Ancient and ArchaeologyΒ permalink
Better than Stonehenge
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Message 1.Β
Posted by fascinating (U1944795) on Tuesday, 4th January 2011
Stonehenge is impressive, but I was wondering if there were any other ancient remains, from on or before the same period, in Western Europe. I was amazed to discover that these ruins of a neolithic temple at Hagar Qim, Malta, larger and more complete (and earlier) than Stonehenge. See
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Message 2
Posted by raundsgirl (U2992430) on Tuesday, 4th January 2011
Stonehenge is only one part of a vast sacred landscape which includes Avebury, or at least it would be if it hadn't been vandalised by English Heritage aided and abetted by various government bodies who have chopped it up into little bits with roads and further desecrated it in other ways.
Have a look at Orkney (
Skara Brae is older than the pyramids. Maes Howe chamber tomb has graffiti left by Vikings (it was then part of Norway) and an entrance tunnel along which the sun shines at the Winter Solstice. I could go on, but I won't. Go there, and if you can't, just enjoy looking at the site I've posted a link to. -
Message 3
Posted by giraffe47 (U4048491) on Wednesday, 5th January 2011
see also Newgrange, in Ireland >
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Message 4
Posted by fascinating (U1944795) on Wednesday, 5th January 2011
Sorry, Skara Brae (remains of 10 houses) and Newgrange (burial mound) are not as impressive as Hagar Qim, which is a complex of buildings with much of the massive stonework, including door lintels, still in place.
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Message 5
Posted by raundsgirl (U2992430) on Wednesday, 5th January 2011
I didn't realise we were meant to be comparing the relative impressiveness of different sites as your OP says: "Stonehenge is impressive, but I was wondering if there were any other ancient remains, from on or before the same period, in Western Europe."
There are, and I have mentioned some. Skara Brae can hardly be compared (to Hagar Qim) as it is a settlement, not a temple. It's unique quality is that there are few Neolithic dwellings as complete elsewhere. There may be only 10 houses visible but other Neolithic remains are being discovered on Orkney. In some ways the whole island of Mainland can be counted as it is so rich in ancient sites, and there are more on some of the other islands.
Surely ALL these places are impressive because of their sheer antiquity and the glimpse they give us into the distant past in all its variety. -
Message 6
Posted by somewhatsilly (U14315357) on Wednesday, 5th January 2011
Like you, raundsgirl, I wasn't sure what qualified as 'impressive', after all, size isn't everything! I'd also agree with you about Orkney. As a prehistoric landscape replete with examples of structures from so many eras and of such varying functions, it takes some beating although I'd tend to go for the area around lochs Harray and Stenness for the concentration of monuments; the chambered tombs, circles, stones, settlements, as well as the really exciting new stuff coming up at at Ness of Brodgar. Skara Brae is a bit too disneyfied these days for my taste. My next objective is to get to Westray and Papa Westray.
It's the combination of remains and landscape that really does it for me so I also love the Kilmartin valley and the linear cemetery. But that's from the viewpoint of just wandering around and looking, when you have the opportunity to get into the dirt, then every little bit of flint or pottery from wherever you are is mighty impressive! -
Message 7
Posted by Wyldeboar (U11225571) on Thursday, 6th January 2011
Hundreds if not thousands. Have a gander at............
www.themodernantiquarian.com
Callanish on The Isle of Lewis is my personal fave, but I am incredibly biased
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Message 8
Posted by beethovenspiano (U5093596) on Sunday, 9th January 2011
In its time I think Avebury would have been the most astonishing site. It still is today, i think so anyway hehe
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Message 9
Posted by fascinating (U1944795) on Sunday, 9th January 2011
I wanted to bring to attention other, less well known, neolithic works, on the scale of Stonehenge.
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Message 10
Posted by Herewordless (U14549396) on Monday, 10th January 2011
Maybe my memory is fading with age (likely, lol) but I once watched a documentary which stated that in the 1920's the huge stones were uprooted, moved and turned around, so the layout is not how they were originally stood?
Is this true? I know that a devoted wealthy amateur 'archaeologist' in the 1920's and 30's did alot of work at Avebury. -
Message 11
Posted by juliaainscow100 (U14762897) on Monday, 24th January 2011
There are Neolithic remains spread out over Britain, however not all have the grandeur, mystery and not all are henge type as Stonehenge is. Windmill hill for example is magnificent-the earthworks are simply breathtaking.
As well as that, there are plenty of burial chambers and a few cursus monuments to see from the period.
I believe however, the greatest monument in this country is a little later; Hadrians Wall and the Vindolanda site near Durham. -
Message 12
Posted by TheodericAur (U14260004) on Monday, 24th January 2011
Hi fascinating
Altyough I love both Avebury and Stonehenge one of my favourite monuments from this time is Arthur's Stone on the Gower a neolithic tomb that has attracted people for millenia...it probably is the setting high above Carmarthen Bay...
Kind Regards - TA -
Message 13
Posted by TheodericAur (U14260004) on Monday, 24th January 2011
Hi Man Alive
It was Alexander Keiller who actually restored the circle to something of its former glory after it had been systematically destroyed with the Church's connivance in the 1720s by the locals.
In the 1920s the stones were in between houses and just part of the village. These homes were knocked down and the stones re-erected with most of the local villagers being moved to Avebury Trusloe just up the hill about half a mile away.
This left the site much as it is today but whhether he managed to restore the site that accurately it is hard to know.
There are at least 15 stones still buried that are known and current day archeologists know where these are supposed to go but many were broken up 3 centuries ago.
However it is still a fine monument especially when you see the avenue strewn with buttercups in the summer.
Kind Regards - TA -
Message 14
Posted by Prof Muster (U14387921) on Friday, 28th January 2011
Since the city of El-Amarna( Achet-Aton.)and recently the 150 burialchamber complex of Rameses-2 and his Temple of Abu-Simble was reconstructed with talatat's from various world museums, using -absent-original materials (1965.)
a Computer's 3D Programms can reconstruct Avebury's & Stonehenge as Scale-models, it shouldn't be a hard problem, for technical Universities, to devellope a reconstruction Project in re-erecting them with Plasticskin columns at any adjacent field.
In my asumption, they were Moon not solar observatories
and the only times that the Moon was dangerous close enough to threaten Earth with a oval-orbit thus collision prone orbit, was in the historical years of 1055 and 855 bc. to award an observatory to track the Moon.
afterwards it may have been changed into a Solarsolstice marker aswell.
My suggestion is thus that there are no older traces of it's first building than 1055 bc, if there are older burials than the Stonehenge was intrusive itself.
The Quarternary Lake Burst is dated by paleo-geologists at 8.000 bc.
But the case seems to be that when the Egyptians had their 18th-King-Dynasty already, the whole of Europe still lived( peacefully ?) still in the ( Paleolythical ?)Magdalean-Epoch which than must be updated to 855 bc,
NOT 8.000 bc. -
Message 15
This posting has been hidden during moderation because it broke the in some way.
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Message 16
Posted by Sambista (U4068266) on Friday, 1st April 2011
The OP asked, specifically, about EUROPEAN sites.
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Message 17
Posted by stanilic (U2347429) on Sunday, 3rd April 2011
Try Carnac in Brittany
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Message 18
Posted by stalti (U14278018) on Saturday, 9th April 2011
try castlerigg in the lake district on a plain above everything
windswept and spooky lol
st
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