Free Republic

There are still many mysteries that surround Stonehenge, but one element that archaeologists generally agree upon is the origin of some of its monolithic stones. A study conducted in the 2010s indicated that the standing bluestones were quarried around 140 miles from the legendary monument, at two locations in Wales. According to a statement released by the British Geological Survey (BGS), new research has further strengthened the ties between Stonehenge and that region, and revealed how the megaliths were transported. During excavations at Stonehenge in 1924, archaeologists discovered a cow's jawbone near the south entrance, and dated it to the...

The 21st-century back-to-the-farm movement stems from our yearning to escape the artificiality of modern urban life. Yet the domesticated plants and animals now found in most gardens and farms are themselves artificial, the results of extensive human meddling, cross-breeding and genetic manipulation. Mankind began engineering what we now call “farm animals,” including cattle, all the way back in the Neolithic period, between 10,000 and 5,000 B.C. Try as you might, you won’t find an untamed Jersey cow that originated naturally in the wild, because no such thing exists — just like there’s no such thing as a wild labradoodle. Cattle...

<p>Have you ever seen a bridge pull? There are bridge pulls that are parts of furniture, but I mean the old-fashioned kind. The ones involving a team of oxen, a covered wooden bridge, and a stream. There may not have been one of those anywhere in the US in the last century. And there may not be another one, ever, after the one I saw this morning in Highlands, North Carolina.</p>