Stonehenge was first 'team building exercise'

[Still Waters]

Stonehenge may have been the result of the world's first team-building exercise which unified the people of ancient Britain, according to researchers.

The vast stone structure has long been the subject of the debate among historians, who have variously described it as a pagan temple, or an astronomical calendar or observatory.

Now experts claim the monument was built as part of an annual winter solstice ritual which resembled "Glastonbury festival and a motorway building scheme at the same time".

http://www.telegraph...g-exercise.html

[Taun]

Interesting read but I don't think it was the first 'team building exercise"... Newgrange is older (about 1,000 years) even about 600 years older than the Great Pyramid... And there are other sites older than Newgrange, like Gobekli Tepi (sp)...

[Coffey]

These "experts" seem wrong and it's pretty obvious.... lol

Edited March 9, 2013 by Coffey

[shrooma]

stonehenge was one of the last megalithic monuments constructed in britain, and was neiher the largest, or most complex, so it wouldn't really have taken the whole country's effort to build. and the figure of 'a few tens of thousands' REALLY needs to be looked at again, as the present structure, stage IIIc, was constructed during the middle bronze age, when the population was well over a million. it also fails to take into account the fact that the stonehenge site first started to be built around 8000bc, by people who were very far removed from the people who built the last stages, 6000yrs later.

it is interesting to note, however, that people are still trying to dream up new theories and explanations for the site, which shows how fondly and deeply it's ingrained in our national consiousness!

[marcos anthony toledo]

Always coming up with some theory to shore up their civilization is ten thousand years old pathetic.

[shrooma]

Always coming up with some theory to shore up their civilization is ten thousand years old pathetic.

.

''every generation gets the stonehenge it deserves, or desires''

-jacquetta hawkes-

antiquity magazine #41.

1967.

Edited March 9, 2013 by shrooma

[shrooma]

Always coming up with some theory to shore up their civilization

.

huh??

[spayneuter]

I've visited Stonehenge. It has a really eerie feeling about the place. Sort of electric. Right now I think it was a spiritual place that turned into a gathering place for trade. Sort of like an old fashioned country fair. I'm going to watch Secrets Of Stonehenge and probably change my mind.

[shrooma]

I've visited Stonehenge. It has a really eerie feeling about the place. Sort of electric. Right now I think it was a spiritual place that turned into a gathering place for trade. Sort of like an old fashioned country fair. I'm going to watch Secrets Of Stonehenge and probably change my mind.

.

trust me, you have to be there for the summer solstice festival to really get a feel for the place.

there's NOTHING like thousands of people celebrating the joy of life to put things in perspective.

.

(and for all you naysayers who've never been, but watch documentarys, ask yourselves why english heritage only open stonehenge on the dawn of the winter solstice, not on the sunset of the night before, when it's properly aligned.....)

Edited March 10, 2013 by shrooma

[Timothy]

Haha. Nothing more than a completely rational explanation as always...

[Sundew]

I've visited Stonehenge. It has a really eerie feeling about the place. Sort of electric. Right now I think it was a spiritual place that turned into a gathering place for trade. Sort of like an old fashioned country fair. I'm going to watch Secrets Of Stonehenge and probably change my mind.

Been there three times myself, that eerie feeling I felt was my fingers and toes going numb from the nasty, rainy, cold and windy weather on that exposed plain!

[shrooma]

Been there three times myself, that eerie feeling I felt was my fingers and toes going numb from the nasty, rainy, cold and windy weather on that exposed plain!

.

my mam & dad were (still are!) a couple of hippies, heavily into the 60-70s festival scene, so I was more or less raised in the field opposite stonehenge, and have loads of great memories of the place. dave brock babysitting for me, penny rimbaud nicking my tent (the ba**ard!!), the hundreds of people i've met, and still continue to meet, and not once, ever, has anyone ever said '**** me, i'm bloody freezing!' (even at the winter solstice)

so for you to have been just three times, and got hypothermia each time, then I wouldn't be wasting money on a lottery ticket man, if you know what I mean!

:-D

[kwin]

Are you kidding me? The first, seriously? The only group effort I'd like to see, is the one that takes DNA, archaeological evidence and artefacts collected world wide, to build the timeline of our ancestry with no dated religous influence so that we can finally begin to organize our history!

[zigzom]

I have never been to Stonehenge but I have seen it from a perspective that I think everyone else has missed. When you look at the landscape surrounding Stonehenge via Google Earth you will notice the outline of an image. I have verified this image against aerial photos also. I am not making any claims or any theories about the origins or purpose of Stonehenge but I do think this should be looked at closer by some researchers. This is the direct link to the page on my site that shows what I am saying.

https://sites.google.com/site/myredpillperspective/videos/home/ancient-sites/ancient-sites

[Eldorado]

'Team building exercise' makes me think of Health & Safety Officers etc which spoils the romantic notion I have of ancient peoples happily building a monument, singing while they work. I do hope they are wrong.

[TheLastLazyGun]

I read about this ancient ritual which seemed to have taken place at and near Stonehenge in the book "A History of Ancient Britain" by Neil Oliver and the documentary I watched last night about the skeletons discovered at Stonehenge.

It seems that before the Stonehenge we see today was built, it comprised of a circle of many wooden posts and, if I remember rightly, each of these contained the body of a person of high status. It seems as though it was a burial place of important people of Ancient Britain, a bit like Westminster Abbey is today in Modern Britain.

Then, at around 3000 or so BC, the Stonehenge we recognise today started to be built. Around three miles from Stonehenge archaeologists have discovered the remains of huge feasts. The discarded bones of pigs and other animals that were eaten by people have been found. Pigs are born in spring, so clever archaeologists have looked at the age of these pig bones and found that they were killed and eaten at winter. They also discovered from studying the chemical composition of the human skeletons found at and near Stonehenge that people came from all over Britain to partake in these winter feasts. Some came from the far north of Scotland, like Orkney, which is a fair distance to travel today (about 700 miles, I think, from Orkney to Wiltshire) never find in 2000-odd BC. So archaeologists believe that as many as 5000 people came from all over Britain each winter solstice - when Britain had a population of just tens of thousands - to meet each other and partake in celebratory feasts and drinking. Archaeologists have found that some of the more greedy Neolithic revellers ate whole pig ribs, which were then just tossed aside and discarded. They also brought with them the dead of their nobility. They then walked in a long procession carrying their dead along the huge straight but natural avenue that leads from the feasting site to Stonehenge and there, at around the time that the midwinter setting sun shone straight through the middle of Stonehenge, they buried their dead. The midwinter setting sun was very important in British Neolithic people's religion.

But why was Stonehenge built where it is? Archaeolgists believe that the incredibly straight but natural avenue that leads to it is a remnant of the last Ice Age, and they believe that Neolithic Britons were in awe of its straightness and believed it was some sort of sign from their gods. So they built a cemetery there to bury their important people.

Funnily, though, many people today think that Stonehenge was built to celebrate the RISING sun on SUMMER solstice because the rising summer solstice sun also shines straight through the centre of it, hence the revellers which go there to see the sun rise on June 21st each year. When, in actual fact, it's believed by experts to have celebrated the SETTING of the sun on WINTER solstice, December 21st.

Edited March 12, 2013 by TheLastLazyGun