{"id":2014,"date":"2012-10-10T21:35:18","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T20:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?p=2014"},"modified":"2012-10-11T08:31:39","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T07:31:39","slug":"what-laser-scans-have-revealed-at-stonehenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?p=2014","title":{"rendered":"What Laser Scans have revealed at Stonehenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"ArcHeritage\/English<\/p>\n

Revelations about Stonehenge continue apace, with the news that laser scans have revealed 72 previously unknown Early Bronze Age carvings chipped into five of the giant stones.<\/p>\n

Moreover many of these carvings are of Bronze Age axes.\u00a0 The initial response – by among others The Independent<\/a><\/em>, who covered the story – was that \u2018the axe-heads \u2013 the vast majority of the images \u2013 may have been engraved as votive offerings to placate a storm deity and thus protect crops.\u2019<\/p>\n

As always, whenever anyone reaches for a \u2018ceremonial\u2019 or ritual explanation in archaeology it is wise to be careful.<\/p>\n

One should remember that bronzes axes were neither purely functional or military, let alone ceremonial, in Bronze Age culture; they were often used as currency, to be bartered for other goods.\u00a0 There are many reasons why the symbol of the axe may have had such a great attraction for the builders of Stonehenge: as a symbol of wealth, or of the great clearance of the forests which they were embarking on;\u00a0 or simply as a potent icon, in the same way that they celebrated horses on their coins and at the White Horse of Uffington.<\/p>\n

Very few such Bronze Age depictions of axes have been uncovered elsewhere in Britain;\u00a0 those few that have were often associated with funerary monuments, which would match with the recent work done on the sacred landscape that surrounds Stonehenge by Mike Pearson Smith (who uncovered a henge at the river Avon nearby).<\/p>\n

These are not the first axes to be noticed at Stonehenge. A few can still be made out on the surface without the need for a laser scan, and were listed in the 1950s. But in the past they have always been considered a rather marginal aspect of the site.\u00a0 This new discovery, showing them there in such quantities, puts them more centre stage.<\/p>\n

Those who wish to go straight to source on this fascinating story should read the full report which very helpfully has been put online by English Heritage<\/a>:\u00a0 among other details, it also confirms the long-held suspicion that many of the stones have been removed over the years.\u00a0 Rather than being an unfinished site – as many have suggested since the very first investigations of the 18th<\/sup> century – it is a vandalised site.<\/p>\n

Those who think the only good thing ever to happen to Stonehenge was to be in Spinal Tap\u00a0<\/em>might instead enjoy the Daily Mash’s\u00a0Experts close to discovering secret pointlessness of Stonehenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Revelations about Stonehenge continue apace, with the news that laser scans have revealed 72 previously unknown Early Bronze Age carvings chipped into five of the giant stones. Moreover many of these carvings are of Bronze Age axes.\u00a0 The initial response – by among others The Independent, who covered the story – was that \u2018the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,1],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-2014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-uncategorized","tag-stonehenge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2014"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2022,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2014\/revisions\/2022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}