“Archaeologists have found what they say is the earliest evidence of Neanderthals living in Britain.
Two pieces of flint unearthed at motorway works in Dartford, Kent, have now been dated to 110,000 years ago. ”
Full story from the BBC -
Chris Collyer
Neanderthal genes 'survive in us'
‘Many people alive today possess some Neanderthal ancestry, according to a landmark scientific study. . . The genomes of 1% to 4% of people in Eurasia come from Neanderthals.‘
from the BBC -
PDF map of features revealed by aerial survey. Could be useful for answering the question ‘what’s this cropmark near stonehenge?‘
PDF map of the Bronze Age features of the area
PDF map of the Neolithic features of the area
At night the church is lit by lurid orange sodium ground lights, it looks much better in black and white than in colour.
This elongated barrow has nearly five pages devoted to it in Bateman’s “Ten years diggings” book which goes into detail about the various cists and bone remains found. In cist 4 on the plan he found ‘the skeleton of a young hog inside a roughly built cist’ and he later notes ‘we are inclined to assign the post of honour to the cist containing the hog, which was placed nearest the centre’.
Looks like the farmer had been muck speading recently, pity he managed to get it all over this stone.
Big skies over Big Moor. It’s amazing how many aircraft can be seen passing overhead on a clear day.
Sunset on Boxing Day 2009
Late afternoon clouds over Harland Edge and Parkgate.
The January full moon rising from the notch in the Fairy Stone. Pity the exposure of the stone wasn’t better.
Late afternoon clouds
Winter sunset behind the Fairy Stone
This picture shows just how close the stones are to the path which is the line of dark green beyond the tree in the centre.
Winter solstice moon, taken about half an hour after sunset. Jupiter was visible hanging below the moon but the camera didn’t manage to pick it up.
Sunset from the circle at the winter solstice. Win Hill is the peak on the horizon to the right of centre in front of the bank of cloud.
Plan of the Stonehenge area based on Manley overlaid on satellite image.
Image credit: C. Collyer
Plan of the Stonehenge area based on Manley and others.
Image credit: C. Collyer
Reaves close to Kes Tor pound, part of the North Teign coaxial field system.
View along the outer wall of the pound with the hut upper left of picture.
Picture along the wall of the central hut with the outer pound wall just above.
Cairn at SK21398477. This one is described by EH as flat topped and sub-rectangular, which is just about visible when you see it but there is also supposed to be a narrow low platform 9m long and 2.5m wide extending from the SSW side. I looked but couldn’t find it.
360 Degree panorama taken from between the two circles (uses java applet which may cause a warning message in Internet Explorer)
Wide view of the southern circle from the centre of the gap between the circles.
Some of the stones of the north row are tiny, it’s amazing that they haven’t been ‘lost’, buried or re-used elsewhere.
The blocking or terminal stone at the northern end of the row looking south along the double row, the stones are almost invisible in the grass.
360 degree panorama from the centre of the circle.
If you plan on visiting the carving it might be worth printing this out to orientate yourself with the rocks of the Tor and surrounding landscape.
If you compare this with the diagram the outer circle around the swastika shape is reasonably clear with the gap in the circle to the left – what’s in the centre is a mystery to me though. The smaller ring is just to the upper right, between 1 and 2 on a clock face.
