Sunday 8 July 2018

Stonehenge Parchmarks 2018 - A Spotters Guide

A quick visit to the rocks on 8 July 2018 shows that parchmarks are showing well. This is  just a quick note to show what I was looking for.


From the path the ring of Y holes can be seen coming from the north to pass under neath the path, in the photo above the nearest light spot is one of the ring. The lighter patch nearer the stones is one of the ring of Z holes, halfway between them there is a ring of faint marks some of which may be another ring of unexcavated holes (kindly referred to by some as Daw Holes) 


Between the solitary Stone 16 and the nearer trilithon of stones 21 and 22 there are four light parch marks which indicate where stones 17-20 may have stood. For more about these see :
and Parchmarks at Stonehenge, July 2013
Simon Banton, Mark Bowden, Tim Daw, Damian Grady and Sharon Soutar
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00050651 Published online: 26 August 2014




Halfway between the Z and Y holes there is a shallow a 10cm high bank which is where the "Daw holes" may be as seen in the recorded parchmarks.




Beyond the Aubrey Holes (originally called the X holes) on the inner side of the bank Simon Banton and I think there are regular slight depressions which parch, maybe the holes that  Aubrey actually saw.


The Z holes close to the stones show well as do those that show where excavations, propping poles and supporting concrete have disturbed the ground.
Click pictures to enlarge.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, there's a lot of holes. A lot of attempts to please the gods I guess. Granted 1,500 years of use gives the builders the right to try other options, perhaps even other religions.

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  2. Okay ...
    so DNA evidence has shown that the new people swiftly replaced the old people to on the order of 96%. I've heard a number of theories why this might be true -- all of which are plausible.

    My issue is with the timing.

    I believe the new people are the ones who built the Trilithons and Stone Circle -- Not a last gasp effort of the old people. Though the Circle still references a few elements in the original build, it appears to correct certain poorly laid-out reference positions made in the early days of the ditch and entrances; i.e.: the motivation looks to be completely different and is based on more accurate observations. The moon is still there, but the overall emphasis has shifted to the sun. I also believe the Aubrey Holes were no longer relevant and perhaps even un-remembered from the early days.
    Certain previously prominent sightlines are interrupted by the stones even as others are introduced with great forethought. The Altar Stone remained where it was, though the center of the monument itself was shifted to correlate with the new solar centerline and the Circle. Shifting the Heelstone from Stone-97 position also supports this idea.

    If built by the old culture, my sense is they would have left these and other previous references as they were.

    With regard to the Stone -17 & -8 vacancies: I believe -15 & -16 were placed at the same time as the Entrance Stones, thus giving the all important guide for the Sun's winter passage. The others were filled in as time went on. Remaining Stone-16 is robust, unlike those that precede it, and hints that it was important for it to be this way.


    Also, we have Stones -12, -13, -14, and -15 approaching from the east, with vacant holes on the other side of -16 for -17 & -18. For the reasons listed in the blog post, I think they were there, and this means the Circle really was completed. The indirect evidence of the later Avenue tends to support the idea that the project was never abandoned, and was well in excess of the time when the Windmill Hill people would have been in their graves.

    So then I believe it was the flourishing Beaker culture which built the Stone Circle.

    Neil

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