Stonehenge Revealed

I wonder if Stonehenge is one of a handful of universally recognized human-made structures? Do people in China and Lesotho and Paraguay recognize this ancient stone circle the way we do in Western countries? It is a remarkably enduring and both a mysterious and mystical monument to...well, we're not really sure. It certainly attracts the Druid-wannabes of our time and was probably a gathering place for an religious community thousands of years before Christianity.

I have written before that on our first visit nearly forty years ago it was still possible to walk amidst the stones and even touch them.

Stonehenge is in the news again thanks to technology which allows researchers to look beneath the area around the standing stones without actually excavating. This has revealed some important finds.

 

New digital Stonehenge map

It has answered the question of whether the stones formed a C-shape, as they now are configured, or whether they were in fact a circle. A circle it is, based on the subterranean shadows of disappeared columns.

Perhaps more exciting is the discovery of so many more structures, as well as burial areas. According to a CBC article:

The discoveries and a detailed map of Stonehenge and its surroundings were revealed at the British Science Festival Wednesday. They include:

• Totem-pole-like posts or stone structures in the Durrington Walls "super henge" – a ring-shaped mound more than 1.5 kilometres in diameter.
• Prehistoric pits hundreds of years older than Stonehenge that appear astronomically aligned to point to its location at certain times of year.
• Huge burial mounds containing piles of gold and jewelry
• A massive timber building that was probably used for elaborate burial rituals.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/stonehenge-hidden-landscapes-project-reveals-buried-ancient-monuments-1.2762044?cmp=rss
How is that for cool? Just another reminder of the human inclination to connect the natural with the supernatural. I audited a Science and Religion course at King's College, within Dalhousie University when we lived in Halifax. The prof reminded us that the human fascination with the heavens and the heavenly led the way toward modern science. Even though the two realms of religion and science often seem to be mortal enemies in our culture, they were once intertwined.

We will all have a chance to learn more about the discoveries from The Nature of Things documentary on October 9th. http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/stonehenge-uncovered

Have any of you visited Stonehenge? Are you interested in this from an archeological standpoint? How about from a religious perspective?

 

                                                                     Car Henge Nebraska