Recent discoveries indicate the Stonehenge site may have been a place of ancient sun worship before the current megaliths were placed.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/30/strange-pits-at-stonehenge-reveals-new-clues-to-ancient-worship/?test=latestnews
Interesting to see Fox News being used as reference for other than mocking purposes twice on the same day...
That said, I suppose this could be quite fascinating to a historian, but me, I think Stonehenge is cool and beyond that, I give no flying duck at all about why it was built or who built it.
Nobody seems to have considered the possibility that it was a pitch for some ancient ball-game; perhaps a version of multi-team football.
Quote from: Asmodean on December 01, 2011, 03:53:12 AMInteresting to see Fox News being used as reference for other than mocking purposes twice on the same day...
This isn't actually a Fox News story though. It's Fox picking up something off the wire from DiscoveryNews (http://news.discovery.com/history/stonehenge-sun-worship-111129.html) and putting it on their own site for the benefit of their readers.
I myself do watch Fox News, but I watch it to learn what the conservative spin on current events is, rather than to be informed about the news. Their "mistakes" and "inaccuracies" (read: lies) are much too abundant for me to consider them useful as anything but a gauge of the mood of conservatives.
That said, it's an interesting story, and I thank
Ecurb Noselrub for posting it. ;)
Great post, I've long suspected that the original gods were the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. It's a shame that we'll never really know what prehistoric people believed.
Quote from: Too Few Lions on December 01, 2011, 12:58:08 PM
Great post, I've long suspected that the original gods were the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. It's a shame that we'll never really know what prehistoric people believed.
My guess is that practically anything could've been a god, which narrows it down, of course ;D
Quote from: Too Few Lions on December 01, 2011, 12:58:08 PM
Great post, I've long suspected that the original gods were the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. It's a shame that we'll never really know what prehistoric people believed.
You could ask some, humans living their prehistoric lifestyle may be rare, but those only a few generations removed aren't uncommon.
Here's a thread that works for this story. (Thanks to
Lark for the tip.) :)
"Stonehenge: Sarsen stones origin mystery solved" |
BBC (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-53580339)
QuoteThe origin of the giant sarsen stones at Stonehenge has finally been discovered with the help of a missing piece of the site which was returned after 60 years (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-48190588).
A test of the metre-long core was matched with a geochemical study of the standing megaliths.
Archaeologists pinpointed the source of the stones to an area 15 miles (25km) north of the site near Marlborough.
English Heritage's Susan Greaney said the discovery was "a real thrill".
[. . .]
The return of the core, which was removed during archaeological excavations in 1958, enabled archaeologists to analyse its chemical composition.
No-one knew where it was until Robert Phillips, 89, who was involved in those works, decided to return part of it last year.
Researchers first carried out x-ray fluorescence testing of all the remaining sarsens at Stonehenge which revealed most shared a similar chemistry and came from the same area.
They then analysed sarsen outcrops from Norfolk to Devon and compared their chemical composition with the chemistry of a piece of the returned core.
English Heritage said the opportunity to do a destructive test on the core proved "decisive", as it showed its composition matched the chemistry of sarsens at West Woods, just south of Marlborough.
[Continues . . . (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-53580339)]
I had always had a fascination with Stonehenge at least from my teen years forward. I heard of all sorts of stories most of which I've forgotten and were most likely fiction. Ah, but it kept my interest. It still does today for what it actually is.
This has been getting quite a bit of airplay on the BBC news.
fascinating place. i rode my bicycle th here once. i think it was day two on my way to bath.
one of the sarcens had a chiselled out outline of an axe on it, i remember. ancient vandalism
I saw it in 2018 on my way to Wales from London. We hired an English driver and he took us there. I paid for his entrance since he had never been there!! An Englishman who has never seen Stonehenge is like an American who has never seen the Grand Canyon. Get out an explore your world!
yo, Tex
have you been to palo duro canyon?
what a hole in the ground that is.
(https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/palo-duro-canyon/gallery/lighthouse-peak.jpg)
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 31, 2020, 08:38:45 PM
I saw it in 2018 on my way to Wales from London. We hired an English driver and he took us there. I paid for his entrance since he had never been there!! An Englishman who has never seen Stonehenge is like an American who has never seen the Grand Canyon. Get out an explore your world!
:-[ I finally visited the Grand Canyon last year, at age 67. I expect that when a thing is just part of the landscape, it's not all that novel or worth visiting? There are sites in California that I haven't visited, and I've lived here since the '50s, with time away for the US Navy and Florida at Cape Canaveral.
The Grand Canyon is a hoax, perpetrated by the inventor of the grand piano and the subsequent generations. "THINK FOR YOURSELF"
I went to the Grand Canyon in 2014, after stopping by Vegas for a little while. ;D
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on August 03, 2020, 01:43:30 AM
I went to the Grand Canyon in 2014, after stopping by Vegas for a little while. ;D
How much did you loose?
My son is the only person I know who goes to Vagas and makes money!
Quote from: billy rubin on July 31, 2020, 09:19:25 PM
yo, Tex
have you been to palo duro canyon?
what a hole in the ground that is.
(https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/palo-duro-canyon/gallery/lighthouse-peak.jpg)
Yes, that's the Lighthouse formation. I've climbed to the flat mesa below it.
Quote from: Tank on August 07, 2020, 12:37:15 PM
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on August 03, 2020, 01:43:30 AM
I went to the Grand Canyon in 2014, after stopping by Vegas for a little while. ;D
How much did you loose?
My son is the only person I know who goes to Vagas and makes money!
I had planned to go to Vegas, not so much to gamble but to see the shows like The Blue Man Group. I won't get to now of course. If I were to gamble, knowing my luck I'd be leaving IOU's at the roulette table.
Quote from: Tank on August 07, 2020, 12:37:15 PM
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on August 03, 2020, 01:43:30 AM
I went to the Grand Canyon in 2014, after stopping by Vegas for a little while. ;D
How much did you loose?
My son is the only person I know who goes to Vagas and makes money!
Heh, who said I gambled anything? :P
I went there with my mother, and basically the only reason we went there was because it's close to the Grand Canyon. ;D
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on August 22, 2020, 11:04:54 PM
Quote from: Tank on August 07, 2020, 12:37:15 PM
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on August 03, 2020, 01:43:30 AM
I went to the Grand Canyon in 2014, after stopping by Vegas for a little while. ;D
How much did you loose?
My son is the only person I know who goes to Vagas and makes money!
Heh, who said I gambled anything? :P
I went there with my mother, and basically the only reason we went there was because it's close to the Grand Canyon. ;D
You went to Vagas and didn't at least play one slot machine! :Gaah:
Quote from: Tank on August 23, 2020, 09:13:10 AM
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on August 22, 2020, 11:04:54 PM
Quote from: Tank on August 07, 2020, 12:37:15 PM
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on August 03, 2020, 01:43:30 AM
I went to the Grand Canyon in 2014, after stopping by Vegas for a little while. ;D
How much did you loose?
My son is the only person I know who goes to Vagas and makes money!
Heh, who said I gambled anything? :P
I went there with my mother, and basically the only reason we went there was because it's close to the Grand Canyon. ;D
You went to Vagas and didn't at least play one slot machine! :Gaah:
;D
My mother is a born-again christian and against gambling, so even if I wanted to, how would I be able to gamble a few bucks? :P
Strangely enough in many hotels on the Strip didn't have much people gambling in them when I went. Mostly just senior citizens, probably gambling their retirements away. Granted, I went into those hotels during the day, and they most likely they fill up with people at night. :notsure:
Definitively determined that the stones weren't carried to the Salisbury Plain by glaciers. As much as anything in science is definitive. They failed to find evidence of glaciers. I thought it was already generally agreed among paleontologists/archaeologists that people got the stones there, but of course there would be some who supported an alternate hypothesis. ;)
"A century-old Stonehenge mystery may finally be solved" |
ScienceDaily (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260127010208.htm)
QuoteNew research from Curtin University offers the clearest scientific support so far that people, rather than glaciers, carried Stonehenge's well known bluestones to the ancient monument. The findings take aim at one of archaeology's longest running debates and add weight to the idea that the stones were deliberately moved by human hands.
The study focuses on how the Altar Stone and other massive rocks ended up at Stonehenge, a question that has puzzled researchers for generations. By ruling out natural ice driven transport, the research strengthens the case for purposeful human planning and effort.
To investigate the stones' journey, Curtin scientists used advanced mineral "fingerprinting" methods to study microscopic grains found in rivers near Salisbury Plain in southern England. These tiny mineral fragments act like geological time capsules, preserving evidence of how sediments moved across Britain over millions of years.
Using world leading instruments at Curtin's John de Laeter Centre, the team examined more than 500 zircon crystals. Zircon is one of the toughest minerals on Earth, making it ideal for tracking ancient geological processes.
Lead author Dr. Anthony Clarke from the Timescales of Minerals Systems Group in Curtin's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences said the analysis revealed no indication that glaciers ever reached the Stonehenge area.
"If glaciers had carried rocks all the way from Scotland or Wales to Stonehenge, they would have left a clear mineral signature on the Salisbury Plain," Dr. Clarke said.
"Those rocks would have eroded over time, releasing tiny grains that we could date to understand their ages and where they came from.
"We looked at the river sands near Stonehenge for some of those grains the glaciers might have carried and we did not find any. That makes the alternative explanation - that humans moved the stones - far more plausible."
[Continues . . . (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260127010208.htm)]
The paper is open access:
"Detrital zircon–apatite fingerprinting challenges glacial transport of Stonehenge's megaliths" |
Nature Communications Earth & Environment (https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-03105-3)
QuoteAbstract:
How Stonehenge's building blocks arrived on Salisbury Plain remains debated, with glacial and human transport mechanisms proposed.
Here we test the possibility of Pleistocene glacial sediment input using grain-scale U–Pb fingerprinting of detrital zircon and apatite from modern stream sediments surrounding Stonehenge. Zircon ages span 3396–285 Ma, with age peaks at ~1090, 1690, and 1740 Ma, matching the Laurentian basement of northern Britain.
Salisbury Plain detrital zircon ages match those of southern British rocks sourced from the London Basin, implying local sediment recycling rather than glaciogenic transport. Apatite ages of ~60 Ma reflect post-depositional U–Pb resetting, consistent with the distal effects of the Alpine orogeny.
Collectively, our data show Salisbury Plain remained unglaciated during the Pleistocene, making direct glacial transport of Stonehenge's megaliths unlikely.
Last ice sheets melted away from England 10,000 years ago.
They didn't get as far south as the Wiltshire Downs.
Stonehenge only dates from 5,000 years ago.
Stones transported by rafts then rollers from South West Wales is the most likely.