h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A2523188 - Stonehenge - post 61

Annie I couldn't find the original entry, have you got a link? Or is this it and you were given editing rights?

F150575?thread=1294296?skip=6

'Plus according to a couple of sites, there are stones of more than one origin used in Stonehenge'

Yes, it appears that some are (spotted) dolerite and others are rhyolite - both found on Carn Menyn.'

It was more the sandstone I was referring to: firstly it's not igneous and according to the English Heritage site, not from Carn Menyn either... I will now go digging for more info on sandstones from the Marlborough Downs at lunchtime

I've just had a quick skim of the entry and noting which bits I wrote:

Para 1 & 3 (after the song) in the first part.

The whole of "The Importance of the Summer Solstice" (on Gnomon's advice) except for the subheader "Alignments" which Gnomon wrote.

The first para of "Was It A Calendar?"

The first para of "Is It An Ancient Crop Circle Marker?"

And all of "More Questions Than Answers"

and

"Visiting Stonehenge" (on Gnomon's advice)

Annie: I left off a bit before posting the last comment: I can have a go at re-writing the "What Is Stonehenge Made Of?" section for you if that'll help?

There are two main types of stones in Stonehenge: the bluestones and the sarsens. It is the sarsens which people see and remember. The bluestones are smaller and not so memorable, but they were the only stones used at Stonehenge for the first thousand years. This needs to be clearly spelled out.

This sentence features a sudden change of direction:

It is located two miles (three km) west of the town of Amesbury, about 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England, and was considered for demolition during the first World War.

Rewrite as follows:

It is located two miles (three km) west of the town of Amesbury, about 8 miles (13 km) northwest of Salisbury in Wiltshire, England.

Stonehenge was not always held in as high regard as it is now. During the First World War, it was considered for demolition.

Please add the following sentence to the start of the first paragraph of the Sacred Spirals section:

Stonehenge is the centre of a spiral energy flow, or so we are told by those who believe in the ancient art of dowsing.

Yes please, Rockhound, I appreciate any help you can offer

Thank you, Gnomon, I've made all those changes.

Annie
I have just seen that you are asking for comments and so I thought I would drop in. I have a few bits of info which might interest you, however I don't have time to read the whole thread right now, so if someone else has already offered these then apologies.

A local paper (Western Daily Press) to the area pointed out a few years ago what many people had already noticed, that Constables picture shows the stones in a different alignment then they are in now. Showing that they have been moved since his time. This snippet could have been about Avebury though, I would need to find the source of the info again, unless one of you aready knows about this.

Aha, some info on that, sorry its a conspiracy website, but its the same photos that were in the local paper
http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicstonehenge.htm

more here and it mentions the Western Daily Press article. http://beehive.thisisdorset.co.uk/default.asp?WCI=SiteHome&ID=8259&PageID=51317

I did have the original article somewhere, I shall let you know if I can find it again!

As a pagan everyone I met always said 'Are you going to Stonehenge for the Solstice?' I can happily say I have never been and do not understand the pagan fascination with Stonehenge. If you are local to it, then fine, but otherwise there are many other places to go. Pagans try to maintain a link with the earth, well I find most bits of wood perfectly adequate for the solstice. Even a garden would be more relevent to me then Stonehenge! Its interesting why so many think Stonehenge is so much more important than other stones or even the land itself. Especially when you know the stones have been moved in recent times.

Of course if you do goto Stonehenge for the Solstice you are guaranteed to see some of this lot, lead by Arthur Pendragan, the reincarnation of the original Arthur. Bit batty maybe, but very nice bloke and works lots to protect the land. http://www.warband.org/

Icons of Britain webpage
http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/stonehenge

Details of Stonehenge planning application
http://www.salisbury.gov.uk/stonehenge/

Council for British Archaeology, Stonehenge page
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/stonehenge/index.html

Just saw that someone did mention that the stones have been recently moved and set in concrete, so you already know about that one!

Good luck with it.

Hmm looks like you almost need something straight after the quote at the beginning. Good Luck with this. I think I will send this to my bf to have a good glance over.

Took me some time to read it all, but I finally got here. Some small things I have found, and nobody mentioned yet - everybody seems to be preoccupied with the greater scheme
holes were in someway => some way ?
unlike other henges where ditch is normally => the ditch ?
In the centre of the circle is a horsehoe => horseshoe
So Stonehenge could possibly is related to wintertime and not summertime => be related

Great entry, btw, don't know how it was before. I did somethin I've never done before:
I read it from bottom to top, and it still makes sense to me.
I must admit though, that I'm not prepared to ever again spend money to go there - I went there a very long time ago, and I was so disappointed that there was a fence around the stones, and in such a huge distance, too. I understand the reasons, and yet, Avebury and the Rollright Stones were far more fascinating when I visited them recently.

Don't forget NZ's version!
http://www.astronomynz.org.nz/stonehenge/stonehenge.htm

Btw, before I forget, it says :
>>Just make sure you leave your mobile phone at home!<<

Any reason for this, except that an incoming phonecall/textmessage would disturb the atmosphere ?
Maybe you don't need to worry, I have been told that mobile phones don't work in the Avebury circle, so chances are, that they'd work even less in the Stonhenge circle.

Posted 22 Hours Ago by Gnomon
F150575?thread=1294296?thread=6

I was in that conversation. Thanks Gnomon.

I'm afraid you are going to reword all the sections in which you have but 'you' in.

Not necessarily. "You" is fairly standard in the Guide.

Some other comments, Annie.

even the hardiest heart --> even the hardest heart
or --> even the hardest of hearts

Some rewording:

Existing:
"The distance of the earth from the sun only differs by about 3% during the year and the angle at which sunlight hits the Earth is a factor towards defining the seasons."

Please change it to:
"The distance of the earth from the sun only varies by about 3% during the year and has little effect on temperature.
It is the angle at which sunlight strikes the Earth that is most important in defining the seasons."

Existing:
"On the dawning of the day of the solstice the sun rises at its lowest possible angle, and it is at this angle that the stones of Stonehenge have been aligned, something which - if it wasn't meant to be a marker for, is an almost incredible coincidence."

Please change to:
"Each day, the sun rises in a slightly different position on the eastern horizon. On the day of the summer solstice, the sun rises at its furthest possible position North, and the stones of Stonehenge have been aligned with this direction. Such alignments were the norm for megaliths - most of the thousands of megaliths throughout the British Isles are aligned with one or other of the solstices."

The "alignments" section - I provided this as background information. I hadn't intended you to quote it directly, so it doesn't quite fit in at present. To make it fit, please add the following short paragraph before the existing one:

While Stonehenge is undoubtedly aligned with the summer and winter solstices, various other alignments have been claimed by investigators over the years. For example, particular combinations of the standing stones line up with the moon or the planets on certain dates. However, this may be coincidence.

I'd like to add the following sentences to the end of the section on Sacred Spirals, if it is OK:

Such findings are not accepted, however, by conventional scientists. In fact, a representative sample of physics students, when asked, had never even heard of the term 'radioactive fields', although research into this topic was hindered by frequent requests for more beer.

no doubt no wiser --> probably no wiser (this avoids the repetition of "no")

" although it is older than both" -- I'd remove this phrase as it is inaccurate and misleading. The oldest parts of Stonehenge, the bank, ditch and mounds are indeed older than the pyramid of Khufu, but the standing stones of Stonehenge are not. They're a thousand years more recent than the pyramid.


The "Visiting" section.

You say:
"You need to be a member of the National Trust to get inside the surrounding fence."

What is the surrounding fence? How close can you get to the big stones?

"The exclusion zone around Stonehenge was lifted in 1999."

What's an exclusion zone?

When I was there in the 1980s, there was a local road that cut right through the monument. There were plans to move the road or put it into a tunnel or cutting. Are these still only plans or has anything been done?

G

Gnomon, when I was there in 1986, there was a fence around the stones, memory might deceive me, but I think it was about 1 km away, or so it seemed to me at the time. Maybe it was only half the distance, but it wasn't anywhere close to the stones.