Posted on 05/21/2003 4:39:06 PM PDT by blam
Six More Bodies Found Near ‘King of Stonehenge’ Site
By Stuart Coles, PA News
Archaeologists have discovered six more bodies near the grave of the so-called “King of Stonehenge”, it was announced today.
The remains of four adults and two children were found at a site in Amesbury, Wiltshire.
It was about half-a-mile from that of the Amesbury Archer, the Bronze Age man who was buried with the earliest gold found in Britain. He was dubbed by the media as King of Stonehenge – so-called because it is thought he might have had a major role in creating Stonehenge. Tests showed he was born in the Alps region in central Europe.
The latest bones discovered are some 4,500 years old the same age as the Archer, said Salisbury-based Wessex Archaeology which excavated the site during the digging of a trench for a new water pipe early this month.
Radiocarbon tests will be done to find out more precise dates for the burials but the people are believed to have lived during the building of Stonehenge.
Wessex Archaeology said it is possible the bones are those of people from different generations, as the grave seems to have been reopened to allow further burials to be made. The bones of the earlier burials were mixed up but those of the later burials, a man and a child, were undisturbed.
They said the grave, which is about three miles from Stonehenge, had narrowly missed being damaged by trench digging for electric cables and a water pipe.
The grave contained four pots in the Beaker style that is typical of the period, some flint tools, one flint arrowhead and a bone toggle for fastening clothing.
Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick. of Wessex Archaeology, said: “This new find is really unusual. It is exceptionally rare to find the remains of so many people in one grave like this in southern England.
The number of Beaker pots in the grave, four, is only exceeded by the grave of the Amesbury Archer, where there were five.
“The grave is fascinating because we are seeing the moment when Britain was moving from the Stone Age into the Bronze Age, around 2,300BC.
The large number of bodies placed in this grave is something more commonly found in the Stone Age, but the Beaker style pottery is found in Bronze Age burials.
The new discovery was found almost exactly a year after the Amesbury Archer was found during excavation for a housing scheme at Boscombe Down, Amesbury, three miles from Stonehenge.
His grave was the richest found in Britain from its time, containing about 100 items, more than ten times as many objects as any other burial site from this time, and included hair tresses that are the earliest gold in the country.
It reminds me of when I used to live in Virginia. It seemed like every week some hunter or hiker would discover a body and thought it to be a modern-day murder victim. Wrong, it was a body from the Civil War. Happened all the time.
Any Idea why?
Uther spent his youth in exile in Breton with his elder brother Aurelius Ambrosius. They return to Britain to dethrone Vortigern, and Aurelius is made king. He sends his brother and Merlin to Ireland in order to fetch the Giants' Ring. When Aurelius is poisoned, a celestial portent appears and Merlin interprets this as forecasting the glories of Uther and his unborn offspring. The main feature of this portent is a luminous dragon, whence Uther's sobriquet "Pendragon". Geoffrey explains it as meaning "a dragon's head", but more probably it means "head dragon", which may be interpreted as "foremost leader" or "chief of warriors".
And he is still stuck with gold running in the mid 300 dollar range. He should have bought Microsoft.
" a celestial portent appears
King Arthur is believed to have died in 540AD+-2, the Dark Ages began in 540AD+-2, tree ring records show a worldwide catastrophe at 540AD+-2, it is well known that comets and meteorites were called dragons in those times.
Some anthropologists and others think the tales of King Arthur are a description of a comet swarm impacting in 540AD that put the whole world into a dark age.
If unambiguous samples are found and properly handled, it can be.
Here is what often goes wrong:
1) A person is buried 900 years ago. 400 years later, little is left of the remains. A tree root invades the burial site, and in time, the tree dies, and the root decays. A sample of material surrounding the bones is counted.
What is the indicated age? Some average of the two.
2) An unfired clay figurine had been reinforced with sticks during its making. So it is safe to assume that the sticks date from around the time the clay was formed. However, the clay was taken from a riverbed, where, a thousand years before, plant matter was entrapped in the clay, laid down in a flood season. The result is artifically older. C14 has a half life of 5730 years +/- 40 years and this rate is absolute and definite, but sample mixing can interfere badly.
In Egyptian tomb cases, where food offerings have been buried in pottery jars, it is less likely that thousand-year old grain was buried with the dead, so these dates are confident. But suppose something belonging to an ancient ancestor were buried and measured!
In my part of the country, remains do not last long in Northern Woodlands soil, so the potential for error is high.
They can be a blessing. A trench was being dug, and fragments of small stone and ceramic tiles were found. Work came screeching to a halt.
The beautiful Roman villa at Fishbourne was found this way. A "Boy on a Dolphin" mosaic floor is in quite good condition, and the hypocaust heating system is in good shape, considering the Romans went home in the 400's.
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.