New study: Stonehenge started as huge graveyard
LONDON (AP) - British researchers have proposed a new theory for the origins of Stonehenge: It may have started as a giant burial ground for elite families around 3,000 B.C.
New studies of cremated human remains excavated from the site suggest that about 500 years before the Stonehenge we know today was built, a larger stone circle was erected at the same site as a community graveyard, researchers said Saturday.
"These were men, women, children, so presumably family groups," University College London professor Mike Parker Pearson, who led the team, said. "We'd thought that maybe it was a place where a dynasty of kings was buried, but this seemed to be much more of a community, a different kind of power structure."
Parker Pearson said archeologists studied the cremated bones of 63 individuals, and believed that they were buried around 3,000 B.C. The location of many of the cremated bodies was originally marked by bluestones, he said. That earlier circular enclosure, which measured around 300 feet (91 meters) across, could have been the burial ground for about 200 more people, Parker Pearson said.
The team, which included academics from more than a dozen British universities, also put forth some theories about the purpose of the second Stonehenge - the monument still standing in the countryside in southern England today.
Various theories have been proposed about Stonehenge, including that it was a place for Druid worship, an observatory for astronomical studies, or a place of healing, built by early inhabitants of Britain who roamed around with their herds.
Parker Pearson said the latest study suggested that Stonehenge should be seen less a temple of worship than a kind of building project that served to unite people from across Britain.
Analysis of the remains of a Neolithic settlement near the monument indicated that thousands of people traveled from as far as Scotland to the site, bringing their livestock and families for huge feasts and celebrations during the winter and summer solstices.
The team studied the teeth of pigs and cattle found at the "builders' camp," and deduced that the animals were mostly slaughtered around nine months or 15 months after their spring births. That meant they were likely eaten in feasts during the midwinter and midsummer, Parker Pearson said.
"We don't think (the builders) were living there all the time. We could tell that by when they were killing the pigs - they were there for the solstices," he said.
The researchers believe that the builders converged seasonally to build Stonehenge, but not for very long - likely over a period of a decade or so.
The mass monument building is thought to end around the time when the "Beaker people," so called because of their distinctive pottery, arrived from continental Europe, Parker Pearson said.
New studies of cremated human remains excavated from the site suggest that about 500 years before the Stonehenge we know today was built, a larger stone circle was erected at the same site as a community graveyard, researchers said Saturday.
"These were men, women, children, so presumably family groups," University College London professor Mike Parker Pearson, who led the team, said. "We'd thought that maybe it was a place where a dynasty of kings was buried, but this seemed to be much more of a community, a different kind of power structure."
Parker Pearson said archeologists studied the cremated bones of 63 individuals, and believed that they were buried around 3,000 B.C. The location of many of the cremated bodies was originally marked by bluestones, he said. That earlier circular enclosure, which measured around 300 feet (91 meters) across, could have been the burial ground for about 200 more people, Parker Pearson said.
The team, which included academics from more than a dozen British universities, also put forth some theories about the purpose of the second Stonehenge - the monument still standing in the countryside in southern England today.
Various theories have been proposed about Stonehenge, including that it was a place for Druid worship, an observatory for astronomical studies, or a place of healing, built by early inhabitants of Britain who roamed around with their herds.
Parker Pearson said the latest study suggested that Stonehenge should be seen less a temple of worship than a kind of building project that served to unite people from across Britain.
Analysis of the remains of a Neolithic settlement near the monument indicated that thousands of people traveled from as far as Scotland to the site, bringing their livestock and families for huge feasts and celebrations during the winter and summer solstices.
The team studied the teeth of pigs and cattle found at the "builders' camp," and deduced that the animals were mostly slaughtered around nine months or 15 months after their spring births. That meant they were likely eaten in feasts during the midwinter and midsummer, Parker Pearson said.
"We don't think (the builders) were living there all the time. We could tell that by when they were killing the pigs - they were there for the solstices," he said.
The researchers believe that the builders converged seasonally to build Stonehenge, but not for very long - likely over a period of a decade or so.
The mass monument building is thought to end around the time when the "Beaker people," so called because of their distinctive pottery, arrived from continental Europe, Parker Pearson said.
I think it was built out of stone because Cadillac's weren't invented yet for them to stick in the ground to worship the mighty V-8.
Stonehenge! Where the demons dwell
Where the banshees live and they do live well
Stonehenge! Where a man's a man
And the children dance to the Pipes of Pan
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAXzzHM8zLw
I don't really care what it is. I just think it's cool!
I really think this is mostly bunk. There are a number of good reference tomes that provide much more sensible explanations, such as "Uriel's Machine" (Knight & Lomas), "Stonehenge, Decoded" (G. S. Hawkins,), and "The Megalith Builders" ( E. W. Mackie). Stone circles date from around 3020 BC. The "Great Flood" (believed to have been caused by a multiple comet impact around 7640 BC) predates this construction sufficiently to allow for the development of stone moving techniques that allowed the monoliths to be moved to Stonehenge from the Preseli Mountains in Southwest Wales.
@Glassman The 'great flood' event has been largely disproven. The environmental evidence has been linked to different natural geoligical processes, there is a rather large lack of debris and other deposits that would have been widespread and in great abundance had the planet seen a kilometer high tsunami. Last, the other evidence used to support the theory is dated well beyond the date of the supposed event. If it occured in 7600bce, they can't use ice core data that is three times older to support this event...
@what? I won't debate it with you. There are an abundance of proofs, like seabed sand and shellfish evidence far inland in Scotland, the Dead and Salton Seas, Great Salt Lake, meteor craters with magnetic anomalies that date them accurately and much more. Believe what you wish, but I have dozens of books that put the lie to your assertions.
@Fooey Patooey! Just as you do with a pointless remark.
@Glassman - I love how you say "I won't debate it with you" and then proceed to argue your point.
Really shows off your intelligence.Â
@Glassman @what? Given that the continents have moved around and reformed many times since the creation of the planet, and that the level of various seas and lakes changes over time, as do lakes and rivers and seas disappear completely from the landscape (other than the buried remnants). It's an ever-changing world. Not to say that there have not been major floods, but there are many other explanations (quite viable ones, at that) to explain the presence of seabed sand and shellfish inland from where the sea currently sits.
Why does this make me think of the Simpson's episode where a black hole sucks them all off the planet and they find themselves in an alternate universe where aliens have been marveling at all our garbage we have thrown away...finding banana peels delectable eating and worshiping the Zune.Â