Posted on 08/03/2018 12:19:18 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Researchers have shown that cremated humans at Stonehenge were from the same region of Wales as the stones used in construction.
The key innovation was finding that high temperatures of cremation can crystallise a skull, locking in the chemical signal of its origin.
The first long-term residents of Stonehenge, along with the first stones, arrived about 5,000 years ago.
While it is already known that the "bluestones" that were first used to build Stonehenge were transported from 150 miles (240 km) away in modern-day Pembrokeshire, almost nothing is known about the people involved.
The scientists' work shows that both people and materials were moving between the regions and that, for some of these people, the move was permanent.
When their lives ended, their cremated remains were placed under the ancient monument in what is now Wiltshire.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Just my guess.
So, whales built Stonehenge.
In Spinal Tap’s song “Stonehenge”, they asked the same question - albeit in a lyric.
“And where are they now - the little people of Stonehenge?”
So, the early Welsh built Stonehenge.
The other question is why did they go to that spot so far away and with such trouble? Why didn’t they just build it in their area?
I knew it.
I just knew it.
There is something which never seems to amaze.
Whether it is the Outer Hebrides, Crete or the Pacific Islands, how did so many remote islands become heavily populated in really ancient times?
Ping
Yes, especially the Pacific islands. The only thing I can figure is that some social force like ostracism of banishment forced individuals into canoes for one-way journeys. Most people who set out would never find land and would die.
Before the Anglo-Saxons came they were just Britons. “Wealsc” was the old German word for foreigner, and they drove them into what is now Wales. Of course the Britons of 5,000 years ago predated the Celtic Britons, who displaced them, only to be displaced themselves millennia later.
It’s interesting how many names of peoples we use were given them by their neighbors/enemies. Early Saxons would have identified themselves as member of different Germanic tribes. But they all had the tradition of wear seax knives to show they were free men who were allowed to carry weapons. Their neighbors called them seax-men or Saxons. Likewise the old German name for spear was “ger” or “gar”, so the Romans called them Germans, or spear-men.
Good stuff worthy of FR.
Construction deaths
Pre OSHA, no PPE
Welsh were on Dad’s side of the family.
He said his people liked to paint themselves blue on certain occasions.
But the site where they quarried the Bluestones is 160 miles from the site they built Stonehenge.
Why did they go that far? Have they any theories?
The design came from ancient Libya where the largest and oldest henge is located.
“Have they any theories?”
“What is it? So many people visit Stonehenge and come away asking just that question. Was it built by the ancient Greeks? By little green men visiting Wiltshire in UFO’s? Was it a Druid temple? (No, no and no). But it was a temple, and it was built by the folk who lived on what is now Salisbury Plain four or five thousand years ago. Very often history can’t give us the answers to our questions – we simply do not know who built Stonehenge, or why, or what religion was practised there. We will probably never know because there were no written records, so we can only make what we hope are intelligent guesses, and historical novelists are as well placed to do that as historians. So this book is my guess, and a story of love, rivalry, treachery and a great mysterious temple.” —Bernard Cornwell
Good fiction read. How accurate is it? Who knows. It does give one possible explanation of how they could have done it.
http://www.bernardcornwell.net/books/15558/
...and, a rarity nowadays... :-(
GGG Ping!
I’m reminded of Eddie Izzard. Oddball guy but this show was funny. Dressed to Kill.
The Henge bit:
https://youtu.be/q801YMV-WYI
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