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Stone-age pilgrims trekked hundreds of miles to attend feast [ Stonehenge ]
Guardian ^ | September 11, 2008 | James Randerson

Posted on 09/15/2008 9:08:27 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

Stone age people drove animals hundreds of miles to a site close to Stonehenge to be slaughtered for ritual feasts, according to scientists who have examined the chemical signatures of animal remains buried there...

Durrington Walls is a stone-age village containing the remains of numerous cattle and pigs which are thought to have been buried there after successive ritual feasts. The site is two miles north east of Stonehenge and dates from around 3000 BC, 500 years before the first stones were erected...

The evidence points to groups of people driving animals from as far away as Wales for the feast events. Evans' team analysed the strontium content in the enamel of teeth from the cattle remains. The ratio of different atomic forms or 'isotopes' of the element gives an indication of where the animals were raised...

Only one animal was raised on the chalk-lands around Stonehenge, the rest came from much farther away. Although archaeologists believe the stones that make up Stonehenge came from Wales, the new evidence suggests that people were travelling long distances to visit the site much earlier. There was no farming in and around Durrington Walls at the time, so travellers brought their own animals for eating at feasts.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: archaeoastronomy; britain; durringtonwalls; england; godsgravesglyphs; megaliths; stonehenge; unitedkingdom
UN threatens to act against Britain
for failure to protect heritage sites
Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
The Guardian
Monday September 8 2008
Be sure to surrender US sovereignty at the first opportunity -- elect Obama!
1 posted on 09/15/2008 9:08:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

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2 posted on 09/15/2008 9:09:40 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile hasn't been updated since Friday, May 30, 2008)
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To: SunkenCiv

This story is bogus...no one would walk that far for English food. Mushy peas and blood pudding? Blech!


3 posted on 09/15/2008 9:10:44 AM PDT by Deb (Beat him, strip him and bring him to my tent!)
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To: SunkenCiv

Does PETA know of this?


4 posted on 09/15/2008 9:12:16 AM PDT by WayneS (Vote Obama bin Biden 2008 - "Because the world doesn't suck enough yet".)
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To: Deb

You make an excellent point. I wonder if the researchers considered that angle.

Then again, maybe they ate Chinese take-out; or had pizzas delivered.


5 posted on 09/15/2008 9:13:24 AM PDT by WayneS (Vote Obama bin Biden 2008 - "Because the world doesn't suck enough yet".)
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To: WayneS
Driving animals somewhere else is nothing new. They may know how many bones are on site...What they don't know is how many critters LEFT the site for perhaps other markets.

Ya kinda have to picture the old west as an analogy.

And what's this treked thing. I'm sure some did but do you think everyone did?

Maybe it was an old "army" camp.

6 posted on 09/15/2008 9:17:50 AM PDT by Sacajaweau (I'm planting corn...Have to feed my car...)
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To: Deb

:’)

It is, of course, long before there was English food (at least, in England). Probably no haggis either, but I guess it’s possible. ;’)


7 posted on 09/15/2008 9:19:01 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile hasn't been updated since Friday, May 30, 2008)
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To: SunkenCiv

I don’t see the surprise here: Stone Age (well, early Iron Age actually) barbarians regularly make thousand mile treks to Mecca for THEIR religion, under 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th ... travel century conditions no better than what the early Brit’s had to contend crossing England.

And, in many ways, the tens of thousands of Muslims traveling across deserts to to get to Mecca had it harder than the colder, wetter, flatter and more populated/cultivated/farmed areas around Stonehenge.


8 posted on 09/15/2008 9:20:35 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but Hillary's ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: SunkenCiv

I thought this was a lefty MSM piece on a McCain/Palin rally!


9 posted on 09/15/2008 9:25:48 AM PDT by George Smiley (Palin is the real deal.)
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To: SunkenCiv

It is, of course, long before there was English food (at least, in England). Probably no haggis either, but I guess it’s possible.


The Scots are from Ireland, and I don’t believe they went to what is today Scotland until about the time the English invaded Britain. So, probably no haggis either, though probably not really worth travelling for.


10 posted on 09/15/2008 9:27:19 AM PDT by FFranco
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To: SunkenCiv

I am currently selling franchise opportunities to “Haggis-On-A-Stick “. Many regions are still open. Think about it.


11 posted on 09/15/2008 9:27:42 AM PDT by Deb (Beat him, strip him and bring him to my tent!)
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To: Sacajaweau; All

“Ya kinda have to picture the old west as an analogy.”

In the early days of our own west, the trappers and Indians and the few other white people in the area would get together for a major feast, drunk, trading like horses and furs (and in Europe cattle), finding potential mates, etc. This kind of custom, I am sure, is many thousands of years old. This was in the period after the Lewis and Clark expedition and before the Gold Rush.


12 posted on 09/15/2008 5:07:55 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: George Smiley
I thought this was a lefty MSM piece on a McCain/Palin rally!

Naw. No cattle there. They would find only pitt bull bones. :-)

13 posted on 09/16/2008 6:55:04 AM PDT by PistolPaknMama (Al-Queda can recruit on college campuses but the US military can't! --FReeper airborne)
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Stonehenge survey reveals 17 new sites, details giant Durrington Walls henge for first time

14 posted on 08/18/2019 11:40:58 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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