Stone Henge

[Milo]

Has it not been carbon dated?
Or something to that effect.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

The only thing I'm sceptical of is that primitive people built it with just their bare hands and no proper tools whatsoever that hadn't been invented in those days.

Read my post again.

No, on second thoughts, don't. It wasn't very well expressed. Have a look at this instead.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Has it not been carbon dated?
Or something to that effect.

Any form of dating would be difficult as it would only give an age for the stones themselves, not the date they were made into Stonehenge. Although I think there are dating methods which would give the date of construction, I just can't remember what they are.
Where's Arch when you need her?

 

[Over The Hill]

I am all for a proper dig to establish the facts about this ancient monument.
The dig should be about 10 meters wide by about two miles long and run from the nice bit of the A303 to the next nice bit of the A303. Oh and them put a skim of tarmac on it after.

(I often wish a stray bomb from the army camp nearby would wipe the sodding thing out each time I am stuck on the bit of road that is like a farm track between the two bits of major road running the other 300 miles across the south of England) Will someone get on and sort it out!!

Do we need to know when it was put there? It is an equally great achievement if done at any time over 200 years ago as basically they had the same tools to do it. Sometimes things are better not known.

 

[Andy in Sig]

I used to live near Stonehenge and every time I saw the place I could never understand why they didn't put the roof back on. I would imagine it was thatched. It was probably originally a village hall or bronze age pub. You know the sort of thing, weddings, birthdays, funeral dos etc.

 

[Aperitif]

Don't forget the odd rock concert Andy... Rolling Stones possibly - bonj ovi definitely!

 

[rich p]

Don't forget the odd rock concert Andy... Rolling Stones possibly - bonj ovi definitely!

 

[Danny]

I thought it had been conclusively proved in the 1960's that Stonehenge had been erected by Aliens as a navigation aid for their spaceships.

 

[Arch]

Any form of dating would be difficult as it would only give an age for the stones themselves, not the date they were made into Stonehenge. Although I think there are dating methods which would give the date of construction, I just can't remember what they are.
Where's Arch when you need her?

You called?

As an archaeologist... Oh, really, I dunno if I can be bothered....

On the question of dating, it's not the stones themselves that give a date - you can date the working of stone in some situations, but it requires them to be unearthed and processed in very controlled conditions, IIRC correctly, and having stood on Salisbury Plain for hundreds of years is not controlled conditions. What will be dated will be any artefacts or ecofacts found in sealed contexts near or under the stones. Carbon dating can only be used on organic material, non-organic stuff is more often dated according to established typologies and analogy. (eg, we know this style of brooch is found in tombs etc dated to X by other absolute methods, therefore the context it lies in may be from that date too). Dating isn't an exact science, well, not often (unless you have a coined stamped with a date or something), but it's exact enough for most people with any actual understanding to know that Stonehenge dates from before 1877. And I'm fairly sure it was marked on maps before then anyway, although bonj will just say they were made up prophetically or something.

 

[Andy in Sig]

You called?

As an archaeologist... Oh, really, I dunno if I can be bothered....

On the question of dating, it's not the stones themselves that give a date - you can date the working of stone in some situations, but it requires them to be unearthed and processed in very controlled conditions, IIRC correctly, and having stood on Salisbury Plain for hundreds of years is not controlled conditions. What will be dated will be any artefacts or ecofacts found in sealed contexts near or under the stones. Carbon dating can only be used on organic material, non-organic stuff is more often dated according to established typologies and analogy. (eg, we know this style of brooch is found in tombs etc dated to X by other absolute methods, therefore the context it lies in may be from that date too). Dating isn't an exact science, well, not often (unless you have a coined stamped with a date or something), but it's exact enough for most people with any actual understanding to know that Stonehenge dates from before 1877. And I'm fairly sure it was marked on maps before then anyway, although bonj will just say they were made up prophetically or something.

This of course is why the average person's CLE (Co-efficient of Legover) can be dismally low at times.

 

[Noodley]

...and having stood on Salisbury Plain for hundreds of years is not controlled conditions...

Well, if you stopped standing around for so long, maybe we would have some answers by now!

 

[papercorn2000]

How do we know that the photos taken in 1877 aren't faked?

I mean, if a couple of guys can knock out a crop circle in an hour or so, how much longer does it take to chuck up a few rocks in the back of beyond - they didn't even finish it, sounds to me as if they were disturbed or daybreak beckoned.

Could be a cunning plan to get all the hippies and crusties together at the one time prior perhaps to bombing them?

 

[Milo]

Ok then who has a theory on Avebury stone cirlce?

 

[Andy in Sig]

Well if Stonehenge was a pub then the Avebury thing was a big barn. You've just got to imagine these things with the thatch on. It saves loads of hours of archaeologists wages.

 

[Arch]

Report in the Indy today said they were hoping to find fragments of the stones to carbon date.

YOU CAN'T CARBON DATE STONE!

<and breathe>