The Mystery of the Stonehenge

Situated in England's small county of Wiltshire, 3.2 km west of Amesbury and 13 km north of Salisbury, lies one of the most mysterious figures on earth. While driving  on the A344 highway along the English countryside, this mysterious structure, popularly known as the Stonehenge, will never fail to capture your gaze while passing by. It has also successfully evoked strange feelings for those who stop by to check this captivating iconic monument. Who could have possibly built this titanic structure in the middle of no where and for what purpose? These questions have kept scholars and researchers pondering to find the answers. Even with our scientific approach our study of the past, we have been able to find out very little about the Stonehenge.

The Stonehenge consists so around 9 large pillar-like standing stones set within their respective earthwork in a circular setting. Joints and sockets have been dig up for the placement of the giant stones. Above there vertical pillars, the flat horizontal pillars are places as if they have been carved in the upper portion of the vertical pillars. They were engineered to remain flat on the sloping side. While picturing this prehistoric monument, one should keep in mind that it was a labor intensive work that built this magnificent structure. Most of these pillars would weight around 26 tons so you can imagine how much manpower was used to carry these mammoth like blocks to their respective slots.

Unfortunately, we have found no records, what so ever, on when and how it was built or even about the people who built it. Although, carbon dating puts it back to 2400 BC to 2200 BC, many argue that it's construction started around 2600 BC. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that this structure stood for more than 5000 years. As for who built it, not much is known about them, nor do we know their motives behind building this super structure. What we can assume is that these people were pretty intelligent and well motivated. It is pretty mind-boggling to think that neolithic semi nomadic people from Salisbury could build such a mysteries, cosmic and gigantic structure in the middle of no where.

Not much is known about the people who built it, not do we know their motives behind building this structure. We must assume that these people were pretty intelligent and well-motivated. It is pretty incredible to think that neolithic semi nomadic people from the Salisbury. But the real mystery is what could have motivated these people to built such a colossus structure in the first place and for what purpose. What kind of people would have the capability to built it and how did they carry these heavy and enormous blocks?

Although there are many questions unanswered about the Stonehenge, there are a few things that we do know about it.We know than it was built over a long period of time and was finished around  1600 BC as per what most archaeologists believe today. There were many people who were involved in its construction and many changes tool place over time. As for the construction, we know that it was done in different stages. First, the earth works were built with a set of small standing stone in about 3100BC. Then, after around 400 years, the first of the larger standing stones was added in the ring inside the outer ring.Lintels were placed on the top of some of there but not all. The next building cycle occurred when the blue stones were added to the inside or inner circle. The outer ring was removed and so on. Some say that the alter in the middle was added at around 40 AD but this proposal is still being debated due to the issue of carbon dating of materials below the alter.

The purpose of this megalithic structure is still am mystery. Some argue that it was used as a religious center, others argue that it was used for astromomical center. What we do know that is was a pilgrimage spot because we found remains of people who came to see this monument all the way frpm what we call today as Switsarland. Another intersting feature of the stonehenge is that the direction of the middle of thte Stonehenge, along the Avenue to the Heel Stone is the same asthe direction of sunrise on the longest day of the year. This gives an image of the sunrise can be seen behind the Heel Stone on that day when viewed from the Altar Stone. This is why, scholars agrue that this monument  has an astronomical significance. It can help predict solar and lunar ecclipses. Some people also suggest that it was used as an observatory to observe the sun and the moon and the sky from the center of the monument. All these suggestions are subjected to discussion and archaeologists are discovering  new things about this historic megalithic monument almost everyday.

Next Post Coming Up

Sorry for not posting for such a long time....... I have been a little busy with my next post..... I have been working on collecting a lot of raw information on my next topic..... I will be posting my article as soon as possible.......here is a hint on my next topic...... it will be related to the picture below.

You are free to guess what this picture is.....

 

The Aztec and the Mayan Calendar

      

When it comes to studying Mesoamericans civilisations, there are two fascinating civilisations which have captivated the minds of archaeologists and history scholars – the Aztecs and the Mayans. Mesoamerica refers to the area that we call today as Middle America or Central America. It coincides with the modern day countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.  The Aztecs were centred in there capital city of Tenochtitlan and cover most of present day Mexico and the Mayans flourished in the lands to the south east of Tenochtitlan’s sphere of influence.  As you can clearly understand, both these two civilisations were relatively quite close to each other. This may be the reason why the two civilisations are so culturally similar. They share the same gods (although with different names), same rites and rituals and many other things. Among them, the most remarkable aspect that they shared was the use of a complex ritual calendar.

  Both the Aztec and the Mayan priests marked the passing of time and predicted the future using two basic calendars, one had a solar count of 365 days linked to the passing of different seasons, just as the Christian calendar that we use widely today, and the other one had a count of 260 days which was based on the length of human pregnancy. These two calendars would combine to make a longer measure. In this system, a period would be defined by a particular day when both the calendar periods would coincide which would happen after every 18,980 day or 52,365 day year. An interesting aspect of this period is that after the end of every 52 year period, a moment of darkness would follow when the gods might end the world. This measure was called the ‘bundle of years and held a great significance to that Aztecs and the Mayans. This calendar had been with the Mesoamericans all the way from 5th century BCE. One misconception that is very popular is that the Mayans did not have just one calender, they hand many more but the one which we always refer to is actually the Mayan "long count" calendar. Although the two calendars are similar in many ways, they also have some unique differences. The Aztecs used a much primitive number system as compared to the Mayans and they also had a less accurate way of recording data. They noted the day in which an event occurs and the name of that year, but this could be confusing since the dame day can occur twice in a year.

The Aztec Calendar

The Mayan Calendar

One of the most intriguing features of both these calendars is that they were not used as regular calendars that we use today. They are prophetic calendars which help us understand the past and predict the future. They have the ability to predict events that may occur in the future. The Aztecs used their calendar as a religious calendars marked by religious festivals. Religious priests would use it to determine what we call as “lucky days” to start wars, building houses, sowing crops and other similar activities. The most interesting aspect of these calendars was that both of them has predicted the world to end on 21^st December 2012. This prediction was made based on astronomical observations. It is found that on that very day, the sun the earth and the centre of the milky way galaxy would come into a perfect alignment. How the ancient Mayans and the Aztecs came to know about this is still a mystery to us today. Some say that a great natural catastrophe will occur on that day which will shake the very foundation of the world. While others speculate that the calendars have been misinterpreted, as they do not predict the end of the world on 21^st December 2012, but rather they say that it will be the starting of a new golden age. According to their calendar and mythology, time periods are divided into creations and currently we are living in the fourth world or "creation" which happens to end on 21st December 2012. Fat is that the Mayan calendar never actually predicts that world would come to an end that day, it just stops. Whether it is the end of the world as we know it or the beginning of a new age, only time will tell what will happen on that fateful day.

             One of the most intriguing features of both these calendars is that they were not used as regular calendars that we use today. They are prophetic calendars which help us understand the past and predict the future. They have the ability to predict events that may occur in the future. The Aztecs used their calendar as a religious calendars marked by religious festivals. Religious priests would use it to determine what we call as “lucky days” to start wars, building houses, sowing crops and other similar activities. The most interesting aspect of these calendars was that both of them has predicted the world to end on 21^st December 2012. This prediction was made based on astronomical observations. It is found that on that very day, the sun the earth and the centre of the milky way galaxy would come into a perfect alignment. How the ancient Mayans and the Aztecs came to know about this is still a mystery to us today. Some say that a great natural catastrophe will occur on that day which will shake the very foundation of the world. While others speculate that the calendars have been misinterpreted, as they do not predict the end of the world on 21^st December 2012, but rather they say that it will be the starting of a new golden age. According to their calendar and mythology, time periods are divided into creations and currently we are living in the fourth world or "creation" which happens to end on 21st December 2012. Fat is that the Mayan calendar never actually predicts that world would come to an end that day, it just stops. Whether it is the end of the world as we know it or the beginning of a new age, only time will tell what will happen on that fateful day.

           Both these calendars have proved to be advanced and accurate in many ways but they too have their limitations. For example, they take into consideration that a solar year lasts for 365 days whereas we know that that does not always happens. In other words, they ignore the leap years completely. Furthermore, they did not have any sophisticated adjustments that we have on the Gregorian calendar that we widely follow today. Due to this, the solar years have dragged behind the actual movement of the sun and the stars. Archaeologists today are working around the clock to solve the numerous unsolved mysteries of these calendars and almost every day we are discovering new facts about them.

Engineering and Archaeology

Engineering and Archaeology

Meagan Young'12 merging history and engineering at 
the Hackerman Hall Whiteboard 

After a tedious browse through the net, I had come across an interesting analysis where a classical theory of ancient history was proved wrong by an honours student in John Hopkins University by the application of engineering technology. Meagan Young'12 is an honours student of archaeology who has a double major in civil engineering. She utilised her engineering skills to find the truth about the destruction of an ancient temple in the Panhellenic sanctuary of Nemea in Greece.


Previously it was believed that this temple was destroyed by the Spartans as a casualty of war because through dating, it was found that it's desecration coincides with the Peloponnesian War, which was a war that was fought between the two rivalling city-states of Athens and Sparta. After digging and examining the sit e of the temple, archaeologists found a heavy deposits of carbon which suggested that there was a big fire. It was ultimately concluded that this temple was desecrated due to the Spartan invasion and hence was a casualty of battle.

Temple of Nemea in Greece

Meagan Young'12 decided to look into this theory using a completely different approach. She gathered historically and archaeological records of the Peloponnesian War and even went through Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. She realised that there was no real records of the desecration for the temple. Obviously an attack of such magnitude that could bring down a temple would have been recorded somewhere in history. She utilised modern earthquake intensity scale and a bit of structural engineering technology to uncover the truth about what really happened to the temple. She proposed in her honors thesis that the cause of the destruction of the temple was an earthquake followed by an accidental but deadly fire. The earthquake might have caused the fire which ultimately lead to the temple's demise. This was even supported by Thucydides records where he noted that the Spartan troops felt an earthquake in 415-414 BCE.

Students of Archaeological science working in isotope laboratory
in the University of Cambridge

This theory makes fare more sense as compared to it's preceding one mainly because it has scientific backing. This proves that science and archaeology should work together for the better understanding of our history. There is now a subject which is taught in many world reputed universities where scientific techniques are applied to study and analyse archaeological materials. Archaeological science or archaeometry is considered to be it's own scientific field. Interestingly enough, it is taught in the School of Science of most colleges. This new approach on analysing the past has helped us answer many unanswered questions in archaeology and in the upcoming future we all hope to see a greater dialogue between science and archaeology for a better understanding of our past.

A General Introduction

Wikipedia defines Archaeology as the study of human activity, through the recovery and analysis of the material cultural and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, bio facts and cultural landscapes.The Oxford Dictionary definition for the same is “the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of physical remains”. Truth is, there is no “actual” definition of this subject. You can define archaeology however you want but I would personally like to define it as the “study of evolution of human society through scientific methods”. It is a vast subject which has many subjects under this category such as building archaeology, forensic archaeology etc. at the same time; it also works hand in hand with other subjects such as anthropology, history etc. In this website, I will try to cover up as much as I can and give latest updates about what happens in the world of archaeology. But I would like to say beforehand that I have a nag for historical buildings so don’t be surprised if I occasionally drift towards that.

This photograph shows what remains today of an entrance to an Egyptian temple.
It was photographed by me.

In this website I will be posting things about what I am going to undertake. I will be visiting different places which may vary from archaeology sites to museums in India and I will be writing about them and take pictures. I am no professional archaeologist, nor do I have a degree of any sort in Archaeology or any subject related to archaeology. I am just a student of Civil Engineering studying in Bengal Engineering and Science University, Howrah, India. I just have a passion towards archaeology and I hope to share this passion with all other people enthusiastic about archaeology. I will be using a few resources from civil engineering which by the way is the second oldest engineering branch in the world after military engineering being the first. It can be dated all the way to the age of the pharaoh. I have traveled to many places around the world and have seen many heritage spots and I will be writing about them progressively but for now, since I am currently residing in India, I would like to focus on the heritage sites in India and there are plenty of them here to choose from. Other than that, I will be giving my views on different theories that are published on the World Wide Web. I am looking forward to making new friends in this journey and you are always welcome to help me out as I will require all your support for this. I will be making new posts soon.

Greetings viewer! Welcome to World of Archaeology. In the website, I would like to share my interest in archaeology with all those people who also have a passion for archaeology. I will be posting articles relating to archaeology and I would be happy to receive feed-backs from others. I will be posting soon.