Posted on 07/24/2005 1:07:56 PM PDT by blam
Scientists seek fresh chance to dig up Stonehenge's secrets
Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday July 24, 2005
The Observer (UK)
Stonehenge has always mystified. Julius Caesar thought it was the work of druids, medieval scholars believed it was the handiwork of Merlin, while local folk tales simply blamed the devil. Now scientists are demanding a full-scale research programme be launched to update our knowledge of the monument and discover precisely who built it and its burial barrow graves.
This is the key recommendation of Stonehenge: an Archaeological Research Framework, edited by Timothy Darvill of Bournemouth University, soon to be published by English Heritage. It highlights serious flaws in our knowledge of the monument, which is now a World Heritage Site.
'Stonehenge has not been well served by archaeology,' admitted Dr David Miles, chief archaeology adviser to English Heritage. 'Much of the area was excavated in the 19th century, when gentleman amateurs - glorified treasure-hunters, really - would get their labourers to dig great trenches straight into its barrows and graves.
'Then they would ransack them, taking away the human remains and grave goods. It was Indiana Jones stuff. We need to get that material back.'
Even in the 20th century, archaeological work, although carried out by professionals, was generally poor, said Miles. For example, the long barrows - the most ancient of the communal graves built round Stonehenge - have never been properly excavated. Yet these could be the resting places of the people who first made this area sacred.
'It is over 50 years since substantial excavations have taken place at Stonehenge and more than two decades since the small-scale excavations,' the report notes. This research gap needs to be rectified.
Crucially, science can now reveal rich details about prehistoric people from their remains. This is demonstrated by the 'Amesbury Archer', recently found in a 4,000-year-old grave, one of Europe's richest, near Stonehenge.
He was surrounded by about 100 items, including golden hair ornaments - some of the earliest gold objects found in Britain.
But his teeth provided the real surprise. Tests on their enamel, formed in early childhood and which contains telltale chemical signatures from local soil and rocks, showed the archer came from the Alps while the ornaments found in his grave were traced to Spain and France.
This discovery suggests that metalworkers from the Continent had already begun to trade and work in tin, copper and other metals in Britain 4,000 years ago and may have played key roles in building Stonehenge. The monument appears to have been the centre of major activity by travellers roaming across Britain, Ireland and the Continent.
Archaeologists now want to hunt down the remains taken from barrows around Stonehenge: some may be in local museums, others in private hands. 'Some people probably have them under their beds,' said Miles.
Armed with these materials, scientists could then recreate much of our ancient past. It might even be possible to make facial reconstructions of some individuals.
Stonehenge took at least 1,000 years to build and its use clearly changed over the millennia. Recent studies suggest it may have been 'Christianised' in the first millennium AD and at one point was used as a place of execution by the Anglo-Saxons to judge from the primitive gallows, dated to around the 7th century, found there.
Some scientists have even argued that the great circles could have been used as an astronomical observatory or a computer. This idea is generally dismissed by the report, although the alignment of its stones to the rising midwinter sun, a date associated with the return of light and warmth, is widely accepted.
The great stone circles are therefore concerned with death and rebirth. Built mainly by Stone Age peoples, without the aid of metals, Stonehenge became the focus of intense interest a few centuries later when metal-working Bronze Age craftsmen from across Europe arrived in the neighbourhood. During this period Stonehenge appears to have become the fashionable place to be buried.
Indeed, it may be that the area was split into a Land of the Living, where ceremonial parties were held by relatives, and the Domain of the Dead, with Stonehenge at its centre, where people were buried.
'There is no site like this anywhere else and we badly need to improve our understanding of it,' said Miles. 'This is not a call for an autopsy of the place. We are not going to make a mess. It will be sensitive: more like targeted brain surgery.'
GGG Ping.
I think Stonehenge is the remnant of a prehistoric real-estate bubble myself...
ping
Stonehenge, where the demons dwell
Where the banshees live and they do live well
Stonehenge
Where a man is a man and the children dance to
the pipes of pan
Stonehenge
Tis a magic place where the moon doth rise
With a dragon's face
Stonehenge
Where the virgins lie
And the prayer of devils fill the midnight sky
And you my love, won't you take my hand
We'll go back in time to that mystic land
Where the dew drops cry and the cats meow
I will take you there
I will show you how
This discovery suggests that metalworkers from the Continent had already begun to trade and work in tin, copper and other metals in Britain 4,000 years ago and may have played key roles in building Stonehenge. The monument appears to have been the centre of major activity by travellers roaming across Britain, Ireland and the Continent.But how dare anyone suggest that anyone could cross the Atlantic or Pacific! :')
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
"Julius Caesar thought it was the work of druids"
Julius Caesar never saw or heard of Stonehenge, and the Romans in general appear to have ignored it, suggesting it was old and abandoned even then. There's an ancient reference to (apparently) a stone circle, then nothing until the Middle Ages, when some of the quasi-histories were written (Geoffrey of Monmouth, etc).
doesn't sound like they're going to get very far.
Nice discussion of Stonehenge (read that part last night, just by chance):
Magical and Mystical Sites:
Europe and the British Isles
by Elizabeth Pepper
and John Wilcock
Phanes Press
Grand Rapids, Michigan
2000
You mean, Stonehenge was the world's first burrito franchise?
Doesn't sound like it, no. :')
"Yet these could be the resting places of the people who first made this area sacred."
There's no evidence that the people who built it considered it "Sacred." That is pure speculation, since we have no idea who built it or why.
Maybe the people who built it are buried elsewhere, and the bodies are those of thier victims, for all these phonyologists, or anyone for that matter, knows.
The dig should be interesting, it'e pretty much a blank slate.
The Caesar who actually conquered Britannia probably heard of the circle and might well have had an opinion.
I always thought that it was some sort of time share.
Are those the Calanais (sp?) stones on Lewis on the cover?
Ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
