge' exhibition at the Museum with an opportunity to view the exhibition and meet Julian. Tickets can be booked on-line.
Stonehenge is an icon, its unique stones recognisable the world over and celebrated over the centuries in paintings, engravings and photographs.
But Stonehenge has inspired far more than great art. For the last century postcards sent by visitors chart its changing face and record their (varied) impressions, from awe to disappointment. 'Not as big as I thought' and 'there is nothing here but the ticket office and that is not interesting enough'.
Julian is an avid collector of souvenirs depicting Stonehenge - from the tasteful to the hideous! This talk and the exhibition at the Museum are drawn from his varied and eclectic collection.
Beyond the standard postcard views the image of Stonehenge has appeared on everything from souvenir china (ranging from tasteful to hideous); on jigsaw puzzles and toasting forks, on paperweights and even on Japanese phone cards. Couple these with guidebooks from 1823 onwards, the extraordinary artistic offerings of the Festival era in the 1970s and 80s and some very odd articles of clothing and these souvenirs can quite literally be divided into 'the good, the bad and the ugly'.
Stonehenge has even inspired music, from jazz to heavy rock, folk and quite frankly strange.
Julian Richards is a well-known archaeologist and broadcaster. He has worked for Wessex Archaeology, AC Archaeology and English Heritage and during the 1980s ran the ‘Stonehenge Environs Project’. His television credits include Meet the Ancestors and Blood of the Vikings and he continues to work on the BBC Radio 4 series Mapping the Town. He is a member of the Society of Antiquaries and the Institute of Field Archaeologists.
Following the lecture, ticket-holders can view the exhibition free of charge and meet Julian who will be signing books.
This lecture is linked to the Inspired by Stonehenge exhibition which is taking place at the Museum until 20 September.
Stonehenge visitor centre looks 'cheap and nasty' (Score: 1) by coldrum on Thursday, 01 October 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Stonehenge visitor centre looks 'cheap and nasty'
Denton Corker Marshall’s designs for a £25 million Stonehenge visitor centre have been compared to an “immigration detention centre”, just weeks before the planning application is due to be submitted
Following local consultation over the summer, client English Heritage is hoping to submit plans to Wiltshire County Council by the end of this month. It aims to meet the government’s target of opening the temporary facility in time for the influx of tourists attracted by the London 2012 Olympics.
But in a sign that the 20-year Stonehenge visitor centre saga is set to continue, councillor Paul Sample, a former mayor of Salisbury, has attacked the scheme as a “cheap and nasty” addition to the World Heritage Site; while Peter Alexander-Fitzgerald, a member of the International Council on Monuments & Sites, claimed the centre resembled “a derelict aircraft hangar”.
A model of the proposed centre.
A model of the proposed centre.
Denton Corker Marshall had previously worked up plans for a £65 million scheme but this was dropped in 2007 on cost grounds by the then architecture minister, Margaret Hodge. She promised a “world class” alternative would be created.
Sample said: “It’s cheap and nasty and isn’t going to do justice to the site. It looks like an immigration detention centre. It’s not something that makes you feel part of something ancient and mystic.
“We should be building something to last. We should have had an international competition.”
Alexander-Fitzgerald commented: “This looks like an IT student’s first attempt at rendered graphics. It’s amateurish and causes one to wonder about the quality of the finished product.
“If you only get the detailed images at the time of the planning application you can’t give a balanced critical opinion on the suitability of the design. From this image that just has to be no.”
An EH spokesman said the visitor centre would “sit delicately on top of the landscape with minimal impact”.
Btw: See my remark of 29 November 2005 on Meg P, regarding the transport of the dead to S.Henge: http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6501
[under 'Riverside Project']
I wrote to Mike Parker Pearson with that suggestion and he replied favourably.
Druids’ delight at Stonehenge car ban (Score: 1) by coldrum on Wednesday, 07 October 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Druids’ delight at Stonehenge car ban
AFTER nearly three decades of disputes over cost and conservation, Stonehenge is to be freed from the traffic-clogged main road slicing through its historic setting.
Under a scheme to be put to planners tomorrow by English Heritage, which manages the 5,000-year-old monument, a 1.3-mile stretch of the A344 will be closed and a new visitors’ centre and car park will be built. The £28m plan is a scaled-down version of a £600m project to build a road tunnel.
Motorists may be saddened by the prospect of losing a free close-up view of a national icon. Conservationists, however, have long been angry about the failure to remove the polluting eyesore from the archeologically rich landscape around Stonehenge. The area has been designated a world heritage site by Unesco, which has expressed concern about its shabby surroundings.
English Heritage, the quango responsible for state-owned historic sites, hopes the simplified plan will be agreed by Wiltshire county council early next year. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport wants the project completed in time to receive visitors for the 2012 Olympics.
Under the scheme, funded by English Heritage, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Highways Agency and the government, the closed section of the A344 will be grassed over and the visitors’ centre built 1½ miles west of the monument, at a site known as Airman’s Corner. Regular shuttles will take visitors to the monument. Through traffic will be diverted via the A303.
The single-storey centre, in glass and wood, is one of the most contentious parts of the project. English Heritage describes it as “sensitive to its ancient surroundings and having the lightest possible touch on the landscape”, but some critics, having seen mock-ups, have been harsh in their reaction.
Paul Sample, a local councillor and former mayor of Salisbury, has called it “cheap and nasty”, while Peter Alexander-Fitzgerald, a lawyer and member of the Unesco world heritage committee, likened it to “a derelict aircraft hangar”.
At present, most visitors — up to 900,000 a year — come to Stonehenge by car or coach and stop only a few hundred yards away in an unsightly parking area beside the A344. They then walk through an underpass to the monument.
The submission for planning comes as archeologists announced this weekend that they have discovered a mini-Stonehenge, a mile from the main site. The monument has been called Bluehenge after the 27 Welsh blue stones — made of Preseli dotted dolerite — which once formed it. Despite the 5,000-year age of the henge, all that is now left are the holes where the monoliths comprising the circle once stood.
Bluehenge, uncovered over the summer by Sheffield University archeologists, is at one end of the avenue connecting Stonehenge to the River Avon. It is thought it was built about the same time as Stonehenge with stones that would have been dragged 200 miles from the Preseli mountains in Wales. The find is already challenging conventional wisdom about how Stonehenge was built — and what it was used for. The two circles stood together for hundreds of years before Bluehenge was dismantled. Researchers believe its stones were used to enlarge Stonehenge during one of a number of redevelopments.
Professor Tim Darvill, a Stonehenge expert at Bournemouth University, said: “This adds to the richness of the story of Stonehenge. We thought we knew it all, but over the past few years we have discovered that something as familiar as Stonehenge is still a challenge to explore and understand. It wouldn’t surprise me if there weren’t more circles.”
Stonehenge site to get a £25 million facelift (Score: 1) by coldrum on Monday, 12 October 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
A £25 million plan to revitalise the world-renowned Stonehenge site - including closing an adjacent main road - will be submitted today.
The English Heritage proposal for a new visitor centre at Airmen's Corner - 1.5 miles west of the current site near Amesbury in Wiltshire - and plans to close the A344 will be handed to Wiltshire Council.
Stonehenge Winter Solstice 2009 is on the 22nd December (Score: 1) by Andy B on Wednesday, 16 December 2009 (User Info | Send a Message)
Note the open access event is the 22nd Dec this year as this is the closest sunrise to the actual time of the solstice. See this article for up to date information:
Re: Stonehenge Winter Solstice 2009 is on the 22nd December (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Tuesday, 09 February 2010
Radiocarbon dating and analysis of pollen in buried soils, has shown that the environment of lowland Britain changed around 4,250–4,000 BC. The change to a grassland environment from damp, heavy soils and expanses of dense forest was mostly brought about by farmers, probably through the use of slash and burn techniques, although environmental factors may also have made a contribution. Pollen is poorly preserved in the chalky soils found around Avebury, so the best evidence for the state of local environment at any time in the past comes from the study of the deposition of snail shells; different species of snail live in specific habitats so the presence of a certain species indicates what the area was like at a particular point in time.[6] The available evidence suggests that in the early Neolithic, Avebury and the surrounding hills were covered in dense oak woodland, and as the Neolithic progressed, the woodland around Avebury and the nearby monuments receded and was replaced by grassland. 350-001
Stonehenge's secret: archaeologist uncovers evidence of encircling hedges (Score: 1) by Andy B on Wednesday, 17 February 2010 (User Info | Send a Message)
Survey of landscape suggests prehistoric monument was surrounded by two circular hedges.
The Monty Python knights who craved a shrubbery were not so far off the historical mark: archaeologists have uncovered startling evidence of The Great Stonehenge Hedge.
Inevitably dubbed Stonehedge, the evidence from a new survey of the Stonehenge landscape suggests that 4,000 years ago the world's most famous prehistoric monument was surrounded by two circular hedges, planted on low concentric
banks. The best guess of the archaeologists from English Heritage, who carried out the first detailed survey of the landscape of the monument since the Ordnance Survey maps of 1919, is that the hedges could have served as screens keeping even more secret from the crowd the ceremonies carried out by the elite allowed inside the stone circle.
Their findings are revealed tomorrow in British Archaeology magazine, whose editor, Mike Pitts, an archaeologist and expert on Stonehenge himself, said: "It is utterly surprising that this is the first survey for such a long time, but the results are fascinating. Stonehenge never fails to reveal more surprises."
"The time these two concentric hedges around the monument were planted is a matter of speculation, but it may well have been during the Bronze Age. The reason for planting them is enigmatic."
Pitts wonders if the hedges might have been to shelter the watchers from the power of the stones, as much as to ward off their impious gaze.
If the early Bronze Age date is correct, when the hedges were planted the Stonehenge monument already had the formation now familiar to millions of tourists, after centuries when the small bluestones from west Wales and the gigantic sarsens from the Stonehenge plain were continually rearranged.
The survey also found puzzling evidence that there may once have been a shallow mound among the stones, inside the circle. It was flattened long ago, but is shown in some 18th century watercolours though it was written off as artistic licence by artists trying to make the site look even more picturesque. The archaeologists wonder if the circle originally incorporated a mound which could have been a natural geological feature, or an even earlier monument.
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