Stonehenge 'was built by rolling stones using giant wicker baskets'
It is one of the abiding mysteries of Britain's Neolithic past.
For all the awe-inspiring wonder of the standing stones at Stonehenge no one has ever worked out how our ancient ancestors were able to heave boulders weighing many tonnes over such huge distances.
But now an engineer and former BBC presenter believes he has come up with a theory which explains how the giant stones were moved.
Garry Lavin believes that the engineers who built Stonehenge used wicker basket-work to 'roll' the huge boulders all the way from Wales to their present location.
'I always thought that dragging these huge stones was physically impossible because of the friction on the surface. The key thing is the technology was always there around them,' he said.
It is the movement of the 60 famous Bluestones which causes historians such problems. Each stone weighs up to 4 tons and they originally came from the Preseli Mountains in Wales – some 200 miles away.
Mr Lavin has come up with a cylinder 'basket' to roll the massive and irregularly-shaped stones.
The basket is created by weaving willow and alder saplings to form a lightweight structure that can be easily moved by 4 or 5 men. To complete the rig and to ensure the best rolling and floatation conditions, the gaps between the basketwork cylinder and the irregular stone are packed with thin branches.
This spreads the load as the basket flexes in transit, much like a modern tyre, and creates buoyancy when transported down rivers and across the sea.
One of Mr Lavin's key discoveries during his earlier experiments was that the wicker cages that contained the stones were able to float. This would have enabled Neolithic man were able to get the huge stones across rivers on their journey, as well as making it easier to transport them over long distances without having to carry them the entire way.
The men would have been able to place the stones in a river, such as the River Wye, and then guide them on their way.
Mr Lavin said: 'Woven structures were everywhere at the time, there are even wells which they have discovered were full with woven basketwork. It's just taking that technology and using it in a new way.
'It is not without some foundation. It was staring us in the face the whole time.'
In the summer Mr Lavin tested out his theory near Stonehenge and succeeded in moving a large one-ton stone in a wicker cage that he had made himself.
Mr Lavin now wants to set out on his final mission to rewrite history by creating a supersize cradle capable of moving a huge five-ton stone.
To do so he has enrolled the help of an engineer, an ancient wood archaeologist and a professional willow weaver to help him with the final test and construction.
He hopes to run the test around the time of the summer solstice next year.
'The physics is there it's just so obvious. It's one of the things that when you think about it you say "oh yes, of course", ' he said.
He believes the original stones could have been moved by two teams of ten men each with one team resting while the others pushed the 'axles' containing each bluestone all the way from Wales their final destination.
George Oates, who works for the engineering company Expedition UK that recently designed the Olympic Velodrome as well as the Millennium Bridge, has looked at the new theory from a physics perspective.
He looked at the height and weight of Neolithic men as well as the stone's weight, the strength of the wicker basket and the inclines that would have to be negotiated.
Mr Oates said: 'We feel that it is possible that Garry's theory of a woven basket around the stone, moving these four-ton stones all the way from the Welsh mountains to Stonehenge is at least viable.'
Last week a competing theory from the University of Exeter was published which suggested that the stones may have used wooden ball bearings balls placed in grooved wooden tracks would have allowed the easy movement of stones weighing many tons.
http://www.historyinanhour.com/historyinthenews_55088.html
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Giant goes on display at Wiltshire Heritage Museum
I know it's a few days old now, but:
"A previously unseen oil painting of the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset is now on display at Wiltshire Heritage Museum.
The painting, by Devizes artist David Inshaw, is one of a number of additions to the White Horses and Hill Figures exhibition at the museum in Devizes.
Also on display are a triptych from wildlife artist Joanna May which shows white horses alongside her trademark British brown hares.
Alongside these new artworks are historical programmes and souvenirs showing celebrations held at the Westbury White Horse for coronations and jubilees.
The exhibition focuses primarily on the chalk figures of Wiltshire but also includes figures from all over Britain.
The exhibition will run until February 27."
http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/8688915.Giant_goes_on_display_at_Wiltshire_Heritage_Museum/
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Open Day - Excavation at Durrington, Wiltshire
Visit the Big Dig!
Wednesday October 13th 2010
Where: Avon Fields: Former MoD Headquarters
Netheravon Road
Durrington
The village of Durrington is well known for its early archaeological heritage, including the largest Neolithic henge in Britain at Durrington Walls and nearby Woodhenge, both over 4500 years old. However, excavations by Wessex Archaeology in advance of the construction of new housing by Persimmon Homes South Coast on the former Ministry of Defence estate offices have started to uncover the remains of a late Iron Age/ Romano-British settlement.
More: http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/blogs/news/2010/10/08/open-day-excavation-durrington-wiltshire
(Dammit - why a weekday? :( I'd go if it were a weekend!)
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Upcoming walks
3 walks you may be interested in:
Walks in the Stonehenge Landscape
Dates: 9 October 2010, 30 October 2010 and 13 November 2010
Price: Adult £3
Stonehenge Landscape
On an afternoon stroll up on the downs, find out about ancient peoples, hidden histories, wildlife and the changing landscape. Discover what lies beyond the stone circle.
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Explore the landscape with your DSLR camera
Dates: 16 October 2010 10:30am
Price: All £28
Stonehenge Landscape
Explore the Stonehenge landscape on an intermediate photography workshop, with professional photographer Mark Philpott. Learn how to get the best from your DSLR camera and be inspired by King Barrow Ridge, its ancient mounds and earthworks and its diverse wildlife. Workshop size limited to allow Mark to give lots of one-to-one help and there will be the opportunity to share photos and receive constructive feedback.
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Autumn photography walk
Dates: 23 October 2010 3:00pm
Price: All £4
Stonehenge Landscape
An evening walk to capture the colours of autumn. Join photography expert Mark Philpott and a National Trust guide on an autumnal evening walk around the Stonehenge landscape. Mark will show you how to capture evocative vistas and the changing seasons in a landscape rich in archaeology and wildlife.
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http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-events/w-events-find_event.htm?propertyID=323
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Bronze Age teenager buried at Stonehenge had travelled to visit site from the Mediterranean
The Boy with the Amber Necklace: Bronze Age teenager buried at Stonehenge had travelled to visit site from the Mediterranean
Every year, one million visitors flock to Stonehenge from around the world to gaze in wonder at its towering stones.
Now scientists say that the prehistorical monument was also attracting tourists from overseas thousands of years ago.
Today they revealed that a Bronze Age teenage boy buried at the stone circle around 1550BC was born and brought up in the Mediterranean.
The boy - aged 14 or 15 - had travelled to Britain from Spain, Italy, Greece or France, crossing the English Channel in a primitive wooden boat, they say.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1315897/Bronze-Age-teenager-buried-Stonehenge-travelled-visit-site-Mediterranean.html
(Apologies for link to the Daily Mail!)
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Free Talk TONIGHT
There is a free talk at 20:00 tonight at Marlborough College. Subject is the Marlborough Mound and how it fits into the Avebury Landscape.
Contact Mrs Longland on 01672 892 200 for a seat. Donations instead of a fixed price requested please.
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(thanks to Avebury News for the above info)
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Take a guided tour of Marden Henge
Archaeologists are excavating at Marden Henge, a site that could dwarf Stonehenge in size and is potentially more significant.
It is one of Britain's least understood ancient sites, dating back around 4,500 years.
Dave Fellows, an archaeologist working on the site, gave BBC correspondent Robert Hall a guided tour.
(Video)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10742462
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Prehistoric Swedish dildo - or is it a tool?
A dig in Motala (Sweden) recently turned up a carved antler bone that bears a strong resemblance to an erect penis. The phallic object is 10.5cm long and 2cm in diameter. The team, led by National Heritage Board archaeologist Fredrik Molin, were shocked by the find, as archaeologist Gsran Gruber noted "Nobody here, and nobody that we heard of or talked with had ever seen something like this in northern European or Scandinavian sites." Symbols of feminine sexuality or fertility, on the other hand, are not uncommon on ancient artefacts.
The exact use of the object is unknown; it may be a dildo or a tool used to flake flint, or both. Gruber says "For you and me, it signals this erected-penis-like shape, but if that's the way the Stone Age people thought about it, I can't say." Another enigmatic phallic object was found in Germany in 2005, although it is 28000 years old and made of stone.
The site at Motala has revealed many other finds that date from the Mesolithic (4000 to 6000 BCE). Gruber notes of the object "It's an organic object, that's why it's so special. Normally when we excavate early Mesolithic sites we never get the organic material. But this site where we're excavating now is along the shoreline. The preservation is very good here - it's been lying in the bottom sediments and clay layers of the river, and it's been very well-preserved there."
http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/003924.html
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Tourists heave menhirs in France to solve ancient mystery
In the Asterix comic books you only had to drink a magic potion to be able to lift a menhir. But in reality you need vast quantities of muscle power and lots of patience. That is what a group of 30 holiday-makers found out when they heaved on a rope to move a 4.2-tonne stone block as part of an experiment probing the mysterious history of megaliths in France's northwestern Brittany region.
"You don't need magic powers to move a block, you just need a lever," said Cyril Chaigneau, who has programmed several stone-pulling events for holiday-makers throughout the summer season. The first such experiment in France was held in Bougon in western France in 1979, when 150 volunteers helped shift a block of 32 tonnes. "It's experimental archeology," explained Chaigneau, an architect who runs a programme on the megalithic sites of Petit Mont and Gavrinis in the Gulf of Morbihan. "We're trying to find out how men from the Neolithic period moved enormous blocks across distances of 10 kilometres (six miles) or more," he said.
Chaigneau's investigation focuses on the journey of a slab that makes up part of the dolmen on the island of Gavrinis, an engraved block of 17 tonnes that serves as the ceiling of a funeral monument built in 3,600 BCE. Work carried out by other archeologists has established that this slab was in fact a fragment of another dolmen five kilometres away. That huge structure was erected a thousand years earlier and stood 25 metres tall (82 feet), three metres wide and weighed around 300 tonnes. The stone it was made of came from a quarry situated ten kilometres away. "The goal is to reconstitute the journey by land and sea or river but also to help members of the public get a practical understanding of prehistory, to engage the public in science in action," said Yves Belfenfant, the director of the sites of Gavrinis and Petit Mont.
Elisabeth, a banking executive, was one of the 30 people trying to move the massive stone. She said she and her husband and their five children liked 'cultural' holidays and that was why they wanted to take part in this experiment. "It's impressive to see this massive stone moving," she said. Jerome, a 36-year-old father, said he was taking part because he had "always wondered how the Egyptians built the pyramids." "This is far better than school to help you understand," said nine-year-old Valentine, who was proud of her part in pulling the giant stone forward across logs laid on the ground. The tourists managed to pull the stone 4.4 metres in about 12 minutes on their first stint, but by their fifth try their technique had improved and they pulled it 22 metres in 24 minutes.
No one today knows how or why the sedentary tribes that settled 7,000 years ago on this stretch of the Atlantic coast transported and then erected the menhirs, dolmens and other huge stone steles that dot the Breton landscape.
http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/003930.html
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2,000-year-old Woodhenge analysed in Ohio
Although WAY outside of TMA's geographical range, thought this might be of interest to some, considering the new henge found near Stonehenge...
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Today only rock-filled postholes remain, surrounded by the enigmatic earthworks of Fort Ancient State Memorial (map). Some are thousands of feet long and all were built by Indians of the pre-agricultural Hopewell culture, the dominant culture in midwestern and eastern North America from about A.D. 1 to 900.
This year archaeologists began using computer models to analyze Moorehead Circle's layout and found that Ohio's Woodhenge may have even more in common with the United Kingdom's Stonehenge than thought—specifically, an apparently intentional astronomical alignment.
The software "allows us to stitch together various kinds of geographical data, including aerial photographs and excavation plans and even digital photographs," explained excavation leader Robert Riordan, an archaeologist at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.
The researchers had known, for example, that an opening in the rings; a nearby, human-made enclosure; stone mounds; and a gateway in a nearby earthen wall are all aligned.
Full story here:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/07/100720-woodhenge-stonehenge-ohio-fort-ancient-science/
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What Lies Beneath? Archaeology in Action @ Museum of London
You never know - there may even be summat prehistoric!
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Ever wonder what lies beneath your feet? On 16 July the Museum of London opened Archaeology in Action. The exhibition offers visitors a flavour of the varied day to day work of archaeologists in London, today and in the past. From the ground to the display case, Archaeology in Action gives visitors an insight into what happens to objects unearthed by Museum of London Archaeology.
Countless exciting archaeological discoveries have been made, and continue to be made each day in London. These have greatly contributed to our ever evolving understanding of the capital. Archaeology in Action presents some of these valuable finds. Sites that feature include the Roman High Street unearthed at number 1 Poultry and the Saxon town of Lundenwic uncovered at Covent Garden. There is also a changing display of new finds from London sites, starting with Shakespearean playhouses, including The Rose and The Theatre.
The exhibition space will host a varied programme of events, including a selection to celebrate the Festival of British Archaeology, 17 July – 1 August 2010. Visitors can expect to handle ancient artefacts, meet an osteologist or identify finds from the Thames foreshore.
Taryn Nixon, Managing Director of Museum of London Archaeology, says: "The exciting thing about the Museum of London is that it runs one of Europe's largest archaeology teams, and has literally been unearthing the secrets of London's past for decades. This exhibition gives us a chance not only to share our discoveries as soon as they are made but also to show what really goes on behind the scenes in archaeology."
Jon Cotton, Senior Curator of Prehistory, says: "Archaeology is one of the Museum of London's key calling cards and excavated finds inform every gallery display. Archaeology in Action celebrates this commitment to London's buried past and provides a space in which some of the latest finds will be displayed."
The Museum of London Archaeology is a long-standing and highly regarded in-house archaeological team and has unearthed a wealth of archaeological treasures. These finds are cared for in the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre - Europe's largest archaeological archive.
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_new=39390&int_sec=2
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Cambridgeshire Quarry throws up 4,500-year-old find
A remarkable piece of Neolithic rock art, unlike anything previously found in Eastern England, has been unearthed in the Cambridgeshire village of Over.
The hand-sized artefact, which could date back to 2,500 BC, was found by a participant in a geological weekend course which was being run by the University of Cambridge's Institute for Continuing Education.
It consists of a hand-sized slab of weathered sandstone with two pairs of concentric circles etched into the surface - a motif which, according to archaeologists, is typical of "Grooved Ware" art from the later Neolithic era.
More here:
http://www.physorg.com/news198495505.html
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The curious case of the Cairns 'broch'
It's definitely broch-like but is it a broch?
That's the question still facing the archaeologists at the ongoing excavations at the Cairns in South Ronaldsay.
Overlooking Windwick Bay, the Cairns is a massive archaeological jigsaw puzzle, with a sequence of Iron Age buildings, representing centuries of use.
The first building on site was a massive broch-like roundhouse - with five metre thick walls forming a structure with an exterior diameter of 22 metres.
This structure, in particular its interior, has been the focus of much of this year's excavation, with the archaeologists painstakingly removing huge quantities of rubble from the interior to reach the floor level.
During the excavations this year, a clear picture has emerged of the inside of the 'broch' building. A large area of the interior and its entrance has been excavated of tonnes of rubble to reveal the impressive internal fixtures and fitting across about a third of the building.
More here:
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/cairns2010.htm
(This seems a bit familiar, so apologies if I've posted this before!)
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Untangling the history of the Cantick mound
Another season of excavations at Cantick, South Walls, concluded last week, following the continued investigation of a prehistoric burial mound.
A team from ORCA (Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology) based at Orkney College were joined by students from Aberdeen and Durham Universities. Local volunteers also received field training in Hoy, funded by the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme.
Full story:
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/cantick2010.htm
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The Thunderstone Mystery: What's a Stone Age Axe Doing in an Iron Age Tomb?
"If one finds something once, it's accidental. If it is found twice, it's puzzling. If found thrice, there is a pattern," the archaeologists Olle Hemdorff and Eva Thäte say.
In 2005 the archaeologists investigated a grave at Avaldsnes in Karmøy in southwestern Norway, supposed to be from the late Iron Age, i.e. from 600 to 1000 AD. Avaldsnes is rich in archeological finds. They dot an area that has been a seat of power all the way back to around 300. Archaeologist Olle Hemdorff at the University of Stavanger's Museum of Archaeology was responsible for a series of excavations at Avaldsnes in 1993-94 and 2005-06.
More - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100614101724.htm
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Neolithic men were prepared to fight for their women
Neolithic age men fought over women too, according to a study that provides the most ancient evidence of the lengths men will go to in the hunt for partners.
Many archaeologists have argued that women have long motivated cycles of violence and blood feuds throughout history but there has really been no solid archaeological evidence to support this view.
Now a relatively new method has been used to work out the origins of the victims tossed into a mass grave of skeletons, and so distinguish one tribe from another, revealing that neighbouring tribes were prepared to kill their male rivals to secure their women some 7000 years ago.
More - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2066554/Neolithic-men-were-prepared-to-fight-for-their-women.html
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5500 Year Old Shoe
Reported today in the open access journal PLoS One is the news of a 5500-year-old shoe, discovered in the Chalcolithic age deposits at Areni-1, a dry cave in in Vayots Dzor province of Armenia. The dry conditions of the cave have led to fabulous preservation, and the cave includes well-preserved occupations between the Neolithic and late Middle Ages.
More here:
http://archaeology.about.com/b/2010/06/09/5500-year-old-shoe.htm
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Orkney's archaeological 'treasures trail' in the national spotlight
Archaeological Treasures Trail - Orkney
Orkney is one of the richest Neolithic landscapes in Europe - a place of stone circles, villages and burial monuments. Several monuments on Orkney are part of The Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site (WHS) including the Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge, Maeshowe, Skara Brae and the Stones of Stenness. All these monuments are relics of the period when great civilisations started to arise across the world.
Read more:
http://seasons.visitscotland.com/things_to_see_and_do/cities_and_culture/archaeological_trail/orkney.aspx
[EDIT - I should say I found this news here: http://www.orkneyjar.com/]
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Archaeological papers in Honour of Daphne Home Lorimer MBE — now relocated to Orkneyjar.
These pictures and papers have been gathered in honour of Daphne Home Lorimer MBE on the occasion of her retirement as Chairman of Orkney Archaeological Trust, to mark our affection for her as a friend, our respect for her as a colleague and our admiration for all that she has achieved.
"We know Orkney has a rich archaeological heitage, but Daphne Lorimer's commitment has ensured that interest in its discovery and conservation has the recognition it properly merits. To know Daphne is to be infected by her enthusiasm, and the study and pursuit of archaeology in Orkney has been so much enriched by her enthusiasm and interest." - Jim Wallace MSP March 2004
http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/dhl/index.html
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Stone Age Color, Glue 'Factory' Found
The Stone Age version of successful businessmen like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates might have been involved in the color and glue trade.
A once-thriving 58,000-year-old ochre powder production site has just been discovered in South Africa. The discovery offers a glimpse of what early humans valued and used in their everyday lives.
The finding, which will be described in the Journal of Archaeological Science, also marks the first time that any Stone Age site has yielded evidence for ochre powder processing on cemented hearths -- an innovation for the period. A clever caveman must have figured out that white ash from hearths can cement and become rock hard, providing a sturdy work surface.
"Ochre occurs in a range of colors that includes orange, red, yellow, brown and shades of these colors," project leader Lyn Wadley told Discovery News. "Yellow and brown ochre can be transformed to red by heating them at temperatures as low as 250 degrees Celsius (482 degrees Fahrenheit)."
Wadley, who authored the study, is a professor in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies and in the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand. She said ochre has been found on bone awl tools probably used for working leather, so it is possible that the ancients sported colorful leather clothing and other leather goods.
Red-hot leather clothing is still found in stores today, but the probable wearers then were a far cry from today's fashion elite.
Ochre is derived from naturally tinted clay that contains mineral oxides. In addition to coloring objects, it makes a compound adhesive when mixed with other ingredients, such as plant gum and animal fat.
"This glue would have attached stone spear or arrowheads to hafts, or blades to handles for cutting tools," Wadley explained.
Ochre can also be used as body paint and makeup, as a preservative and as a medicinal component, so it could have served many different functions during the Stone Age.
Wadley analyzed the ochre "factory" at the large Sibudu rock shelter north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The site consisted of four cemented hearths containing the ochre powder. The cement workstations could have held grindstones and/or served as storage receptacles for the powder, according to Wadley, who also excavated about 8,000 pieces of ochre in the area.
She believes the natural material was collected just over a half a mile away from the site, where it would have been heated and ground or just ground directly onto coarse rocks.
Francesco d'Errico, director of research at the National Center of Scientific Research at the University of Bordeaux, said pigment material is found in bits and pieces at various early sites. However, not much was known in detail before about how it was processed and used.
Based on the nature of the cemented ash and the geology of the Sibudu site, d'Errico believes that people 58,000 years ago intended to produce large quantities of red pigment in a short time frame.
He now thinks ochre pigment was a "fundamental constitute of Middle Stone Age culture, and that its production likely involved the work of several members of the group."
http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/prehistoric-color-glue-factory.html
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Likes: Massive stones.
Dislikes: Noisome trolls.
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