Posted on 01/13/2007 3:00:37 PM PST by blam
Stonehenge Didn't Stand Alone, Excavations Show
James Owen
for National Geographic News
January 12, 2007
Recent excavations of Salisbury Plain in southern England have revealed at least two other large stone formations close by the world-famous prehistoric monument.
One of the megalithic finds is a sandstone formation that marked a ritual burial mound; the other, a group of stones at the site of an ancient timber circle.
The new discoveries suggest that many similar monuments may have been erected in the shadow of Stonehenge, possibly forming part of a much larger complex, experts say.
The findings were part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, a joint initiative to explore the land around the iconic monument. Led by Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University, the project involves six English universities.
Cremation Mound
The first monument—a 9.2-foot-long (2.8-meter-long) sarsen stone—was found lying in a field next to the River Avon, 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) east of Stonehenge, which is located near the modern-day city of Salisbury (United Kingdom map).
The riverside sarsen—large sandstone blocks that occur naturally in southern England—had been stood upright, archaeologists say, like the blocks that form the main structure of Stonehenge.
A team lead by Colin Richards of Manchester University and Joshua Pollard of Bristol University found the hole that originally held the stone, dug between 2500 and 2000 B.C., as well as human remains and artifacts that date to the same period.
The partially cremated remains of two people were buried next to the stone, Pollard said. One was a large male whose unburned vertebrae suggest he was at least 6 feet (182 centimeters) tall.
"Seemingly he was so big they weren't able to cremate him properly," the archaeologist noted. "The unburnt bone is the product of that poor process of cremation."
Stone knives and arrowheads, a piece of limestone carved into the shape of a megalith, two pottery bowls, and a rare rock crystal were also unearthed near the burial site.
The rock crystal find is the earliest known example from Britain and possibly came from as far away as the Alps, Pollard said. Archaeologists have suggested that other prehistoric burials in the area were connected to mainland Europe, Pollard added.
Such a connection ties in with theories that Stonehenge was an important pilgrimage destination or a place where people traveled in the hope of miracle cures. (Related: "Pagans Get Support in Battle Over Stonehenge" [October 31, 2002].)
The megalithic burial site could also support theories that link Stonehenge and other standing stones to ancestor worship and commemorating the dead, Pollard added.
Circle of Stone
Pollard's team also found new evidence for stone settings at Woodhenge, a site 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) northeast of Stonehenge where a timber circle was constructed in about 2200 B.C.
Pollard said excavations in the 1920s hinted a stone monument may once have been present at the site.
"We were able to confirm last summer that there had been standing stones—some very considerable stones—at Woodhenge," he said.
While only fragments of the formation were found, the holes the stones were set in suggest the blocks stood up to 3 meters (9.8 feet) tall, Pollard said.
The team also found evidence for two phases of stone settings that probably came after the timber circle had rotted, he added.
"Four smaller stones were replaced by two much bigger sarsen settings," he said. "So it goes from a timber monument to being a megalithic monument, albeit not on the same scale as Stonehenge."
What happened to the stones at Woodhenge remains a mystery, Pollard added, though one possibility is that they were added to Stonehenge.
Network of Monuments
The research team says there is evidence from old maps and ancient sources for other similar monuments near Stonehenge.
"There may have been many smaller megalithic settings across this landscape," Pollard said.
"I think it's extremely likely there would have been other standing stones," particularly to the east, added Julian Thomas, professor of archaeology at Manchester University.
Such monuments would have had an important connection to Stonehenge, Thomas said. The stones and artifacts buried alongside the satellite monuments may have also played a symbolic role in spreading the authority of Stonehenge into the wider landscape.
"It was a way of referring to its powerfulness and to the importance and significance of the activities that are taking place at the henge and the people who are officiating," Thomas said.
He added that these latest finds show that Stonehenge shouldn't be seen in isolation.
"There's an overarching scheme of things which links Stonehenge to the broader landscape."
really interesting!
You are correct. When you stand there you just know that there is alot more to it. In fact the entire area within sight is covered with graves and such. The ridges are really rich in structures as yet unexavated.
It may have been the gray, overcast December sky and cold winds blowing over the barren plain at the time of my visit, but I still remember the eeriness and sense of dread all about the place. In the pop culture vernacular of today, it was apparent the place had "unresolved issues”.
Even when I walked away from my traveling companion on a solitary stroll around the stones, I felt something or someone was near me. It was a very strange, unsettling place for me and I’m not eager to return there.
Groves of trees were also sacred spots where sacrifices were performed. The sheer terror instilled by Druidism controlled humanity for eons.
Churchill's first volume of "The History of the English Speaking peoples" goes into some detail.
Humanity hasn't given up human sacrifice either. The basic instinct for atonement-by-sacrifice is carried on today by abortionists and euthanasia of the sick and elderly.
Well written.
Interesting. I've never heard that before.
like pat just said after he read the article,
i guess the ancients had alot more time on
their hands than once thought. they couldn't
spend as much time doing "survival" things,
like hunting, and still have time to create
so many structures out of these huge stones.
although i've never seen stonehenge in person,
your description sent chills up my spine.
How the heck did you ever come up with ridiculous assessment?
I ain't into abortion or euthanasia, but those who are, don't seem to be so for religious purposes.
Au contraire.
Apparantly they found the old gift shop.
What an unsettling experience you report. Perhaps some souls are not at rest there. I'll scratch it from my list and just stay in Scotland.
Actually when you see all those very large efforts like Egypt, Peru and Pre Columbian Mexico, to name three, there was a well organized order of Directors, Workers and Providers to the Directors & Workers.
advanced societies with time to create and
construct some pretty amazing structures.
Flintstone Condos.
I had almost the identical experience, including the weather. I just felt that there was something ... wrong ... about that place. I don't know whether to credit it to preconceptions or power of suggestion or something extra-ordinary. But I left there thinking it was one of the most troubled spots on earth ... like it was near Hell's front porch or something.
I have all those. I bought them to read when I retired...I've been retired for 12 years now and still haven't read them. Maybe I will now.
I don’t mean to discourage you from visiting Stonehenge if you have an interest. A person with the love of God in their heart will be a blessing to the place.
Who knows, perhaps God is calling us to journey there to walk for a brief time beside a lonely, frightened soul to comfort and warm them with the living fire of our love for Him.
I think you should go to Stonehenge.
This book challenges some of our longest held assumptions about the differences between Anglo-Saxons and Celts – perceived differences that have informed our collective sense of identity.Orthodox history has long taught that the Romans found a uniformly Celtic population throughout the British Isles, but that the peoples of the English heartland fell victim to genocide by the Anglo-Saxon hordes during the fifth and sixth centuries.
Now Stephen Oppenheimer’s groundbreaking genetic research has revealed that the ‘Anglo-Saxon invasion’ contributed only a tiny fraction to the English gene pool. In fact, three quarters of English people can trace an unbroken line of genetic descent through their parental genes from settlers arriving long before the introduction of farming.
Synthesizing the genetic evidence with linguistics, archaeology and the historical record, Oppenheimer shows how long-term Scandinavian trade and immigration contributed the remaining quarter – mostly before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons. These migrations may have introduced the earliest forms of English.
And what of the Celts we know – the Irish, Scots and Welsh? Scholars have traditionally placed their origins in Iron Age Central Europe, but Oppenheimer’s new data clearly show that the Welsh, Irish and other Atlantic fringe peoples derive from Ice Age refuges in the Basque country and Spain. They came by an Atlantic coastal route many thousands of years ago, though the Celtic languages we know of today were brought in by later migrations, following the same route, during Neolithic times.
Stephen Oppenheimer shows us, in his meticulous analysis, that there is in truth a deep genetic line dividing the English from the rest of the British people but that, fascinatingly, the roots of that separate identity go back not 1500 years but 6,000. The real story of the British peoples is one of extraordinary continuity and enduring lineage that has survived all onslaughts.
Stephen Oppenheimer of University of Oxford is a leading expert in the use of DNA to track migrations. His last book Out of Eden rewrote the prehistory of man’s peopling of the world in a thesis that has since been confirmed in Science. He is also the author of Eden in the East:The Drowned Continent of Southeast Asia, which challenged the orthodox view of the origins of Polynesians as rice farmers from Taiwan.
Anyone interested in knowing the identity and distribution of their male founding cluster as described in Stephen Oppenheimer's book "The Origins of the British" may use the following link to have their Y chromosome tested for this.
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