4000 years ago a fantastic stone edifice was erected which puzzles people today. One of the questions was HOW they did it. This guy might've figured it out.
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[yt]lRRDzFROMx0[/yt]
How Stonehenge MIGHT'VE been built!
- Thread starter MA-Caver
- Start date
Now that's cool. 
Very cool. I remember seeing something similar on the building of the pyramids years ago.
Guys, there really is no scientific mystery here. Thor Hyerdahl describes in Kon-Tiki the techniques that the Easter Islanders used to put up the equally massive stone heads that the Islands were known for, and those techiques, involving pulleys, rollers, levers and scaffolding, are more than sufficient to account for what was done at Stonehenge, where the technological level of the people at the time was at least comparable (all of which was known at least forty or so years ago; I first encountered a detailed discussion of known construction methods practices by cultures with very basic technology that would completely account for Stonehenge in a mongraph by either Glyn Daniel or Jacquetta Hawkes, both of them very distinguished archæologists specializing in Neolithic Britain, sometime in the late 1960s). Contrary to the breathless 'Gee whiz, how on earth did they do that???!!!' tone of the commentary, archaeologists of prehistoric Britain are not at all perplexed by the technology of construction; that, they figure they understand pretty well. They're more interested in exactly how the bluestone inner circle stones were brought to Salisbury Plain from the Presceli Mountains in Wales a couple of hundred miles away; water transport is the most likely answer, but there are any number of questions about the details.
I was at Stonehenge in August, and there were descriptions in the display component, going into some detail, of just how the construction took place; the conclusions look very much like what Heyerdahl described for Easter Island (something along the following lines). There are alternative hypotheses as well, but if anything, the problem is not that we have no idea how they did it, but the opposite: we have several interesting competing stories, all based on sound archaeology, all based on what is known about Neolithic technology, and all of which would do the job, and differing in only relatively minor ways. To my mind, that's not exactly what 'mystery', used as in the video, conveys.
We have enough real myseries that need cracking without having to conjure up nonexistent ones....
I was at Stonehenge in August, and there were descriptions in the display component, going into some detail, of just how the construction took place; the conclusions look very much like what Heyerdahl described for Easter Island (something along the following lines). There are alternative hypotheses as well, but if anything, the problem is not that we have no idea how they did it, but the opposite: we have several interesting competing stories, all based on sound archaeology, all based on what is known about Neolithic technology, and all of which would do the job, and differing in only relatively minor ways. To my mind, that's not exactly what 'mystery', used as in the video, conveys.
We have enough real myseries that need cracking without having to conjure up nonexistent ones....
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OP
- Thread Starter
- #5
I still say Aliens did it... all of it.
celtic_crippler
Senior Master
Yeah....it was aliens.
Maybe not Lisa... but Chew might have built Stonehenge...
Yeah, Lisa forgot his snack that morning. Stonehenge used to be a mountain. So, once again... :lisafault:
Very cool stuff. I hope to visit there one day.
Within a couple of years, the place is going to be very different looking. At the moment you actually park within sighting distance of the site. They are planning to move the car park far enough away that that will no longer be the case, and will have shuttles taking people from the new parking site to within walking distance. Right now, there's way too much hustle and bustle around the stones, and they plan to minimize that with this new plan. Salisbury plain is this vast, rolling, impressive empty setting for Stonehenge, and English Heritage, which manages the site, wants to maximize the dramatic effect by trying to recreate the conditions that held during most of the site's five thousand year historya very good move, I think.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #13
I agree as some national parks have done this with other noteworthy sites. Question is how long before they move it all back again? Especially if visitation increases and it will, and the number of shuttles grows. Not having been there (yet) I wonder if before one was able to use their own vehicle to drive up near enough to walk to the stones... now with the shuttles they'll fill up, and it'll cost money to ride them and lines will form and well... you see where I'm going.
It would lend an greater air of respect to the stones and the significance of them while standing there and looking around and not catching a car or shuttle bus parked nearby to "ruin the effect".
I'm glad at least they hadn't tried to rebuild it.
They can re-created it like the guy is doing... but somewhere else if you don't mind.
English Heritage has a pretty good track record for managing these great ancient sites (mostly not as ancient as Stonehenge, of course). We've visited many of themthe British Heritage Pass, which included their properties, is the best deal going for vistors to the UK, and you can't go wrong sticking to their 'catalogue'and they are very good about balancing access and preservation... my feeling is, they'll do careful studies and work out the worst-case flow patterns in advance. Especially with Stonehenge, which probably the main jewel in their crown of awe-inspiring ancient places....
Thanks for the info. I plan on bringing the family to several places in Europe and I hope to include this as part of the trip.
Definitely look into the British Heritage Passit covers sites across the whole UK, not just England, and many of those sites are pretty pricey, especially for a family, if you do them à la carte, so to speak. But with the BHP, you get castles, abbeys, Roman fortifications, gardens, the sites of major battles such as Sterling, Bannockburn and Culloden (very useful if you have a Scottish history nutcase among your offspring, as I do), along with e.g., James Herriot's veterinary practice in Thirsk, that was the basis for the terrific series All Creatures Great and Small; Ann Hathaway's cottage in Stratford, and Beatrix Potter's home Hilltop in the Lake District... you will probably run out of physical energy way before you run out of cool places to visit that the Pass makes available to you.
Now if only they would throw in a few free pints at great historic Real Ale pubs... :drinkbeer
If anyone happens out my way, there is a Stonehenge replica in Maryville, Washington constructed as a WWI memorial. It is obviously built with more conventional methods, nevertheless it's a sight to behold upon a bluff. Gorgeous views abound there.
I hope to see the authentic Stonehenge someday.
I hope to see the authentic Stonehenge someday.
It's one of those Places You Must See Before You Die, à la all these books that have been coming out recently—weird how these trends catch on in the publishing world... but anyway, I have some photos we took when we were there this summer and hope to put them in my MT album soon. Actually I have a boatload of photos but haven't been able to get them off Daphne's and Adrian's photo directories to my computer yet.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #19
One question... is Beatrix related to Harry?
:lol:
Her stuff is magical, no question...
... if you ever can get to her house, Hilltop, near Ambleside in the Lake District, they have a number of her original painting/illustrations for her books preserved and on display there (under very low light, of course...) Even after all this time, they're still jewel-like. What I hadn't realized is that her father was also a very talented painter as well. That same kind of meticulous whimsy that her work has is very clearly present in his too.
Although they're vastly different in scale, Stonehenge and BP's art (which includes not just her drawings and paintings but her gardens and the house itself, IMO) share a property that's hard for me to articulate: in both places, you feel yourself in the presence of something very profound and moving, something that contrasts deeply with the shoddiness and deliberately temporary nature of things in our normal daily lives. There are many other places in the UK that project that same senseone of the reasons I think why it was such a shock getting back here and resuming ordinary workaday activities in familiar environments. I'd gotten used to that sense of things built for the ages, and I find I miss it... something that always happens to me after visiting anywhere in Britain, pretty much.
