Stonehenge a European pilgrimage center?

[Rokcet Scientist]

It looks like Stonehenge attracted visitors – pilgrims? – far and wide. Like it was a predecessor of Lourdes, and Santiago de Compostella, today:

Stonehenge boy 'was from the Med'


Burial of Bronze Age male teenager from Boscombe Down. The boy was buried with around 90 amber beads

Chemical tests on teeth from an ancient burial near Stonehenge indicate that the person in the grave grew up around the Mediterranean Sea.

The bones belong to a teenager who died 3,550 years ago and was buried with a distinctive amber necklace. The position of his burial, the fact he's near Stonehenge, and the necklace all suggest he's of significant status”

The conclusions come from analysis of different forms of the elements oxygen and strontium in his tooth enamel.

Analysis on a previous skeleton found near Stonehenge showed that that person was also a migrant to the area.

The findings will be discussed at a science symposium in London to mark the 175th anniversary of the British Geological Survey (BGS).

The "Boy with the Amber Necklace", as he is known to archaeologists, was found in 2005, about 5km south-east of Stonehenge on Boscombe Down.

The remains of the teenager were discovered next to a Bronze Age burial mound, during roadworks for military housing.

"He's around 14 or 15 years old and he's buried with this beautiful necklace," said Professor Jane Evans, head of archaeological science for the BGS.

"The position of his burial, the fact he's near Stonehenge, and the necklace all suggest he's of significant status."

Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick, of Wessex Archaeology, backed this interpretation: "Amber necklaces are not common finds," he told BBC News.

"Most archaeologists would say that when you find burials like this... people who can get these rare and exotic materials are people of some importance."
Chemical record

Professor Evans likened Stonehenge in the Bronze Age to Westminster Abbey today - a place where the "great and the good" were buried.

Tooth enamel forms in a child's first few years, so it stores a chemical record of the environment in which the individual grew up.


The amber to make the beads almost certainly came from the Baltic Sea

Two chemical elements found in enamel - oxygen and strontium - exist in different forms, or isotopes. The ratios of these isotopes found in enamel are particularly informative to archaeologists.

Most oxygen in teeth and bone comes from drinking water - which is itself derived from rain or snow.

In warm climates, drinking water contains a higher ratio of heavy oxygen (O-18) to light oxygen (O-16) than in cold climates. So comparing the oxygen isotope ratio in teeth with that of drinking water from different regions can provide information about the climate in which a person was raised.

Most rocks carry a small amount of the element strontium (Sr), and the ratio of strontium 87 and strontium 86 isotopes varies according to local geology.

The isotope ratio of strontium in a person's teeth can provide information on the geological setting where that individual lived in childhood.

By combining the techniques, archaeologists can gather data pointing to regions where a person may have been raised.

Tests carried out several years ago on another burial known as the "Amesbury Archer" show that he was raised in a colder climate than that found in Britain.

Analysis of the strontium and oxygen isotopes in his teeth showed that his most likely childhood origin was in the Alpine foothills of Germany.


People were visiting Stonehenge from afar during the Bronze Age

"Isotope analysis of tooth enamel from both these people shows that the two individuals provide a contrast in origin, which highlights the diversity of people who came to Stonehenge from across Europe," said Professor Evans.

The Amesbury Archer was discovered around 5km from Stonehenge. His is a rich Copper Age or early Bronze Age burial, and contains some of the earliest gold and copper objects found in Britain. He lived about 4,300 years ago, some 800 years earlier than the Boscombe Down boy.

The archer arrived at a time when metallurgy was becoming established in Britain; he was a metal worker, which meant he possessed rare skills.

"We see the beginning of the Bronze Age as a period of great mobility across Europe. People, ideas, objects are all moving very fast for a century or two," said Dr Fitzpatrick.

"At the time when the boy with the amber necklace was buried, there are really no new technologies coming in [to Britain]... We need to turn to look at why groups of people - because this is a youngster - are making long journeys."

He speculated: "They may be travelling within family groups... They may be coming to visit Stonehenge because it was an incredibly famous and important place, as it is today. But we don't know the answer."

Other people who visited Stonehenge from afar were the Boscombe Bowmen, individuals from a collective Bronze Age grave. Isotope analysis suggests these people could have come from Wales or Brittany, if not further afield.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11421593

[kbs2244]

It seems to be a pretty good collection of evidence to support the idea.

[Rokcet Scientist]

It seems to be a pretty good collection of evidence to support the idea.

Which again underscores the idea that the Stonehenge area was a place of worship. A place with strong religious (or druïdal, or shamanic; call it what you will) connotations. Why? Why there? Technically speaking the complex could have been built at any of a thousand other locations in Britain. But it wasn't. So why specifically there? Did God appear before them there? Or did the Nephilim/Annunaki land there in their UFOs? (Easy to confuse). Were the Gods cosmonauts after all? And is Stonehenge simply one waypoint, and landing site, on their Earth exploring travels? A navigational marker for a planetary landing strip, embellished by flabbergasted stone age man?

[Digit]

Or the local big wig won the building contract?

Roy.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Or the local big wig won the building contract?

Then where is his villa?

[Digit]

Where is anybody's from that period?

Roy.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Where is anybody's from that period?

Under your feet, Roy. Silly question on an archaeology board...

[Digit]

Or non existant.

Roy.

[Tiompan]

Where is anybody's from that period?

Roy.

There are some pretty impressive Neolithic "Halls " in Scotland Claish , Warren Fields , Lockerbie and Balbridie measuring 25 m x 9 they were fairly sizeable but true , real housing from the period is extremely rare outwith Ireland ,although in the Stonehenge area there were the huts from Durrington .

George

[Digit]

Huts, yes, but little of that period that would approach my understanding of a 'villa.'
Let's be honest, we really have no idea why SH was built, lots of theories, some valid, some hilarious, but the choice of site is something we might be able to comment on.

Roy.

[Tiompan]

Huts, yes, but little of that period that would approach my understanding of a 'villa.'

Roy.

Except for the aforementioned halls , at least for size and they do predate villas by about 4 millenia .

George

[Rokcet Scientist]

It doesn't necessarily have to be a vìlla-villa! But if SH was some bigwig's big project I would expect references to the great visionary leader to be scattered and plastered all over the place. Like the Maya, the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians did on their temples, pyramids, and ziggurats. Yet they aren't. Afaik at SH there are no inscriptions or petroglyphs or anything really that refers to humans at all. And no pitchers of Anunaki either...

[Digit]

You won't find many dedications to the financiers in our churches either, God knew who coughed up the cash!

Roy.

[Rokcet Scientist]

You won't find many dedications to the financiers in our churches either

Then either you haven't looked or you don't know how and where to look, because if you do a round of minsters and cathedrals, accompanied by any art historian, you'll find they are riddled with references to their founders. Many people 'lose' them in the clutter of dozens of saints and churchfathers that are also worshipped, but they are there! Right between the saints and bishops. It was simply the grafitti of the time.

Outside, above the great entrance/front door is a good place to look for them. Or just inside the great entrance, in a prominent place of honor. Or in/above the choir, at the back. Those kinds of places. Many of those guys, hundreds, were later declared 'holy', a 'saint'. And then they even got their own side chapels! In their 'own' churches! So they could be worshipped* and prayed* to, in their 'own' churches!

So where are the references to 'your' SH-BigWig-that-got-the-contract? I see none, while they should be extremely obvious/prominent if there were any.

*with blatant disregard of the Second, Third, and Fourth Commandments of that same church...
So we see what a big joke that is!
Sainthood isn't even a protected title. The Vatican has no idea how many saints there really are, because they have 'incomplete records'. Well, that opens possibilities! Because it means we're all free to invent our own saints. HA!
Just remember to make 'm about between 600 and 1700 years old and there's no way the Vatican can disprove your claim. Because it's one big mess in those supposedly 1700 years old archives.

So you can be an unregistered saint, for some inexplicable reason worthy of my deferment, while you can't be an unlicensed, unregistered professional dog-walker...



It's the reason Scientology call themselves a church too. A church can legally make you 'donate' your entire fortune without a license. An ice cream vendor needs a license to make you legally part with a couple bucks.

And the bloke who has actually been running that con since L. Ron Hubbard proved mortal after all is one 'David Miscavige' (http://www.whoisdavidmiscavige.com/). The heir to that crime syndicate. He's the big mogul sitting on alll that money, and spending it, no doubt.
I think he deserves some more attention. Let's see him cringe in the publicity limelight as befitting the responsibilities of the head-honcho of an important 'church'.
One thing I wanna know for instance is: where is this guy's Caribean hideaway property, crewed by a bevy of nubile females?

[Tiompan]

It doesn't necessarily have to be a vìlla-villa! But if SH was some bigwig's big project I would expect references to the great visionary leader to be scattered and plastered all over the place. Like the Maya, the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians did on their temples, pyramids, and ziggurats. Yet they aren't. Afaik at SH there are no inscriptions or petroglyphs or anything really that refers to humans at all. And no pitchers of Anunaki either...

Most of the monument types you mention were planned . The finished monument at Stonehenge was built and rebuilt over a period of at least a millenium .There are some engravings , daggers ,dating from the late bronze Age iirc , not typical ,rock art in the south is very rare and daggers are not a common motif in the UK.

George