'Breakthrough' at Stonehenge dig

[TechBear_Seattle]

'Breakthrough' at Stonehenge dig

Archaeologists carrying out an excavation at Stonehenge say they have broken through to a layer that may finally explain why the site was built.

The team has reached sockets that once held bluestones - smaller stones, most now missing or uprooted, which formed the site's original structure.

The researchers believe that the bluestones could reveal that Stonehenge was once a place of healing.

The dig is the first to take place at Stonehenge for more than 40 years.

The team now needs to extract organic material from these holes to date when the stones first arrived.

The full article can be read at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7337292.stm

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Cool. I think the ancients were far wiser than we give them credit for..

[0007]

4. .......and I think this part of society is far dumber and ignorant than

we get credit for.

[BrklynLiberal]

11. I wish I could disagree.....But your words are proven true each and every day.

[Dr. Strange]

2. So maybe we'll finally find out...

just what the Druids were doing!

[electropop]

3. If it was, indeed, the Druids.

I think that dating the site will enable a huge leap in our understanding.

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. Stonehenge predates the Druids by centuries, possibly millenia

The earliest traces of megalithic building at the Stonehenge site date back about 5000 years, to 3100 BCE. The site was progressively built up over the next 1200 years, with the main bluestone blocks going up between 2280 BCE and 1930 BCE. (See Wikipedia entry for Stonehenge.)

The Celtic culture for which the Druids were the priests, judges and lorekeepers did not arise until 1000 BCE, at the earliest. The Celts first appeared in what is now Germany and Switzerland, and spread through much of northern and western Europe. The earliest evidence of Druidic practices and beliefs in the British Isles is around 600 BCE.

[Dr. Strange]

6. That's what I get for learning history from Spinal Tap.

[TechBear_Seattle]

8. There is a Stonehenge / Druid connection, mind you

Druids did use megalithic sites for various rituals, and several groups of neo-Druids hold ceremonies at Stonehenge every year. But they did not themselves build the sites.

[xchrom]

7. very, very cool.

it's amazing how little we know about the early inhabitants of the british isles considering how long history goes back there.

and i love a good mystery like this.

[TechBear_Seattle]

9. Proto-humans inhabited Britain as far back as 700,000 years ago

The Wikipedia has interesting articles on prehistoric Britain and England that you might like. On one of my trips to the UK, a tour-guide put it this way: There is too much history on this island to learn in a dozen generations. Five hundred years from now, archaeologists will still be digging up stuff from the Stone Age or the Roman Occupation and saying, "Wow, I didn't know that!"

[xchrom]

10. indeed -- when i go to ireland or england -

i always try to go to the museums to see what's new on pre-historic discoveries -- and there's so much to learn.

thanks for reporting this stuff.