Found this on Twitter -- not sure whether it is an old sign, or a new one put up in response to all the nonsense in the media about Stonehenge and Brexit........
But the sign does of course have relevance for the debate about the new DNA evidence and other pointers towards a highly disturbed situation in Southern England -- and maybe over a much wider area -- associated with the waves of immigration from the near continent round about the time that Stonehenge was being built. So yes -- it seems quite possible that "foreigners" were partly responsible for the building.
But digging a bit deeper, we then ask other questions too. Could it be that the changes in design -- we might even call it confusion -- which appear to have infected Stonehenge during its stone setting stages may also have something to do with changing cultural priorities and the replacement of older settled groups with newcomers? And could it be that this is also an explanation for the fact that Stonehenge was never finished? This is a topic which I have explored many times on this blog, and which now needs much closer attention from archaeologists than they have been prepared to give it in the past.
The concept of "immaculate Stonehenge" now seems -- in the light of this new debate -- to be more ridiculous than ever.
It now appears vanishingly unlikely that Stonehenge ever did look like this. About half of the supposed stones in this reconstruction or fabrication are missing, and might always have been missing. And all those lovely bluestone pillars are fabrications too, as we now know from examinations of the actual shapes of the stones on, under and in the ground.
No comments:
Post a Comment