Miniature Stonehenge Discovered In Wiltshire, UK 152
CmdrGravy weighs in with exciting archaeological news, "one of the most important prehistoric finds in decades" according to the article: a miniature Stonehenge a mile from the famous site. "Bluehenge," as the find is being called because of the assumed color of its (now-missing) stones, is believed to have been put up around the time of Stonehenge, 5,000 years ago. "All that remains of the 60-ft.-wide Bluehenge are the holes of 27 giant stones set on a ramped mount. Chips of blue stone found in the holes appear to be identical to the blue stones used in Stonehenge. The four-ton monsters, made of Preseli Spotted Dolerite — a chemically altered igneous rock harder than granite — were mined in the Preseli Mountains in Pembrokeshire and then rolled, dragged, and floated the 200 miles to the site on the banks of the Avon in Wiltshire."
Whistle while you work (Score:5, Funny)
Miniature Stonehenge Discovered In Wiltshire, UK
Built by dwarfs, I would presume.
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, if dwarfs had built it they would've used gromril.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps (Score:1)
it was the Nelwyns just making a play pen for a Daikini baby?
Spinal Tap references in... (Score:2, Funny)
...3...2...1...
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
"I prefer not to tread water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry."
And yet, you still post to Slashdot?
There once was a girl from Nantucket...
Re: (Score:2)
This is even sadder than the person who posts "F1RST!!" assuming that they actually are but end up being fourth, since this actually would be a worthwhile first post given two of the three afore you.
What do you mean, the "actual" piece? (Score:5, Funny)
Artist: Look, look. Look, this is what I was asked to build. Eighteen inches. Right here, it specifies eighteen inches. I was given this napkin, I mean...
Ian: Forget this! F**k the napkin!!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
http://stylemens.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/30/stone_h_2.jpg [typepad.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Nigel Tufnel: In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing...
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
No the mini one was the original spec.
StoneHenge is the the version with feature creep and user input.
Recent Stonehenge Excavations (Score:5, Informative)
Over the past two years ther have been a huge amount of archaeology excavation work in the Stonehenge area. Last year it was mostly close to the henge itself.
This year the excavations have been off to the North West up the A344 closer to Airmans Corner
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=412500&Y=142500&A=Y&Z=120 [streetmap.co.uk]
Even this article is published in the "Daily Wail" I suspect there is a lot more details to emerge over the coming months.
Re:Recent Stonehenge Excavations (Score:4, Funny)
What do you sell to the ancient dead?
Re:Recent Stonehenge Excavations (Score:5, Funny)
What do you sell to the ancient dead?
Life insurance.
Re: (Score:2)
Grateful Dead albums !
Re:Recent Stonehenge Excavations (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
I love that pub. Forget the stones, it's worth the bus trip all by itself.
Re: (Score:2)
I asked about the Airman's Corner excavations at in the visitors' centre when I visited Stonehenge this summer. Apparently they're hoping *not* to find anything interesting there; they are looking for somewhere to put a new visitors' centre, and want to make sure that there won't be any archaeological remains under the car park.
Re:Recent Stonehenge Excavations (Score:5, Funny)
You seem to have started on 'aristocrat', gone via 'edwardian mill-owner' and ended up on 'hackney carriage driver'.
Re:Recent Stonehenge Excavations (Score:5, Interesting)
You seem to have started on 'aristocrat', gone via 'edwardian mill-owner' and ended up on 'hackney carriage driver'.
Yes, alas, a lot of Americans don't seem to grasp that there are many quite different British accents. It all gets lumped into one non-existent "British accent", presumably spoken by aristocratic Scottish chimney sweeps born to the sound of the Bow Bells in Victorian-era Calcutta, growing up as Oxford educated street urchins in the back-alleys of Serbiton and eventually settling down in the East End of Cardiff.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
To be fair, quite a lot of us Brits forget that there are many quite different native languages, let alone accents, on these fair and drizzly isles. English is arguaby the language of some fairly recent immigrants who were invited in to do a job and then didn't want to go home again afterwards.
That could never happen again these days
Re:Recent Stonehenge Excavations (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, quite a lot of us Brits forget that there are many quite different native languages, let alone accents, on these fair and drizzly isles. English is arguaby the language of some fairly recent immigrants who were invited in to do a job and then didn't want to go home again afterwards.
From another perspective, all the "native" languages are just the languages of somewhat less recent immigrants.
All the native languages are in the Celtic family, which in turn is part of the larger Indo-European family. The Beaker culture people who built Stonehenge may have spoken a Celtic language, or Celtic languages may have come in later during the Iron age. Either way, before the Celtic languages Brits almost certainly spoke something completely different.
Pity they didn't write things down, though.
Re: (Score:2)
No kidding. I was watching an English comedian playing in Canada and he did the same, mixing a Texas drawl with a Georgia twang. And don't get me started on all those comedians doing Jamaican accents who mix up everything.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, alas, a lot of Americans don't seem to grasp that there are many quite different British accents.
And many British don't seem to understand that many North Americans can peg a British person regardless of where he's from, or his specific accent?
It's also easier to lump everyone together under the name of a country. I'm from Canada - Texas, Miami, or New York are all American accents. Since my accent knowledge is mostly from TV, it's safer to specify the country than specify a state and get it wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, alas, a lot of Americans don't seem to grasp that there are many quite different British accents. It all gets lumped into one non-existent "British accent", presumably spoken by aristocratic Scottish chimney sweeps born to the sound of the Bow Bells in Victorian-era Calcutta, growing up as Oxford educated street urchins in the back-alleys of Serbiton and eventually settling down in the East End of Cardiff.
Actually, that sounds a great deal like one of my great-great uncles who's father was Irish but grew up in Scotland. Joined the army and did a tour of duty in South Africa prior to the Zulu war, shipped back to Kent for a few years and then headed off to India to work as the Municipal Engineer for Rowalpindi. (Now in Pakistan)
Great-great uncle left India to go to school and ended up teaching at Cambridge. I shudder to think what his children's accents sounded like. Irish-Scottish-South African-Indian-Cambri
Well, they intended it to be big... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Did these designers go on to work for NASA?
No, but I think they did some work once for Spinal Tap.
off-topic: One of many reasons IRIX was cool -- run audiopanel with the -spinaltap option. All volume controls go to 11! There. I have given away my big secret.
btw if my sig doesn't make sense try it on HP-UX 10.20 or so.
Ancient Gods (Score:3, Funny)
No one knows what gods they worshipped, but the alignment of Stonehenge to the solstice shows that the Sun - and maybe the Moon - was important.
Looking at the monument and knowing what it would take to build it, I think it's obvious.They may have worshiped the Sun, but they prayed to Joe Pesci.
Re: (Score:2)
Logistics (Score:2)
I find it absolutely amazing that people 5000 years ago were able to move 4000 kilo rocks over hundreds of kilometres of landscape.
Re: (Score:2)
I find it absolutely amazing that people 5000 years ago were able to move 4000 kilo rocks over hundreds of kilometres of landscape.
It was definitely an achievement [thinkgeek.com]
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It's only a model.
Re: (Score:2)
My guess is that it was an ancient tourist trap.
Soon they'll dig up a dunk tank and other related stuff. "Come to Stonehengeland! See, um, rocks! They're not quite as big as the real thing, but they're still pretty bitchin'!"
Re:Logistics (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I am not convinced the labour supply was limitless. A lot of manpower was needed for hunting, agriculture, building shelter, raising children, etc. I imagine that the people transporting these rocks may have spend their entire short lifespans on that one job.
So what economic structure ensured that they had food to eat?
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't it obvious?
More slaves, to work the farms.
Just like XML and violence, if it doesn't solve your problem, just add some more!
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, because (a) the population of the world 5,000 years ago was infinite and (b) planning regulations have always been the single greatest impediment to human progress.
Re: (Score:2)
You should have gotten a +5 for that. Or a dry-cleaning bill at least.
Re: (Score:2)
Another amazing thing is that there used to be a giant ditch surrounding Stonehenge that was dug out by hand to a depth of twenty-five feet or so.
But the really amazing thing is that the giant stones were placed there several hundred years after the ditch was dug. So, they not only had to move these huge, heavy stones across the UK, but then had to go down and up a big friggin' ditch.
The theory is that it's the location that's important, not the stones. The stones are just markers.
Just discovered? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I was thinking something along the same line.
Maybe stonehenge is part of a complex of structures? Maybe an ancient city? Or a temple complex...
Two words... (Score:1)
Landing site.
Re: (Score:2)
Landing site.
Why would UFOs need a purpose built landing site? Don't they have inertial navigation?
Re: (Score:2)
Not landing. Harvesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatermass_(TV_serial) [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Or maybe it's a slightly earlier monument, and its blue stones were recycled when a larger one was built nearby? People have been nicking stone from existing constructions to use for new ones for millennia.
The fabled gift shop (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
... but gift shops were contemporary to ancient britons?
4 Tons vs. 50 Tons vs. 1100 Ton (Score:4, Funny)
Four-ton stones are miniscule compared to the 50-ton trilithons at big Stonehenge or the over 1100-ton Stone of the South [vejprty.com] at Baalbek in Lebanon.
It boggles the mind that primitive people would want to erect such monumental structures when smaller stones would have been orders of magnitude easier to cut and transport. As the Romans, the Aztecs and the Maya have shown, it's possible to create impressive monuments with smaller stones. In my opinion, some among the ancient priesthoods had secret knowledge of a technology that allowed them to levitate and transport huge stones over great distances. Too bad they died without leaving a record of it. I have excellent cause to believe that the secret of levitation will be uncovered soon.
There is clear evidence that we are swimming in an ocean of clean energy, lots and lots of it. A new form of transportation and energy production technology will arrive soon, one based on the realization that we are immersed in an immense lattice of energetic particles. This is a consequence of a reevaluation of our understanding of the causality of motion. Soon, we'll have vehicles that can move at tremendous speeds and negotiate right angle turns without slowing down and without incurring damages due to inertial effects. Floating cities, unlimited clean energy, earth to Mars in hours, New York to Beijing in minutes... That's the future of energy and travel.
The Problem With Motion [blogspot.com]
Re: (Score:1, Funny)
anyone follow that link? his response to comments on his blog is illuminating
I had no idea the timecube guy had a separate blog and posted on slashdot
Re: (Score:1)
LOL. The Timecube guy, eh? I ressemble that. At least my comment was not modded -1 Troll. Not yet anyway. A Funny rating is better than nothing.
Re: (Score:2)
So what you're saying is that the old technology was huge monolithic building blocks (Windows) and the huge improvement was using tiny building blocks (Unix mindset)?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This guy got modded funny, but there's a nugget of truth in the greater turd.
In science as a whole, and particularly fields like archeology, there seems to be a very unhealthy "not invented here" mentality. It's particularly evident in Egyptology, from what I've read: despite any evidence to the contrary, they insist upon primitive, labor-intensive, and often easily-explained-away methods of construction.
Two examples are the Giza pyramid (ignoring the astounding geometric and architectural complexity which
Re:4 Tons vs. 50 Tons vs. 1100 Ton (Score:4, Insightful)
The fact is, we lose a large percentage of our knowledge - it doesn't take levitating rocks for this to be true.
For instance - I'm into firearms, and a good friend of mine is quite fond of old English sporting arms. He has an English flintlock that is the absolute most amazing piece of engineering i have ever seen. The barrels are side-by-side and regulated - as in, you can put 2 rounds within 1" of each other at 100 yards with this thing. There are no companies that we know of making contemporary muzzle-loading weapons. Today's newly manufactured flintlocks are generally very touchy and unreliable, but the old ones are incredibly reliable; they had to be.
As a society, we have forgotten how to make quality flintlock rifles, just as we have forgotten how to move gigantic stones by hand.
Re: (Score:2)
I meant to imply contemporary rifles in the style of the weapons i was discussing. Of course there are muzzle-loaders being made today, but they are either niche (in the case of reproductions of classic arms), or designed for hunting.
Also, I'm not aware of any hunting seasons that are open to black-powder weapons as such - if that were the case, I have a nice old .45-70 I'd love to take with me. Seasons are typically divided into archery, muzzle-loading/"primitive weapons", and modern gun. Black power ca
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
that was the least scientific 'scientific blog' i have ever read... with the obvious exception of timecube...
you need to learn the physics you are debating, saying 'from my perspective' doesn't a theory make...
Re: (Score:2)
exactly my thought about you... you are of course entitled to your own opinion, and no one can stop you posting online about it.
if, however, you start claiming things like "physicists are just as ignorant as the man in the street about the nature of motion", or "Yep, physicists do believe in magic even if they claim otherwise" then you had better have some damn good evidence to back your claims. if not, then you are just being a "pompous and condescending asshole" yourself when you post such drivel every ch
Re: (Score:2)
Your Physics professor could be the reason years and millions of dollars of investigation hasn't yielded the same results as the 5 dollar research. I mean seriously, if findings are rejected because of the cost associated with the research, then there are problems.
Re: (Score:2)
Obviously there was an Atlantic/Flood event that, um, put all their unlimited energy-producing fires out and drowned them all and made their books go soggy so we can't read them.
Before Stonehenge... (Score:5, Funny)
Before Stonehenge, there was Woodhenge [wikipedia.org] and Strawhenge. (But a big bad wolf came along...)
- Eddie Izzard
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
It was claimed that Tittyhenge was discovered, but it was a bust.
Re: (Score:2)
Bluehenge is the one from the Bluetooth age
But what's really cool is (Score:1)
the discovery of 13-inch Beatles nearby. Their best tune is "No. 3"
Blueprint (Score:5, Funny)
It's blue and it's a small scale of the real thing.
That's what we call a "blueprint".
Keeping Up With The Joneses (Score:5, Funny)
IBM? (Score:2, Funny)
Bluehenge? sounds like IBM made
Hogwash (Score:1)
Rolled? Floated???
Occam's Razor.
They were simply transported there by the Ancients' extraterrestrial guides using their interstellar spacecraft.
One of the most important finds ? have a look : (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe [wikipedia.org]
Its lowest layer is dated 9130-8800 BC. That's fucking 11,130 years ago. its the oldest place of worship. Also :
Göbekli Tepe is the oldest human-made place of worship yet discovered.[2] Until excavations began, a complex on this scale was not thought possible for a community so ancient. The massive sequence of stratification layers suggests several millennia of activity, perhaps reaching back to the Mesolithic. The oldest occupation layer (stratum III) contains monolithic pillars linked by coarsely built walls to form circular or oval structures. So far, four such buildings, with diameters between 10 and 30m have been uncovered. Geophysical surveys indicate the existence of 16 additional structures.
Stratum II, dated to Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) (7500 - 6000 BC), has revealed several adjacent rectangular rooms with floors of polished lime, reminiscent of Roman terrazzo floors. The most recent layer consists of sediment deposited as the result of agricultural activity.
Moreover, this is more important - it seems to be the place where mankind first domesticated wheat :
While the site formally belongs to the earliest Neolithic (PPN A), up to now no traces of domesticated plants or animals have been found. The inhabitants were hunters and gatherers who nevertheless lived in villages for at least part of the year.[7] Schmidt speculates that the site played a key function in the transition to agriculture; he assumes that the necessary social organization needed for the creation of these structures went hand-in-hand with the organized exploitation of wild crops. For sustenance, wild cereals may have been used more intensively than before; perhaps they were even deliberately cultivated. Recent DNA analysis of modern domesticated wheat compared with wild wheat has shown that its DNA is closest in structure to wild wheat found on Mount Karaca Da 20 miles away from the site, leading one to believe that this is where modern wheat was first domesticated.[8]
enjoy.
Re:One of the most important finds ? have a look : (Score:5, Funny)
t shape stands for human (Score:2)
t shapes are probably used for representing humans. ie, some of the shapes appear to be holding small animals under their 'arms'.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder if any influence or link can be traced between it and the Phoenician culture...
There's no link. A LOT happened in the 5-6000 years between this and the time Phoenician culture arose (2000-1500 BC). I'm sure there was influence, but nothing you could trace directly. Nearly every culture in the region could claim the same influence, and there were a lot of them.
Oh I know what this is... (Score:2)
Its not uncommon when taking on a project, to first create a scaled down model first, so to help discover and work out project problems. To bad they can't find teh blue prints huh?
slashdothenge more like (Score:5, Funny)
Frigging obvious! (Score:2)
Smaller and nearby? It's the GPU!
(Also, insert obligatory IBM/BlueHenge joke.)
Re: (Score:2)
No, its the math coprocessor. Now get off my lawn. :)
Re: (Score:2)
Granted, it is a fairly old system after all. :P
Hmmm (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Unfortunately for your ice sheet theory, the large bluestones are all there is in the area. Glaciation would also have brought huge quantities of identifiable smaller bits right down to gravel size.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
There's no reason to suggest they were dragged, mostly they were floated down over the Bristol channel and then probably across the flooded plains of Somerset. Wiltshire's only a short drag from there.
Stones are *missing* (Score:2)
So how the hell can you be sure what they looked like? They could have been totem poles or something.. just happened to be arranged in a similar round pattern, which is most likely common for that era of man ( think sun/moon god worship ).
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
i think they concluded the holes were sockets for stones for a number of reasons - one of which is because of the amount of chippings of Bluestone they found in the area, and another being that holes which have had stones in them have a variety of archaeological evidence to support such a conclusion, including the way the earth is packed, the way the hole is cut, and whether there's evidence for packing stones, etc, having been used to hold the stones in place.
the combination of this kind of evidence plus t
Channel 4's Time Team (Score:4, Informative)
here in the UK Channel 4's "Time Team" covered some of the recent excavations in the Stonehenge area in a couple of episodes earlier this year - this includes the initial discovery of this 'Bluehenge' site, although when the programmes were made they had not got as far as finding the evidence for a complete henge at this site.
check out the two 'specials' here [channel4.com] and here [channel4.com]. fwiw, the second programme is the more detailed of the two and covers more of the later discoveries.
these recent digs are particularly interesting because they're the most up-to-date excavations to have taken place in the Stonehenge area so far, and they also include the re-excavations of older digs which took place before we had some of our modern techniques, technologies and understanding.
truly fascinating stuff! :)
re: Health uses (Score:2)
Consider:
- Negative ions are good for health (a reference would be good here ready for challenging that; one I remember involved using a negative charge to prevent or treat gum disease in dentistry)
- Negative ions are more common in flowing water; is Bluehenge & Stonehenge built over a lay line (Druid name) -aquifer (hydrogeological term)
- Charge can be measured with a multimeter so try this: measure voltage with a node in each hand before and after:
1) a brisk swim in the sea
2) 10mins of Tai Chi
3) A mo
Re: (Score:2)
Obligtory (Score:2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpaG-L0zTJ4 [youtube.com]
Re:Builders (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
But these were not the druids you were looking for...
Re: (Score:2)
According to the article it was actually built by the same druids
Sorry but druids had nothing to do with Stonehenge, they first appeared in England thousands of years after Stonehenge has erected.
Druids: 200 BCE or earlier - 200 century CE
Stonehenge: 3000-2100 BCE
Re: (Score:3)
Druids: 200 BCE or earlier - 200 century CE Stonehenge: 3000-2100 BCE
Actually, I have it from a very reliable source that the druids were around hundreds of years before the dawn of history.
Re: (Score:2)
So it was built by little blue men instead of little green ones?
It was built by Nac Mac Feegles [wikipedia.org]?
I musthave been a very big bottle of Special Sheep Linament to get them to finish something that impressive.
Re:Henges? (Score:4, Informative)
How many more henges are we going to find?
evidence exists for literally hundreds and hundreds of henges across the UK - a lot of them don't have any stones (not because they've been removed, a lot of them just never had them) - the term 'henge' is generally taken to be a circular/oval bank and ditch earthwork.
Why isn't the word henge used more in day-to-day conversation?
...uhm, maybe it's because in day-to-day conversation people don't generally talk about pre-historic / neolithic sites very much? (sorry, couldn't resist pointing out the obvious there! ;)
people familiar with ancient / pre-historic sites do often use the term henge when talking about this kind of thing - i guess it depends on where you live, and who you speak with? -- i'm kinda assuming from your question that you likely aren't living in the UK (or France) where there are a lot of henges (and barrows and standing stones / stone arrangements) scattered all over the countryside - some are big and impressive, like Stonehenge [wikipedia.org] (obviously), Avebury [wikipedia.org] and Thornborough [wikipedia.org], all of which are in the UK, and Carnac [wikipedia.org] in France -- whereas others are only known about because of circular markings left in farmers fields (often only visible from the air nowadays), eg. Bow Henge [megalithic.co.uk].
hth
Re:Henges? (Score:4, Interesting)
Thanks for the henge references - I shall seek them out on my next trip to Europe!
enjoy - there's lots to see! :)
i might be wrong, but here in the UK the biggest concentration of neolithic sites is generally understood to be in the Wiltshire area [wikipedia.org] - that's where you'll find Stonehenge (and its 'complex' / associated sites) and also Avebury and its 'complex' including Silbury Hill (plus lots of minor sites which are still interesting) - but there are also a lot of stone circles and henges in various parts of Scotland too.
personally i'd like to see the stuff in France like the awesome stone rows at Carnac - which are not just fascinating, they're truly mind boggling to comprehend imo!!
to be honest, sites that are simple henges - such as Thornborough in Yorkshire (which is undoubtedly of great significance), and many many others, aren't actually that interesting to visit - the more interesting sites are those which also feature standing stones. Avebury (and the sites in the surrounding area) is truly amazing - the henge is hundreds of meters across, and contains the whole village, pub and all! the stones are pretty huge, and the earthworks / bank and ditch is much bigger than that at Stonehenge - imo Stonehenge is only more impressive because of the trilithon arrangement of the stones. Silbury Hill (near Avebury) is (i believe) the largest man-made hill in Europe! - of course no one knows what it was for...
be sure to check out the recent 'Time Team' TV programme's episodes on Stonehenge (and indeed any of their other episodes on neolithic/prehistoric sites) which i linked to in another post of mine [slashdot.org] - hopefully you can still watch these from the US and they've not limited viewing to the UK only.
there's a wikipedia page on henges [wikipedia.org] - though you've likely already seen that if you followed links from the pages i've already linked?
(btw, i'm not after mod points - i already have excellent slashdot karma, and have had for years - i'm just providing this info because this is something that i'm truly interested in)
have fun! :)
Re: (Score:2)