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rickymouse
So, stonehenge may actually be assembled wrong. It was the interpretation of the archeologists that were overseeing the project as to what they thought it should look like. It may have been a different configuration all together as far as we know.
The shape they chose may have been to make it look more of a attraction to tourists to bring money into the country. It's still impressive that the ancient people hauled those stones there and set them up anyway, even if they may be set up wrong.
The oldest known depiction of Stonehenge
Lucas Deheere 1573-75 I myself have drawn them on the spot British Library Add MS 28330, fol 36
1440? Corpus Christi College MS 194, fol 57
"That year Merlin, not by force but by art, brought and erected the giants' round from Ireland, at Stonehenge near Amesbury". 1440 Douai manuscript Scala Mundi
Folio 30r of British Library, Egerton 3028, a manuscript of English chronicles including an abreviated version the Brut by Wace. This illustration shows the construction of Stonehenge with the assistance of Merlin and is the oldest known illustration of Stonehenge. 1338 -40
British Archaeology
The foundation myth appears in the 12th century. Stonehenge, or Stanenges, is first briefly mentioned c1130 in Historia Anglorum, written by the archdeacon of Lincoln, Henry of Huntingdon, at the command of his bishop Alexander of Blois. "Noone can work out", says Henry, "how the stones were so skilfully lifted up to such a height or why they were erected".
Shortly after, around 1136, Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his Historia Regum Britanniae, drawing on a vast range of material, from the Venerable Bede to British and continental legends, to build a history of the British kings from the Trojan Brutus up to the 7th century. The immense success of his much copied text shows the deep interest it rapidly inspired.
The passage concerning Stonehenge has often been described, and is well elaborated in Chippindale's Stonehenge Complete (Thames & Hudson, 3rd ed 2004). The legitimate British king, Aurelius Ambrosius, is in exile in Brittany while his usurper Vortigern allies himself with the invading Saxon king Hengist.
Vortigern and Hengist arrange a peace meeting at the "cloister of Ambrius" (Amesbury), but the Saxons treacherously slay 460 British lords. Aurelius returns, defeats both Vortigern and Hengist, and seeks a memorial to the dead. Merlin recommends the chorea gigantum, a stone monument on the Irish Mount Killaraus. Only his magic, however, can bring the stones to Amesbury, and he reconstructs them exactly as they were in Ireland. The text shows Aurelius's coronation in c480 and the erection of Stonehenge c485. Later Aurelius and his brother Uther Pendragon (father of Arthur) are buried at Stonehenge.
Early sketch of Stonehenge found
The oldest detailed drawing of Stonehenge, found in a 1440 manuscript, the Scala Mundi
They got the date wrong by some 3,000 years, but the oldest detailed drawing of Stonehenge, apparently based on first hand observation, has turned up in a 15th century manuscript.
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.
In the Scala Mundi, the Chronicle of the World, Merlin is given credit for building Stonehenge between 480 and 486, when the Latin text says he "not by force, but by art, brought and erected the giant's ring from Ireland". Modern science suggests that the stones went up from 2,500 BC, with the bluestone outer circle somehow transported from west Wales, and the double decker bus-size sarsen stones dragged 30 miles across Salisbury plain.
The drawing, recently identified by the art historian Christian Heck, has never been exhibited, but according to the Art Newspaper it will be seen next year in an exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, marking the 300th anniversary of the Society of Antiquaries.
There are two earlier images of Stonehenge, one in the British Library and one in the Parker Library in Cambridge, but the Douai drawing is unique in attempting to show how the monument was built.
It correctly shows tenon joints piercing the lintel, a timber construction technique, although in fact the real Stonehenge tenons only go partly into the top stone.
Stonehenge is rare among prehistoric landscapes, because its sheer bulk meant it was never lost. An Anglo Saxon poet wondered about the origin of the stones and inspired some of the earliest photographs.
People have once again been allowed access to the ancient stones of Stonehenge to mark sunrise on the winter solstice - the shortest day of the year. ....
derfreebie
rickymouse
So, stonehenge may actually be assembled wrong. It was the interpretation of the archeologists that were overseeing the project as to what they thought it should look like. It may have been a different configuration all together as far as we know.
The shape they chose may have been to make it look more of a attraction to tourists to bring money into the country. It's still impressive that the ancient people hauled those stones there and set them up anyway, even if they may be set up wrong.
I don't at all know about assembled wrong Ricky. But If I was getting the job of rebuilding a granite astrolabe, the four food groups would keep ME up at night with the details.
Geometry
Astronomy/Astrology
Mathematics
real history (we gotta have some veggies with our meat and potatoes)
Really cool they'd decide to take that on though.edit on 21-12-2013 by derfreebie because: Typocal for a Saturnday morning
geobro
some of the temples in egypt had to be moved so the sun ligned up on the solstice and i remember reading this about stonehenge that it had been shifted back in pre history as the world had moved on its axis in -752 bc .
geobro
in 1750 the sun was well out of alignment someone had taken their eye of the ball so that on the 22-23 24 of december as the christians say the sun of god did not die for 3 days or the sun did not move backwards for 3 days so they added 12 days to the callender look it up british callender act .
geobro
after the jacobite uprising in 1745 english troops devastated just about all stone circles in scotland and their were many just like all the pyramids that vanished in egypt in the 17 th and 18th centuarys .
geobro
i remember reading that they found a skeleton buried under one of the stones with 3 coins on it ?