Archaeologica.org

By any standards, it was a wild party: piles of half-eaten pig bones were flung to the floor by revellers who then smashed their food bowls into a "filthy" mud floor.

Add to that the fact that this bash took place 4,600 years ago, less than two miles from Stonehenge, and the result is a dramatic step forward in the quest to trace the origins - and purpose - of the world's most famous standing stones.

Archaeologists have revealed the discovery of a huge ancient settlement in Wiltshire used by the builders of Stonehenge and their descendants to celebrate life and death with lavish feasts of freshly slaughtered livestock.

By any standards, it was a wild party: piles of half-eaten pig bones were flung to the floor

Minimalist wrote:

By any standards, it was a wild party: piles of half-eaten pig bones were flung to the floor

Obviously not done by any of the 'Lost Tribes', then.

Scholars and other archaeologists not involved with the project reserved judgment on the ramifications of the findings. But Parker Pearson and Thomas emphasized the importance of the Durrington roadway in understanding the two sites' intimate connection.

They said the road was paved with flint and led straight from the Durrington enclosure to the Avon. A similar road at Stonehenge, discovered in the 18th century, is aligned with the summer solstice sunrise, the archaeologists noted, while the one at Durrington lines up with the summer solstice sunset.

Similarly, the Durrington timber circle was aligned with winter solstice sunrise, while a giant stone monument at Stonehenge frames the winter solstice sunset.

Venturing into the bumpy field of Stonehenge interpretation, Parker Pearson suggested that the durable stones of the better-known site were a memorial and final resting place for the dead, and the wood architecture at Durrington Walls symbolized the transience of life.

People from all over the region, he said, probably went there to celebrate life and deposit the dead in the river for transport to the afterlife.

Medieval representations of Stonehenge are extremely rare. For generations we have known of only two, dateable to the earlier 14th century. Further views do not appear until the second half of the 16th century, after a complete break in both the spirit and form of imagery. I can now describe, for the first time to the English-speaking world, a newlydiscovered medieval drawing of Stonehenge created in the 1440s. This drawing has a literary association that is identical to one of the 14th century illustrations, and extends the medieval iconography of the site while remaining firmly attached to mythical history. It is also the first known design to represent Stonehenge not just as a symbolic image, but with precise observations on its form and construction techniques. It bridges perfectly the worlds of medieval myth and Renaissance observation. The discovery provides an opportunity to reconsider the two previously known drawings. First, however, we will look at the new manuscript.

Beagle wrote:http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story ... 48,00.html

The little sketch is a bird's eye view of the stones, and shows the great trilithons, the biggest stones in the monument, each made of two pillars capped with a third stone lintel, which stand in a horseshoe in the centre of the circle. Only three are now standing, but the drawing, found in Douai, northern France, suggests that in the 15th century four of the original five survived.

From The Daily Grail.

This is the original post in this thread.

An interesting discussion followed about the drawing being a fake

and beware of amateur linguists

A MISSING stone which could be an integral part of rituals at Stonehenge may have been discovered by a Welsh archaeologist.

Dennis Price, pictured below, who has done years of research on the mysterious stone structure, believes he has tracked down a previously lost altar stone, identified during one of the first studies of the site in the 17th century.

AN archaeological expert has claimed that two innocuous-looking stones at the side of a road in Berwick St James could hold clues to the secrets of Stonehenge.

Dennis Price, who is a renowned expert on the site and used to work with Wessex Archaeology, believes the two large stones standing at the side of a lane next to the B3083 could be parts of Stonehenge's mysterious altar stone.

The altar stone, which is believed to be the centrepiece of rituals carried out at Stonehenge, was first discovered in 1620 by the prominent architect, Inigo Jones, when he undertook the first ever investigation into the site.

The amazing find unveiled in the past 24hrs at Durrington is of a settlement thought to have housed the builders of the monument, and was an important ceremonial site in its own right, hosting feasts and celebrations.

Excavations also offer new evidence that a timber circle and a vast earthwork where the village once stood were linked to Stonehengevia road, river, and ritual.
Together, the sites were part of a much larger religious complex, the archaeologists suggest.
Excavations revealed the remains of eight wooden buildings. Surveys of the landscape have identified up to 30 more dwellings, the site's chief archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson said, but it is possible that hundreds more houses could be uncovered

a degree of complexity ill at odds with the myth of lux orientalis the myth perpetrated throughout the past 300 years that all civilisations and all civilizing influences arose from the East.

Beagle wrote:However, I remember that the grave of one fellow, dubbed the "king" of Stonehenge was determined to be from the Alps, or somewhere in there.