A detailed laser-scan survey of the entire monument has discovered 72
previously unknown Early Bronze Age carvings chipped into five of the giant
stones.
All of the newly discovered
prehistoric art works are invisible to the naked
eye – and have only come to light following a laser-scan survey which recorded
literally billions of points micro-topographically on the surfaces of the
monument’s 83 surviving stones. In total, some 850 gigabytes of information was
collected.
Detailed analysis of that data – carried out on behalf of
English Heritage -
found that images had been engraved on the stones, normally by removing the top
1-3 millimetres of weathered (darker coloured) rock, to produce different sized
shapes. Of the 72 newly discovered images revealed through the data analysis, 71
portray Bronze Age axe-heads and one portrays a
Bronze Age dagger.
Prior to the laser survey, 46 other carvings (also of axe-heads and daggers)
were known or suspected at Stonehenge – mostly identified visually back in the
1950s. The laser-scan survey has now confirmed the existence of those other
images and provided more details about them.
The 72 new ‘rock art’ discoveries almost treble the number of carvings known
at Stonehenge – and the monument’s largely invisible art gallery now constitutes
the largest single collection of prehistoric rock carvings in southern Britain.
Although now largely invisible to the naked eye, back in the Early Bronze Age
the images, composed of then-unweathered (and therefore lighter coloured) stone
would have been clearly visible.
The revelations are likely to be of huge importance to
archaeologists’
understanding of a key part of Stonehenge’s life as a prehistoric temple.
It’s known that, when the main phase of the monument was initially built in
the middle of the third millennium BC, it was designed primarily as a solar
temple, aligned on the mid-winter and mid-summer solstices. But, as Stonehenge
evolved over subsequent centuries, the extent to which other religious functions
were added is not yet known.
Certainly, in the period 1800-1500 BC, vast numbers of individual monumental
tombs were constructed in the landscape around Stonehenge and additional
features (various circles of ritual pits) were laid out around the monument. The
carved axe-heads and daggers also belong to this enigmatic period - and may
signify some sort of expansion or change in the great stone circle’s religious
function.
In Indo-European tradition axe-heads were often associated with storm deities
– and some surviving European folklore beliefs suggest that upwards-facing axe
blades were used as magical talismans to protect crops, people and property
against lightning and storm damage. It’s potentially significant that every
single one of the Stonehenge axe-head images have their blades pointing
skywards, while the daggers point downwards. The axe-heads – the vast majority
of the images – may therefore have been engraved as votive offerings to placate
a storm deity and thus protect crops.
It may also be significant that the vast majority of the carvings either face
a nearby set of tombs (from roughly the same period) – or the centre of
Stonehenge itself. Rare evidence from elsewhere in Britain suggests that
axe-head and dagger carvings could have funerary associations.
The laser-scan data shows that many of the axe-head images have exactly the
same dimensions as up to half a dozen other images in the prehistoric Stonehenge
‘art gallery’. This in turn suggests that real axe-heads were being used as
‘stencils’ to help produce the images. If that’s the case, the largest axe-heads
portrayed - up to 46 centimetres long – depict objects which were far bigger
than archaeologists have ever found and which must have been for purely
ceremonial or ritual use.
The laser-scan survey was carried out for English Heritage by a Derby-based
survey company – the Greenhatch Group – last year. A subsidiary of York
Archaeological Trust – ArcHeritage, also operating on behalf of English
Heritage – then spent many months analysing and cataloguing the vast quantities
of data.
“The new discoveries are of huge importance. They also demonstrate how
emerging technologies can extract previously unsuspected and crucial information
from a monument like Stonehenge,” said Marcus Abbott, Head of Geomatics and
Visualization at ArcHeritage.
“As the previously invisible images started appearing on our computer
screens, we stared in disbelief at the sheer quantity of carvings being revealed
– and treble-checked all our data,” he added.
The survey and analysis has also yielded other new insights into Stonehenge.
It’s revealed, through an examination of how finely the stone surfaces were
worked, that the entire prehistoric temple was constructed to be viewed
primarily from the north-east. That’s the side of the monument which is
approached by what archaeologists have long believed to be a processional way,
aligned with the solstices.
Because, it now seems that Stonehenge was built to be viewed from that
direction, it suggests that some sort of religious procession made its way
towards the monument, along that route, probably on mid-winter’s and
mid-summer’s day.
Detailed analysis of the data also shows that one of the stones at the now
ruinous south-west side of the monument was also very deliberately worked and
shaped to allow a line of sight through to the setting sun on mid-winter’s day.
This, along with other new evidence, suggests that the south-west side of the
monument was once fully functional – and will reduce support for those who have,
up till now, argued that Stonehenge was never completed. The implication
therefore is that at some stage in its history there was a deliberate attempt at
its destruction.
Particularly puzzling is the laser survey discovery that the prehistoric
stone masons, who helped create Stonehenge, used two different stone-working
techniques. The stone-dressing work on the monument’s great circle (both
uprights and lintels) was accomplished by working parallel to the long sides of
the stones, while the five stone ‘trilithons’ (the great horse-shoe arrangement
of linteled stones) within the great circle were dressed by working at
right-angles to the sides of the stones.
This previously unknown fact – revealed by the laser scan operation –
suggests that the great ‘trilithons’ may have been constructed slightly before
the great circle rather than being contemporary with it.
Full article:
David Keys -
http://www.independent.co.uk/
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