Stonehenge 181
Image by jimit

Sanctuary wrote:
moss wrote:
Fascinating discussion between the 'new boy on the block' and the historian. Can this be a new relationship between art and prehistory?


"Andrew Graham-Dixon visits the ancient site of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, on Winter Solstice.

There are more than one hundred Early Bronze Age carvings on the great stones at Stonehenge, most of which have been newly discovered by laser survey. Andrew discovers more about the significance of this carved art and what it tells us about the function of the site."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/0/21385687

Eh? Laser survey to detect them? How on earth were they carved if you can't even see them?
I would have thought they would have become almost invisible through the ageing process down centuries (lichen etc). An refreshing perspective from Andrew Graham-Dixon who is an art historian (I really enjoyed the Culture Show programme on Ice Age Art shown on Saturday BBC2).

Food for thought here ... I should imagine most people have seen this Past Horizons link by now:
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/02/2013/swiss-dolmen-reveals-rituals-of-the-neolithic
Wasn't the Amesbury Archer thought to be from the same area?

Thanks for the link moss, Trying to say Stonehenge was designed as a work of art is just putting modern [art critic] minds on the monument [it's the same with the ice age program, even though it was great to look at, they were seen as magical items not art], it's funny how they suggest Stonehenge may have been conceived as a work of art and then in the next breath say the carvings are 700-800 years after it was built [with the sarsens], and they [the carvings] probably have nothing to do with the original builders beliefs or and this is the important bit those styles of axes and daggers, it suggests new people to the region did the art by bringing their new culture with them and the locals at the time loving all the new types of shiny shiny metal items [daggers and flanged axes from the med would have been very exotic and the thing to have at the time].