- 2008 Apr 1. The
Lourdes of ancient Britain? Dig aims to
reveal Stonehenge's purpose. by Maev Kennedy,
The Guardian. Excerpt: The
first excavation for more than a generation
at Stonehenge began yesterday, looking for
evidence that the most famous prehistoric monument
in the world was the Lourdes of the bronze
age, where the sick and troubled sought healing
from the supernatural power of bluestones brought
from west Wales.
Although the trench will be only 3.5 metres
long and a metre deep, archaeologists expect
to find the foundation holes of the very first
stone circle, built more than 4,500 years ago
and then altered over centuries. With luck
they will find enough organic material, including
pollen grains, snail shells and fragments of
the antler tools of the builders, using techniques
developed since the last excavations, to allow
them to date the monument accurately.
... There is no longer any dispute about where
the stones came from, only about how they travelled:
Wainwright and Darvill believe they were dragged
across land and carried by boat, and reject
the rival theory that glaciers left them scattered
across Salisbury plain.
... They believe that many bodies excavated
from hundreds of later burial mounds in the
surrounding landscape, including the "Amesbury
Archer" found six years ago, show serious
health problems such as contorted limbs or
spines, supporting their theory.
In Wales, Wainwright said, people were still
seeking cures at the springs near the bluestone
quarry late into the last century. Stonehenge
attracted sufferers who chipped fragments of
the bluestones as healing charms right into
the 19th century.
- Stonehenge and archeoastronomy http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/ritson/quest/henge/
- AboutStonehenge.Info provides Stonehenge information, pictures,
legends, and lore including theories on construction, purposes,
and age for both students and tourists.
http://www.aboutstonehenge.info/
- Aerial View of Stonehenge http://www.sacredsites.com/1st30/stonehen.html
- Dating Stonehenge http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/stoneh/start.htm
- Earth Mysteries -- Stonehenge -- http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMStonehenge.html
- Stone Pages - Travelogue of sites throughout Europe http://www.stonepages.com/
- Stonehenge--pages by Christiaan Stoudt http://www.christiaan.com/stonehenge/info/students
- The Stonehenge organization -- http://www.stonehenge.org.uk/
- Stonehenge Tour Company http://www.stonehengetours.com
- Christiaan Stoudt's Stonehenge website http://www.christiaan.com/stonehenge/
- Sunwheel Project, University of Massachusetts, Amherst --
http://www.umass.edu/sunwheel
- Theories of Gerald Hawkins and Fred Hoyle -- Tiverton Astronomy
Society http://www.tivas.org.uk/stonehenge/stone_ast.html
Hard Copy Articles
- Nov 2000, Sky & Telescope magazine, p. 74, review
of the book The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar
Observatories, by J.L. Heilbron, Harvard University
Press, 1999.
- Oct 2002. An Astronomer Reads Archaeology's
Message,
by Patricia A. Kurtz. Article about archaeoastronomer
Anthony Aveni.
Hard Copy Books
- Walker, Christopher, Astronomy Before the Telescope, St. Martin's Press, 1997.
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