Has anybody seen this:
I saw it years ago - it’s a couple hours south of me.
Is there an artists recreation or something of the like for Stonehenge in its prime so to speak?
Bahh, who needs Stonehenge when nestled just north of Alliance, Nebraska you can have CARhenge!
It’s actually rather nice these days. The owner has put in a parking lot and a few picnic tables. The best part is when the “local Druids” come out to worship on high holidays. I understand its damn cold just wearing a robe in NE Nebraska in December.
I’d like to echo one point made previously. Stonehenge is not all that unique. Britain, Ireland and Britainy are littered with similar monuments, albeit, with the exception of nearby Averbury, usually much smaller. Stonehenge was not a one-off deal, it was an merely one example of a common form of expression of a widespread culture.
I’d also like to ask for some amplification on the religious angle. Weren’t what appeared to be human sacrfices found at Stonehenge? What period of periods do they date from?
Antiquarian – just to clarify the radioisotope dating questions, the questions were not about dating the archeological remains at the site, which you cover extensively, but about dating the age of the bluestone deposits from which the stones were quarried, which you only mention breifly in an aside:
[ignorance fighting mode, OFF. Willful ignorance creation mode, ON]
So wait, were you saying the dinosaurs really DID build stonehenge in the Pliocene?
I’m a little skeptical about the idea that Stonehenge and similar sites were built for the purpose of agricultural timing, simply because they are so large. It shouldn’t be too hard to build a nice, stable, accurate solar calendar without dragging multi-ton blocks into place or digging a huge ditch with deer antlers. I would be surprised if there weren’t other very compelling purposes – probably ritual and practical – for the monument.
Maybe Stonehenge was built as an extraterrestrial helipad. This was pre-MIB, after all.
RR
Quercus - I appologise, I was discussing specifically the remains at the site. Not the bluestones. Sometimes, I go waaay off on tangents before catching my mistake… Only human I guess.
RiverRunner - I cannot comment too much on the practicality of size for an accurate agricultural timer. Why it was built so large was up to the builders. One common theme I come on quite often for some of my projects is ‘Why’ has something occured. I am not an Anthropologist nor a psychologist. However, over the years the pure adrenaline of finding and seeing something no one has seen for thousands of years is magnificent. It is one of my personal draws to the field.
Over the years I made some conjecture as the the ‘whys’ of a particular site. For Stonehenge, my ‘why’ comes from my perspective of their frame of mind some 5000+ years ago. Gobally civilizations were building large structures all over (Pyramids) and they were doing so with brut force, they were accomplishing something quite literally never done before, all the time modefying their results and making things more precise and as it were, quite larger.
Have you been to Giza? Have you stood next to the Largest Pyramid…I’ll tell you right now it is an awesome sight. Stonehenge right now is not that awesome, the carnivalizing it has gone through in the past 100 years has taken it’s toll. However, the Stonehenge of 3500 years ago must have been a magnificent place, I bet people from all over came to the area to check it out. And in the language of the time probably had icons associated with it, maybe the man or woman or group who first came up with the idea was exaulted in some way.
But I certainly don’t think it was an interfamily back yard project. The Henge took millennia to complete, and a driving force capable of keeping the idea alive long enough to acheive completion.
Regardless of the half life of C14, radiocarbon dating cannot be used to date inorganic material like rocks. Radiocarbon dating can only be used to date organic material, i.e, material that was once living.
Living things take up carbon from the atmosphere. A certain percentage of that carbon is C14 which eventually decays. Once the organism dies, no more carbon is taken up. There is, therefore, a fixed amount of C14.
Over time, the C14 decays. by measuring the ratio of C14 to ordinary carbon left in the once-living sample, it is possible to estimate when the organism died.
Rocks don’t take up carbon from the atmosphere when they are formed so C14 dating won’t work on them regardless of how old they are.
So what is known about religion at that time in that area?
It’s a vulva:
truth - I answered that. Reference above.
So, I take it that meant that the bluestone – which your article said was “radiocarbon” dated to 650,000 years ago – was actually dated by some other method, such as Thorium-230?
Antiquarian Do you remember those halcyon days when Dex said, "It’ll only take a few minutes of your time. 
Sam - WOW! do I. Had I only taken the Blue Pill…
It is not a widely accepted theory that the blue stones may not have come from presely mountains but were actually much closer due to the Pliocene glaciation of Salisbury Plain. This often runs in conjunction with the possibly flawed Pleistocene glaciation theory. We know when this took place. We have date as to the age it took place. Thorium-230 and uranium-234 and 238 datiing was taking place for marine samples of blue stone found near the site (marine only). It is possible the stones were cut closer to the water. This method of dating was taking place during ther study, it must be noted these dating methods are usually in conjunction with or to varify a potassium-argon or carbon 14 sample…it fills in the holes if there is any question. Yes radio carbon dating was not the only method used, but for purposes of the article it was the most commonly used method for verifying orgaic materials. And as orgaic materials would give us the best picture of the timeline for construction, it was the only cited dating method. I was not as concerned with data about when the rocks were formed or placed in their quarried location.
I feel the same way about learning just about anything new. That moment when the light goes on is one of the unalloyed pleasures that life affords. I find a lot of archaeology fascinating, but I have so far not had the opportunity to take part in it myself. I keep looking at ads for dig sites, though.
BTW, I should have taken some time in my first post in this thread to commend you on your column. You did excellent work; it was well-researched and well-written. Bravo!
RR
So you did. However, you should probably also ask Dex to correct the typo in the original staff report regarding dating rocks via C14. That line about “radiocarbon” dating rocks will cause confusion for years to come. Remember, you’re writing for posterity!
For Riverrunner
http://greenvolunteers.com/arkeo/archaeoeng.html#Top
The Stonehenge question has reminded me of one I’ve had for a while. Are there any good references (readable by non-specialists) on the Druids and other ancient European religions?
The problem I’ve had is that everything I find on the subject is written by people into Wicca or new age religions, or else is written by Christian apologists, and does not reflect research into the real thing.
Maybe this should be under General Questions, but as long as Stonehenge was a topic here…
You mean, besides the druids in the AD&D Player’s Handbook?
They can cast some pretty powerful spells, y’know.
Yeah, but they can’t get much done. Stuck in Neutral, don’tcha know?
Truth Seeker, thanks for the link; I have added it to my Favorites. With a baby due in January, it will probably be a while before I get to take advantage of it, but who knows?
RR