Stonehenge news

How students found evidence to change the way we think about Stonehenge

4 10 2011

Stonehengeholds many mysteries, but although there are plenty of competing

The Stonehenge area was important to people before the stones were erected

theories about its purpose, experts agree that the site chosen for such a monumental construction project must have held a very special significance for our ancestors. Now evidence is emerging that the Stonehenge area could have been an important centre for prehistoric people several thousand years before the giant stone circle was actually built.

The revelation emerged from a small-scale excavation undertaken by Open University archaeology students, which has uncovered a huge cache of artefacts belonging to hunter-gatherers from the middle of the Stone Age, including the remains of a gargantuan Mesolithic-era feast, which took place close to Stonehenge.

The site has also yielded what are believed to be the oldest carved figurines yet found in the UK, indicating a continuity of human presence in what seems to have been a sacred spot for thousands of years.

The shoestring project has been led by David Jacques, a tutor at the Open University, since 2005. After getting permission from the landowners, Sir Edward and Lady Antrobus, to survey a site just north-east of a previously unexcavated Iron Age hill fort known as Vespasian’s Camp, he was awarded a research fellowship by the university’s classical studies department with a small three-year grant. Jacques chose to dig in a number of areas along the bed of a spring and recruited students from his Open University course on culture, identity and power in the Roman Empire, to do the excavation work.

“Last year, we dug a trench in the south-east area of the spring, and as we went down the trench we found a late Roman layer, then Iron Age, then early Bronze Age – then we found all these flint tools packed together in a 12cm layer,” says Jacques. “We thought it was probably a mixed cache of early prehistoric tools, and assumed some were contemporary with Stonehenge. When we took them back to Cambridge and a number of experts suggested they were all Mesolithic, we started to get very excited.”

With the tools were animal remains, including what Jacques and his team thought was a cow’s tooth, which they sent away for radiocarbon dating. The result was an astonishingly early date of around 6250BC, firmly in the Mesolithic period and more than 3,000 years before construction on Stonehenge began. Further excavations ensued and, by the end of September 2011, the team had uncovered a rare Mesolithic hoard of more than 5,500 worked flints and tools from just two small trenches 35m away from each other. As well as the tools and tool production debris, large quantities of burnt flint were found, indicating a fire, and more than 200 cooked animal bones, which came not from a cow, but from at least one aurochs – a gigantic creature resembling a buffalo that is now extinct. “An aurochs was something like a large minivan in size, to catch an animal this big would have been a major feat. It would have fed a lot of people. It’s likely there was a large gathering, possibly as many as 100 people, who cooked and feasted on the aurochs,” says Jacques.

“Mesolithic people were nomadic hunter-gatherers who would have had temporary settlements. Salisbury Plain would have been something like the Serengeti with herds of animals roaming across it, and people could have used the hills that sort of create a basin around it as vantage points from which to see the movement of animals.”

The discovery was especially significant since only a few small scatterings of Mesolithic material have ever been found in the Stonehenge area. Tom Lyons, one of two field archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology East supervising the project, says: “It’s really exciting to get such a cache of material. This certainly makes this find nationally important, if not internationally important.”

He and the team are linking the finds to the mysterious Stonehenge “totem poles”, three colossal Mesolithic post holes found during the excavation of the Stonehenge car park some years ago, which indicate the area was important to people in the Mesolithic era. He said what has been lacking until now is evidence of the people who used them.

The flint hoard is being analysed by Barry Bishop, an independent lithic specialist, who will publish his findings in a 2012 report co-authored with Jacques. He believes the size and nature of the assemblage of tools suggest that Mesolithic people kept returning to this one site over a long period of time, probably attracted by the spring water.

“Springs are very rare in this chalk landscape, and the spring would have probably seemed unique and quite mysterious,” explains Bishop. “People in Mesolithic communities saw the world as a very spiritual place, and even saw the landscape as being alive in itself, and they would have been very attuned to any differences and sensed great significance in this. “These might have been the very conditions which gave rise to Stonehenge – people seeing certain places in the landscape as being more spiritual in some way could have led to the creation of monuments thousands of years later.”

Evidence that the spring was considered sacred in the Bronze Age comes from other objects found by Jacques’ team that the archaeologists believe were deposited there as offerings to a particular god or goddess. They include a ceremonial dagger, dated to 1400BC, and two stone carvings in the shape of ducks, dated to around 700BC. This makes them the oldest figurines yet found in the UK, says Dr David Barrowclough, director of studies in archaeology at Wolfson College Cambridge, who is writing a research paper with Jacques about these objects. “In Europe in the Bronze Age and the start of the Iron Age, there was a cult, associated with the Celtic people, of making models of waterfowl and throwing them into ponds and springs. These are the first ones ever found in Britain, and the oldest figurines ever to come out of the UK,” he explains.

Jacques’ team’s findings could be a major boost for the local town, Amesbury, which is currently developing a historic tourist trail as part of a regeneration programme. In the best Open University tradition, Jacques has made a point of engaging the public on the dig and by giving talks to local people, who have traditionally had little involvement with the archaeology taking place on their doorstep.

The town mayor, Andy Rhind-Tutt, who is spearheading the regeneration campaign, says: “I hope we can secure funding to create our own museum/exhibition centre to showcase Amesbury’s heritage and this remarkable find.”

The local unitary and town council, English Heritage and the cash prize Jacques received as part of his 2010 Open University teaching award, have provided financial support for the work, but Jacques says more funding is now a priority. “We have done all of this on a shoestring budget of a few thousand pounds. We urgently need to get funds that reflect the stature of the finds.”

For Open University courses information, call 0845 300 6090; or see www.open.ac.uk/courses

By Yvonne Cook http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/open-eye-you-never-know-what-you-might-unearth-2365369.html

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Merlin @ Stonehenge
The Stonehenge Stone Circle Website

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Categories : Archaeology, Stonehenge, stonehenge guide, Stonehenge news, Stonehenge tours, wiltshire, world heritage site

‘Standing Stones’ at Famous Wiltshire Site to be moved to London!

2 10 2011

Following discussions with the government the famous ancient standing stones of Wiltshire’s ‘Stonehenge‘ are not going to have to be destroyed after all. Instead they are to be carefully taken down from there present site at Amesbury then relocated to a new permanent site on East London’s Hackney Marshes. The idea is to have the job completed in time for the start of next summer’s Olympic Games.

Stonehenge megaliths to be moved to London

“Hackney Marshes is a stones throw from the Olympic park” said Prime Minister David Cameron after announcing the decision from number 10 yesterday, “so the many thousands of overseas visitors coming to watch the games next summer will also be able to visit the ancient stone circle and take some photos of them without having to take a long journey to Wiltshire. The M4 can also be hard going for drivers at that time of the year what with resurfacing work of the M4 usually taking place to coincide with Britain’s summer holiday period, and the many caravans being towed along the motorway as drivers head for the Devon and Cornish resorts with their families.”

Wiltshire’s councillors took the decision to order the removal of the large circle of standing stones from the hill at Amesbury after a sharp eyed official at their offices in Salisbury discovered they had no records to show planning permission had ever been granted for there erection.

The original purpose of erecting the stones is uncertain, though it is now thought most likely that they were intended just as the first few stones of what would then go on to become a giant pyramid, though Wiltshire council admit there is no evidence to show the construction was then abandoned when planning permission was turned down.

“The fact remains that there are no records to show planning permission was ever granted even for the stones that are there,” say Wiltshire council. “We feel that under the circumstances it would be wrong for us to make an exception in this case simply because of the long time they’ve already been there. Council rules clearly state that planning permission has to be obtained before erecting any intended permanent building or structure over six feet high. They are a lot higher than that, and the rules mean that these monstrous eyesores have to go.”

The first of the smaller standing stones was in the process of being removed from the hill near Salisbury this morning. It is expected to be standing on it’s new site on Hackney Marshes as early as tomorrow evening (Sunday). It should be clearly visible to people heading into work on Monday morning from the Essex side of London, and clearly visible to them from the flyover just after and on the opposite side from where the old Hackney greyhound stadium, now part of the Olympic Park, used to be.

Once all the old Stonehenge standing stones have been removed from the Wiltshire site the plan is to build a much needed new supermarket on the old Stonehenge hill.

“This will create much needed jobs in the area,” said a Wiltshire council spokesperson, “and the new supermarket will be erecting replica plastic standing stones for any tourists to admire and take some snaps of.”

Its not all serious…………..
Fictious story from ‘The Spoof’ website – http://www.thespoof.com/

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Merlin @ Stonehenge
The Stonehenge Stone Circle Website

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Categories : funny, olympics, stonehenge guide, Stonehenge news, Stonehenge tours, Stonehenge Visitor Centre, wiltshire

Digging up a new look of a famous old site

24 09 2011

Startling new evidence of one of the most famous ancient sites in the world has been uncovered by a mid-Somerset archaeologist – without setting foot on site.

Wells-based digital archaeologist Henry Rothwell has been working on a reconstruction of the entire site of Stonehenge, to show visitors what it would have looked like at various intervals in its long history.

It was when he turned his attention to recently discovered Bluehenge, sited between Stonehenge and the river Avon, that he made the startling discovery – it would not have been a circle at all but an oval.

If correct, Bluehenge would echo the oval circle already known to be at the centre of the famous Stonehenge.

And it raises an intriguing possibility: did the neolithic builders uproot Bluehenge, drag it a mile up the avenue and reconstruct it within Stonehenge itself?

It is certainly a possibility, according to Henry, who is a very modern-day archaeologist.

Any fan of TV archaeology programmes such as Time Team know that archaeologists are usually found in ditches, using trowels to peel back the layers of time to uncover the secrets of the past.

But not Henry Rothwell.

He might have a degree in archaeology but it is a computer mouse that is his chosen tool of trade as he sets about bringing back to life some of the most famous sites in the world from the comfort of his office chair at his base in Wells.

Thanks to his popular website Digital Digging, his reconstructions of wood and stone henges have helped archaeologists and the general public to visualise how such monuments would have once looked.

Using his extensive knowledge of prehistory, pouring over excavation reports and using CAD technology, he tracks where each stone or wooden post would have been and constructs diagrams showing how each monument would have looked set into the ancient landscape.

The latest breakthrough at Bluehenge came as he worked on a new initiative, to make a digital application for people to view Stonehenge via their mobile telephones.

Henry has joined forces with world-renowned photographer Adam Stanford, who uses a camera attached to a 70ft telescopic mast on the top of a 4×4 to take unique perspectives of famous sites, and well-known archaeologist, writer and broadcaster Julian Richards, from TV’s Meet The Ancestors to produce the app.

It was as they were working on The Journey To Stonehenge app – which it is hoped to be ready for iPhones and other smartphones by the mid-winter solstice – that Henry and Adam made the discovery.

“We were using a low-level aerial image taken by Adam that showed the full extent of the Stonehenge Riverside Project excavation of 2009, including the socket holes of Bluehenge, into which the Stonehenge Riverside Project team had placed upturned black buckets,” explained Henry.

“We started constructing the model, but then realised we had missed another bucket on the far right. Initially we tried expanding the circumference to make it fit but it would have been put Bluehenge into the river.

“By going back and tracing each of the socket sites again, it made the overall design of Bluehenge an oval – exactly as the one inside Stonehenge would have looked.”

The new monument was 10m (33ft) in diameter and surrounded by a henge – a ditch with an external bank.

When the Bluehenge’s stones were removed by Neolithic people, it is possible that they were dragged along the route of the Avenue to Stonehenge, to be incorporated within its major rebuilding around 2500 BC.

After posting his findings on archaeological websites last week, Henry’s views soon received the backing of influential archaeologists.

One of the first was renowned Stonehenge expert Mike Pitts, who explained that it matters if it is oval because it strengthens links between Bluehenge, Stonehenge and Woodhenge which also has an oval henge.

“The point is, if Bluehenge was an oval, it matters to how we think about it,” he wrote.

“Which makes finding out what really does happen to the rest of it under the ground important.”

To see the Bluehenge reconstruction and read more see Henry’s http://digitaldigging.co.uk/blog/2011/09/13/bluestone-henge-twin website.
Article: http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk

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Merlin at Stonehenge
The Stonehenge Stone Circle Website

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Categories : Archaeology, history news, Stonehenge, stonehenge new theories, Stonehenge news, Stonehenge tours

Stonehenge Autumn Equinox 2011

22 09 2011

The Autumn Equinox (also known as Mabon) is celebrated when day and night are of equal duration before the descent into increasing darkness and is the final festival of the season of harvest. For many pagans, this is the time to reflect on the past season, and to recognize the balance of the year has changed.

2011 Autumnal Equinox takes place on September 23rd, at 10.04am UK time (3.03 UTC), but when ‘open access’ to Stonehenge starts is decided by English Heritage and depends on visibility. The sunrise is at 6.48am.

Public access to Stonehenge is denied after dark, so if you want to see the sunset on September 22nd (18.59pm), you’ll have to stand on either the Avenue or on the side of the A344

The Autumnal Equinox

In September is the Fall Equinox, which has come to be called Mabon by many contemporary Neo-Pagans. Occuring approximately on September 21st, this is the day when the hours of daylight and nighttime are once again balanced. Calender days from now until the Winter Solstice will slowly get shorter and shorter in their daylight hours.

Agriculturally, this time of year the harvest is now in full swing, with late summer and fall fruits, vegetables and grains being gathered up before winter. This is the time of year a lot of canning or preserving of garden foods takes place. Hunting season also starts around this time, and this was when farmers would slaughter animals and preserve meat for the coming months as well.

This holiday is the last of the harvest holidays which began with the summer solstice and continued with Lammas.

23rd September Harvest time!
The Autumn Equinox or Harvest Home is also called Mabon, pronounced ‘MAY-bon’, after the Welsh god Mabon ap Modron, which means literally ‘son of mother’. Mabon appears in ‘The Mabinogion’ tale. The Druids call this celebration, Mea’n Fo’mhair, and honour The Green Man, the God of the Forest, by offering libations to the trees. The Welsh know this time as ‘Alban Elfed’, meaning ‘light of autumn’. This is the point of the year when once again day and night are equal – 12 hours, as at Ostara, the Spring Equinox. The Latin word for Equinox means ‘time of equal days and nights’. After this celebration the descent into winter brings hours of increasing darkness and chiller temperatures. It is the time of the year when night conquers day. After the Autumn Equinox the days shorten and nights lengthen. To astrologers this is the date on which the sun enters the sign of Libra, the scales, reflecting appropriately the balanced day and night of the equinox. This was also the time when the farmers brought in their harvested goods to be weighed and sold.
Harvest festival This is the second festival of the season of harvest – at the beginning of the harvest, at Lammas, winter retreated to his underworld, now at the Autumn equinox he comes back to earth. For our Celtic ancestors this was time to reflect on the past season and celebrate nature’s bounty and accept that summer is now over. Harvest Home marks a time of rest after hard work, and a ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of nature. This is the time to look back on the past year and what you have achieved and learnt, and to plan for the future. The full moon nearest to the Autumn Equinox is called the Harvest Moon and farmers would harvest their crops by then, as part of the second harvest celebration. Mabon was when livestock would be slaughtered and preserved (salted and smoked) to provide enough food for the winter. At the South Pole they will be celebrating the first appearance of the sun in six months. However, at the North Pole they will be preparing for six months of darkness. During Medieval times, the Christian Church replaced Pagan solstices and equinox celebrations with Christianized occasions. The Autumn equinox celebration was Michaelmas, the feast of the Archangel Michael.

The triple Goddess – worshipped by the Ancient Britons, is now in her aspect of the ageing Goddess and now passes from Mother to Crone, until she is reborn as a youthful virgin as the wheel of nature turns. At the Autumn equinox the goddess offers wisdom, healing and rest. Mabon Traditions The Wicker man There was a Celtic ritual of dressing the last sheaf of corn to be harvested in fine clothes, or weaving it into a wicker-like man or woman. It was believed the sun or the corn spirit was trapped in the corn and needed to be set free. This effigy was usually burned in celebration of the harvest and the ashes would be spread on the fields. This annual sacrifice of a large wicker man (representing the corn spirit) is thought by many to have been the origin of the misconception that Druids made human sacrifices. ‘The reaping is over and the harvest is in, Summer is finished, another cycle begins’ In some areas of the country the last sheaf was kept inside until the following spring, when it would be ploughed back into the land. In Scotland, the last sheaf of harvest is called ‘the Maiden’, and must be cut by the youngest female in attendance.
To Autumn O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stained With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit Beneath my shady roof, there thou may’st rest, And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe; And all the daughters of the year shall dance, Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers. William Blake Mabon is a time to reflect, as we reap the harvest of experience from the past year – the completion of another turn of the Great Wheel. Corn Dollies Corn dollies were also made from the last sheaf and kept in the house to protect the inhabitants from bad spirits during the long winter. Apples To honour the dead, it was also traditional at Mabon to place apples on burial cairns, as symbolism of rebirth and thanks. This also symbolizes the wish for the living to one day be reunited with their loved ones. Mabon is also known as the Feast of Avalon, deriving from the meaning of Avalon being, ‘the land of the apples’.

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Merlin @ Stonehenge – The Stonehenge Stone Circle Website

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Categories : Autumn Equinox 2011, celtic calendar, Druids, stonehenge guide, Stonehenge news, stonehenge open access, wiltshire, world heritage site

3D Stonehenge Model Unveiled

16 09 2011

English Heritage have announced that the survey and initial data processing of the recent laser scan of Stonehenge is now complete, and present an update with a short video fly-though of the data.
A detailed survey of every stone that makes up Stonehenge using the latest technology, including a new scanner on loan from Z+F UK that has never before been used on a heritage project in this country, has resulted in the most accurate digital model ever produced of the world famous monument.

With resolution level as high as 0.5mm in many areas, every nook and cranny of the stones’ surfaces is revealed with utmost clarity, including the lichens, Bronze Age carvings, erosion patterns and Victorian graffiti.

Most surprisingly, initial assessment of the survey has suggested that the ‘grooves’ resulting from stone dressing on some sarsen stones (the standing stones) appear to be divided into sections, perhaps with different teams of Neolithic builders working on separate areas.

A first glimpse of the model can now be viewed here
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/3d-stonehenge-model-unveiled/

The model will be a powerful tool for tracking changes in the physical condition of Stonehenge, and for deepening our understanding of its construction and the thinking and working habits of its creators, plus changes to the monument in later history.

In March 2011 English Heritage commissioned 3D laser scanning specialists the Greenhatch Group, together with Atkins Mapping and Archaeo-Environment Ltd, to capture the stones and the landscape surrounding them at a level of precision and definition never before attempted. The survey includes all the visible faces of the standing and fallen stones of Stonehenge, including Station, Heel and Slaughter stones, as well as the top of the horizontal lintels.

The resultant high resolution archival data and 3D meshed models is currently being synthesised and will be officially published and shared with the wider archaeological community in due course. Experts will also further analyse and study the archaeological significance of the data.

A variety of 3D models and datasets which can be manipulated and customised to simulate fly-over views of the monument from different perspectives will be used by English Heritage’s interpretation team who is working on the new galleries of the proposed visitor centre.

http://www.stonehengelaserscan.org/

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Merlin @ Stonehenge
The Stonehenge Stone Circle Website

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Categories : 3d laser scan, Archaeology, Blue Stones, megalith, Stonehenge, stonehenge guide, Stonehenge news, wiltshire, world heritage site

Stonehenge Architect Linked With Welsh Burial Cairn?

8 09 2011

An impressive tomb discovered in Wales is believed to belong to an important figure involved with the construction of Stonehenge.

The burial chamber is located in the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire, Wales, and sits on top of a ceremonial monument.

Nearby, a pair of standing stones embedded in a bank bear a strong resemblance to the pair-arrangement of the stones at Stonehenge, the famous prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, southern England.

Stonehenge features earthworks encompassing a circular arrangement of large standing stones. These are mainly two types of rock—the large sarsen stones (a type of sandstone), and a variety of smaller igneous rocks called bluestones (natural columns of while-spotted dolerite).

The excavation of the tomb in the Carn Menyn region of west Wales was led by Tim Darvill from Bournemouth University, and Geoffrey Wainwright from the Society of Antiquaries.

The archeologists believe the 80 bluestones at Stonehenge originated from the same area as the tomb and were transported around 160 miles (nearly 260 kilometers) to the Wiltshire plains about 4,500 years ago (around 2,300BC).

Uncovering the reason for this epic journey will unlock the mystery behind Stonehenge’s existence

Darvill and Wainwright first suggested in 2008 that Stonehenge may have been built as a major healing center, rather like a prehistoric version of Lourdes or Santiago de Compostela. They think the bluestones, not the sarsen, were believed to convey healing powers.

The Preseli area has many springs linked with ritual healing in prehistory, and this could explain why the bluestones were quarried for Stonehenge, despite being so far away.

“We went back to the Preselis and started doing excavations up there,” says Wainright, according to The Guardian. “The first site we explored was a big burial cairn in the shadow of Carn Menyn, where the Stonehenge bluestones come from.”

The excavation team discovered a stone circle underneath the cairn, built of bluestone, and organic material is being carbon dated.

“Then this stone circle was covered with the huge burial cairn with a chamber in the middle,” Wainright added. “The space turned from a public ceremonial space defined by the stone circle into the burial spot of a very important person.”

“We have obviously got a very important person who may have been responsible for the impetus for these stones to be transported,” Wainwright BBC News.

“It can be compared directly with the first Stonehenge, so for the first time we have a direct link between Carn Menyn—where the bluestones came from—and Stonehenge, in the form of this ceremonial monument.”

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Merlin @ Stonehenge
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Categories : Archaeology, Blue Stones, stonehenge new theories, Stonehenge news

The Stonehenge Landscape

8 09 2011

Stonehenge is the best known of all the prehistoric monuments in the British Isles and probably also in Europe. Along with the Neolithic monuments around Avebury situated 28km to the north, it forms a UNESCO recognised World Heritage Site (WHS), the parts of which are separated by the southern edge of the Marlborough Downs, Pewsey Vale and the Salisbury Plain military training area.

Much of the Avebury portion of the WHS, along with the military ranges, has been investigated from an archaeological landscape perspective during recent decades, as has the area to the south and west of the WHS, but ironically the Stonehenge area has not been treated in this way and it lacks the solid base of landscape surveys on which to build interpretations and understanding. The fresh Government-led imperative to ensure that new visitor facilities are in place by 2012 demands the provision of modern archaeological site plans, interpretations and other data which can feed into educational and presentational programmes as well as serving academic, management and conservation needs.

English Heritage are therefore undertaking an analytical landscape investigation of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. This draws upon the considerable existing work provided by excavation, aerial, metric and geophysical survey but it fills a gap in this suite because there has been no modern detailed survey of the earthworks and other upstanding historicphysical remains within the Site – the barrow cemeteries, field systems and linear ditches, but also the tracks, ponds and military remains of more recent date.

Consequently there are no adequate plans of most of the upstanding archaeological remains within the WHS and no synthesis of the landscape history, especially in regard to its medieval and post-medieval phases. Analytical earthwork survey and analysis,supported by aerial survey and lidar data, is the key to understanding landscape change and will provide the framework in which individual small-scale site specific interventions can rest. Recommendations for other work, eg geophysical survey or coring to explore the extent of buried land surfaces, may arise from this.

The knowledge gained from this project is needed to inform displays in the new Visitor Centre, but also to inform various ongoing management issues, such as visitor pressure, and animal burrowing. The requirements of the new Visitor Centre include the best possible visualisation of the stones and their environs; digital terrain modelling of the surrounding land surface will provide the latter while it is hoped that laser scanning of the former will complete the package
For further detaisl visit: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

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Merlin @ Stonehenge
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Categories : Archaeology, Stonehenge archaeological digs, stonehenge guide, stonehenge landscape, Stonehenge news, Stonehenge tours, Stonehenge Visitor Centre, wiltshire, world heritage site

Exploding star to be visible in skies above Stonehenge tonight

7 09 2011

The most visible exploding star in a generation will be visible in skies above Stonehenge tonight. Dubbed PTF11kly the supernova is still getting brighter and should be visible with a good pair of binoculars today.

Blink and you might miss it, but the canopy of the night sky looks ever so slightly different today. A single bright spark has been added to the millions of brilliant white dots illuminating the inky blackness.

Supernovae occur when giant stars reach the end of their life collapsing in on themselves and triggering an explosion that can briefly outshine an entire galaxy before fading away over a period of weeks or months.

The team, lead by Dr Mark Sullivan, made the discovery using a robotic telescope at the Palomar Observatory.

Sunspot 1283 produced a major M5.3-class solar flare during the early morning hours of September 6th. The coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with this flare was airmed directly at Earth so impact with our magnetosphere is likely within 2-3 days time. The expected time frame of impact will be between September 7th or 8th when geomagnetic storms are likely at high latitudes including the potential for even modest aurora activity at mid northern latitudes also so be on full alert!. Aurora forecast and alert charts below…

The geomagnetic field is expected to be quiet on September 6 and most of September 7. Late on September 7 or early on September 8/9th the CME from the major flare early on September could reach Earth and cause active to major storm conditions.

“The most exciting thing,” Dr Sullivan says, “is that this is what’s known as a type 1a supernova – the kind we use to measure the expansion of the Universe. Seeing one explode so close by allows us to study these events in unprecedented detail.”

The last time a supernova of this type occurred so close was 1972. Before that you have to go back to 1937, 1898 and 1572.

“Observing PTF11kly unfold should be a wild ride,” says Professor Peter Nugent from the Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory. “It is an instant cosmic classic.”

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Merlin @ Stonehenge
The Stonehenge Stone Circl Website

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Categories : astronomy, stonehenge guide, Stonehenge news, Stonehenge tours

The Stonehenge Enigma – An inconvenient truth

30 08 2011

Robert Langdon’s new book, sheds new light on the evidence found in Stonehenge’s Visitors Car Park, which has subsequently been buried for over 40 years, that proves Stonehenge is really 5000 years older than we believe!

The Stonehenge Enigma, has unearthed evidence that has been kept from public scrutiny for over 40 years. Current theories on the discovery of the four post holes in a line found during excavation work on the visitors car park in 1966 are simple and dismissive – they are ‘totem poles’ claim English Heritage in their book ‘Stonehenge in its landscape’ by Cleal et al. 1995.

However, analysis of the claim simply does not stand up to scrutiny. “They are likely to be individual uprights, perhaps reminiscent of those of the American Indian (totem poles).” The problem is that ‘totem poles’ survive less than 100 years, if they are made of hard wood – pine is softwood and rots much quicker. So when you start to look at the carbon dating evidence on when each post whole was cut a whole new story emerges.

For the first post hole would have been constructed around 8275BC the second one (next to the first) was erected about 7035BC some 1240 years later! By then the first post would have rotted away and the first post hole completely lost. The third post hole we cannot date as the charcoal that was found was lost or not processed, which is no surprise as all three samples were stored away for 10 years before some eagle eyed researcher realised that pine wood did not exist in the late Neolithic (2500BC), which the original date archaeologists claimed these poles were erected (to match the building date of Stonehenge) before packing the samples away into oblivion, without getting them tested. Yet, another post hole on the same alignment was found in 1989 some 75m away from the three original post holes. This was accurately dated to about 7890BC, 385 years after the first post but 855 years before the second.

So English Heritage asks us to accept that a group of hunter-gatherers went to the Stonehenge site in 8275BC and placed a ‘totem pole’ in a valley away from the high ground (where Stonehenge sits today) which was at this time in history surrounded by a tall pine forest. These people then disappeared for about 400 years, returning to place a second ‘totem pole’ 75 yards away from the first, finally to return 855 years later and place a third pole next to the first with the fourth (of unknown date) in an alignment. Moreover, these people left no trace of their 1200 year occupation of this site until they returned 5,000 years later in 3000BC to build Stonehenge phase 1.

Why has this absurd theory not have the scrutiny that it desires? Why was the evidence buried in a vault for 10 years? And why do they still insist that these post holes are ‘totem poles’? In his book, Langdon shows that these structures played a more significant role than has previously been believed. Not only does he reveal what these post holes were for, but he also gives a more plausible explanation on what really happened at Stonehenge including, WHO built the Monument, WHEN they built the monument and WHY they built the monument.

For the full article on ‘The Stonehenge Enigma – An inconvenient truth’ including photo’s and academic references visit this web site at www.the-stonehenge-enigma.info – all rights to duplicate and extract information or photographs with reference to source and author is granted.

A video promo is available on: http://youtu.be/PVRIBpg-fIE

Details and extracts from the book – The Stonehenge Enigma at: www.prehistoric-britain.co.uk

Sponsored by ‘The Stonehenge Tour Company’ www.StonehengeTours.com

Merlin @ Stonehenge
The Stonehenge Stone Circle Website

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Categories : Stonehenge, stonehenge book, stonehenge new theories, Stonehenge news, Stonehenge tours, wiltshire, world heritage site

Druid leader King Arthur loses legal fight over Stonehenge remains

24 08 2011

High court refuses judicial review of decision to remove 5,000-year-old ‘royal’ remains from Stonehenge for analysis

King Arthur Pendragon after losing the latest leg of his battle to have ancient human remains returned to Stonehenge

A druid leader who claims to be the incarnation of a legendary British king has suffered defeat in the latest legal skirmish of his long-running battle over the removal of ancient remains from Stonehenge.

King Arthur Pendragon appeared at the high court in London to argue that the “royal” remains should be returned to their age-old resting place in Wiltshire.

Pendragon, a 57-year-old former soldier and biker who changed his name by deed poll, wanted the high court to give permission for a judicial review of the government’s decision to allow the remains to be taken away for analysis.

But Mr Justice Wyn Williams refused King Arthur, ruling there was insufficient evidence to show the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) had acted unreasonably.

Outside court Pendragon, who styles himself as battle chieftain of the Council of British Druid Orders and “titular head and chosen chief” of the Loyal Arthurian Warband druid order, remained defiant.

Wearing white flowing robes, he called for a day of action on Monday to draw attention to the cause.

He said: “Even though on this occasion my appeal has been dismissed I am still very much hopeful that I can win in the future. “I wasn’t asking for the bones to be put back straight away, I simply wanted confirmation that they will be returned to the site as soon as possible.” He said druids felt the remains were “guardians” of the site.

The judge heard that the cremated remains of more than 40 bodies – thought to be at least 5,000 years old – were removed from a burial site at Stonehenge in 2008 , with ministers giving researchers from Sheffield University permission to keep the bones until 2015.

Pendragon, who represented himself, said the bones were remains of members of the “royal line” or “priest caste” who could have been the “founding fathers of this great nation”.

He told the judge he feared the remains would never be returned, but moved to a museum, adding that the MoJ had “unreasonably” failed to take account of his views. The MoJ denied the allegation.

Researchers say their work on the remains is yielding “fascinating insights” into the history of the site.

After the decision English Heritage, which manages the site, said the scientists wanted to keep the remains until 2015 so full analysis could be carried out. “Otherwise we will lose an opportunity to learn more about this important site,” a spokesman added.

A spokesperson for the University of Sheffield said: “Research on the cremated bones is beginning to yield fascinating insights about the people of Stonehenge.

“Due to the large number of remains and the fact many of them were mixed together by archaeologists in the 1920s, study of them has been difficult and time consuming. However, we will now be able to apply new scientific techniques, developed only in the last few years, to find out more about who these people were.

“Human remains are an important part of our shared past and they should be treated with respect. The benefit of the research is balanced with any ethical concerns that may be caused by excavations.”

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/stonehenge

Sponsored by ‘The Stonehenge Tour Company’ www.StonehengeTours.com

Merlin @ Stonehenge
The Stonehenge Stone Circle Website