Tag: Stone circle

British Home-made ‘Stonehenge’ is a Load of Rubbish

There may be many alternatives to Stonehenge this summer solstice, but one British man is proud his stone circle is complete rubbish. Bryan Raines, of Awbridge, Hampshire, has been creating his ‘Millennium Circle’ since 2000 entirely from waste fly-tipped on his land.

Bryan’s 24-stone circle surrounds a soil barrow, and he even believes it is located on a ley line – a mystical line linking ancient monuments. Yet the power of the ley line hasn’t saved Bryan’s landmark from some altogether less mystical interlopers. “Some of the stones are between five and six feet high, but unfortunately cows keep knocking them over.

“I’ve ended up with a sort-of 24-hour sundial,” Bryan tells the Romsey Advertiser. “It’s a good 50 metres across. I’m quite proud of it, actually. I have had quite a few people who were surprised about it.”

“Unfortunately cows keep knocking the stones over.”

The circle began life a decade ago, when 55-year-old Bryan decided to put rubbish dumped in his field to use. “I was in the process of collecting builder’s rubbish that I had accumulated,” he says, “and I thought I would use it for a stone circle.” Bryan believes the landmark lies on an ancient line running from the Isle of Man to the Isle of Wight.

Ley lines were first suggested in 1921 by amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins in his book The Old Straight Track. Watkins’ theory claims that straight lines linking megaliths like Stonehenge resonate mystic energy. This weekend thousands of pagans and revellers will head to ancient sites around Britain to celebrate the summer solstice. Find out how to do things the right way at Stonehenge with a look at Ann’s special guide. Don’t forget you can see Stonehenge from your own home with Heritage Key’s Stonehenge Virtual.

Stonehenge Film ‘Remnants’ Explores the Megalithic Civilisation

The world’s most photogenic stone circle, Stonehenge, is the subject of a film called “Remnants” by Grant Wakefield which explores the Neolithic civilisation, looking at how we know so little about a culture which spanned over 3 millennia. With the Summer Solstice 2010 this weekend, it’s worth reminding ourselves of the beauty of this sacred ancient site. Heritage Key also has explored Stonehenge during the Spring Equinox (Watch the Video), and talked to Druid Frank Somers about how the stones came to be (Watch the Video).

The Neolithic people vanished without leaving anything but their remnants, and it is these fascinating stones which form the subject of Grant Wakefield’s film, which is produced in association with SKY SKAN Europe Inc.

The film itself started off as a short, black and white timelapse film produced for large format digital cinema, and has developed over the years into a project which is a 40 minute feature film. Using the latest technology in digital SLR cameras and shooting over 18 months, the project captures the magic of Stonehenge to perfection.

The beautiful sunset and motion of the sky across Stonehenge are not unlike the beautiful detail work that has gone into Stonehenge Virtual, from Heritage Key which features digital recreations of different eras in the stages of Stonehenge. The virtual experience shows how the Neolithic civilisation developed and added to the famous stone circle, which you can see for yourself in Stonehenge Virtual for free!

Stonehenge remains one of the most mysterious ancient sites in the world, and Grant Wakefield’s film explores various stone circles to raise the question of what happened to the people who originally created these stone circles. And if they disappeared, leaving only remnants of their civilisation, what is not to say that our own fragile society, with its dependence on oil and the threat of climate change not suffer a similar fate to the Neolithic people? The film shows the stones as they stand today, and portray the eroding effect that modern society has placed upon them.

HD Video: Grant Wakefield’s “Remnants”

Grant Wakefield has completed about three quarters of shooting for the Remnants film, and is seeking funds to complete filming work at Newgrange, Stonehenge and London and to complete post production work. In addition, he’s also working on an Archaeoastronomy film about Stonehenge called “Ancient Skies”, and you can catch up with our lecture with Astronomer Paul Murdin who talks about this very subject (Watch the Video). If you want further information about this fascinating project, you can contact Grant by email.

If you’re heading out to go out to Salisbury Plain for the Summer Solstice with your own camera, check out our tips for photographing Stonehenge.And – we can’t stress this enough – dress warm!

AWiL Video Series: Stonehenge Spring Equinox and the Druids

Each year up to 40,000 pour into Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice, banging drums, singing songs and generally having a wild time (here’s a guide on taking photographs at Stonehenge). But it’s just one of four times each year that the stone circle is open to the public, the other three being Winter Solstice and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes.

While some see it as a chance to get up close and personal to one of the world’s best-known landmarks, or just to have a party, to others Stonehenge is a spiritual centre, an ethereal round table from which to honour mother nature. I’m talking, of course, about the Druids (Watch our video with the Druids).

Say what you like about the Druids – and plenty have – Stonehenge remains the focal point for their pagan worship, which they claim has continued for millennia. Yet Spring Equinox is still a scientifically important date, being the midpoint between summer and winter. “Because the Earth leans over at a funny angle,” says Stonehenge Druid Frank Somers, “at summertime we’re leaning towards the sun, in winter we’re leaning away. Halfway between the two, there’s equinox.”

But how do pagans, druids and revellers see in the date at Stonehenge? Our day begins in darkness, as we drag ourselves out of bed at 4.30am. Much yawning and head-scratching later, we’re out on Salisbury Plain with around 4,000 others. Drums are beating and chants echo across the plain as we begin a procession through the visitor car park to the stone circle.

“Stonehenge is the epicentre of the system of ancient sacred monuments in Britain.”

Being Britain in March, there’s little chance of actually seeing the sun rise, and true to form it drizzles on our parade from start to finish; the only sign of sunrise being a shift from dark to light grey. But no matter: we’re here to investigate, and we do so by sending Nicole off to join in festivities, which largely consist of chants, blessings and eulogies. By 8.00am it is all over, English Heritage throwing us off the site to indulge in some much-needed hot chocolate. But why Stonehenge?

“It’s the most powerful place we could ever be in to celebrate equinox, really – it’s the epicentre of the whole system of ancient sacred monuments in Britain,” says Glastonbury Druid Rollo Maughfling. There’s no doubting Stonehenge has a special aura about it when you get inside the stone circle: Frank thinks it connects us all to our distant past. “There’s a connection between you today and standing in that place, to the ancestors who’ve done that right back through the millennia,” he says.

The Druids claim humanity has lost its way in recent times, focusing more on ourselves than the planet. And while we don’t need giant sarsen stones to tell which day it is any more, Frank feels Stonehenge still has a role to play in allowing us to understand the earthly traditions of our forebears: “Even though today we have TV sets and radios and iPods and phones, we like to keep the old traditions and wisdom going.” I’m not quite a pagan convert yet, but looking out of the office window on a smoggy Thursday morning, I can see the point.

HD Video: Episode 8 – Spring Equinox at Stonehenge

(Transcription of this video)

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Satellite Image: Stonehenge, England’s famous Stone Circle

One of the most intriguing and mysterious ancient sites in Britain is Stonehenge, which continues to this day to captivate and fascinate the public. Standing in solitude in the hills of Wiltshire and pre-dating the pyramids of Egypt, the ‘henge‘ itself was constructed first. A henge is formed in the shape of a circular ditch and bank with a single entrance in the north-east section, but millennia of erosion and weathering means that tourists today may not notice it.

However, thanks to GeoEye who have kindly provided Heritage Key with a high resolution map of the Stonehenge area, we can see the outline of the circular bank around Stonehenge, as well as being able to see the surrounding area of this mystical site. Archaeologists and researchers (as well as druids) have debated what the original purpose of Stonehenge was, although no firm answers have arisen. Today, Stonehenge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a tourism hotspot and a place of significant place of spiritualism for the modern day Druids. (You can watch a video with a Druid priest simply by clicking here!)

Can you spot any famous sites in the map below? The following landmarks are all in there:

Perhaps the easiest to locate would be Stonehenge itself – the monolithic stones which have been standing for over 70 generations are one of the most recognisable iconic ancient sites in the world. The first stones at the site are believed to have been placed in 2500BC, although there is no evidence of how the stones were moved and placed, although some believe they may have been moved from Bluestonehenge. About 75 metres from Stonehenge is the Heelstone, a solitary sarsen stone located near the A344 main road.

Satellite Image:Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England

Also on the map are the Normanton Down Barrows is a bronze age cemetery panning across the south of Stonehenge and The Avenue, which is a 3 kilometre long pathway aligned with the solar patterns of the summer solstice.

New Satellite Images Coming Each Week

This post is part of a weekly series that is showcasing high resolution satellite photography of Ancient World sites from across the globe, courtesy of GeoEye! Be sure to check back each week to see which Heritage site we cover next.

You can catch up on our previous sites that we’ve covered at Heritage Key:

Although not shown on the map, at the other end of The Avenue is Bluestonehenge. Also know as Bluehenge and dubbed “Stonehenge’s little sister”, it is another stone circle composed of giant Welsh bluestones, and near the River Avon, little over a mile away the more famous counterpart. Discovered during summer 2009, the results of the excavations could change our view on Stonehenge’s history when they’re published next year.

Bush Barrow is an important site of the Stonehenge area, as it contained many archaeological finds including a male skeleton, bronze rivets and gold artefacts. Two miles northeast of Stonehenge are the Durrington Walls, which was the site of a Neolithic village. An Iron age hillfort near Amesbury called Vespasian’s Camp which has a somewhat unusual shape, appearing from above to be an arrowhead. Robin Hood’s Ball, which is unrelated to the Sherwood Forest legend, is a single causewayed enclosure between two ditches.

You can read more about Stonehenge and Britain’s other henges here at Heritage Key, as well as being able to follow them in our Google Map and you will soon also be able to visit Stonehenge Virtual! Click here for more exciting details!

The Satellite Image is courtesy of GeoEye.

Bluehenge – Mini Stonehenge Discovered on the River Avon

Prof. Andrew Chamberlain (University of Sheffield) uses a laser scanner to record a stonehole. Aerial-Cam About a mile away from Stonehenge, at the end of the ‘Avenue’ that connects it to the River Avon, archaeologists have discovered a smaller prehistoric site, named – appropriately, after the colour of the 27 Welsh stones it was made of – Bluehenge. The newly discovered stone circle is thought to have been put up 5,000 years ago – which is around the same time work on Stonehenge began – and appears to be a miniature version of it. The two circles stood together for hundreds of years before Bluehenge was dismantled. Researchers believe its stones were used to enlarge Stonehenge during one of a number of redevelopments.

The new circle, unearthed over the summer by researchers from Sheffield University, represents an important find, researchers said Saturday. Although Bluehenge’s monoliths have disappeared, the circle of holes remains. It’s about 60 foot wide, has 27 holes, and the chips of blue stone found in the holes appear to be identical to the blue stones used in Stonehenge.

This henge is very important because it forms part of the picture of ceremonial monuments in the area and puts Stonehenge into context. – Geoffrey Wainwright

This new find might just change our view on Stonehenge’s history; it suggests that the creators of Stonehenge originally built two prehistoric stone circles – one with 56 stones at Stonehenge, and another with 27 at Bluehenge. The stones of the smaller circle were eventually worked into the bigger one.

Professor Geoffrey Wainwright, who found the source of the Stonehenge stones in Wales with Professor Darvill, told the DailyMail: ‘This henge is very important because it forms part of the picture of ceremonial monuments in the area and puts Stonehenge into context.” The area surrounding Stonehenge is sometimes dubbed a ‘ritual landscape’ which would include the Durrington Walls Henge (a place for the living), Stonehenge (a place for the dead) and their respective avenues. But no need to say many think that as Stonehenge evolved over thousands of years, it must have had different destinations of use during those differen eras (sometimes known as the three phases of Stonehenge) and that the storyline is more complicated than just a life/death juxtaposition.

More information about the newly discovered Bluehenge should be published in February 2010. And err.. I guess Wessex Archaeology will need to adjust their superb Stonehenge Landscape 3D now?

Standing with Stones, the Video – Stanton Drew

Stanton Drew Reconstruction - Still from Standing with Stones There are nearly 1,000 prehistoric stone circles in Britain and Rupert Soskin – together with producer Michael Bott – has visited over 100 of them, making an astonishing documentary about these magnificent Neolithic and Bronze monuments, focussing on a lot of the lesser known prehistoric stone monuments from megalithic Britain. Barrows, henges, borrows, cists, thrilitons and solitary megaliths, Soskin covers them all. ‘Standing with Stones’ wants to take the viewer beyond Stonehenge – that all-too familiar icon of Stone Age Britain – on an incredible journey of discovery that reveals the true wealth and extent of Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain & Ireland.

For the full 136 minutes (+ extras, of course) megalithic experience you should buy the DVD(or the book), but Michael Bott also made quite a bit of excerpts available for viewing on the website standingstones.tv and YouTube. I must admit though that, despite the many fascinating stories Rupert Soskin tells about ancient sites previously unknown to me, my favourite part of the film is a reconstruction of one of the ‘giants’, Stanton Drew in Somerset, and Soskin’s theory about it.

Standing With Stones – Was Stanton Drew a giant arena for hunting games?

With a diameter of over 112m, Stanton Drew is the second largest stone circle in Britain after Avesbury. It probably consisted of 30 stones, of which 27 still surive today. And if that was not yet impressive enough, a geophysical survey by English Heritage in 1997 revealed that the stone circle was surrounded by a ditch (7m wide), a raised bank and a 40m wide entrance, as well as 9 concentric rings of postholes within the stone circle. As each post was a meter apart and a meter or more across, this means over 400 wooden posts must have at one time been raised inside the monument.

Now why was this artificial forest created? Rupert Soskin suggests that Stanton Drew might have been a ‘hunting arena’, where spectators seated on the bank watched different communities competing and showing off their hunting skills. Blood sports?! Soskin defends his theory by pointing out that as at that time, the most of Britain was covered in forest and the most skilled hunter would have been held in high esteem, possibly even beyond his own community. The deep ditch would have stepped animals from escaping into the rowd while the forest of posts would create an enclosed but nevertheless real hunting ground. Yet, Soskin adds: “But then again, this amount of huge posts could easily have supported a flood, exactly the same design concept as for the Great Colosseum in Rome but preceding it by thousand of years. One can only wonder.”

And wonder, that’s exactly what Rupert Soskin’s theory made me do, even if a neolithic version of the Olympic hunting games might not be the most likely answer. Why would a group of people spend that much effort on a location to play games? Err…. 2012 you say? Well, never mind that question. 😉

Digital Digging – Virtual Reconstructions of Avebury’s Sanctuary and the Durrington Walls using Google Earth

Aerial View of Woodhenge Reconstruction - Google Earth .kmz file by Digital Digging Digital Digging – run by Henry Rothwell – is a resource for anyone with an interest in archaeology, history, cartography and … digital reconstructions! Digital Digging’s ‘Model Room’ is where they store their virtual reconstructions, created especially for you to explore yourself using Google Earth. It holds a selection of the timber and stone circles of Wessex and Somerset, including Durrington Walls South Circle, Woodhenge, Stanton Drew and the Sanctuary at Avebury. You can look at the image page of each reconstruction or download the associated .kmz file and download the model into Google Earth, where you can get inside it, and look at it from any angle you choose.

There is something fascinating about Digital Digging’s Google Earth-based reconstructions, besides the fact that you can ‘fly’ through them: they are overlayed on satellite images of how the historical sites look nowadays, so you can see wooden posts stick out of concrete roads, cars included. The benefit of having a 3Dmodel finished, is that you can easily create videos out of it, and this is exactly what Henry Rothwell has done:

The Sanctuary at Avebury

The Sanctuary Timber and Stone Circle at Avebury is a prehistoric site on Overton Hill located around 5 miles west of Marlborough in the English county of Wiltshire. It is part of a wider Neolithic landscape which includes the nearby sites of Silbury Hill, West Kennet Long Barrow and Avebury, to which The Sanctuary was linked by the 25m wide and 2.5km long Kennet Avenue. It also lies close to the route of the prehistoric Ridgeway and near several Bronze Age barrows.

The Durrington Walls Timber Circles

Durrington Walls is the site of a Neolithic village and later henge enclosure located in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. It is 2 miles north east of Stonehenge in the parish of Durrington, just north of Amesbury. At 500m in diameter it is the largest henge in Britain, and recent evidence suggests that it was a complementary monument to Stonehenge. What visibly remains of Durrington Walls today is the walls of the henge monument in fact the eroded remains of the inner slope of the bank and the outer slope of the internal ditch.

Digital Digging’s model room is full of timber circles at the moment. There is a reconstruction of Stanton Drew, another of the ‘cricket stumps’ in the Stonehenge car park, one of Woodhenge and the Durrington Walls and the Avebury Sanctuary shown above. If you wish to ‘explore’ these ancient monuments for yourself, can you do so by loading the .kmz files Digital Digging provides into Google Earth. Give it a try, it’s not as scary as it sounds (and instructions are provided)! 😉

And most of all, keep an eye on Digital Digging, as there are more virtual models upcoming: “Reconstructions are the next big project, and although the two sites so far included consist of posts (not massively taxing when all is said and done), I will shortly be trotting off into the Roman Period, and, all going well, putting up the odd Saxon hall or two a few hundred years later.” We’re looking forward to those! (Whilst in the mean while keeping ourselves content with Ancient Rome 3D, Virtual Karnak and of course our very own King Tut Virtual.)

The Ongoing Saga of Stonehenge

Back in 2000, which was by no means the very start of the ‘Stonehenge Saga‘, the Journal of Architectural Conservation published an article by Elizabeth Young and Wayland Kennet outlining the “national disgrace” that constitutes facilities at Stonehenge. The existing visitor centre was slated for its “grubby car park, tiny shop and loos”, and the authors complained that the stones themselves were fenced off. Additionally, attempts to agree on a plan to upgrade facilities had failed completely, and the situation had escalated into a “smouldering dispute that might, without care, burst into acrimonious flames”.

Since the first proposals, in 1991, to build a visitor centre at the Fargo site, any attempts to improve facilities have been thwarted. The size and scale of the site makes it difficult to build anything in walking distance of the stones without endangering the landscape and archaeology of the area, and UNESCO and other heritage organisations have long opposed suggestions that underground tunnels should be built to ferry visitors to the site.

The last 18 years have seen millions of pounds squandered, with plans proposed, opposed and vetoed on an annual and even bi-annual basis, and the appointed architects dropping out altogether. This January, a letter from the Council For British Archaeology stated that only two out of the latest batch of ideas developed as part of a public consultation were in any way feasible, and suggested that new facilities should be built on the site at Airman’s Corner.

This site is further from the stones than the initially-proposed Fargo site, and could appease some heritage organisations. Could there be light at the end of the rejected tunnel after all?