Evidence Of Yet Another Circle Near Stonehenge

[ninorc]

Stonehenge -- the Neolithic landmark on the English countryside that served as a sacred site, an observatory, an astrological calendar, a burial ground, and more -- continues to reveal secrets some 5,000 years after its construction.

ScienceDaily.com reports that British archaeologists with the Stonehenge Riverside Project have found evidence that another stone circle stood less than two miles away on the banks of the Avon River.

Today, all that is left of that second circle are nine depressions in the ground, but those plus other archaeological evidence (Stone Age tools, evidence of fires) lead scientists to believe that 25 standing stones once formed a circle more than 30 feet across on the site, surrounded by a henge, or a circular ditch with an external bank. They're calling it "Blue Stonehenge" because they believe the standing stones were bluestones mined from the Preseli Mountains in Wales, more than 150 miles away.

They also suspect that around 2500 BCE, Blue Stonehenge was dismantled and its stones incorporated into Stonehenge proper when it was rebuilt. Still, according to the article, Blue Stonehenge should be considered part of the overall Stonehenge complex and not a separate construct, since it stood at the end of the Avenue, a ceremonial way that led from Stonehenge to the Avon.

It all fits in with what the Stonehenge Project's members believe was a Neolithic community along the Avon, which included a village they discovered in 2005 and call Durrington Walls. That village, the scientists speculate, represented a "domain of the living" that was linked with a "domain of the dead" through the newly discovered circle and Stonehenge.

"It could be that Blue Stonehenge was where the dead began their final journey to Stonehenge," Sheffield University Professor Mike Parker Pearson, a co-director of the Project, was quoted in the article. "Not many people know that Stonehenge was Britain's largest burial ground at that time. Maybe the bluestone circle is where people were cremated before their ashes were buried at Stonehenge itself."

Stonehenge is part of a network of prehistoric monuments in the area. Also nearby is Avebury Henge, a double stone circle so large that it includes a small town. This is located about 32km south of Stonehenge. Silbury Hill, an ancient manmade mountain, is also in the area, and is part of the same network of monuments, all of which were likely to have related purposes. There are many theories as to their use, one of them astrological. Stonehenge may have been a war council chamber devoted to Mars, and Avebury Henge another kind of temple devoted to the Sun and the Moon. Even in modern times, Avebury's two circles are referred to as the Sun Circle and the Moon Circle. Silbury Hill, for its part, remains a mystery, and few artifacts have been found there.

The Stonehenge Project's other co-director, Professor Julian Thomas of the University of Manchester, seconded the significance of the find: "The implications of this discovery are immense. It is compelling evidence that this stretch of the River Avon was central to the religious lives of the people who built Stonehenge."

[hopefullmonkey]

get yourself up north mate, the highest concentration of neolithic archeology in europe (appologies if neolithic means like dinosaur period or something - too lazy to check) hope you dont mind im not excited about a circle or a big henge, you should check some the north western gear mate

just google callanish to give you an example im too lazy to post pics

druids and all that