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Huge Neolithic structure found near Stonehenge

I think it was a message to the surrounding villages: those guys get a huge monument, YOU get the shaft ;)
 
Surprised it took this long to be discovered;you think the area around Stonhenge would have been pretty througly investigated.
 
dudalb said:
Surprised it took this long to be discovered;you think the area around Stonhenge would have been pretty througly investigated.
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Archaeological technology is advancing all the time. The article in the OP specifically mentions new technology in geophysical prospection, ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry. New tech, new discoveries.
 
So, how long until the 'aliens' card is played?

Its interesting to note just how much free time our so called primitive ancestors had to actually organize and build such things. The whole 'hand to mouth' living usually portrayed for those societies is just so wrong.
 
Lukraak_Sisser said:
So, how long until the 'aliens' card is played?

Its interesting to note just how much free time our so called primitive ancestors had to actually organize and build such things. The whole 'hand to mouth' living usually portrayed for those societies is just so wrong.
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Stonehenge, I believe, is well within the agricultural period.
 
arthwollipot said:
Stonehenge, I believe, is well within the agricultural period.
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I know, but the portrayal of stone age agricultural living, especially outside of the fertile crescent, egypt and parts of china is often shown as small villages or families living a hard and isolated life with little or no time for anything else.
Whereas this implies people who had enough to spare to support architects, builders, maintenance etc.

Given that we know of no major cities in Britain at that time this organization still needed to be coordinated over large distances and many years.
I always find it inspirational to see what humanity can achieve if we put ourselves a common goal, regardless of what tools we have.
 
Lukraak_Sisser said:
So, how long until the 'aliens' card is played?

Its interesting to note just how much free time our so called primitive ancestors had to actually organize and build such things. The whole 'hand to mouth' living usually portrayed for those societies is just so wrong.
Click to expand...

I do understand your point but I think for such works given the time and labour required I suspect the society was arranged around the beliefs behind why they built. So it wasn't really "free time" but what they lived for.
 
Lukraak_Sisser said:
I know, but the portrayal of stone age agricultural living, especially outside of the fertile crescent, egypt and parts of china is often shown as small villages or families living a hard and isolated life with little or no time for anything else.
Whereas this implies people who had enough to spare to support architects, builders, maintenance etc.

Given that we know of no major cities in Britain at that time this organization still needed to be coordinated over large distances and many years.
I always find it inspirational to see what humanity can achieve if we put ourselves a common goal, regardless of what tools we have.
Click to expand...

I agree, it's why I find those jumping to "the aliens did it" really do us all a disservice, we are as a group an ingenious species, give us a stone and we'll soon be carving out metre high and wide stone blocks. As the famous philosopher put it "the secret is to bang the rocks together guys" .
 
dudalb said:
Surprised it took this long to be discovered;you think the area around Stonhenge would have been pretty througly investigated.
Click to expand...

As the article says, the holes, or at least some of them, were known about, but were dismissed as natural formations. It’s only more advanced techniques for geophysical surveying that has yielded more information about them.
 
Lukraak_Sisser said:
I know, but the portrayal of stone age agricultural living, especially outside of the fertile crescent, egypt and parts of china is often shown as small villages or families living a hard and isolated life with little or no time for anything else.
Whereas this implies people who had enough to spare to support architects, builders, maintenance etc.

Given that we know of no major cities in Britain at that time this organization still needed to be coordinated over large distances and many years.
I always find it inspirational to see what humanity can achieve if we put ourselves a common goal, regardless of what tools we have.
Click to expand...
The agricultural period is exactly the time when people were being freed up from constant food gathering, and were able to undertake other tasks.
 
Lukraak_Sisser said:
So, how long until the 'aliens' card is played?

Its interesting to note just how much free time our so called primitive ancestors had to actually organize and build such things. The whole 'hand to mouth' living usually portrayed for those societies is just so wrong.
Click to expand...

Tsk the people who built Stonehenge were too pale for the 'aliens did it' crowd.
 
Well, I suppose it's also that even the most dedicated nutcase would find it hard to argue that digging a hole in the ground needs some amazing alien technology. When it's about carrying and lifting huge stones, I can see how one could be stumped as to how it could be done... if they're stupid enough. But a hole isn't nearly as impressive. Not the least because you don't have to lift its contents in one go, like you would with a stone for the pyramids. If you can get a bucket at a time out, you're all set to make as big a hole as you'd like.
 
HansMustermann said:
Well, I suppose it's also that even the most dedicated nutcase would find it hard to argue that digging a hole in the ground needs some amazing alien technology. When it's about carrying and lifting huge stones, I can see how one could be stumped as to how it could be done... if they're stupid enough. But a hole isn't nearly as impressive. Not the least because you don't have to lift its contents in one go, like you would with a stone for the pyramids. If you can get a bucket at a time out, you're all set to make as big a hole as you'd like.
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I dunno, there's not a little bit written about how moundbuilder cultures were either alien influenced or the result of ancient lost civilizations.
 
Well, I'll grant that to some people just about EVERYTHING from ANY point before they were born must be the work of either gods or aliens. But I don't think they're nearly as mainstream for stuff like digging a hole, as for lifting a big rock.

I mean, it has to have a certain "I don't know how I'd do it" element for a certain kind of lemming to reach for the "god did it" or "aliens did it" explanation. Something you could do yourself with a pickaxe and a shovel if you were bored enough during Corona, I would imagine is not that mysterious for most people.
 
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ShadowSot said:
I dunno, there's not a little bit written about how moundbuilder cultures were either alien influenced or the result of ancient lost civilizations.
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This apparently figured into the fantasizing by Joseph Smith about his pre-Columbian civilization in the Americas.
I have a nifty book called “Fantastic Archeology”, which delves into the many myths surrounding ancient America.

The Mounds mystified folks in the 1800s when they began to wholesale remove them to level land for Oh... St. Louis... The sheer size of the things and the finely-crafted artifacts found in them could not possibly have been produced by the “primitive savages” as Amerindians were viewed at the time.
So, it must have been some people more advanced, smarter.... And whiter.

Candidates included the “lost tribes” of Israel, Romans, and various other folks. So Smith’s fertile imagination seized on these lost white folks to populate his.... Prophecy.

Fairly recent research indicates that the Mississippian culture would have had no trouble moving the amounts of earth necessary using only simple digging tools and baskets.... And lots and lots of labor and time.
 
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