Who Built The Stones?

[TisILeclerc]

Couldn't they be weights for frame looms or fishing nets etc? The carved ones I mean.

Anyway today's Grauniad has added a new stone circle to the Dartmoor collection.



'The highest stone circle in southern England has been found on a weather-battered slice of moorland in Devon.

Situated 525 metres (1,722ft) above sea level, the ancient site is the first stone circle to be found on Dartmoor for more than a century.

The circle is the second largest on the moor and archaeologists believe it was probably part of a “sacred arc” of circles around the north-eastern edge.

— Archaeological News (@archaeologybuzz)
May 10, 2015

First stone circle for over a century is discovered on Dartmoor - THE first stone circle for more than a... http://t.co/jfly9uGiq6

Its discovery adds weight to the theory that there was some kind of planning and liaison between the communities living on Dartmoor in the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.'

'With a diameter of 34 metres (112ft), the circle consists of 30 recumbent stones, plus one more lying in a gap just outside the circle and now incorporated into an unfinished enclosure wall.

The stones probably came from the nearby Sittaford Tor itself and are of a fairly uniform size, suggesting they were carefully chosen. Packing stones visible around the bases of some of these indicate that they were originally upright.

When upright the circle would have been very impressive, dominating the surrounding landscape and resembling in appearance the Grey Wethers double stone circle, which lies close to Fernworthy forest about half a mile away.'

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015 ... moor#img-1

[Boreades]

Who Lost The Stone?

The famous Ed Stone has disappeared. This New Age Monolith, which was inscribed with Ritual Phrases in praise of NuLab (a deity much worshipped by the poor and needy), has disappeared from its sacred setting in a Hastings Car Park.

Rewards offered for its safe return:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/peopl ... 40756.html

[Boreades]

But TME's collection of henges and stone circles is safe and well, and can be viewed on this CartoDB map:

https://tme.cartodb.com/viz/8d549ea6-2c ... 54a1cb/map

[TisILeclerc]

The Daily Mail has now done an article on the newly found stone circle.



They do seem to get mixed up with centuries and thousands of years. Perhaps they are following another form of decimalisation.

'Radio carbon dating on soil samples suggests the stones were toppled around 4,000 years ago, which means they were erected in the third century BC in the late Neolithic or early Bronze age.'

Unless I'm getting confused.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... henge.html

[Boreades]

Translating from the Klingon Guide to Ancient Earth:

What is this Daily Mail you speak of?
On what authority do they speak?
Do they not know that TME already has more than that catalogued?

[TisILeclerc]

An article on the BBC site tells us that an investigation is going to be done on the Hemlock Stone to determine whether it is manmade or natural.

The article also mentions another two stones in Nottinghamshire the Druid Stone and Bob's Rock which are also being investigated as part of the Three Stones Project.

The latest work at the ancient site is part of the Three Stones Project, which has been assisted by the University of Nottingham's Geospatial Institute.

Lukasz Bonenberg, a senior experimental officer with the group, said there was much "doubt" about the nature of the Hemlock Stone.

He said he and his colleagues were trying ascertain whether the 8.5m (28ft) high structure was made by human hands or was caused by water erosion.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-no ... e-34638371

[Mick Harper]

At last! Keep us appraised on this vital topic. It will be fascinating to see what these dudes will do when they realise nobody has worked out how you do it and they're all on their ownsome. Because of course this is classic 'careful ignoral' territory. Geologists might overtopple archaeological paradigms if we could indeed distinguish artificial from natural so either archaeologists will give them duff information or the geologists will be comprehensively rubbished.

Oh dear, I feel sorry for the saps already. They have no idea the lion's den they are entering.

[TisILeclerc]

And the elephant in the room today goes to the Daily Mail. Why not?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/trave ... phant.html

Those pesky Icelanders and their long winters with nothing to do.

[hvered]

Just checked the Hemlock Stone on the Megalithic Portal which describes it as a 'rock outcrop' and that's it apart from a rather nice photo. It looks like there's a bank with the 'outcrop' on a platform of some kind.




The caption simply says

The natural outcrop known as the Hemlock Stone can be seen from the nearby road.

The Portal describes a nearby menhir, the Crow Hill Standing Stone, as 'an extension' of the Hemlock Stone 'parkland'. The menhir is recognised as a bona fide megalithic artefact, and it's half a mile away in a markedly parallel location i.e. a hill overlooking a crossroads.

[Mick Harper]

I am reading Celtic Saints of Wales by Elizabeth Rees. Although she is religious and thinks Celtic saints are religious, her book promises to be an inadvertent goldmine for us. This is her pic of "a well" next to St Govan's church/ hermitage/ whatever



Apart from the weirdness of siting a well a few feet from the sea the chief interest here is the sea-arch in the background. Since these are meant to be both natural and rare, it follows that ol' St Govan must have chosen to pitch his retreat right next to a sea-arch. This is pretty bizarre in itself. But of course our own assumption, that sea-arches are man-made and courtesy of the same outfit that gave us Celtic saints, is supported big-time by this pic.