jmm@bonnie.UUCP (Joe Mcghee) (07/09/84)
> I'd just like to point out to those interested that Stonehenge > was old by the time the Celts arrived in the british isles. If I > remember aright, the first stage of Stonehenge was started ~2000 B.C., > the Celts as a culture didn't even emerge on the continent until > c. 800 B.C. and didn't migrate to britain until c. 400 B.C. The dates you site are largely the product of Sir Flinders Petrie who was a very influential archaeologist in the last century. These dates were arrived at entirely without the benefit of carbon-14 dating and reflect the personal prejudices of their author. Sir Flinders theorized, for instance, that metalworking was discovered in the "advanced" civilizations of the middle east, Egypt and Syria, and then spread to the "barbarians" of northern Europe. A recent BBC-produced tv program called "Masters of Metal" revealed that Sir Flinders was really all wet. You can get a transcript of the program as I did by writing to: Odyssey, Box 1000, Boston, MA 02118. It seems that according to the latest evidence metalworking was really invented by the "barbarian" Celts of northern Europe who then traded some of their products to the "civilized" cultures of the middle east. Sir Flinders had it just exactly backwards. Similarly, the dates Sir Flinders worked out placed the Celts on the Atlantic coast at one date and not arriving in Britain (26 miles across the channel) until some 800 years later. Talk about a slow boat to China! In "Stonehenge Decoded" Hawkins asks the question: "Who did build Stonhenge?" and then spends the next four pages going through ancient Celtic tradition. On pages 44 and 45 of the same book Hawkins mentions some artifacts which were found in the "Aubrey holes" at Stonehenge. He says: "By 1964 some 34 of the Aubrey holes had been excavated, and of these, 25 contained cremations of humans. It was a general practice during the Stone Age to deposit useful objects with cremations, and embedded with the bones in the rubble were found long bone pins - for men's as well as women's hair buns?" He correctly inserted a question mark at the end because he was unsure of the answer. But, if he had been an archaeologist and more familiar he might have recognized the long bone pins as clothing fasteners used among the Celts in ancient times. These bone pins eventually evolved into the brooch which is still worn by bagpipers in traditional costume. Recently, an ancient ceremonial axe head was found in Ireland. It was dated to about 9,000 years ago. It was embellished with decorations which are considered uniquely Celtic and almost identical to decorations on the Tara Brooch, an artifact of known provenance in Celtic Ireland. Furthermore, recent findings by Prof. Barry Fell (Prof. emeritus of Harvard) and others show that Celtic people arrived in North America some time around 2000 B.C. They set up dolmens and menhirs (using the same megalithic yard for measurement that was used in Stonehenge and other places in Europe) and even left inscriptions in Ogham in America. For further details consult: America B.C. Barry Fell Saga America Barry Fell The Search for Lost America Salvatore Michael Trento They were then culturally absorbed into American Indian culture. It doesn't seem logical that the Celts would travel a couple of thousand miles to America and bypass the British Isles only 26 miles away. In addition the whole countryside around Stonehenge is covered with stone structures which are characteristically Celtic. Stonehenge itself was a temple to the Celtic deities Bel (the sun) and Danae (the moon). Refer to my previous article "Stonehenge: Cultural Background and John Michell's book, "Secrets of the Stones" for further details. > Trying to interpret Stonehenge is an exercise in futillity. We are > looking at something that was built by a neolithic culture from a > postindustrial, christianized point of view (even if you're an > athiest, western civilization has been inundated by the christian > world view for something like 2000 years, so your thought patterens > are steeped in christian thought). We'll never know for sure what > went on there or what the astronomical alignments ment to the people > who built it. I admit that studying Stonehenge out of a sence of > curiosity is fun, but our conclusions will never be more than > speculation. The translation of Egyptian hieroglyphs was also once considered futile. In fact, what right do we have to try to understand any ancient culture? And yet people still go on doing it. Moreover, how can we ever understand the stars and galaxies which are light-years or parsecs away from us? We can only offer hypotheses, which is what I'm doing, and attempt to prove or disprove these through experimentation. J. M. McGhee bonnie!jmm
steven@qubix.UUCP (Steven Maurer) (07/13/84)
[GR]
Yes I know I am not supposed to say this, since it only
exacerbates the problem but.....
WILL YOU PLEASE KEEP THIS DISCUSSION OFF OF NET.GENERAL?????
The one thing I can't stand is people who post to 7 different
newsgroups when the discussion obviously belongs in only one.
Steven (I will not flame.... I will not flame) Maurer