Free Republic

A new study by researchers from Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University reveals that geodynamic shifts over millions of years reoriented the ancient Rujm el-Hiri site, challenging its long-held identification as an astronomical observatory. Using advanced geophysical methods and remote sensing, the team uncovered the site’s original alignment and provided new insights into its potential purpose and the surrounding archaeological landscape. Credit: Abraham Graicer, Wikimedia Commons. CC 4.0 A scientific discovery challenges the common perception of Rujm el-Hiri in the Golan Heights. A new study by Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has unveiled groundbreaking insights into...

Why the mighty Stonehenge was built around 5,000 years ago has long been one of the great mysteries.But according to a new study, we may finally have an answer.Scientists say Wiltshire's famous stone circle was built as a symbol of unification between three distinct corners of Britain.We know that Stonehenge's rocky slabs were transported as far afield from southwest Wales and northeast Scotland.So the scientists, from University College London and Aberystwyth University, theorise that Scottish and Welsh people brought their own local stones down to Wiltshire as a well-meaning contribution to assembling the structure.In that sense, it represented a powerful...

An extremely rare example of megalithic rock art was recently identified in northern Israel's Yehudiya Nature Reserve inside a 4,200-year-old stone burial chamber. The unique discovery of a clearly composed, artistic rendering of a herd of animals is shifting the way archaeologists think about the little-understood peoples who created the thousands of massive stone burial chambers, or dolmens, that dot northern Israel's Golan and Galilee... "These megalithic structures were built more than 4,000 years ago. They are ancient burials and they were built by a group of people of whom the only thing we know is that they built their...

The emergence of agriculture during the Neolithization brought about one of the most profound lifestyle changes in the history of modern humans. The shift in subsistence strategy from hunting, fishing and gathering to farming paved the way for a marked increase in population density and the establishment of larger and more permanent settlements. However, the flourishing economy of the Neolithic came to a sudden halt in many regions of Northern Europe around 5300–4900 calibrated years before present (cal. bp), in which a marked reduction in the number of human remains radiocarbon-dated to this period suggests a population decline. Coined the...

Stone pillars, moon’s 18.6-year cycle and ancient structures tell a story.. The major lunar standstill northern moonrise is visible between Chimney and Companion rocks once per month for a period of about 24 months, every 18.6 years.. To archaeo-astronomers, the stone pillars that give Chimney Rock National Monument its name and the structures there built by ancestral Puebloan people send a message. .... And something did happen at the monument Tuesday night: The moon rose between Chimney Rock and Companion Rock, demonstrating a rare celestial occurrence called the major lunar standstill. The event occurs monthly over the course of about...

Despite the fact that it’s over 5,000 years old, Maeshowe, Orkney's answer to Stonehenge, is in amazing shape. But why did Neolithic Britons go to such great lengths to build it?This 5,000-Year-Old Tomb Is Spectacularly Preserved | 2:54Smithsonian Magazine | 35.3K subscribers | 29,963 views | October 15, 2024https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D026QAAuIwU

Nabta Playa in Egypt is an ancient stone circle that researchers suspect was used to determine the summer solstice, which signaled rain was on the way.Today, its main stones are in a museum in Aswan to protect them from vandalism. But originally, Nabta Playa consisted of dozens of upright stones, each a few feet high, in the desert about 60 miles (100 km) west of the Nile.In addition to a pile of stones above a central tomb, many of the stones seemed to have been deliberately placed in a circle to align with the rising of certain stars.The circle's six...

The necropolis of Panoría is located at the easternmost end of Sierra Harana, in the town of Darro (Granada). It consists of at least 19 graves, 9 of which have been excavated between 2015 and 2019. They are collective burials from which more than 55,000 human skeletal remains were recovered. The dating of these remains shows that the first burials took place 5600 years ago with a discontinuous funerary use until 4100 years ago.Bioarchaeological AdvancesIn a recent study published in the prestigious journal Scientific Reports, the use of new bioarchaeological methods has allowed the identification of chromosomal sex from the...

A newly discovered geoglyph on the Nazca Pama. Image credit: Sakai et al. Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) has helped identify over 300 previously unknown ‘Nazca Lines’ geoglyphs, according to newly published findings. Discovered over a six-month period, the total number of images located using the new process nearly matches the 430 previously known Nazca Lines geoglyphs found more than 80 years ago. The discoveries, reported by a research team led by Masato Sakai from Yamagata University in Japan, are helping unravel the possible meaning of these ancient artworks, some of which are 2,000 years old, and point to the likely...

Until now, experts wondered how it was possible that in the middle of the Neolithic period, more than a thousand years before the first pyramids of Egypt were built, these enormous stones could be moved and placed with millimetric precision, orienting them towards the sunrise for astronomical purposes. The 32 stones that make it up weigh about 1,140 tons. Of these, the largest — and the one that covers the back of the chamber — weighs 150 tons. This is the largest slab that was moved during the megalithic phenomenon in the Iberian Peninsula and the second-largest in Europe.

According to a Phys.org report, a team of archaeologists, historians, geologists, and physicists led by José Antonio Lozano Rodríguez of the Canary Islands Oceanographic Center and the University of Alcalá examined the Menga dolmen, a megalithic monument built in what is now southern Spain some 6,000 years ago, to learn more about how it was constructed. The structure consists of stone walls topped with a stone ceiling supported by stone pillars. Some of these stones weigh more than 160 tons. The researchers suggest that the stones were quarried about one-half mile away and transported to the site on sledges dragged...

An Egyptian archaeological team discovered the remains of the sixth-century-B.C. structure three years ago during excavations at an archaeological site in the ancient city of Buto, now called Tell Al-Faraeen, in Egypt's Kafr El-Sheikh governorate...Unlike traditional monuments, which typically have a single pylon, the observatory had two pylons facing each other, framing the circular observatory spot and symbolizing akhet, or the horizon where the sun rises. Facing this Akhet was a limestone watchtower that was likely once paired with another and used to observe constellations, Ghonim said.The excavation also uncovered a statue of the falcon-headed god Horus. The depiction of...

I recently came across the fact that Stonehenge had a fence. Or lets call it a Palisade. Theorized to be at the time of the placement of the megaliths. So what was this Palisade for?The Unsolved Mystery of The Stonehenge Fence | 11:25Paul Whitewick | 135K subscribers | 4,451 views | August 25, 2024

Cosmos Magazine reports that the Altar Stone at Stonehenge, which weighs more than six tons, may have been transported to southwestern England from Scotland. The Altar Stone currently rests under two toppled sarsen stones at the site. Anthony Clarke of Curtin University and his colleagues analyzed the composition of the minerals in the Altar Stone with mass spectrometry, and found that it has a distinct chemical fingerprint matching rocks in Scotland's Orcadian Basin, which is located more than 460 miles away. "Given its Scottish origins, the findings raise fascinating questions, considering the technological constraints of the Neolithic era, as to...

After 20 years, excavation work at Orkney's Ness of Brodgar will come to a close at the end of this week (16th August).Over the last two decades, this sprawling dig in the heart of Orkney's World Heritage Site has become one of the most important archaeological projects in the world. It has revealed a huge complex of Neolithic buildings covering three hectares, with more lying undisturbed across this ancient landscape.Finds have included beautiful decorated and painted stones, polished axe heads, carved stone balls, and even human and animal bones. But more than that, the excavation has changed the way we...

A fingerprint left on a clay vessel made by a potter 5,000 years ago has been found in Orkney.The print was discovered on a surviving fragment of the object at the Ness of Brodgar archaeological site.Archaeologists have been excavating at the complex of ancient buildings in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site since 2006.Imaging technology was used to reveal the fingerprint left after the potter pressed a finger into wet clay.Ness of Brodgar is the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) Archaeology Institute's flagship excavation site.The potter's fingerprint was noted by ceramics specialist Roy Towers, who was...

Did humans truly transport these massive stones from Wales, or could a far more natural force be responsible?...The massive bluestones, each weighing several tons, might not have been laboriously hauled over 200 kilometers by Neolithic people, as widely believed, but were instead delivered to the Stonehenge site by the relentless forces of ice.

A pair of climate protesters was arrested Wednesday after allegedly spraying the Stonehenge monument in England with orange paint, according to local authorities. The protesters, from the group Just Stop Oil, sprayed the monument with orange paint Wednesday, one day ahead of the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the environmental activist group said in a statement on the social platform X. The two individuals were “demanding the incoming government sign up to a legally binding treaty to phase out fossil fuels by 2030,” Just Stop Oil said. Wiltshire Police told The Associated Press...

Environmental protesters sprayed paint on Britain’s Stonehenge on Wednesday, with orange marks covering some of the stones of the prehistoric megalithic structure on the eve of the summer solstice celebrations. Two people have been arrested on suspicion of damaging the ancient monument, police said in a statement. “This is extremely upsetting and our curators are investigating the extent of the damage,” English Heritage, the charity that manages Stonehenge, said on X. Stonehenge remains open, it added. The monument, one of Britain’s most visited tourist spots, also holds spiritual significance and attracts thousands of revellers, spiritualists and tourists during the summer...

@ST0NEHENGE Just stop oil protestors damage Stonehenge 😭 (Video...)