An Anglo-Saxon decapitation and burial at Stonehenge

www.Sarsen.org: An Anglo-Saxon decapitation and burial at Stonehen...: Mike Pitts just uploaded a paper on Academia.edu: An Anglo-Saxon decapitation and burial at Stonehenge. View the paper here:  https://w...

Learn about Stonehenge and Neolithic Britain with this new online course.

The most spectacular monument of the Neolithic is now a British icon and a World Heritage Site. Explore 5,000 years of Stonehenge and discover your own response to this enigmatic stone circle.

When was Stonehenge built?
Who built it?
How was it built?
Why was it built?

Answers cannot be promised to all of these, but we can get better at asking the questions and work towards solutions. We can look at how people have responded to Stonehenge. Most of all we can begin to think about what Stonehenge means to us.

What do I learn?

• •To understand present archaeological thinking about Stonehenge.
• •To evaluate responses to Stonehenge in art, literature, music, architecture and culture.
• •To consider your own response to Stonehenge, expressed through two peer-evaluated mini-essays.

What do I need too know?
No entry requirements. This MOOC is open to all.
Course Structure

Chapter 1: The Stonehenge Landscape
 Stonehenge as a landscape of prehistoric sites. A historical context: the Mesolithic, the Neolithic and the building of the Stonehenge.
Chapter 2: Who built Stonehenge?
 Theories: when, by whom, how and why.

Chapter 3: Stonehenge Problems
 Context - the Stonehenge landscape: problems with transportation and erection. Part destruction - why and how?

Chapter 4: Responses to Stonehenge
 An array of responses: Geoffrey of Monmouth (1138); the antiquarian tradition, the temple and astronomic alignments traditions; various amateur theories; the archaeological traditions.
 Stonehenge, Woodhenge: monuments in a landscape
Chapter 5: Cultural Contexts
 Stonehenge in fiction, poetry, music, art and popular culture.
Chapter 6: Stonehenge Today
 Stonehenge as a cultural icon, emblem of Britain, World Heritage site and sacred space.
 Blick Mead as the cradle of Stonehenge.
Chapter 7: Reassessing Stonehenge
 Written activity as an assessment
Chapter 8: Responses to Stonehenge
 Examination of students' responses through their essays. Integration of blog, Wiki, Twitter and eBook as a way of continuing the discussion after the course.

Workload
Approximately two hours per week for watching video lectures, completing quizzes and homework assignments.

Course Instructor: Dr Graeme Davis

A Research Fellow at The University of Buckingham (UK), Dr Graeme Davis is a specialist in mediaeval language and literature, with interests in Stonehenge, the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Iceland, Greenland and the North Atlantic.

Enrol for free here: https://iversity.org/en/courses/Stonehenge

Stonehenge Tour Guide

New exhibition to highlight the Stonehenge's impact on the First World War

A FASCINATING new exhibition telling the story of the world's largest military training camp opens at Stonehenge Visitors' Centre on November 5th

The exhibition, Soldiers at Stonehenge: Salisbury Plain and the journey to the First World War, will delve into the story of the estimated one million men who, between 1914 and 1918, were battle hardened at Stonehenge.

Records show 180,000 men were stationed at any one time on the plain during the First World War.

Their personal stories, photographs and original objects will form the basis of the exhibition but evidence of their presence can still be seen across the wider Stonehenge and Salisbury Plain landscape.

New exhibition to highlight the Stonehenge's
 impact on the First World War

Robert Campbell, head of interpretation at English Heritage, which is staging the exhibition, said: "The task of these men was to overcome the horrific stalemate of trench warfare and to replicate conditions on the Western Front, soldiers dug intricate networks of trenches which were then pounded by shellfire. The exhibition will explore this aspect."

The war left its mark on the ancient archaeology of Salisbury Plain and the exhibition includes finds on loan from Wiltshire Museum including cap badges, rifle cartridges, aircraft parts and highly personal items such as a spoon and even part of a bottle of Australian hair tonic.

The war and the training camps have become part of the fabric of the modern history of Stonehenge with the human stories that emerged.

When the war broke out the site of the monument was owned by the Antrobus family. Lieutenant Edmund Antrobus, was the heir to Stonehenge, was killed in action at Ypres. His father, also Edmund, had been a professional soldier and had inherited Stonehenge as part of the Amesbury Abbey estate in 1899. He died soon after his son.

The death of owner and heir to Stonehenge led, in part to the monument being put up for sale at auction in 1915. It was bought by Cecil Chubb, a local barrister, who was the last person to privately own it.

The exhibition is on for six months and admission is included in the Stonehenge entry price.

Article in the Salisbury Journal
by Dermot Martin

Stonehenge Tour Guide