If You Go Down To The Woods Today

Most of us think of sarsen stones as only living wild on the windswept downs, but the valleys were once all wooded and some still are. This is West Woods at Lockeridge where the sarsens sulk in the undergrowth. It is very atmospheric and at this time of the year lovely with the bluebells and beech trees just coming into leaf.

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Can You See Salisbury Spire From Stonehenge?

I was intrigued by this map in an old (1924 I think) guidebook.

The guide book says "the top of the slender spire is difficult to pick out above a straggling coppice". But I have never noticed it, nor heard of anyone else. The topography suggests it should be possible, looking on a bearing of 175 degrees from the centre of the circle.

The last high point is Old Sarum, the direct line passes straight over the mound.
Goggle Streetview enables us to see the view from the comfort of our screens.
I think the row of trees on the horizon are now blocking the spire. But I will check on a clear day.



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Genes shed light on spread of agriculture in Stone Age Europe

Genes shed light on spread of agriculture in Stone Age Europe

One of the most debated developments in human history is the transition from hunter‑gatherer to agricultural societies. This week's edition of Science presents the genetic findings of a Swedish‑Danish research team, which show that agriculture spread to Northern Europe via migration from Southern Europe.

"We have been able to show that the genetic variation of today's Europeans was strongly affected by immigrant Stone Age farmers, though a number of hunter-gatherer genes remain," says Assistant Professor Anders Götherström of the Evolutionary Biology Centre, who, along with Assistant Professor Mattias Jakobsson, co-led the study, a collaboration with Stockholm University and the University of Copenhagen.

"What is interesting and surprising is that Stone Age farmers and hunter-gatherers from the same time had entirely different genetic backgrounds and lived side by side for more than a thousand years, to finally interbreed," Mattias Jakobsson says.

Agriculture developed in the Middle East about 11,000 years ago and by about 5,000 years ago had reached most of Continental Europe. How the spread of agriculture progressed and how it affected the people living in Europe have been debated for almost 100 years. Earlier studies were largely based on small amounts of genetic data and were therefore unable to provide univocal answers. Was agriculture an idea that spread across Europe or a technique that a group of migrants took with them to different regions of the continent?

The Silk Hill Henge at Brigmerston.

Reading JFS Stone's book Wessex I came across a reference to a possible Henge on Silk Hill at Brigmerston.
Looking it up I found this:

Pastscape - Detailed Result: MONUMENT NO. 916908


Site of an alleged "enclosure of Woodhenge type" at Silk Hill, Brigmerston. JFS Stone referred to such a site on the basis of a description by Colt Hoare of "a very singular tumulus...surrounded by a beautifully formed vallum, and the area within it is quite flat, without the least appearance of any sepulchral mound...the interment of burnt bones was deposited at some distance from the middle". Harding and Lee note a cropmark ring ditch as the only possible candidate, the site featuring a clear internal parch mark and faint traces of external parching. It is likely that the feature Colt Hoare observed was one of several complex round barrows in the vicinity.

The Pastscape record points to the group of barrows to the north west of this feature shown on the right in the screen scrape from Google Maps at http://g.co/maps/ym6yd . It looks very similar in size and form to Woodhenge as shown on the left. Is this the "henge"?


The Field Archaeology of Salisbury Plain Training Area describes it as a bowl barrow with an external bank within the ditch.

The Hill of Tara

Photos from my visit in April 2012 to The Hill of Tara

The Good, the views and history are fantastic.

The Bad - Mound of the Hostages or Duma na nGiall is being rebuilt

The Ugly - the wishing tree is shedding old tissues and rags in the wind.

Stone Transport Lessons From Newgrange

I recently visited The Megalithic Passage Tomb at Newgrange which was built about 3200 BC - so several hundred years before the stones of Stonehenge were erected.

The amazing complex of tombs in Ireland involved moving thousands of tons of stones and earth. The kerbstones are similar in size to the Bluestones of Stonehenge and came from about ten miles away on a trip that is presumed to involve sea transport.

That neolithic man was moving such stones much earlier than Stonehenge was an eye-opener to me. I had lazily assumed that earlier monuments only involved erecting local stones. The ability to move stones was obviously well established before Stonehenge.

(A model from the Newgrange visitor centre).



And one for Brian John of how they may have transported them around the coast.

The diagrams are from the excellent book "Newgrange" which I wish I had bought before I went.

BBC News - Stonehenge you can bounce on

BBC News - Stonehenge you can bounce on

A bouncy scale model of Stonehenge, specially commissioned to mark the Olympics, has been unveiled.

It was created by Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller, who said it represented Britain's history, culture and sense of humour.