An A-Z Guide To The Search For Plato's Atlantis

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    NEWS September 2023

    September 2023. Hi Atlantipedes, At present I am in Sardinia for a short visit. Later we move to Sicily and Malta. The trip is purely vacational. Unfortunately, I am writing this in a dreadful apartment, sitting on a bed, with access to just one useable socket and a small Notebook. Consequently, I possibly will not […]Read More »
  • Joining The Dots

    Joining The Dots

    I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
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Orkneys

Thomas Sheridan & Neil McDonald

Thomas Sheridan & Neil McDonald are the authors of Atlantis: An Empire Lost and Found [2070] in which they attempt to associate the megalithic monuments of the eastern Atlantic seaboard with Atlantis. In particular, they are in awe of the sophistication of the megaliths of the Orkneys and the ongoing discoveries being made there. I agree that they are impressive, but there is no evidence to link them with Atlantis. Such speculation regarding the megalith builders is nothing new, so I let it pass. Additionally, the book lacks both a Bibliography and an Index.

However, speculation is okay, but a distortion of facts is unacceptable. The authors’ speculation continued later with the suggestion that the round towers of Ireland “may well indicate artefacts of an Atlantean civilisation.” To support this contention they claim that in his 1834 book, The Round Towers of Ireland [0124], Henry O’Brien “proposed that the towers were constructed by survivors of an Atlantean-style civilisation, and these had become known in time as the Tuatha Dé Danann of Irish mythology.” To be clear, O’Brien never once mentioned either Plato or Atlantis. Muddying the waters further, the theories of Phillip Callahan regarding the towers and paramagnetism are added to the mix.

When I found that Sheridan & McDonald liberally cited sources such as Blavatsky, Steiner and Cayce, I realised that this book had no real value for me and abandoned it.

Pytheas

Pytheas was a 3rd century BC navigator from the Greek colony of Massalia (Marseilles) and is best known for his voyage in the North Atlantic, possibly around 240 BC. His trip took in the British Isles and as he ventured further North and claimed to have reached Thule.

>Gregory Douglas Wear, in his study of early excursions by Mediterranean peoples into the North Atlantic concluded that with the current state of archaeological and historical research, it is nothing less than impossible to verify with certainty, whether Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians or any other pre-Pythean Mediterranean dweller actually set foot on the British Isles, northern France, or anywhere else in north-western Europe north of Galicia(c).< 

Thule has generated volumes of debate regarding its location. Pytheas described Thule as lying six days’ sail to the north of Britain. Iceland, Norway(a) and the Faroes along with the Scottish Shetland and Orkney Islands have all been proposed as Pytheas’ Thule.

Søren Tillisch, a Danish archaeologist, accepts that the identification of the Faeroes as the Thule of Pytheas is reasonable, but he still thinks that the Estonian island of Saaremaa in the Baltic is also a feasible candidate(b).

Rhys Carpenter devoted an interesting chapter of his Beyond the Pillars of Hercules[221] in which he suggested that Pytheas’ voyage was undertaken with commercial objectives in mind, but on that level it was unsuccessful. However, as a voyage of discovery, it was an unparalleled achievement, earning for Pytheas Carpenter’s accolade of ”antiquity’s Greatest Explorer”.

Carpenter favours the idea that the term, ‘Pillars of Hercules’, when applied to the Strait of Gibraltar was used with the sense of boundary markers, indicating ”the limits of the Inner Sea that, for the Greeks, was the navigable world.”[p156]

(a) (99+) (PDF) Pytheas of Massalia’s Route of Travel | Cameron McPhail – Academia.edu 

(b) (99+) (DOC) Pytheas of Massalia and the Baltic lecturewpictures | Søren Tillisch – Academia.edu

(c) (99+) (PDF) The Commodities Race – Greeks and Phoenicians in the North Atlantic, beyond the Pillars of Herakles and Melqart respectively | Gregory Douglas Wear – Academia.edu *

Scylla and Charybdis

Scylla and Charybdis were a sea monster and a whirlpool in Greek mythology that according to Homer and other writers were located opposite each other across a narrow strait. This led to the idiomatic phrase “between Scylla and Charybdis” similar to our more modern phrase of being “between the devil and the deep blue sea” describing being caught between two opposing forces.

Many, such as Heinrich Schliemann[1243], assume the original to have been located between Sicily and the Italian mainland at the Strait of Messina.>However, Ernle Bradford, who retraced the voyage of Odysseus, voiced his view that Corfu was the land of the Phaeacians and noted that “the voice of antiquity is almost as unanimous about Scheria being Corfu as it is about the Messina Strait being the home of Scylla and Charybdis.”<

Arthur R. Weir in a 1959 article(d)  refers to ancient documents, which state that Scylla and Charybdis lie between the Pillars of Hercules(c).

A minority have opted for the Scylla being Calpe (The Rock of Gibraltar) and Charybdis being Mt. Abyla across the strait in North Africa or in other words the Pillars of Heracles(a). However, Professor Arysio Santos promoting his Atlantis in Indonesia theory suggested that the ‘original’ Pillars of Heracles were in at Sunda Strait and later brought to ancient Greece where it was included by Homer in his Odysseus as Scylla and Charybdis!(b)

Anatoly Zolotukhin has proposed that Scylla & Charybdis had been situated in the Bosporus near the Pillars of Heracles, while he located Atlantis itself in Crimea near Evpatoria(e).

Writers who have located the wanderings of Ulysses in the North Atlantic have gone further afield in their search for Scylla and Charybdis with suggestions such as the west coast of Scotland (Pillot[742] and Nyland[394]), the Orkneys (Sora)[395] southwest Cornwall (Janssen)(f) and near the Scilly Isles (Wilkens)[610].

More recently, Andres Pääbo wrote that ” many of the details in Odysseus’ (or Ulysses’) travels can be easily associated with locations along the Norwegian coast and islands north of the British Isles. The starkest northern location found in the Odyssey is the large whirlpool called Charybdis, identifiable with the famous Maelstrom off the Lofoten Islands (g)

Perhaps the most distant Atlantic location was proposed by Henriette Mertz in The Wine Dark Sea [0397] to have been in Canada’s Bay of Fundy, reputed to experience the world’s greatest tidal range averaging 52 feet.

In January 2022, Kalju Pattustaja published a paper(h) in which he placed Scylla off the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia. Coincidentally, Russia claims to have ancient pyramids on the Kola Peninsula(i).

(a)  See: https://web.archive.org/web/20120224202757/https://www.cadiznews.co.uk/info2.cfm?info_id=29858

(b) https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1yeBGKreTCYC&pg=PA286&lpg=PA286&dq=%22scylla+and+charybdis%22+pillars+of+heracles&source=bl&ots=OHY6tg_u_n&sig=CCNonMEsUxIRU4DXYPUGH8F_mP8&hl=en&ei=_xF6TrW0DIqp0AX_ltyvAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

(c)  https://drive.google.com/file/d/10JTH401O_ew1fs8uhXR9C5IjNDvqnmft/view

(d)  Atlantis – A New Theory, Science Fantasy #35, June 1959 pp 89-96

(e) https://homerandatlantis.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Scylla-CharybdisJAH-1.pdf

(f) http://www.homerusodyssee.nl/id24.htm

(g) https://www.academia.edu/9815005/The_Odyssey_s_Northern_Origins_and_a_Different_Author_Than_Homer?email_work_card=view-paper&li=0

(h) https://new-etymology.livejournal.com/466128.html

(i) https://culturacolectiva.com/travel/russia-pyramids-kola-peninsula-discovery-older-egypt/ 

Phillips, Graham

Graham PhilipsGraham Phillips is a British investigator with a number of books [034][035][036] on ‘alternative history’ to his credit. One of them [034] originally entitled Act of God was republished in the USA with the title of Atlantis and the Ten Plagues of Egypt. This 358-page volume contains just TWO pages on Atlantis where the author suggests that the 2nd millennium BC eruption of Thera was the cause of the destruction of Atlantis. This unscrupulous retitling is a sad reflection of the standards of American publishers.

In 2004, Phillips published Templars and of the Ark of the Covenant [1345] in which the promotional blurb claims that he has compelling evidence that the Knights Templar may have taken the Ark of the Covenant to the British Isles” and “offers compelling documentation that the Ark may be located in the English countryside, not far from the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon.” I note the repeated use of the word ‘may’.>He also suggests that at least one of the stone tablets on which the original Ten Commandments were inscribed may have been brought to England!<

His most recent book [036] offers evidence of a close encounter between the earth and a comet in 1485 BC that produced an apparition that may have appeared twenty times the size of a full moon. Phillips claims that it had a profound effect on those that witnessed it and led to widespread forms of monotheism, including that of Moses and Akhenaten. What is even more radical is his claim that the comet’s tail contained an amino acid such as vasopressin that can make humans more aggressive and which led to a simultaneous outbreak of wars in many parts of the world between nations that had previously lived in harmony with each other. This particular aggressive phase appears to have subsided after a period of about ten years.

His most recent (2019) offering, Wisdomkeepers of Stonehenge [1914] has a different approach to understanding Stonehenge, as explained by the cover notes “Graham argues that, with stones aligned to the sun, stars, and positions of the moon, stone circles were not just astronomical calendars, as some scholars have proposed, but were part of an elaborate system to determine precise timings necessary for the cultivation of medicinal plants. The Druids, he reveals, had medical knowledge well beyond their time, and may even have found a cure for cancer. Graham also discovers that the Megalithic people developed phenomenal memory techniques, resulting in a priesthood that became both the guardians of the stone circles and the living libraries of inherited knowledge. Wisdomkeepers of Stonehenge uncovers the long-forgotten secrets of the Megalithic people and the true extent of their astonishing achievements: a vast network of monuments, as important to the ancient peoples of the British Isles as the internet is for us today. The true purpose of Stonehenge is ultimately revealed. It was not just a religious monument, but served a vital, practical function – as a prehistoric healthcare facility.”

Late July 2023 saw the publication of Phillips’ The Mystery of Doggerland: Atlantis in the North Sea [2063]. To be candid, this has book little to do with Atlantis, as Phillips believes that only two locations are worthy of consideration as the inspiration for the Atlantis myth – Santorini (Thera) and the Caribbean (Bahamas). Since there is no evidence that Plato even knew that the Bahamas existed and the Minoan Hypothesis conflicts with too much of Plato’s account, there is little left. His speculations extend to suggesting that ‘orichalcum’ was an early word for platinum!

However, I would prefer to end on a positive note and advise that if you are interested in Neolithic megaliths, you will find this book informative, particularly if you are intrigued by the history and ancient monuments of Orkneys, where the earliest stone circles in the British Isles are to be found. He places a sunken Thule (Tu-lay) just north of the Orkneys. The distance from the Orkneys to Doggerland is nearly 1000 km so the connection eluded me.

>Phillips has been featured as ‘Author of the Month’ on Graham Hancock’s website(b) and his book has been reviewed briefly by Jason Colavito(c).<

I consider the inclusion of Atlantis and Doggerland in the title was the work of publishers to boost sales, but they could at least have ended the subtitle with an exclamation or question mark.

Graham Phillips has also an official website(a).

(a) http://www.grahamphillips.net/

(b) The Mystery of Doggerland – Graham Hancock Official Website *

(c) Review of Ancient Aliens S19E16: “The Gods of Greece” – JASON COLAVITO *

Red Paint People

The Red Paint People, sometimes referred to as the Maritime Archaic culture of the north Atlantic coast of America, particularly Labrador, got their name from their habit of covering their dead with red ochre. They were a seafaring people who lived around 5000 BC. Similar discoveries have also been made in the State of Maine(e), where they flourished until they disappeared around 1800 BC , according to Hilary Nangle in a guide to Arcadia National Park.

A similar culture existed in northern Europe and both are Redpaint3claimed, by ‘imaginative’ writers such as Shirley Andrews and Frank Joseph, to have been established by refugees from Atlantis after the destruction of their homeland.

Slate tools of a similar type have been identified in Scandinavia and North America dated to around 3000 BC(b). Skara Brae in the Orkneys ha been claimed as an outpost of the Red Paint People(i).

Ivar Zapp & George Erikson recount[244.309] how bones discovered in similar stone chambers in Labrador and on the island of Teviec off France were both covered with red ochre and both dated to around 5500 BC.  Richard W. Welch refers[630] to the Red Paint People as just part of a range of evidence to suggest that the Americas were originally settled by Europeans in prehistoric times.

There are also suggestions that the use of red ochre at burial sites may go back much further and would have been even more widespread.>Recently, ochre mining has been identified in a cave in the Yucatan and dated to 11,400-10,700 years ago(k).<

The Paviland Cave in south Wales held the skeleton of a young man  dated to at the latest 19,000 BC. The most recent investigation has now pushed that date back to 33,000 BC(g).

The skeleton of a young child found at Abrigo do Lagar Velho in Portugal, was also discovered with red ochre and dated to 22500 BC(a). Further examples have been found across Europe and as far as Mesopotamia.

The discovery of further early trans-Atlantic links were announced in February 2012(c) by two archaeologists, Professors Dennis Stanford & Professor Bruce Bradley, in a newly published book – Across Atlantic Ice[1516]Their claim is based on ‘Solutrean’ tools recently found in Delaware and five other east coast sites dated between 26,000 and 19,000 years ago. A sceptical view of their work should also be read(d). However, in 2016. the Soultrean Hypothesis was contradicted by genetic studies(f). Nevertheless, a recent documentary on the hypothesis has raised some controversy, as the program failed to refer to the use of the Soultrean Hypothesis by white supremacists(h). Jennifer Raff, who appeared in the documentary, has rejected the Stanford & Bradley theory in a new article(j).

The most ancient pyramid found in Mesoamerica at Chiapa de Corzo in Mexico contained the bodies of two rulers, coated in red pigment from head to toe. The pyramid is dated to around 700 BC. This may indicate a continuance of the same sacred custom over thousands of years.

Marcel Homet also discovered red painted skeletons in the Amazon region[813.180].

(a)  See: Archive 2855

(b) See: Archive 3589

(c) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/new-evidence-suggests-stone-age-hunters-from-europe-discovered-america-7447152.html?printService=print

(d) https://www.academia.edu/5119515/On_thin_ice_Problems_with_Stanford_and_Bradley_s_Solutrean-Clovis_hypothesis

>(e) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1913.15.1.02a00050/pdf<

(f) https://news.ku.edu/2015/12/17/genetic-data-does-not-support-ancient-trans-atlantic-migration-professor-says

(g) https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/peculiar-narrative-red-lady-paviland-man-paleolithic-wales-005325?utm_source=Ancient-Origins%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=690244d1c3-Top_Trending_Stories_Feb_No3_REAL_15_02_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2dcd13de15-690244d1c3-85158329

(h) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/critics-blast-cbc-documentary-on-solutrean-hypothesis-for-ignoring-racism

(i) https://historysmysteries.yolasite.com/red-paint-people.php

(j) https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/21/rejecting-the-solutrean-hypothesis-the-first-peoples-in-the-americas-were-not-from-europe

>(k) https://www.histecho.com/ice-age-mining-camp-rich-in-treasures-frozen-in-time-found-in-underwater-cave/<

Megalith Builders

The Megalith Builders, who date mainly from the Neolithic Period, are frequently identified with Plato’s Atlanteans. Their remarkable structures were built between the middle of the fifth and second millennia B.C., a period that is compatible with the final days of Atlantis according to Plato. The building of megalithic structures in Western Europe appears to have ended just before the beginning of the Bronze Age – coincidence? Emmet Sweeney, however, contends that “the great Megalithic-building culture of Atlantic Europe and North Africa commenced around 1100 BC or perhaps a little earlier”! [700.208]

Proponents of the idea of a megalithic building in Atlantis see the location and extent of the megalithic structures as agreeing with Plato’s description, particularly his reference to Atlantis being ‘beyond the Pillars of Heracles’. However, the location of the ‘Pillars’ at the time of Solon’s visit to Egypt, is strongly disputed. In fact, the only territory unambiguously named by Plato as Atlantean was in southern Italy and North Africa along with several islands of which there are many in that region.

However, there are many features in Plato’s narrative that do not conform to our current knowledge of the megalith builders. There is no evidence that they had writing, irrigation technology or navigational skills to mount an attack on Egypt/Athens or any other characteristics ascribed to the Atlanteans by him.

On the other hand, if these attributes are just literary flesh applied to a skeleton of historical truth there is the possibility of a link between the Atlanteans and the megalith builders remaining.

Atlantis enthusiasts are quite happy to associate the megalith builders with Atlantis, as it provides something tangible to enhance the credibility of Plato’s narrative pointing to sites such as Stonehenge or the Maltese Temples. British researcher Robert John Langdon has gone further and proposed that the megalith builders originally came from Africa and settled in Doggerland at the end of the Ice Age, where they established Atlantis[919]. When Doggerland was submerged they migrated to what is now mainland Britain, where they built Stonehenge as a memorial to Atlantis.

Manuel Vega, who places Atlantis in the Atlantic has some novel ideas regarding Stonehenge as well as Ireland’s Newgrange [0868].

Megalith building in North Africa has been documented for over a century. The Hill of Graces[1566] by H.S. Cowper in 1897 concentrated on describing the megaliths in the region of Tripoli. The Mzora Stone Circle is a huge megalithic monument in Morocco and is considered to be the largest stone ellipse in the world. Further east the stone circle of Nabta Playa in Egypt had its importance further highlighted in a 2010 book by Robert Bauval & Thomas G. Brophy, Black Genesis[1508]. A 2012 illustrated paper reviews the range of megalithic monuments found across North Africa(af).

We must, of course, not omit the greatest megalithic monuments of all, namely, the Egyptian pyramids and particularly those at Giza. The apparent sophistication of their builders was greatly enhanced by the introduction of the Orion Correlation Theory (OCT) by Robert Bauval.

In a paper(at) published on Graham Hancock’s website in 2022, Freddy Silva proposed an additional OCT – in Scotland. He suggested that the Pyramids of Giza, and by extension, Orion’s Belt matched the layout of the three stone circles of Stenness, Brodgar and Bookan. In the same paper, he goes further identifying other megalithic monuments in Scotland with counterparts in Sardinia and Armenia! OCT is not without critics.

The megaliths of North Africa are not the only monuments to adorn that continent  Atlantisforschung drew my attention to a number of short articles by William Corliss (al)(am)(an) highlighting what has become known as the Senegambian Complex and are now a UNESCO World Heritage site(ak).

Paul Dunbavin in his Atlantis of the West [0099] and Towers of Atlantis [1627] promotes the idea of a megalithic Atlantis centred off the coast of Wales in what is now the Irish Sea. In 2022 Dunbavin recorded(ao) that “In a review of the “Pathways to the Cosmos” conference held at Dublin Castle in September 2018, Liz Henty makes some perhaps surprising comments. She notes that this is the first such conference where archaeologists and archaeoastronomers have combined to broadly agree that some Neolithic monuments in Britain and Ireland were astronomically aligned(ap).

While not a new idea, a megalithic connection with Atlantis has recently been given further attention by the French writer Sylvain Tristan who was inspired by Jean Deruelle and Alan Butler. More recently, Jean-Michel Hermans, a French ethnologist, also added support for a megalithic Atlantis.  Alfred deGrazia also joined this club as well as the German author Helmut Tributsch who has added his support to the idea of a megalithic Atlantis, specifically locating its capital on the island of Gavrinis in Brittany. A similar claim has been made by Hank Harrison, who also believes that the Morbihan region was an important Atlantean centre if not the location of its capital. Further support for a megalithic Atlantis has been given by Walter Schilling who places Plato’s city in the Bay of Cadiz. Robert Temple has recently offered grudging support for the concept of Atlantean megalith builders(ac).

Iberia is also home to very many megalithic structures of varying types. Recently, lower waters in a Spanish reservoir revealed once more the impressive 144-stone Dolmen-de-Guadalperal, situated roughly halfway between Madrid and the Portuguese border(z). Efforts are being made to ensure its preservation before the water levels rise again.

The most recent (2022) attempt at linking the megalith builders with Atlanteans has come from a disappointing book by Thomas Sheridan and Neil McDonald [2070], in which their starting point is the magnificent megalithic remains found in the Orkneys that are situated just north of the Scottish mainland.

As far as I am aware classical writers make no obvious reference to the megalith builders, nor has this omission been commented on by modern writers. However, the numerous indirect references to Atlantis by the same ancient writers are deemed inadequate, which seems consistent with a dearth of information regarding early history.

It appears to me that other questions that have not been definitively answered relate to the identity of the megalith builders, why they stopped building and what happened to them. Another thought is that if the megalith builders lived at the same time as the Atlanteans, is it not strange that both disappeared around the same time or did they? My opinion is that we are probably confronted with two unrelated mysteries – the disappearance of the megalith builders and the demise of Atlantis.

Parallel with the megaliths of the eastern Atlantic seaboard are the megaliths of North America(ab), particularly those of New England(ag). Who built them and when? Are they evidence of very early pre-Columbian voyagers from Europe?(b) Nobody seems to have put forward the idea that megalith building might have spread from America to Europe! Is it such a wild suggestion?

Johnni Langer has published a lengthy paper on the prehistoric megaliths of South America and in particular Brazil. Generally speaking references to South American megaliths focus on Tiwanaku or Cuzco, considered to be relatively recent. However, Langer’s article has drawn attention to structures further afield in Brazil that suggest astronomical alignments(ar). Brazil continues to reveal more megalithic structures, unfortunately, in some cases only because of deforestation(au). The Brazilian discoveries have only added to the who and when questions relating to megaliths generally and whether there is any possible connection between the megalith builders and Atlantis.

An interesting article combining all the strange aspects of megalith building can be read online(c)  which certainly offers food for thought. A paper(d) published in September 2013 gives a good overview of megalithic studies during the past few decades. Walter Haug’s well-illustrated website(k) offers a range of previously ignored megalithic sites in Germany.

Much nonsense has been written about the megalith builders, particularly on the Internet, where you find daft ideas such as attributing their construction to aliens(a). The suggestion that extraterrestrials had the technology to travel in space but when they land on earth they have to build observatories with stone is just silly. Why would they even need such crude observatories if they had the technology and astronomical knowledge to travel across the cosmos?

A valuable website dealing with the global spread of megalithic monuments is The Megalithic Portal established by Andy Burnham(g), which has regular updates. Other useful sites are Stone Pages(h) and Megalithic Ireland(i). Another site worth a look at is that of Sjur C. Papazian(l). There is also a site(j) dealing specifically with the dolmens of Corsica and Sardinia.

In the Middle East dolmens stretch in a line from the Caucasus(s)(p) to Yemen with a remarkable concentration of them in modern Jordan(m), a fact which prompted a former Dutch ambassador to Jordan, Gajus Scheltema, to write Megalithic Jordan[1206]. Jordan is also home to an ancient mysterious 150 km wall, which was 1-1.5 metres high(u).

Dolmens are also found in more distant lands such as India(r), Korea(n)(v) and Japan(o). It is difficult to look at the worldwide distribution of dolmens and not consider the possibility of some form of global cultural diffusion! Rarely discussed are the widely dispersed megalithic remains found throughout the Pacific islands(q).

A remarkable theory is presented by John M Jensen Jr to explain the function of dolmens throughout the globe, namely that they were constructed to protect from attacks by dinosaurs! This suggestion is part of a paper that claims that humans and dinosaurs co-existed(ad).

Another unusual claim comes from Yair Davidiy, a Brit-Am promoter, who wrote on their website – “Dolmens and Megalithic Monuments originated in Ancient Israel. Jeremiah 31:21 says that the Lost Ten Tribes will construct a trail of Megalithic Monuments from Israel to their places of exile and evidence of this path will enable them to return. Such a trail exists! It is the Trail of the Dolmens from the Middle East to the West.”(ae) As far as I’m aware Davidy has not explained the huge numbers of dolmens in places such as Korea and Japan! Professor W.A. Liebenberg has written a longer piece(aq) on the ‘Lost Tribes’ as the builders of the megaliths. However, since the megalithic building period is generally accepted to have lasted from around 4000 BC until 1500 BC, this created a problem for Davidy and Liebenberg. The disappearance of the Lost Tribes is dated to around 700 BC leading to their dispersal and proposed megalith building as they travelled. D & L include Newgrange (3200 BC) among their monuments and that is where their difficulties begin. Both claim that before 700 BC the year was 360 days in length (after Velikovsky [037.128]) rather than our present 365 days. They argue that if Newgrange (among other monuments) had been built when we had a 360-day year the sun would not still light up the interior at the winter solstice. Therefore, they conclude that most megaliths were erected AFTER 700 BC!>An alternative conclusion is that the idea of a 360-day year is flawed and that a date BEFORE 700 BC must be correct!<

There is a well-illustrated website offering an overview of the megalithic culture of Western Europe and the Mediterranean(t).

In February 2019 the Smithsonian Magazine had a report telling us that Bettina Schulz Paulsson, an archaeologist at the University of Gothenburg, reexamined some 2,410 radiocarbon dating results that have been assigned to Europe’s megaliths and put them through a Bayesian statistical analysis. Based on the picture the data presents, Schulz Paulsson believes that the megaliths were first constructed by dwellers of northwest France during the second half of the fifth millennium BC.” (w)

Some years ago, the renowned English archaeologist, Aubrey Burl, concluded after twenty years of study that French immigrants had built Stonehenge(aa). More recently, Mike Parker Pearson, a leading Stonehenge expert, has also endorsed this idea of a French origin for megalith building(x).

Archaeologist, Robert Hensey in his insightful First Light [1766.9] has also noted that “Construction of Breton passage tombs is likely to have ended by 3900 BC, almost certainly by 3800 BC, and the most recent evidence from Ireland suggests that passage tomb construction had not yet begun on this island by that time.”

>Archaeologist Ashleigh Murzewski published a 2012 paper (av) on the significance of megalithic monuments in Atlamtis Europe and noted that “the construction of megalithic monuments in Atlantic Europe are not restricted to a single purpose, nor how they reflect one aspect of the community that built them.”<

Jean-Michel Hermans contends that the megalith builders of Brittany had originated in the Caucasus and after a sojourn in what is now Bulgaria moved to Brittany after 5000 BC(aj).

Antequera is a city in Spain’s region of Andalucia. It is home to three megalithic structures (1) the “Dolmen de Menga”, (2)the “Dolmen de Viera” and (3) the “Tholos de Romeral” of which de Menga has been described as the largest and heaviest in Spain. They are collectively designated as a UNESCO  World Heritage Site and described by that organisation as “These three tombs, buried beneath their original earth tumuli, are one of the most remarkable architectural works of European prehistory and one of the most important examples of European Megalithism.”  The limited carbon dating that has been carried out would seem to indicate that construction took place sometime in the fourth millennium BC. Richard Cassaro has visited the site and posted an interesting report with many illustrations(ai).

The interesting claims of Schulz Paulsson, who places the origins of megalithic construction in Brittany in the fifth millennium BC, may be challenged by a little-known counterclaim that tombs in the Ox Mountains in the west of Ireland have been dated to the seventh millennium BC(y). However, my personal view is that it would be more likely that the practice of megalith building would have spread from the east or south rather than from Ireland westward!

A number of megalithic sites situated around the world are reviewed on the illustrated megalithic builders website. Contributions from popular writers, such as Hancock, Bauval and Schoch are included(ah).

A rational explanation for the construction of cyclopean masonry has been offered by Professor of Architecture Jean-Pierre Protzen and demonstrated on a YouTube clip(f).

(a) Unexplained Mysteries around the world (archive.org) 

(b) https://web.archive.org/web/20171105055925/http://planetvermont.com/pvq/v9n2/megaliths.html 

(c) https://web.archive.org/web/20140625091115/http:/www.bibleufo.com/ancconstmono.htm 

(d)  https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.ie/2013/09/whats-significance-of-megalithic.html

(e) https://www.paranormalpeopleonline.com/cyclopean-masonry-a-mystery-of-the-ancient-world/

(f) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkze3WUvHz4

(g) https://www.megalithic.co.uk/

(h) https://www.stonepages.com/about_us.html

(i) https://www.megalithicireland.com/   

(j) http://www.museodeidolmen.it/englishdefault.html

(k) https://web.archive.org/web/20220808093846/https://www.megalith-pyramiden.de/AB-001-Cairn-Forschungsgesellschaft.html 

(l) https://aratta.wordpress.com/megalith-culture/

(m) See: https://web.archive.org/web/20161113074338/https://www.jordan-solidarity.org/74+special-dolmens.html

(n) See: https://english.cha.go.kr/cop/bbs/selectBoardArticle.do?ctgryLrcls=CTGRY166&nttId=57997&bbsId=BBSMSTR_1205&mn=EN_03_01

(o) https://heritageofjapan.wordpress.com/yayoi-era-yields-up-rice/lifestyle-and-society-of-the-land-of-wa/days-of-mourning-and-ways-of-burying/visit-a-megalithic-dolmen-site/

(p) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolmens_of_North_Caucasus

(q) https://davidpratt.info/easter1.htm (section 10)

(r) https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/pets-and-environment/090916/megalithic-tombs-in-tadvai-forests.html

(s) https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/25000-year-old-buildings-found-russia-006215

(t) https://aratta.wordpress.com/megalith-culture/

(u) https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/mysterious-ancient-wall-extending-over-150km-investigated-jordan-005380?utm_source=sendy&utm_medium=email&utm_content=top5_lastyear&utm_campaign=email_regular

(v) Dolmens of Ancient Korea – Ancient History Encyclopedia (archive.org)

(w) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/articles/europe-megalithic-monuments-france-sea-routes-mediterranean-180971467/

(x)   Stonehenge, other ancient rock structures may trace their origins to monuments like this | Request PDF (researchgate.net)

(y) https://www.newgrange.com/european-megalithic.htm

(z) https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/dolmen-de-guadalperal-0012487

(aa) https://archive.archaeology.org/9707/newsbriefs/stonehenge.html

(ab) Megaliths in America | Stonestrider (archive.org) 

(ac) Uncovering the lost ‘Stonehenge’ of Spain – BBC Reel 

(ad) https://www.academia.edu/11703016/Earth_Epochs_Overview  

(ae) https://www.britam.org/Proof/Attributes/roleDolmen.html 

(af) https://www.academia.edu/6584373/Megalithism_and_monumentality_in_prehistoric_North_Africa  

(ag) The Mysterious Megaliths of New England (archive.org)

(ah) Megalithic Builders – index of ancient megalithic sites from around the world (archive.org) 

(ai) https://www.richardcassaro.com/the-antequera-enigma-exploring-the-mystery-of-spains-oldest-largest-most-sophisticated-megalithic-complex/ 

(aj) Amazon.fr

(ak) https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1226/ 

(al) http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf004/sf004p01.htm 

(am) http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf018/sf018p01.htm 

(an) http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf021/sf021p01.htm

(ao) e5604c_e9edea4f2c6f4777ae3928593180a77a.pdf (third-millennium.co.uk)

(ap) View of “Pathways to the Cosmos – The Alignment of Megalithic Tombs in Ireland and Atlantic Europe”. Dublin Castle, Ireland, 15th September, 2018 (equinoxpub.com)

(aq) (99+) A Historical Research of the Ten Tribes Scattered Into the Nations Part 10 | Prof (Dr) WA Liebenberg – Academia.edu 

(ar) https://www-equiponaya-com-ar.translate.goog/naya2001/htm/articulos/Johnni_Langer.htm?_x_tr_sl=pt&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc  

(as) Discovered: The birthplace of Europe’s ancient megaliths – Big Think 

(at) Scotland’s Hidden Sacred Past – Graham Hancock Official Website 

(au) Deforestation Uncovers Ancient Megaliths in Brazilian Jungle (Video) | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net)

(av) Significance of Megalithic Monuments in Atlantic Europe? (heritagedaily.com) *

   

Stonehenge

Stonehenge is part of what is now arguably the most extensive and complex megalithic site in Europe. It was actually purchased in 1915 for a sum equivalent today (2020) to £680,000 by Cecil Chubb, a barrister, who later gave it to the nation(aa).

Professor Howard Goldbaum’s excellent website on Irish megaliths recounts that “According to legend the monument was once situated in Co. Kildare, southwest of Dublin. As explained by Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 – c. 1155), Merlin the magician moved Stonehenge from Ireland to England to serve as a memorial for the hundreds of Britons treacherously slain by the Saxons during a truce meeting on Salisbury Plain. In this story, which Geoffrey claimed was based on an older work he had found, King Ambrosium Aurelianus (uncle of King Arthur) wanted to build a memorial for his dead warriors which would last forever, but his builders could think of no way of doing it. Merlin provided the solution: go to Ireland and bring back the one that’s there.”(bw) One explanation for this comment may stem from the fact that in ancient times parts of Wales were controlled by the Irish!

National Geographic (August 2022) relates that historian Henry of Huntingdon, writing around 1130 – offers the first known reference to Stonehenge in print (sic), declaring it to be one of the wonders of England(cj).

Two depictions of Stonehenge exist which go back as far as medieval times, with a third recently added by Professor Christian Heck(ai). Sometimes claimed to have been known in medieval times as Chorea Giganticum. Little serious study of the monument was undertaken until the 17th-century antiquarians, and predecessors of archaeologists took an interest.

“In the 17th century, archaeologist John Aubrey made the claim that Stonehenge was the work of the Celtic high priests known as the Druids, a theory widely popularised by the antiquarian William Stukeley [1696], who had unearthed primitive graves at the site” (Wikipedia)(ci).

Mike Parker Pearson, arguably today’s leading archaeologist working at Stonehenge has published a paper titled Researching Stonehenge: Theories Past and Present, in which he reviews the range of opinions that the site has generated from the time of William Flinders Petrie in the 19th century until now(cq).

Dimitar Dimitrov, a Bulgarian researcher, has also published a book on the historical references to Stonehenge, but in conclusion, he thinks that the monument was simply used as a royal palace that included a ‘coronation stone’!(cr).

More recently, in the 19th century, H. S. Warleigh, Vicar of Ashchurch in England, was convinced that the biblical Nephilim had been responsible for the building of the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge among other ancient structures. Jason Colavito located this reference(ck).

What is not generally known is that the monument has been subjected to numerous ‘restorations’ over the past hundred years and what we see today is actually a 20th-century vision of the original site. One website(au) shows a large series of images recording some of these renovations. There is evidence that at least one stone was re-erected a metre and a half from its original position.

Photos from 1867 show parts of Stonehenge, before later ‘restorations’ altered their earlier positions(ax), originally released by the UK’s Ordnance Survey(ay). In the course of the 1958 restoration, Robert Phillips had to remove a cylindrical core from Stone 58, which he kept. 60 years later the core was returned enabling geochemical tests to be carried out(cb). This was most fortunate as Stonehenge’s protected status would not permit a core to be removed today.

New technology has now revealed the existence of another henge less than a kilometre from Stonehenge (BBC Focus October 2010). We were next presented with evidence that an early form of ball bearings may have N061044been used to move the large stones with which the monument was constructed(d).  Other recent discoveries in the vicinity include the 3,550-year-old skeleton of a teenage boy buried with a rare amber necklace – a clear indication of status. Furthermore, a dental analysis revealed that he had come from the Mediterranean region.

Paul Dunbavin has published a paper(cu) on the Academia.edu website in response to the overreaction in the British media to the DNA research by Brace et al: “Population Replacement in Early Neolithic Britain” published in Nature, April 2019 suggesting that the origins of the Stonehenge builders may have been in the Aegean.

One example is the UK’s Independent newspaper which published an article, which claimed that The ancestors of the Britons who built Stonehenge were farmers who had travelled from an area near modern Turkey, arriving around 4000 BC, and who rapidly replaced local hunter-gatherer populations, according to new research”(bo). This DNA evidence is also referenced in a recent National Geographic article(cj). Dunbavin’s point was that, before DNA was discovered, it was already generally accepted that migrants from the eastern Mediterranean had arrived in Britain and Ireland via Spain during the Neolithic Period.

 Stonehenge is not the only site to have its area of interest expanded in recent years. The 2018 drought in Ireland and the UK had produced evidence of a previously unknown henge situated not too far from Newgrange, Ireland’s best-known megalithic site(az). This new location has been dubbed ‘dronehenge’. Anthony Murphy, one of its discoverers, has written about the story of its discovery.[1762]

Similar sites have been revealed throughout these islands as a result of the current (July 2018) dry period.

October 2015 gave us a report(ad) that a semi-permanent structure was discovered about a mile east of Stonehenge and dated to be 1,300 years earlier than the more famous megalithic edifice.

The two big questions relating to Stonehenge are its exact purpose and the method of construction.

Allied to that is the question of how the ‘bluestones’ were transported from Wales. Was it by humans or glaciers(aj). However, an early theory proposed that the ‘bluestones’ were deposited by glaciers much closer to the Stonehenge site. This idea was quickly debunked but has once again surfaced in a new book [1565] by Brian John(bt).

What may have been a much earlier precursor to Stonehenge’s calendrical features, tentatively dated as 10,000 years old, has been identified in Scotland’s Aberdeenshire(f). This is now arguably the world’s oldest lunar calendar, although an incised stone found in southern Italy has now been put forward(bg) with a similar claim. I doubt that the Guinness Book of Records will be adjudicating on this one.

We were next presented with evidence that an early form of ball-bearing may have been used to move the large stones with which the monument was constructed(d). Stone balls, some intricately carved, were also discovered near megalithic monuments in Scotland, Ireland and Norway, while in Malta, stone balls have been found in the vicinity of the ancient temples there – some still in situ under the stones.

Keith Critchlow in his fully illustrated Time Stands Still [1518] claims that the carved stones found in Scotland display knowledge of Platonic solids a thousand years before Plato!

Crichton E M. Miller, who is best known for his studies of the pre-Christian ‘Celtic Cross’ and its use for navigation, surveying, and astronomy during the Bronze Age has now turned his attention to those mysterious carved stone balls and their possible time-keeping function(co).

Michael Poynder has noted that plain balls were also found at the Loughcrew site in Ireland [1748]. Even more intriguing, is that a similarly carved stone ball was discovered at Tiwanaku in Bolivia, which Hugh Newman has drawn attention to in a YouTube video(bi)!

In 2004, Gordon Pipes put forward a radical new ‘stone-rowing’ method of construction(ac), which requires minimal manpower and equipment. In 2009, Pipes expanded on this idea in book form [1126].

Some years later Steven Tasker put forward an alternative transportation theory that he claims could have been used to move the Stonehenge monoliths from Wales and goes as far as to suggest that the ancient Egyptians may have used a similar method to move the blocks for the pyramids(cc).

The Ancient-Wisdom.com website has an interesting item regarding the use of balls and tracks in 1770 to shift very heavy weights, noting that The largest stone ever (recently) recorded to have been moved purely by human power alone is the famous ‘Thunder Stone’ from Russia, which was moved to St. Petersburg from the Gulf of Finland. It was rolled along on small balls placed on a track (Only 100m in length) at a rate of 150m per day.”(ba)(bb).

In 2019, archaeologists at Newcastle University put forward the idea that lard (pig fat) had been used to grease the sledges that were used to transport the huge stones(bh). Fat residues on shards of pottery found at Durrington Walls, near Stonehenge, have long been assumed to be connected with feeding the many hundreds of people that came from across Britain to help construct the ancient monument. But a new analysis by archaeologists at Newcastle University in the UK suggests that because the fragments came from dishes that would have been the size and shape of buckets, not cooking or serving dishes, they could have been used for the collection and storage of tallow – a form of animal fat.

More discoveries are expected as investigations continue. In 2014, it was announced that although most attention is focused on the rising sun at the summer solstice, it is now thought that Stonehenge was more likely to have been concerned with the midwinter setting sun(m). This opinion has been voiced by many, including archaeologist Anthony Johnson in his Solving Stonehenge [1794.253].

Another form of solar association was put forward some years ago by John Ivimy (1911- ) in his first book The Sphinx and the Megaliths [1829], in which he proposed “that Stonehenge was in fact an Egyptian colony, established for political reasons by the priests of the sun god Ra.”

It is worth mentioning that as early as 1906, Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), a respected scientist and amateur astronomer raised the possibility that Stonehenge had astronomical significance(bq). Wikipedia noted that Lockyer is among the pioneers of archaeoastronomy. Travelling in 1890 in Greece he noticed the east-west orientation of many temples, in Egypt he found the orientation of temples to sunrise at midsummer and towards Sirius. Assuming the orientation of the Heel-Stone of Stonehenge to sunrise at midsummer he calculated the construction of the monument to have taken place in 1680 BC. Radiocarbon dating in 1952 gave a date of 1800 BC.”

In the 1960s, it was Gerald Hawkins who set a cat among the pigeons with the publication of his Stonehenge Decoded [1613]+. in which he proposed that the monument was in fact used as an astronomical computer. Many of the leading astronomers and archaeologists of the day offered apoplectic responses. Hawkins went as far as to suggest that the 56 Aubrey Holes at Stonehenge functioned as eclipse predictors, an idea endorsed by Fred Hoyle [1614]. How this can be achieved is outlined on the internet(by). ohn Edwin Wood in Sun, Moon & Standing Stones [1951.76] preferred Hoyle’s method over Hawkin’s. A 1999 paper has proposed a simpler method than those put forward by either Hawkins or Hoyle(ap).

I am reminded that one of the suggested functions of the Antikythera Mechanism was predicting eclipses(bz).

Another theory has recently been advanced by Thomas O. Mills which suggests that Stonehenge was aligned with the position of the North Pole as it was situated around 10,000 BC, as proposed earlier by Charles Hapgood.(u)

Conventional wisdom has it that Newgrange was built around 3200 BC, while Stonehenge was built in six stages between 3000 and 1520 BCEOf course, there are dissenters, such as Yair Davidy, who made the following unusual claim on the Brit-Am website – “Dolmens and Megalithic Monuments originated in Ancient Israel. Jeremiah 31:21 says that the Ten Lost Tribes will construct a trail of Megalithic Monuments from Israel to their places of exile and evidence of this path will enable them to return. Such a trail exists! It is the Trail of the Dolmens from the Middle East to the West.”(cs).  Professor W.A. Liebenberg has written a longer piece(ct). on the ‘Ten Lost Tribes’ as the builders of the megaliths. However, since the megalithic building period is generally accepted to have lasted from around 4000 BC until 1500 BC, this created a problem for Davidy and Liebenberg (D & L). The disappearance of the Lost Tribes is dated to around 700 BC leading to their dispersal and proposed megalith building as they travelled. D & L include Newgrange and by extension Stonehenge) among their monuments and that is where their difficulties begin. Both claim that before 700 BC the year was 360 days in length (after Velikovsky [037.128]) rather than our present 365 days. They argue that if Newgrange (among other monuments) had been built when we had a 360-day year the sun would not still light up the interior at the winter solstice. Therefore, they conclude that most megaliths were erected AFTER 700 BC! It just shows that if you combine the Bible with a fertile imagination you can prove anything.

Paul D. Burley has published a two-part paper(q)(r) on Stonehenge, which draws attention to the fact that most commentators have focused on the solar or lunar significance of the site’s alignments which he feels is in stark contrast to other European megalithic monuments that would appear to have been designed with stellar alignments in mind. Burley is the author of Stonehenge: As Above, So Below[1045].

In 1995 Duncan Steel suggested in his book, Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets [0562], that Stonehenge I had been constructed as a predictor of the Earth’s intersection with the path of a comet and its attendant debris, which had a 19-year periodicity(x).

Graham Philips in his most recent (2019) offering, Wisdomkeepers of Stonehenge [1914] has a different approach to understanding Stonehenge, as explained by the cover notes “Graham argues that, with stones aligned to the sun, stars, and positions of the moon, stone circles were not just astronomical calendars, as some scholars have proposed, but were part of an elaborate system to determine precise timings necessary for the cultivation of medicinal plants. The Druids, he reveals, had medical knowledge well beyond their time, and may even have found a cure for cancer. Graham also discovers that the Megalithic people developed phenomenal memory techniques, resulting in a priesthood that became both the guardians of the stone circles and the living libraries of inherited knowledge. Wisdom keepers of Stonehenge uncover the long-forgotten secrets of the Megalithic people and the true extent of their astonishing achievements: a vast network of monuments, as important to the ancient peoples of the British Isles as the internet is to us today. The true purpose of Stonehenge is ultimately revealed. It was not just a religious monument, but served a vital, practical function – as a prehistoric healthcare facility.”

It was a pleasant change when in March 2022 Professor Timothy Darvill of Bournemouth University offered the results of a new analysis of Stonehenge’s intended function, which is much simpler and arguably more credible than some of the suggestions noted above. Darvill claims that the site was a calendar based on a tropical year of 365.25 days. “The proposed calendar works in a very straightforward way. Each of the 30 stones in the sarsen circle represents a day within a month, itself divided into three weeks each of 10 days,” said Professor Darvill, noting that distinctive stones in the circle mark the start of each week.(ce)

Stonehenge, among other megalithic structures, has been linked by various writers with Plato’s Atlantis. One extreme example of this, from John Nichols, is the suggestion that if the number of Aubrey Holes, 56, is multiplied by theWoodhenge diameter of the Aubrey Circle we get 16,200 feet which is “the exact diameter of Plato’s Atlantis”.(bv) Now, a ten-minute search on the Internet reveals FIVE different figures for the diameter of the Circle, ranging from 271.6’ to 288’. Combining that with the uncertainty attached to the value of the unit of measurement employed by Plato, it is clear that any claim of a connection between the Aubrey Holes and Atlantis is at best tenuous and at worst foolish.

Jürgen Spanuth suggested that the five trilithons “most probably represented five sets of twins.” [0015.85], an idea echoed later by Dieter Braasch(as). Spanuth was adamant that a commonly held view linking Stonehenge with Hyperborea was incorrect as Hyperboreans had come from Jutland.

Two Swedish researchers, Nils-Axel Mörner & Bob G. Lind have proposed(bm) that the Ales Stones in Sweden were built with the same basic geometry and using the megalithic yard as a standard of measure as Stonehenge.

Harry Sivertsen has written a paper about the metrology of Stonehenge with the ingenious title of ‘The Metrology of Stonehenge’. In it, he pulls together data from Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, Welsh churches and, of course, Stonehenge(cm).

The late Philip Coppens echoed(b) the views of a fellow Belgian, Marcel Mestdagh, that there might be a connection between monuments within the Stonehenge Heritage Site and Atlantis, namely Woodhenge, which comprised of posts arranged in six concentric circles. The suggestion is that this arrangement is in some manner a reflection of the concentric features in Atlantis described by Plato. I can only consider this to be highly speculative,  somewhat akin to the suggestion(c) that Stonehenge I was an earthquake predictor.

In March 2015, the UK’s MailOnline published an article(ch) concerning some sites with unexplained concentric circles in China’s Gobi Desert. The article notes some superficial similarities with Stonehenge. Paolo Marini [0713]. also claimed that the concentric circles of Atlantis are reflected in the layout of Stonehenge! In 2011, Shoji Yoshinori suggested that Stonehenge was a 1/24thscale model of Atlantis(cg). He includes a fascinating image in the pdf.

For those interested, a recently reconstructed German counterpart of Woodhenge has the original dated to 2300 BC(aq). A Portuguese ‘woodhenge’ was reported in 2020(bk), which is thought to be the work of the Bell Beaker people (3500 – 2000 BC).

However, in the meanwhile, we will have to be content with a recent book by Professor Mike Parker-Pearson, Stonehenge: Exploring the Greatest Stone Age Mystery [839], which includes all the discoveries revealed by the recent ten years of investigation.

A 2014 offering from Professor David P. Gregg, The Stonehenge Codes [977], throws further light on the mathematics used for the building and development of Stonehenge over a 1500-year period was consistently the same polygon geometry. Gregg has also identified an earlier Babylonian influence. His book has considerable numerical content that many will find heavy going. Some of the text of the book is available online(j). The July 2014 edition of the BBC Focus magazine offers evidence that the history of the Stonehenge location can be traced to nearer the end of the Ice Age.

It has been generally accepted for many years that the bluestones (spotted dolerites) at Stonehenge had been brought from the Preseli Mountains of Wales. Now (Nov.2013) evidence has been presented that identifies the precise outcrop, Carn Goedog, as their source(h).

However, in November 2015, a report threw doubt on the existence of a Neolithic quarry in the Preseli Hills(ag). Confusingly, the following month it was reported(ah) that studies carried out in Wales suggested that the stones had been erected there first before their transportation to Wiltshire. In May 2016, the controversial matter of the method of transportation from Wales was claimed to have been resolved when it was demonstrated by students from University College London, supervised by Parker-Pearson that the bluestones could have been mounted on a sycamore sleigh and dragged along timbers requiring far less effort than was previously expected.(ao) Parker-Pearson believes that originally the stones had been part of a Welsh tomb that was dismantled and brought to Wiltshire as the successors migrated westward(ap). There is now a search underway to locate the site of the original monument in Wales.

In 2004, Jennifer Viegas from Discovery News (June 14) suggested that Stonehenge had been built by Welshmen based on remains found in builders’ graves found close to Stonehenge(bx).

A further twist to the Welsh connection was proposed in a 2021 paper(bs), again in Antiquity, when a team of archaeologists proposed that the Stonehenge bluestones may have been taken from one or more pre-existing stone circles. One candidate is to be found at the remains of the dismantled Waun Mawn circle in the Preseli Hills(be). A few years ago Robin Heath published Proto Stonehenge in Wales [1853] which expanded on this Welsh connection.

>“A century has passed since British geologist Herbert Henry Thomas published his seminal 1923 study on Stonehenge, in which he traced the origin of the “bluestones” that make up the monument’s inner circle to the Preseli Hills in western Wales. Among these bluestones — so called because they acquire a bluish tinge when wet or freshly broken and to distinguish them from the “sarsen” stones that make up the outer circle — Thomas included a 16-foot-long (4.9 meters) flat-lying, gray-green slab of stone known as the Altar Stone.

It now appears that Thomas’ assessment was flawed, Richard Bevins and his colleagues have found in a new study, published in the October (2023) issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. While Thomas “quite rightly” pinpointed the source of some stones to outcrops in western Wales, the Altar Stone likely came from a completely different location, possibly an unknown quarry in northern Britain, Bevins said.”(cv)<

Parker-Pearson published a paper in the February 2019 edition of Antiquity in which he reports on his research at the Welsh site, where he found some of the tools used to extract the pillars and determined the method of transportation(bc).

The transportation question received new attention with a study that suggested that “to move these stones such long distances, the builders likely manoeuvred them onto timber sledges and rolled these over logs,” using pig fat as a lubricant to minimise the friction between the sled and the logs. It is suggested that ceramic vessels, with high concentrations of pig fat, found on-site at Durrington Walls, may have been used to collect fat from the carcasses as they were roasted on a spit, which was then stored as lard or tallow! (bf) My question is, how many pigs are needed to grease a path for a stone from Wales to Stonehenge?

Further investigation has produced the claim by Paul Devereux that the rock there was chosen because of its acoustic qualities(I), raising the possibility that Stonehenge was the site of the first ‘rock’ concert. A more wide-ranging essay on the subject of archaeoacoustics is available online(ak). Robert Hensey notes [1766.40] that acoustic experiments have been carried out inside Newgrange and Cairns I & L at Loughcrew, while in the Orkneys, Aaron Watson and David Keating have investigated sound effects at two passage tombs.

According to Trevor Cox, professor of acoustic engineering at England’s Salford University, the Neolithic temple (of Stonehenge) had unique properties capable of significantly altering and amplifying speech and musical sounds(cf). His theories were also explored in a June 2023 article on the BBC website(cp).

After centuries of being described as one of the wonders of the megalithic world, the construction skills of Stonehenge’s builders have been harshly criticised by Professor Ronald Hutton of Bristol University, who went as far as to describe them as ‘cowboy builders’(n).

In 2012, Gordon Freeman, a Canadian scientist, published Hidden Stonehenge [891] in which he offers an extensive study of a Native American “medicine wheel” in Alberta and compares its astronomical alignments with that of Stonehenge, revealing ‘incredible’ similarities(bu).  His book highlights the use of sophisticated astronomical knowledge at both locations, in the very distant past suggesting cultural links millennia before Columbus!

>Although full scientific investigation has yet to be carried out, a circle of standing stones submerged of the coast in Lake Michigan, initial reports are intriguing(cx). However, until properly studied, wild speculation has offered some outlandish  theories regarding the date, builders and purpose of these stones.<

A somewhat cruder but equally effective winter solstice alignment was recently identified in the Chilean Andes(aw).

A site in Australia discovered in the first half of the last century by Frederic Slater (President of the Australian Archaeological Society) and dubbed ‘Australia’s Stonehenge’ was bulldozed in 1940 on the orders of the Australian Government! The location, obviously, never as impressive as its namesake on Salisbury Plain, has been again identified and using drawings made over seventy years ago has enabled a computer-generated image of the site to be made(t). A father and son team, Steven & Evan Strong have recently relocated to the damaged site(af).

In the Strait of Sicily, a ‘Stonehenge’ has been identified on the small island of Lampedusa, by Diego Ratti and described on a generously illustrated website(e). However, the application of the term to almost any megalithic monument, particularly by the media, has debased its value.

In May 2013, Melville Nicholls published a Kindle ebook, Children of the Sea God, in which he argues strongly for a Stonehenge built by Atlanteans, better known as the Bell Beaker People!

Robert John Langdon has now proposed(g) that Stonehenge was constructed by megalith builders, around 8500 BC, who had migrated from Doggerland/Atlantis as it became submerged and that the Altar Stone at Stonehenge points to Doggerland! Langdon is highly critical of the generally accepted interpretation of various features found at Stonehenge, listing13 items that he claims “don’t make sense”(bp).

>John Chaple has drawn attention to a letter from Quintus to his brother Marcus Tullius Cicero regarding the construction of Stonehenge, possibly based on information received from Druids!

” The temples of the Britons are raised and constructed in a circular form, with obelisks of stone, over which are imposts, all of huge dimensions untouched by the chisel; a peace offering to Geranius, or Apollo, the sun. The huge stones of which they are composed, lay scattered by the hand of nature on the plain: these, with myriads of labourers, the high priest caused to be rolled up on the inclined planes of solid earth, which had been formed by the excavation of trenches, until they had attained a height equal to their own altitude; these pits being dug, they were launched from the terrace and sunk so as to stand perpendicular, at due and equal distances in the circle, and over these were placed others horizontally. After having completed one circle, they formed another that is concentric at some distance, and towards the extremity of the area of the inner circle, they placed a huge stone for the purpose of religious rites. When the sun enters into Cancer, [mid summer] is the greatest festival of the god; and on all high mountains and eminences of the country, they light fires at the approach of that day, and make their wives, their children, and their cattle, to pass through the fire, or to present themselves before the fire in honour of the deity. Deep and profound is the silence of the multitude during this ceremony, the appearance of the sun above the horizon, when, with loud and continued exclamations, and songs of joy, they hail the utmost of that luminary, as the supreme triumph of the symbol of the god of their adoration.”(cw)<

Shoji Yoshinori has suggested that Stonehenge was intended as a model of Atlantis(k), as had also the late Philip Coppens(b).

It is quite obvious that more convincing evidence is required if any claim of a Stonehenge/Atlantis connection is to gain greater traction. In 2018, David L. Hildebrandt published Atlantis – The Awakening [1602]in which he endeavoured to do just that with a mass of material that he claims supports the idea of Atlantis in Britain and Stonehenge as the remnants of the Temple of Poseidon. He suggests that the five trilithons represent the five sets of male twins, an idea voiced by Jürgen Spanuth and more recently by Dieter Braasch. Even earlier George H. Cooper proposed Stonehenge as the Pillars of Herakles. I am not convinced by the spirited defence of his hypothesis, as I consider his date too early and the location too far from Athens or Egypt to consider them to be within ‘easy striking distance’ for the purpose of invasion.

Jürgen Spanuth claimed that “Among the racecourses of the Bronze Age still in existence today must be counted the stone circle of Stonehenge which must have been erected by men of the Atlantean culture many centuries before the Atlantis report was written. The racecourse at Stonehenge, in its original, immense dimensions, cannot be an imitation of a Greek stadium.” [017.126]

As recent as the summer of 2014 evidence was accidentally discovered(o) that suggested that the Stonehenge megalithic stones form a complete circle. Commenting on the discovery Susan Greaney from English Heritage said “A lot of people assume we’ve excavated the entire site and everything we’re ever going to know about the monument is known, but actually there’s quite a lot we still don’t know and there’s quite a lot that can be discovered just through non-excavation methods.”  An extensive digital mapping project carried out at Stonehenge by researchers from the University of Birmingham and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Vienna has revealed, “that the area around Stonehenge is teeming with previously unseen archaeology and that the application of new technology can transform how archaeologists and the wider public understand one of the best-studied landscapes on Earth.”(p)

December  2014 saw an encampment site just 1.5 miles from Stonehenge has its date confirmed at around 4000 BC(s).

Marden Henge, situated between Stonehenge and Avebury is reckoned to be ten times bigger than Stonehenge and has now (2015) seen the start of a three-year, £1,00,000, dig by 80 archaeologists hoping to unlock its secrets(a). Dr Jim Leary, a leading archaeologist working at the site is convinced that Marden may turn out to be more significant than Stonehenge(w).

Earlier in 2015 Tim Daw, a steward at the Stonehenge site claimed that he had discovered a previously unknown alignment, involving a line of stones at 80 degrees to the axis of the monument. His theory is that the tallest stone at Stonehenge points towards the midsummer sunset and has been observed to be correct(v).

Some years ago a University of Manchester team led by Professor Julian Thomas explained that “The Stonehenge Cursus is a 100-metre wide mile-long area which runs about 500 metres north of Stonehenge.which we have now “dated at about 3,500 years BC – 500 years older than the circle itself.”(ca)


stonehenge-landscape

The archaeological importance of Stonehenge was boosted further in September 2015 with the announcement that a line of nearly 100 buried stones had been discovered just a mile away, beside the Durrington Walls ‘superhenge’(y). There are images available, including a short video clip relating to this new discovery(z). Subsequent excavations revealed no stones, but 90 holes that had held wooden posts.(bn)

In June 2020, the significance of Durrington was greatly enhanced by the revelation that adjacent to the ‘Walls’ is a series of shafts five metres deep and ten metres in diameter. The shafts are arranged in a circle having a diameter of 1.2 miles. The site is 1.9 miles northeast of Stonehenge(bj). Further comment was published in November 2021(cd).

In November 2015, the New York Times published an updated overview(ae) of the various excavations that have taken place in the vicinity of Stonehenge.

Sarah Ewbank has now offered us a fascinating new theory regarding the original purpose and plan of Stonehenge. In a fully illustrated website(al) she reveals that the structure was conceived as  a ‘Cathedral-like’ building with a massive oak-framed roof, and a huge hall at its centre.”

Further discoveries are listed on the Heritage England website(ab). What is not listed there is the information that Stonehenge was constructed by giants on the instruction of the Devil! This b.s. tidbit was imparted to us in April 2016 by Dr Dennis Lindsay on the TV show of disgraced US evangelist Jim Bakker(am). Another blog from Jason Colavito exposed further Stonehenge nonsense, this time from New Zealander, Ted Harper, who has recently claimed that the Wiltshire monument together with the Great Pyramid, both warn of a meteor strike in 2020.

Theories relating to Stonehenge and Atlantis seem to proliferate at comparable rates. In a new book, The Memory Code [1258], by Lynne Kelly, she proposes that the Wiltshire monument is a giant mnemonic(ar) and that other megalithic sites also were. 

July 2017, saw a BBC review of the recent acceptance of Stonehenge as just a part of a huge complex of monuments, with a hint of more to come(at).

In June 2019, Dr Christophe Snoeck, a Belgian archaeological scientist offered evidence for the origins of some of the cremated human remains discovered at Stonehenge. During his doctoral research, he developed a method to extract information about the geographical origin of cremated individuals. This method, he says, “was applied to 25 cremated individuals from Stonehenge and our results show that 40% (10 out of 25 analysed individuals) did not live near Stonehenge in the last decade or so prior to their deaths but came from further away. Some might actually have originated from west Wales where the bluestones came from, some 250 km away,” he adds. “This shows the importance of the site in the British landscape during the Neolithic period.” (bd) Italian scientists have also been working on new ways of gleaning information from cremated remains(be).

In 2020, it was announced that acoustic engineers from the University of Salford had demonstrated that Stonehenge had acoustic qualities that allowed “any sounds produced inside the temple would have been much less audible to anybody outside the circle, despite the monument almost certainly not having a roof.

The findings, therefore, suggest that any sounds generated by activities carried out inside the circle were not intended to be shared with the wider community. This reinforces theories suggesting that the potential religious activities conducted inside Stonehenge were reserved for an elite of practitioners, rather than for a wider communal congregation.”(bl)

In May 1922 NG published its first photo of Stonehenge, now, a century later, it returned to this remarkable monument for its cover story in a 2022 edition(cj). It highlights how the use of new technologies has greatly enhanced our knowledge of the site and the people who built it. Jim Leary, a lecturer in field archaeology at the University of York admits that “a lot of the things we were taught as undergraduates in the 1990s we know now simply aren’t true.”  This beautifully illustrated article is a useful update on developments at this huge UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the February 2023 edition of the Antiquity journal it published a paper by Giulio Magli and Juan Antonio Belmonte that effectively debunked many of the various theories relating to Stonehenge put forward over the past seventy years. “All in all, the alleged “Neolithic” solar-precise Stonehenge calendar is shown to be a purely modern construct whose archaeoastronomical and calendrical bases are flawed.”(cn)

 

[1613]+  Available online: https://archive.org/details/stonehengedecode00gera/mode/2up

[1696]+  https://archive.org/details/b30448554/page/n8/mode/2up

(a) Daily Express, Fri. June 19, 2015

(b) See Archive 2140

(c) https://lunaticoutpost.com/showthread.php?tid=11497

(d) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101130010931.htm 

(e)  See: Archive 2211  (text only)  

(f) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-23286928(g) https://robertjohnlangdon.blogspot.co.uk/#!/2013/06/stonehenge-atlantis-momentous-discovery.html

(h) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-25004282

(h) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-25004282

(i) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/stonehenge-is-like-a-sacred-prehistoric-glockenspiel-researchers-claim-9168812.html

(j) https://old.world-mysteries.com/gw_DavidGregg.htm 

(k) https://www.pipi.jp/~exa/kodai/kaimei/stonehenge_is_small_atrantis_eng.pdf

(m) BBC Focus Magazine, July 2014, p.51

(n)https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2671664/Stonehenge-built-cowboys-lasted-well.html

(o)https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/archaeology/11066703/Stonehenge-ghostly-outlines-of-missing-stones-appear.html

(p) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140909192134.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ffossils_ruins%2Fancient_civilizations+%28Ancient+Civilizations+News+–+ScienceDaily%29

(q) https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/solving-enigma-stonehenge-001616

(r) https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe-opinion-guest-authors/solving-enigma-stonehenge-part-2-001618

(s) https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-30540914

(t) https://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/StrongSE2.php

(u) https://www.mondovista.com/stone.new.html

(v) https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-33205212

(w) https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/towns/devizesheadlines/13418151.Marden_Henge_to_rival_Stonehenge__says_leading_archaeologist/

(x) See Archive 2657

(y) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3224523/Stonehenge-II-Radar-search-reveals-giant-monument-4-500-years-ago-just-one-mile-famous-Wiltshire-site.html

(z) https://www.lbiarchpro-imagery.at/stonehenge2015

(aa) https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34282849

(ab) https://heritagecalling.com/2015/09/23/7-new-discoveries-about-stonehenge/

(ac) https://heritageaction.wordpress.com/2016/05/26/how-did-they-move-the-bluestones/

(ad) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/prehistoric-eco-house-1300-years-older-than-stonehenge-discovered-by-archaeologists-a6712716.html

(ae) Stonehenge Begins to Yield Its Secrets – The New York Times (archive.org)

(af) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3309697/Is-new-Stonehenge-Amateur-historian-claims-proof-mysterious-rock-formation-hidden-Australian-bush-holds-clues-origins-language.html

(ag) https://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/14030126.New_research_undermines_Welsh_bluestone_quarry_theory/

(ah) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/07/stonehenge-first-erected-in-wales-secondhand-monument

(ai) See Archive 2832

(aj) https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/stonehenges-bluestones-were-moved-wales-10591475

(ak) https://dailygrail.com/Hidden-History/2016/1/Archaeoacoustics-Listening-the-Sounds-History

(al) https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/architect-presents-radical-new-theory-stonehenge-was-two-storey-wooden-020722

(am) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/evangelical-pastor-claims-stonehenge-built-by-giants-on-orders-from-the-devil

(an) https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/are-stonehenge-and-the-great-pyramid-warning-of-a-meteor-strike-in-2020

(ao) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/05/23/stonehenge-wasnt-so-hard-to-build-after-all-archaeologists-disco/

(ap) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/06/05/original-stonehenge-was-dismantled-in-wales-and-moved-to-wiltshi/

(aq) https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/4300-year-old-woodhenge-germany-revealed-public-first-time-006224?utm_source=Ancient-Origins+Newsletter&utm_campaign=f03e195ff3-Top_Trending_Stories_July_No2_REAL_07_11_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2dcd13de15-f03e195ff3-85158329

(ar) https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/4104488/the-palace-of-memory/

(as) https://web.archive.org/web/20200220124315/http://www.braasch-megalith.de/atlantis-stonehenge-decoded.html

(at) https://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170713-why-stonehenge-was-built

(au) The images of Stonehenge they don’t want you to see – Ancient Code (archive.org)

(av) https://www.livescience.com/62619-did-glaciers-carry-stonehenge-bluestones.html

(aw) https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2018/05/26/a-southern-hemisphere-stonehenge-is-found-in-chile?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/asouthernhemispherestonehengeisfoundinchilesightingthesungod

(ax) https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/victorian-stonehenge-picnic-photos

(ay) https://issuu.com/os012/docs/stonehenge_a4_pdf

(az) https://www.rte.ie/news/leinster/2018/0711/977969-newgrange/

(ba) https://web.archive.org/web/20190601213915/https://www.ancient-wisdom.com/extremasonry.htm

(bb) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Horseman

(bc) https://www.livescience.com/64801-stonehenge-temporary-monument.html

(bd) https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/magazine/59506/belgian-archaeologist-discloses-mysteries-of-stonehenge/

(be) https://www.latimes.com/science/new-way-to-decode-burned-bones-story.html

(bf) https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/ancient-people-may-have-used-pig-fat-build-stonehenge

(bg) https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/lunar-calendar-0012340

(bh) https://bradshawfoundation.com/news/world_heritage.php?id=Moving-the-stones-of-Stonehenge

(bi) https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/arqueologia/esp_esferas_costarica05.htm

(bj) https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jun/22/vast-neolithic-circle-of-deep-shafts-found-near-Stonehenge

(bk) https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/perdigoes-neolithic-woodhenge-0014084

(bl) Scientists recreate prehistoric acoustics of Stonehenge | The Independent | The Independent (archive.org) 

(bm) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258650145_Stonehenge_Has_Got_a_Younger_Sister_Ales_Stones_in_Sweden_Decoded

(bn) ‘New Stonehenge’ was made of WOOD | Daily Mail Online

(bo) Britons who built Stonehenge were product of ancient wave of migrant farmers, DNA reveals | The Independent | The Independent

(bp) The Post Glacial Flooding Hypothesis: The Great Stonehenge Hoax (archive.org) 

(bq) Stonehenge Astronomically Considered Index (sacred-texts.com)

(br) Second-hand Stonehenge: Research suggests the stones of the famous megalithic site come from dismantled stone circles in Wales – The Daily Grail

(bs) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/original-stonehenge-a-dismantled-stone-circle-in-the-preseli-hills-of-west-wales/B7DAA4A7792B4DAB57DDE0E3136FBC33

(bt) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_west/5072664.stm

(bu) https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2009/01/29/alberta_sun_temple_has_5000yearold_calendar.html

(bv) https://jjswn35.wordpress.com/article/atlantis-eden-how-to-find-2vfxjftuay98o-9/

(bw) Stonehenge – Voices from the Dawn

(bx) Archive 6480 | (atlantipedia.ie)

(by) PREDICTING ECLIPSES WITH THE STONEHENGE (archive.org)

(bz) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-018-0210-9

(ca) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080610095001.htm

(cb) https://www.livescience.com/stonehenge-pillars-mesozoic.html

(cc)  Stonehenge: Did ancient ‘machine’ move stones from Wales? – BBC News

(cd) Tests Prove Largest Neolithic Circle in Britain was Definitely Human-Made | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net) 

(ce) https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220301192407.htm

(cf) ADVANCED ACOUSTICS AT STONEHENGE – ATLANTIS RISING THE RESEARCH REPORT 

(cg) http://www.pipi.jp/~exa/kodai/kaimei/stonehenge_is_small_atrantis_eng.pdf 

(ch) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3014736/China-s-Stonehenge-Gobi-Desert-Mysterious-rock-formations-used-worship-sun.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

(ci) https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/sac/index.htm 

(cj) National Geographic, August 2022

(ck) The Victorian Vicar Who Thought the Nephilim Built Stonehenge and the Pyramids – JASON COLAVITO

(cl) https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999AAS…195.9201C/abstract

(cm) (99+) The Metrology of Stonehenge 2020 | Harry Sivertsen – Academia.edu

(cn) https://phys.org/news/2023-03-stonehenge-calendar-shown-modern.html 

(co) Neolithic Stone Balls: The Northern Rosetta Stone? | Ancient Origins (ancient-origins.net)

(cp) What did Stonehenge sound like? – BBC Travel

(cq) https://www.academia.edu/64551399/Researching_Stonehenge_Theories_Past_and_Present 

(cr) https://www.academia.edu/75967939/New_Theory_About_Stonehenge_Stonehenge_Royal_Palace_Author_Dimitar_Alekseev_Dimitrov

(cs) https://www.britam.org/Proof/Attributes/roleDolmen.html 

(ct) (99+) A Historical Research of the Ten Tribes Scattered Into the Nations Part 10 | Prof (Dr) WA Liebenberg – Academia.edu 

(cu) https://www.academia.edu/96803677/The_Stonehenge_Builders_came_from_Turkey_so_whats_new

(cv)  100-year-old origin theory of Stonehenge’s iconic Altar Stone could be wrong, scientists say | Live Science 

(cw) http://www.johnchaple.co.uk/stonehenge.html *

(cx) Mysterious ‘Stonehenge’ structure was found at the bottom of a lake in the US that baffled scientists (unilad.com) *