Time Team

marduk · Post by **marduk** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:04 pm

do a google on "King of Stonehenge" or "Amesbury Archer"
heres three thinsg that are important about him

1) he was a swiss immigrant
2) he was rich and carried his money on his person
3) someone kneecapped him the second he stepped off the boat

King of naievety maybe

stan · Post by **stan** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 1:15 pm

Marduk,

Have you ever heard that this fellow was the reason for building stonehenge?

They said his face glittered with gold. His skeleton had gold jewelry.

If he was just the prey of robbers, why did they bury him with all that gold?

marduk · Post by **marduk** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 6:12 pm

Have you ever heard that this fellow was the reason for building stonehenge?

no never. iirc his burial actually postdates its construction by quite a margin
and there are lots of henges older than stonehenge all over the british isles

They said his face glittered with gold. His skeleton had gold jewelry.

very little as far as I remember
the fact that he had any at all was significant as there was no local branch of ratners in those days

If he was just the prey of robbers, why did they bury him with all that gold?

well its like this
he was kneecapped and robbed when he stepped off the boat at dover
it then took him several months to crawl to where he was found in Amesbury and he found a few pieces of jewellry that other people had dropped along his way because he had his face very close to the ground

what
its possible
see in those days it was very hard to distinguish between the swiss and the french and you know us english really hate the french
nazi loving surrender onions the lot of them

you know Stan i already gave you the exact two titles he was known as to do a search for
these sort of questions have already been answered
asking me for answers on this subject is about as ridiculous as the claims that he was the king of stonehenge so excuse me if you detect a little humour in my answers
see
he wasn't a king
and he wasn't found at stonehenge
bit like scotland yard really
so called because its not a yard and its not in scotland

stan · Post by **stan** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 7:16 pm

OK, its funny!

I thought the claim was outrageous, and I wondered if anyone else noticed it.

Starflower · Post by **Starflower** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 7:23 pm

Outrageous? Oh Yeah! But, this is a really good read anyway.

http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/am ... ction.html

stan · Post by **stan** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 7:42 pm

Thanks, starflower...that's it!

The Archer is important because he is the first example of a powerful elite who may well have organised the erection of Stonehenge.

Did the building of stonehenge require a powerful elite?
If this guy was the king of stonehenge, why didn't they bury him in it or nearer to it?
It sounds like someone is trying to elevate this person to the status of the king of a civilization like Sumer, Egypt, etc.

BUt this was still a tribal culture in Britain, wasn't it? Are tribal chieftains properly referred to as "elites"? Where are the cities? Where is this person's palace?

Marduk, the archaeologists have apparently dated his life about the same time as the erection of the large stones at stonehenge.

Back on earlier threads, we talked about this, and ..based on my reading of Seahenge, the henges were special places for annual ceremonial meetings which were elaborated and developed over long periods of time. Various tribal populations met there at the solstice or whenever and as a group developed the sites.