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Lefteris Pitarakis / AP
People raise their hands in meditation during the 2010 summer solstice at Stonehenge.
Researchers say they've found two pits to the east and west of Stonehenge that may have played a role in an ancient midsummer ceremony. The discovery suggests that the 5,000-year-old circle of stones we see today may represent just a few of the pieces in a larger geographical, astronomical and cultural puzzle.
The previously undetected pits could provide clues for solving the puzzle.
"These exciting finds indicate that even though Stonehenge was ultimately the most important monument in the landscape, it may at times not have been the only, or most important ritual focus, and the area of Stonehenge may have become significant as a sacred site at a much earlier date," Vince Gaffney, an archaeology professor at the University of Birmingham, said in a news release issued over the weekend.
The pits, which measure about 16 feet (5 meters wide) and at least 3 feet (1 meter) deep, have been covered over for centuries and can't easily be spotted on the ground. But they showed up in a survey that was conducted using non-invasive mapping techniques such as ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry. The survey is part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project, which was initiated last year with backing from the University of Birmingham's IBM Visual and Spatial Technology Center and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Vienna.
The placement of the pits is intriguing: They were found on the eastern and western sides of the Cursus, a racetrack-style enclosure north of Stonehenge itself that spans 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) from east to west and is up to 100 yards (meters) wide. From the perspective of an observer standing at the Heel Stone, a massive upright stone just outside Stonehenge's main circle, the sun would rise just above the eastern pit on the day of the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year. The same observer would see the sun set that evening in line with the western pit.
National Geographic
A map of the Stonehenge area shows the placement of the stone circle and the Cursus, as well as another monument known as Woodhenge and a suggested ceremonial route between the monuments.
Archaeologists have previously noted that the Cursus was apparently created several hundred years before Stonehenge's 5,000-year-old stone circle was erected. The newly detected pits may have been part of a grand layout that guided the placement of the standing stones.
But to what end?
Gaffney, who led the survey project, speculated that the Cursus was the central stage for a midsummer ritual that was enacted long before Stonehenge's heyday. "The perimeter of the Cursus may well have defined a route guiding ceremonial processions which took place on the longest day of the year," he said.
In addition to the pits, Gaffney and his colleagues found a previously undetected gap in the middle of the northern side of the eroded earthwork that defines the sides of the Cursus. They propose that ceremonial leaders entered the Cursus through that gap, and then gathered at the eastern pit to conduct sunrise rituals. Over the course of the day, participants in the rituals might have made their way westward, ending up at the western pit at sunset.
"Observers of the ceremony would have been positioned at the Heel Stone, [with] which the two pits are aligned," Gaffney said.
Henry Chapman, another archaeologist at the University of Birmingham, said Stonehenge's position would have added to the symbolism. "If you measure the walking distance between the two pits, the procession would reach exactly halfway at midday, when the sun would be directly on top of Stonehenge," he said in the news release. "This is more than just coincidence, indicating that the exact length of the Cursus and the positioning of the pits are of significance."
The researchers suggested that the pits may have contained tall sighting stones, or wooden posts, or even fires to symbolize the sun. Just imagine how it would feel to watch the sun rise from a fire lit before dawn, follow its movement across the sky in time with a daylong procession, and then see it fall into the flames at sunset.
"Stonehenge may have been emerging as an important area for quite a long time, and sometimes you can't necessarily see that in the standing archaeology," Gaffney said in an MP3 podcast provided by the University of Birmingham. "The stones themselves, which are generally later, don't give you that information. You have to infer it from relationships between multiple monuments."
The researchers aren't anywhere close to finishing the puzzle: Gaffney figures there's at least another two years' worth of survey work to do. Even then, the full story of Stonehenge and its environs may remain wrapped in mystery. How much can stones and earth tell? Stay tuned ...
More about Stonehenge:
- Did Stonehenge start out as a cemetery?
- ... Or was it a place of healing?
- Gallery: Secrets of Stonehenge
- Gallery: Seven mysteries of archaeology
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Leave a Comment:
So, if this was such a great place, then why did those people disappear? I imagine that they did great evil there, and were wiped out. Why would you want to have anything to do with a site or practices like that?
Actually, there is "evidence" of atomic warfare in Ireland, Scotland, Whales, France, Norway, India...
One thing many people simply "overlook" when reading about ancient cultures and the things that "they wrote about" and passed down through their history...is what in the world would possess them to write about a "missile" that could wipe out entire cities...one misslie...and leave the unfortunate survivors with symptoms of "hair and fingernails falling out" and "contaminate food stores"...how would they "know" what effects a nuclear detonation would have? Why is there evidence that there was indeed a nuclear war on this planet?
Vedic/Sanskrit history is full of such descriptions...why?
SaltyDog, for a brief history of Stonehenge, check out:
http://www.stonehenge.co.uk/history.php
The short answer to your question is that Stonehenge was built in 4 phases from 3100 BC to sometime after 1500 BC, so there was no one "those people"who built it. Why do you imagine that "they did great evil there"?
HEXJUMPER: smoke a blunt and chill out retard, your not thinking straight.
first of all: there is proof in many ancient civilizations like the Mayans and Egyptions etc. etc. that there is E.T. life that has already come to this planet and in some way effected their people, enough to make them draw @!$%# on walls. And btw, you can see it in their hyroglyphs and ancient paintings you epic retarded. Oh one more thing, none of things im talking about were "reconstruced" so expand your mind you ignorant retard.
second of all: all ancient civilizations, just like modern ones, wanted to expand their land/resources/wealth, and spread their beliefs. Religion involved or not, for example the Romans, they conqoured all sorts of people and they didn't do it in the "name of God" they did it cus they could and they wanted money. fkn retard, get your @!$%# straight.
1898 excavations in Egypt found a "bird" model made of wood and tagged and bagged it and put it in the basement of the Cairo Museum. In the 40's it was "rediscovered" in a box and it was determined to actually be an AIRPLANE.
In room 22 of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, there is a wooden object that appears very similar to a modern airplane or glider. In fact, it is so similar that some have offered it as proof that the ancient Egyptians possessed the technology of flight. The artifact (Special Register No. 6347; the number
33109 is written on the bottom of the port wing) is made of wood and has a length of 5.6 inches (14.2 cm) and a wingspan of 7.2 inches (18.3 cm). It was found in a tomb near Saqqara in 1898 and has been dated to about 200 B.C.
In 1898 a curious winged object was discovered in the tomb of Pa-di-Imen in north Saqqara, Egypt dated to about 200 BC. Because the birth of modern aviation was still several years away, when the strange artifact was sent to the Cairo Museum, it was catalogued and then shelved among other miscellaneous items to gather dust.
Seventy years later, Dr. Kahlil Messiha, an Egyptologist and archaeologist, was examining a Museum display labeled bird figurines. While most of the display were indeed bird sculptures, the Saqqara artifact was certainly not. It possessed characteristics never found on birds, yet which are part of modern
aircraft design. Dr. Messiha, a former model plane enthusiast, immediately recognized the aircraft features and persuaded the Egyptian Ministry of Culture to investigate.
Made of very light sycamore the craft weighs 0.5 oz. with straight and aerodynamically shaped wings, spanning about 7 inches. A separate slotted piece fits onto the tail precisely like the back tail wing on a modern plane.
A full-scale version could have flown carrying heavy loads, but at low speeds, between 45 and 65 miles per hour. What is not known, however, is what the power source was. The model makes a perfect glider as it is. Even though over 2,000 years old, it will soar a considerable distance with only a slight jerk of the hand. Fully restored balsa replicas travel even farther.
Messiha notes that the ancient Egyptians often built scale models of everything familiar in their daily lives and placed them in their tombs, temples, ships, chariots, servants, animals and so forth. Now that we have found a model plane, Messiha wonders if perhaps somewhere under the desert sands there
may yet be unearthed the remains of life-sized gliders.
Pictures of AIRPLANES and HELICOPTERS carved into the hyroglyphs of ancient Eqyptian tombs. Descriptions of how to build "flying machines" in ancient sanskrit writings.
Another half story, what elements such as carbon are in the pits? were they fire pits or foundations for some sort of lodging or grain storage. and if so could they have burned down causing it to appear as burn pits. no one knows or ever really will know what this ancient structure was, it could have been a chieftains palace, or a calender, or both. what I don't understand is all the lunatics out there waiving their hands in the air practicing some Pagan ritual when no one has a clue. having enactments of rituals they don't know even existed except in their imagination. hell they could have been corrals for keeping goats. or community out houses.
to Chris-749391,
I know ALL about the plating systems in antiquity,I CAN keep up ,can you?Show me the mechanics of these sites,that's all!Just show us the hardware.This stuff WAS NOT built using log rollers and naked slaves,it JUST DIDN'T happen!What about the green fused glass nodules in Libya?You know,the ones JUST like the ones in the Nevada desert where we did all the nuclear testing?The ancient Egyptians were "intrigiued by their "properties"(radioactivity)and used them for jewelry,ask Hawass about that!
More information about the actual uses of Stonehenge can be found in an article at theyfly.com titled:
The Truth about the Pyramids and Stonehenge
...and that truth is quite unromantic, as the place was used for human sacrifices and was hardly the mystical, romantic setting portrayed by "New Agers". There's also information on the actual age and origins of the pyramids, etc.
You can also see the free, feature-length documentary about the man who has been publishing reams of accurate scientific information years, even decades, before "official discovery".
i still have the screen saver of the site ... i have always wondered about the people of that age ...
I wonder if anyone went pooded in the pits there.
The pits may have contained huge logs that floated away during the flood. Another theory is that Stonehinge was the supporting foundation of Noah's Ark. :-)
This is really missing with what I was taught in school....Columbus discovered American and lets leave it to 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean blue. Them rocks are there because Rock and Roll had not come on to the people...They had nothing else to do
every time some archaeologist discovers something the first thing to do is make it sound like the greatest discover in the history of the world . lets get real stone hedge itself was most likely put up by a bunch of idiots with nothing better to do , the pits were dug ,simply because they wanted to dig a hole. now we will be lead to believe these pits had a spiritual meaning and the sun shined on them in just a way to make them look like a planet , what a crock , get real early man was an idiot and mostly did things to stay busy , the sun the moon had nothing to do with anything , it is like the pyramids why were they built because what are you going to do with all those slaves, of course make something, so it is mordern man using his ideas and words to suggest why these sites were developed by early man in fact no one knows , it is who ever has the best story wins .
Stoners built the henge & the pyramids
They were Druids and worshipped the sun !!
that's why they all went blind!
I thought only the men went blind after fertility rituals!
I find it amazing how unintelligent some people "want" to be.
The so-called 'pits' are actually ventilation shaft outlets.
Follow them to their origins; i.e., Area 51, Edwards Air Force Base, Roswell, New Mexico, USA.
What are all those guys doing with hands in the air. I use toilet paper over air drying.
the ancients are laughing at these guys, we finally found their latrines.
What is all the clamor and hoopla about furchristsake.....?
These were simply bar-b-que pits for when the Druids would (no pun intended) get together and party down. Jeeze.................
D.Man,
"I wouldnt be surprised if they found some type of bones/remnants of animal/human sacrifice."
One would think that this would be found in the East pit of the site, and a regular send off in the West pit in any event it is holy ground and should be left alone and not dug up. I always thought that the Stones looked like a stand to place something on like a landing pad or something. The truth could be stranger than fiction even though the bible was written as though after a game of telephone was played it does hold a lot of truth to our history. I find it interesting that many of the same stories are told all around the world by different people but the names were changed because of language.
All I really want to do is crank up a Spinal Tap record and hear Nigel Tufnel sing...
'Where the dew drops cry and the cats meow
I will take you there, I will show you how'
Just curious, why is it always explained as a place of 'ritual'? Every unexplained structure we find we seem to conclude it must be about religion and rituals.
Hatfield-4257362, You Forgot the Most Important: "If You Moved the Pile of _____— In their Backyard, They Would Be Lost."
Folks, the importance of the discovery is in the study of paleosociology. This particular discovery is interesting, but Mike Parker-Pearson has been working the "Stonehenge Environs" site for decades, and this is just one more small discovery.
The approximately 25 square mile area of the environs includes a whole dictionary of religious structures, and the people who built them were forgotten long before the Druid faith came along. Druid was only a couple of hundred years old when they were wiped out by the Roman legions in 60 AD on the island of Angelsea. Evidence suggests, to those willing to accept a slightly different thought process, that the Stonehenge Environs would equate to a modern Mecca, where believers traveled from all across mainland europe to worship for many generations.
The earliest known evidence of work at the site involves sighting pole pits about a mile away to the north west and the north east from some time before 4000BC. They couldn't rent a laptop back then, so they had to figger it out for themselves.
Do I believe what they did? No, but I respect their right to religious freedom. That freedom is why we can find no written word from them. Man to those people, was temporary, so only that built for the spirits of the dead was made to last. Look at the diagram again. Woodhenge was for living man, and was built to rot, as was man.