whatweird.com

This guy Tim Jones is my hero. His blog is filled with weird stuff and he always has some cool insights about whatever topic he’s posting about. Below is a bit of his latest post on Stonehenge.

Stonehenge, the Vatican Observatory and the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence

Having paid a quick visit in a previous post to the ongoing restoration work at Silbury Hill, it’s now time to turn our eyes and thoughts once more in the direction of Stonehenge, (map) about which archaeologist Dennis Price has recently penned a new article, which as we will see, marks something of a departure from his recent discussions regarding Pytheas of Massilia and Vespasian’s Camp. This from the introductory paragraphs, amongst which the question regarding possible uses for Stonehenge is raised…

All the evidence suggests that Stonehenge was in active use as a temple of Apollo when Pytheas saw the place in 350 BC, which is remarkable when we consider that from the standard archaeological viewpoint, it had fallen into disuse around thirteen centuries beforehand, in or around 1,600 BC. Be that as it may, it does not follow that Stonehenge had always functioned as a temple, as we can see from the following point made by Professor John North in his book Stonehenge, Neolithic Man and the Cosmos, when discussing the possibility of chariot races having taken place on the Cursus:

“It is hard to see what evidence one could ever find in support of these ideas, but when we consider the matter at all we are forced to acknowledge one important truth; from the fact that a monument was laid out with reference to the heavens it does not of necessity follow that it was always used with that reference in mind. The rituals of foundation are not necessarily the rituals of use.”

So, with this in mind, we return to what must surely be the most frequently asked questions about Stonehenge - what was it used for when it was first built? Is there one way in which we can describe an original function of these mesmerising ruins with confidence? Furthermore, would this be a description that the visionary and engineering geniuses who built Stonehenge would agree with, if we were able to have a conversation with them? In my opinion, the answer is yes.

If you would like to read more from Tim Jones on this subject, check out his awesome blog remote central.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 7:28 am and is filed under Random. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.