You’re a prehistoric builder. You look at these magnificent rocks used to build Stonehenge and you think “You know what would be even cooler? If we moved them a few hundred miles away”. While we can’t say exactly what went through the mind of these ancient builders, but modern research has revealed convincing evidence that parts of Stonehenge were constructed using rocks dragged from a different monument in modern day Wales.
Researchers believe some stones used at Stonehenge, near Salisbury in southwest England, were used in an earlier monument 175 miles (280 kilometres) away in southwest Wales. Image credits: Parker Pearson.
New discovery reveals clues to Stonehenge s origins
Stonehenge may be a rebuilt Welsh stone circle UP NEXT For thousands of years, Stonehenge has stood on the downlands of what is now southern England. With its origins and purpose shrouded in mystery, the massive prehistoric monument has long captivated the imagination of mankind. In his 12th century book The History of the Kings of Britain, Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote that Merlin, the wizard prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur, was enlisted to lead an army to Ireland and transport a ring of gigantic mystical stones, called the Giants Dance, to what is commonly believed to be Salisbury Plain, a chalk plateau in the English county of Wiltshire where Stonehenge is located.
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Jan. 28, 2021
People love to eat turtles and tortoises, and always have – an appetite that has helped reduce Mediterranean sea turtles to desperate straits. Now an article by Canan Çakrlar from the University of Groningen and colleagues, published in the journal of Antiquity, reports proof of sea turtle consumption going back around 10,000 years in East Mediterranean coastal communities, but not earlier. Which seems strange.
The coastal prehistoric peoples of the Paleolithic ate pretty much everything else that moved in the sea. Other studies have found consumption of testudinidae, the greater family of turtles and tortoises, going back more than a million years. Hominins and humans alike supped on roast tortoise, so one has to wonder why Mediterranean sea turtles – of which there are three tasty species – were relatively spared until the Neolithic.
The Historical Significance of Shiskinoow, the “Sapling Fort”
The Tlingit clans built Shiskinoow (also spelled Shís’gi Noow and translated to the “sapling fort”) to bolster their defenses against the Russian army . An
Antiquity press release for the new paper explains the story behind the creation of this culturally significant Alaskan fort:
“In 1799, Russia sent a small army to take over Alaska in order to develop the fur trade, but the Tlingit successfully expelled them in 1802. Expecting the Russians to return, the Tlingit built a wooden fort over two years – the trapezoidal-shaped Shiskinoow. The Tlingit armed it with guns, cannons and gunpowder obtained from British American traders.”
Heat Maps Tracking Death Practices in Early Medieval Europe
The Cambridge University archaeologist examined over 33,000 graves from 237 cemeteries across early Medieval Western Europe and found that there was a widespread, contemporaneous change in burial practices across the region between the 6th – 8th centuries.
Medieval burial. (
/Adobe Stock)
Funerary practices suddenly changed from burying people with regionally specific grave goods to laying a person to rest in a standardized, unfurnished burial . Dr. Brownlee said that “Almost everyone from the eighth century onwards is buried very simply in a plain grave, with no accompanying objects, and this is a change that has been observed right across western Europe.”