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Druids Despair As Seahenge Set For Dry Berth
IOL (South Africa) ^ | 11-19-2001

Posted on 11/20/2001 9:49:22 AM PST by blam

Druids despair as Seahenge set for dry berth

November 19 2001 at 04:16PM

London - A Bronze Age timber circle dug up on a beach two years ago should not be returned to its original site, where it would be vulnerable to the forces of the North Sea, English Heritage said on Monday.

The 4 000-year-old structure, which became known as Seahenge, was found off the coast of Norfolk, north-east England, and removed despite prolonged protests by locals and Druid groups, who said the circle was a religious monument.

English Heritage, the preservation group that oversaw and financed the removal of the 54 oak posts which surrounded an upturned tree stump, said the prehistoric structure was in danger of being destroyed by the sea.

The organisation is talking with the timber circle's owner, le Strange Estate, and local groups about the chances of putting the structure on public display and will hold a public meeting on its recommendation later this month.

Three-dimensional laser scanning techniques are giving archeologists new insights into the circle, which has been dated to the spring of 2049 BC, when the trees were cut down to create the posts.

The research has so far indicated that the community which built the structure was more advanced and organised than previously believed.

"It is remarkable that this tiny community was able to lay hands on such a large number of tools only about 100 years after the knowledge of how to make bronze arrived in this country," said Francis Pryor, director of archaeology at Flag Fen Archaeological Center, where the scanning is being done.

English Heritage estimated it would take five years and cost £40 000 (about R550 000) to complete the conservation process. - Sapa-AP


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: archaeoastronomy; flagfen; godsgravesglyphs; heresy; megaliths; seahenge; stonehenge; woodhenge
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To: RightWhale; blam
Additional readings:

http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/03814.html
The megalithic monuments of France and Great Britain, notably those at Carnac and Stonehenge, were once ascribed to them, but these are now known to predate Celtic culture.

http://www.thehistorynet.com/britishheritage/articles/1997/0397_text.htm
There is no proof that Druidic ceremonies ever took place in stone circles, and it is now understood that henges, stone circles and circle henges long predate the Celtic Druids.

http://www.duke.edu/~kkb1/arch.html
A common belief that started around the sevententh century was that Stonehenge was built by the Druids. Today a modern sect of druids tries to hold rituals there and claim it for themselves, but the evidence from excavations and dating would actually prove that the Druids had nothing to do with Stonehenge, and in fact Stonehenge is much older.

http://www.bartleby.com/65/dr/druids.html
In the late 18th and 19th cent., interest in the druids was spurred by archaeological discoveries and by the romantic movement. The megalithic monuments of France and Great Britain, notably those at Carnac and Stonehenge, were once ascribed to them, but these are now known to predate Celtic culture.

http://www.comp-archaeology.org/15OrientationLocation.htm
Since megaliths predate the Celtic Druids, the Beltane Fires might be something handed down from the darkness of prehistory.

http://www.mm2000.nu/sphinxii.html
John Aubery was the first to suggest the Druids as makers of Stonehenge (~1660), which is certainly false because the Druids are much later -- contemporary with the writings of Julius Caesar in Britannia or dating from a few centuries before -- by which time the Henge was 2000 years old.

21 posted on 11/20/2001 12:12:49 PM PST by FormerLib
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To: FormerLib
Yeah, I'm just saying Druids bacause I don't know who built Stonehenge. I suspect it was built by the same who carved the Sphinx from a yardang, which John Anthony West says is really old, maybe 10,000 years. The age of Seahenge is known by the tree ring record.
22 posted on 11/20/2001 2:00:33 PM PST by RightWhale
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To: Liberal Classic
I can see Spinal Tap trying to use one of these.
23 posted on 11/20/2001 2:11:07 PM PST by Bill Rice
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To: RightWhale
Tree ring 'event' dates:

3195BC, Stonehenge constructed, Start Egyptian civilization

2354BC, Bronze Age begins.

1628BC, Stonehenge abandoned, Exodus of Moses, plagues of Egypt, end Xia dynasty, start Shang dynasty

(these dates were taken from my tree ring 'event' dates notes)

24 posted on 11/20/2001 2:22:54 PM PST by blam
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To: blam
3195BC, Stonehenge constructed

I'm impressed. I hadn't realized wood fragments from the construction had been recovered.

25 posted on 11/20/2001 2:27:43 PM PST by RightWhale
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To: blam
I was being a smart ass one time in the Marine Corps when my sergeant asked me my religion for a new pair of Id tags - I told him druid and he actually got me a pair of tags with Druid as my religion
26 posted on 11/20/2001 2:28:29 PM PST by SwankyC
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To: RightWhale
"I'm impressed. I hadn't realized wood fragments from the construction had been recovered."

I'm not sure that they have. I have 'the/my' list of tree ring 'event' dates and anytime I see a date that correlates, I write it on that list, mainly as a reference to myself. I don't remember the source of that date for the construction of Stonehenge. It may or may not be supported by tree ring data, I'll see if I can clarify that.

27 posted on 11/20/2001 2:39:15 PM PST by blam
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To: SwankyC
"I was being a smart ass one time in the Marine Corps when my sergeant asked me my religion for a new pair of Id tags - I told him druid and he actually got me a pair of tags with Druid as my religion"

I worked at a large electronics company and once a year we had to update the employee data sheets and there was a question of race. One year an employee told me that he was a race that I knew that he wasn't so, I called the personnel office for advise. They said, "write down what-ever he says he is," so I did. lol.

28 posted on 11/20/2001 2:45:50 PM PST by blam
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To: Bill Rice
I had the same thought. Toothpicks in one of those home turtle ponds?

Actually, I was listening to a couple of Art Bell recordings from the past few days as background. Egyptians in Illinois. (High-Grade) Copper minings in Michigan supported the bronze age in Troy.

Then again, maybe the pilings are left over from a circular dock. The US went through a period where circular barns were popular.

29 posted on 11/20/2001 3:18:36 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: Calvin Locke
I just received my first issue of Ancient Americans Magazine. Pretty good.

http://store.yahoo.com/magazinesofamerica/1771-6.html

30 posted on 11/20/2001 3:51:16 PM PST by blam
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To: RightWhale
Yeah, I'm just saying Druids bacause I don't know who built Stonehenge.

Fair enough, but you'd probably be better off saying something like "the people who built Stonehenge" since we know the Druids didn't (particularly since some modern-day pseudo-Pagans are attempting to legitimize their recently created "faith" via such claims).

31 posted on 11/20/2001 4:22:42 PM PST by FormerLib
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To: COB1
FYI
32 posted on 11/20/2001 4:37:39 PM PST by nopardons
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To: nopardons
Thanks for the bump, old friend.
I go home tomorrow, and I'll write you then.
I suspect some errors in this discussion, but I don't have enough modem speed to debate.
33 posted on 11/20/2001 5:30:14 PM PST by COB1
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To: blam
I come from a time
when the burnin' of trees was a crime

I lived by a sea
where to be
was a thing of pure joy

My people were fair
and had sky in their hair
but now they're content to wear stars on their brows.

Marc Bolan, R.I.P.

34 posted on 11/20/2001 5:35:44 PM PST by lds23
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To: RightWhale
"I'm impressed. I hadn't realized wood fragments from the construction had been recovered.:

It looks like I've picked up that date from dendrochronologist Mike Baillie and he does not connect it to tree ring data either. I suspect he has just conveniently 'grabbed' it from someone else just like I did from him.

35 posted on 11/20/2001 10:14:09 PM PST by blam
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To: blam
A time-machine paradox, that's what you have. You take your time machine back in time and invent the time machine then, so you can wait a while and take the time machine back in time to invent the time machine then, etc.
36 posted on 11/21/2001 10:27:45 AM PST by RightWhale
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To: FormerLib
you'd probably be better off saying something like

Thanks for the advice, but it actually was Druids, we just don't have any proof it was Druids since all Druids are dead. Our modern neo-Druids are not real Druids.

37 posted on 11/21/2001 10:29:57 AM PST by RightWhale
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To: RightWhale
We have an update on the underwater site off Cuba coming up. I've asked someone else to post it. It's fascinating!!! (Any minute now!)
38 posted on 11/21/2001 10:45:06 AM PST by blam
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Comment #39 Removed by Moderator

To: RightWhale
...but it actually was Druids...

If you insist on holding to a seventeenth-century fiction, I guess that's your right.

...we just don't have any proof it was Druids...

But we do have proof that it wasn't, specifically that it pre-dated them by a couple of thousand years. OK, so we have proof that it wasn't them and no proof that it was and you still want to say they did it. Man, if I'm ever charged with a crime that I didn't commit, I do NOT want you on my jury!!!

40 posted on 11/21/2001 11:06:54 AM PST by FormerLib
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