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AMESBURY, England -- People from all over the world flock to see the mystical monument known as Stonehenge, and most of them deliver the same verdict: nice rocks, shame about the place. Rising up from a heath in southern England, the 5,000-year-old circle of stones still has the power to inspire wonder and worship. The problem is, you need earplugs to block out the noise. In a startling example of how not to treat a national treasure, Britain long ago sandwiched Stonehenge, which remains a shrine for mystics, between two highways. Today, traffic thunders by just a few feet ...

Was Orkney the ceremonial capital of ancient Britain? STEPHEN STEWART November 03 2003 ORKNEY may have been the largest prehistoric settlement or ceremonial site in Britain, new research reveals today. Archaeologists using the latest techniques to map under the soil discovered the world heritage site covering the Ness of Brodgar in Stenness, was a massive centre of activity in Stone Age times. Orkney's landscape has largely managed to avoid the rigours of industrialised farming and may yet yield its secrets about the recently-surveyed site, which in terms of scale, puts the likes of Stonehenge, Avebury and Skara Brae in the...

A catastrophic volcanic eruption spewing huge clouds of ash about 3,600 years ago was behind the burial of the Nebra sky disk, one of the most spectacular archaeological finds in recent years, according to scientists at Mainz and Halle-Wittenberg universities in Germany. The 3,600-year-old disk, discovered in 1999 near the town of Nebra in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, is the oldest known representation of the night sky. It is thought by some to have been used as an astronomical clock to determine when to add a thirteenth month synchronising the lunar calendar with the solar year. The disk...

Made out of bronze with gold embossing, the 3,600-year-old object is an astronomical clock. It connects the sun and the moon calendars together, with the sun giving the day and year and the moon, the month. The moon year is, however, 11 days shorter than the sun year. This was taken into account in ancient times by adding an extra month, leading experts to believe that people in the Bronze Age were already making sophisticated astronomical observations similar to those written about by the Babylonians around 1,000 years later. The disc is thought to be a depiction of the Bronze...

Amateurs find bronze age treasure trove Allan Hall TWO amateur treasure hunters who sold bronze age artefacts found on a mountainside to buy a stereo system have stumbled upon one of the greatest archaeological finds in history, writes Allan Hall in Berlin. Experts say they are certain the haul, which included a circular disc depicting the heavens with sun, moon and stars, is at least 3,600 years old. This shows Europeans had a rudimentary knowledge of the solar system and its influence on our lives far earlier than previously thought. Harald Meller, an archaeologist, said: "This ranks as one of ...

For more than 1,200 years, nothing had disturbed it. But in just a few hours, a stretch of Offa’s Dyke – one of the most important ancient monuments in Britain – was flattened. Police and Cadw, the heritage arm of the Welsh Government, are investigating allegations that a group of travellers destroyed part of Offa's Dyke. Above, the section that was dug away It is believed King Offa of Mercia built it between 757 and 796 to mark the division between Mercia and Wales and protect his land from invasion The 8th century monument, a linear earthwork which consists of...

Exact purpose of these ancient stone constructions is unknown. The main assumption is that they, perhaps, symbolized a border between the world we live in and the world of spirits. Labyrinths were used for rituals to help souls to cross over to the other world. Other hypothesis is that labyrinths, perhaps, served as fishing traps. However, the major flaw in this argument is that many labyrinths have been found inland throughout the world... After entering a labyrinth and circle several times around the center, you leave it through the same entrance. Just after several turns it becomes unclear how much...

A team of archaeologists believe they may have discovered a spot where some of the architects of Stonehenge gathered and camped. The team have been investigating a causewayed enclosure -- these are thought to be ancient meeting places or centres of trade -- on army land at Larkhill close to Stonehenge. They found an alignment of posts that matches the orientation of the circle at Stonehenge, leading to the theory that Larkhill could have been some sort of blueprint for the temple. Si Cleggett, of Wessex Archaeology, conceded it was possible to suggest that any evidence of prehistoric settlement could...

Explanation: Today the Sun reaches its northernmost point in planet Earth's sky. Called a solstice, the date traditionally marks a change of seasons -- from spring to summer in Earth's Northern Hemisphere and from fall to winter in Earth's Southern Hemisphere. The featured image was taken during the week of the 2008 summer solstice at Stonehenge in United Kingdom, and captures a picturesque sunrise involving fog, trees, clouds, stones placed about 4,500 years ago, and a 4.5 billion year old large glowing orb. Even given the precession of the Earth's rotational axis over the millennia, the Sun continues to rise...

Over the last 14 years we have personally visited and photographed all 529 archæological sites you will find in these pages (117 in the six national sections and 412 in our Tours section), creating the first Web guide to European megaliths and other prehistoric sites, online since February 1996

The Preseli stones from Stonehenge are approximately double the weight as the experimental block, but it is possible that one huge stone could have been brought by a group of just 20 people. The community living in the area during the Neolithic would have numbered several thousand so the absence of just a few dozen people was unlikely to cause any hardship. Doctoral student Barney Harris, who conducted the trial in Gordon Square, London, a stone's throw from UCL's Institute of Archaeology, said he was surprised that so few people had been required to move the block. "We were expecting...

Credit: Canadian Space Agency, via TheTelegraph ====================================================================================================================== William Gadoury, a 15 year old Mayan history enthusiast who lives in Saint-Jean-de-Matha in Lanaudière, Quebec, has, according to Le Journal de Montréal, used satellite imagery to make associations between ancient Mayan city locations and constellations, and in so doing, may have actually discovered a site that has not been previously known. According to the news report, Gadoury, who claims to have been long interested in the Mayan culture, gained access to satellite imagery—after applying the Geographic Information System he found a correlation between 22 constellations and 117 Mayan cities. But, in so...

We're all suckers for a great story, and "Teen finds lost Mayan city" definitely sounds promising. Throw in some ancient cosmology, a little help from the Canadian Space Agency and some satellite sleuthing, and the movie offers practically write themselves. Sadly, the reality may not be as cinematic as promised. Experts say the "city" found by Canadian teen William Gadoury could be something much simpler: Abandoned fields. This whole archaeological kerfuffle started as a tantalizing possibility: Gadoury, 15, says he used Mayan constellation patterns to pinpoint ruins of a heretofore unknown ancient Mayan city. The Canadian Space Agency helped him...

(Title was shortened. Add: "of the night sky from his bedroom ") A Canadian schoolboy appears to have discovered a lost Mayan city hidden deep in the jungles of Mexico using a new method of matching stars to the location of temples on earth. William Gadoury, 15, was fascinated by the ancient Central American civilization and spent hours poring over diagrams of constellations and maps of known Mayan cities. And then he made a startling realisation: the two appeared to be linked. “I was really surprised and excited when I realised that the most brilliant stars of the constellations matched...

Using NASA data and 3D modeling, Indiana University Bloomington professor Bernard Frischer and his research team have dispelled a long-held theory regarding the relationship between two famous monuments in ancient Rome. The Ara Pacis Augustae, or Altar of Augustan Peace, was built in 9 B.C.E. in ancient Rome's Campus Martius. The marble altar stood as a propagandistic celebration of the peace and prosperity ushered into the new empire by Rome's first emperor, Augustus. Near the Ara Pacis sat a 71-foot-high granite obelisk brought from Egypt by Augustus, which served as the gnomon, or pointer, of a meridian line. Following a...

Scientists Study Anasazi Calender Mar. 21, 2005 Ed Yeates reporting Don Smith, College of Eastern Utah, San Juan branch: "I think we're becoming more aware that those people were far more familiar with astronomy, science and possibly math than we give them credit for." In a secluded ravine near Blanding, scientists and researchers gather to watch mysterious images forming right before their eyes. Although the rite of Spring, at least on our calendar, slipped in here yesterday almost unnoticed, it's literally in your face in this strange little canyon. We arrived weeks before spring equinox because people studying this place...

No, this isn’t about the Star-Spangled Banner, neither the flag nor the anthem. It’s about dawn itself. The promise of a new beginning. Civilization began, thousands of years before recorded history, when men discovered how to cultivate crops. That meant communities and social organization. It also meant the beginnings of astronomy, studying the movement of the sun. Early evidence of this includes the “solar observatories” built by the Incas in South America, by the Anasazi in North America, and most famously, by Druids and others at Stonehenge in Britain. All these identified the solar equinoxes, especially in the spring. Coupled...

Archaeologists have recently begun revealing the features of an ancient prehistoric stone structure on the Mediterranean island of Menorca in the Balearic Islands, an archipelago near the eastern coast of Spain. Beginning in 2015, under the direction of archaeologists Montserrat Anglada, Irene Riudavets, and Cristina Bravo, an archaeological team began excavating a newly opened structure at the site, known as Sa Cudia Cremada, a site that is composed of distinctive Iron Age (part of Spain's prehistoric period) stone structures such as talayots -- truncated tower-shaped constructions. The builders were members of the mysterious Talayotic culture, a people who left no...

<p>A Bronze Age cremation burial has been discovered near Stonehenge after being accidentally dug up by a badger.</p>

Sarah Ewbank spent the last year researching the ancient monument and applying her architectural background to the site to determine what its purpose and form once might have been. She has concluded, based on the layout of the stones, that they were used as support structures for a massive wooden frame that featured a second story for the site as well as an enormous round roof. Ewbank argues that a roof at the monument would allow for it to have been used throughout the year which, she believes, makes more sense that it simply being a religious site used on...