Showing posts with label Archaeologists discover Stonehenge's little sister. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Archaeologists discover Stonehenge's little sister. Show all posts
Monday 9 November 2009
Arthur Pendragon at Stonehenge - keep up the good work!
I was up at Stonehenge yesterday and had the pleasure of meeting Arthur Pendragon. If you intend to vist the site please make sure you stop and support his cause. He has got 1000's of signatures (from 60 different religions).
You can always emasil your comments directly to him - see below.
For those unfamiliar with his cause please read the blog below:
Keep up the good work Arthur, if pnly this country had more people like hime this would be a better place!
THE "grave robbers", sorry archaeologists, have been back this summer, theorising and arguing over the whys and wherefores of Stonehenge, and our televisions focus on how marvellous the ancients were who created it.
But what of it now?
Well, after spending £37 million and taking 11 years over public consultation and inquiry, our Government, like a petulant child, ignored all the findings and dismissed with the stroke of a pen all plans for road improvements in and around Stonehenge and forced English Heritage, the Government's own watchdog looking after our national monuments, to begin anew with plans and public consultations.
You may be forgiven for a feeling of deja vu, for we have indeed been here before.
It has been described as "a step in the right direction…" by Robert Key, the Conservative MP for Salisbury. But I say it is a step backwards... back to square one.
The current situation all-round is a rip-off. The tourists are being ripped off, as the current visitor centre is a national disgrace.
What is supposed to be a World Heritage Site is served by temporary toilets and a prefab visitor centre that was temporary when it was built 40 years ago.
The locals are being ripped off, too. They are not getting their road improvements.
And anyone who thinks of Stonehenge as a sacred temple is being ripped off. Divorced from the sacred landscape, this once proud and majestic temple sits like a snared animal amid the tacky trappings of the 21st century.
So what now? More rounds of talking shops and the inevitable "gravy train" of jobs for the boys, with English Heritage doing all it can to turn Stonehenge into a third-rate theme park with a visitor centre, cafe and all the other franchises and marketing practices that this entails.
Perhaps it is time to return to the true spirit of the place.
Scholars will argue over who built it and when, whether it was the proto-Druids or members of a very different faith. But one thing remains certain. It was people of great faith who erected the mighty stones.
The logistics of such an operation, the transporting of the stones over such great distances, through the many domains of different tribal chieftains and peoples, would have needed enormous diplomatic skills and co-operation.
The fact that it is still a place of reverence to certain beliefs shows an unequalled continuity of faith in what was once and still could be the Isle of the Mighty.
Stonehenge was never a centre of commerce but of spirituality.
The need for a visitor centre has been brought about in recent times by the way English Heritage has marketed it so aggressively both at home and abroad.
Many people will remember when Stonehenge meant little more than a few ancient stones standing in the middle of Salisbury Plain. It should have been left like that.
In recent times, it has changed from a place of spirit to a place of confrontation over freedom of access for religious observances at the solstices and equinoxes.
AN OPEN LETTER FROM THE STONEHENGE PICKET
Campaigning for the return of our ancestors remains
Lammas 2009
A big thank you to all those who have bought a badge to support the new Stonehenge Picket, and the Arch Druids of Avebury, Cotswold and Glastonbury for their support.
And a big thank you to the members of the following Pagan and Druid Groups for signing our petition:
- The Druid Order - London
- Dobunni Grove - (Bristol) OBOD
- The Cotswold Order of Druids
- The Washington Witches - USA
- S.W.O.R.D - Avebury
- The Circle of Pagans - Liverpool
And a Huge thank you to all the members of other faiths that have signed our petition. “All Hail the irregulars, who back our cause from the following Faiths.”
Agnostic
Anglican
Atheist
Asatru
Baptist
Buddhist
Catholic
Celtic Christian
Church of England
Church of Latterday Saints
Christian
Druid
Eastern Orthodox
Earth Centred
Eclectic
Episcopal
Evangelical
Goddess
Hari Krishna
Herbalist
Hermetic
Hindu
Islam
Jewish
Jedi
Kabala
Lutheran
Methodist
Muslim
Nilest
Non-denominational
None
Oglala
Orthodox
Pagan
Pantheist
Pentecostal
Presbyterian
Protestant
Quaker
Roman Catholic
Scientologist
Sikh
Southern Baptist
Spiritualist
Taoist
Unitarian
Wiccan
Witch
Zoroastrian
Many thanks to one and all and may your Gods look favourably upon you…..
Thursday 5 November 2009
Bluestonehenge: Stonehenge's little sister
Archaeologists have discovered Stonehenge's little sister, dubbed Bluestonehenge, just 2.8km away on the west bank of the River Avon.
The site, once made up of 25 blue Preseli stones - hence it's nickname - was constructed about 5,000 years ago. According to archaeologists from the Stonehenge Riverside Project, Bluestonehenge linked the 'domain of the dead' to that of the living at Durrington Walls further upstream, with the River Avon being the vital link between the two.
Archaeologists believe the stones represented the end of the Avenue that marked the funerary processional route from the River Avon to Stonehenge: no pottery, animal bones, food residues or flint tools associated with domestic life have been found at Bluestonehenge.
Director of the project, Professor Mike Parker Pearson from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield, said: "It could be that Bluestonehenge was where the dead began their final journey to Stonehenge - Britain's largest burial ground at that time. Maybe the bluestone circle is where people were cremated before their ashes were buried at Stonehenge itself."
The stones at Bluestonehenge were dragged 150 miles from the Welsh mountains and set in a circle measuring 10m in diameter and surrounded by a ditch with an external bank - the henge. The outer henge was built c.2400 BC but arrowheads found in the stone circle suggest the stones were put up as much as 500 years earlier. It appears the stones were removed sometime during the Neolithic era, and some were then used up the road at Stonehenge when it underwent a major rebuild c.2500 BC. Archaeologists know that after this date Stonehenge consisted of about 80 Welsh stones and 83 local, sarsen stones so maybe some of the stones now standing at the centre of Stonehenge once stood on the banks of the River Avon. Tests to obtain radiocarbon dates from pickaxes made from deer antlers found at Bluestonehenge will give a more accurate picture of the sequence of events.
Dr Josh Pollard, co-director from the University of Bristol explained: "The newly discovered circle and henge should be considered an integral part of Stonehenge rather than a separate monument, and it offers tremendous insight into the history of its famous neighbour. Its landscape location demonstrates once again the importance of the River Avon in Neolithic funerary rites and ceremonies."
Prof. Julian Thomas, co-director, added: "The implications of this discovery are immense. It is compelling evidence that this stretch of the River Avon was central to the religious lives of the people who built Stonehenge. Old theories about Stonehenge that do not explain the evident significance of the river will have to be re-thought."
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