{"id":2657,"date":"2015-03-16T11:10:11","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T10:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?p=2657"},"modified":"2015-03-16T11:37:37","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T10:37:37","slug":"enjoyably-daft-new-theory-about-stonehenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?p=2657","title":{"rendered":"Enjoyably daft new theory about Stonehenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/stonehenge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2659\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/stonehenge.jpg\" alt=\"stonehenge\" width=\"269\" height=\"187\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2015\/mar\/15\/circular-thinking-stonehenges-origin-is-subject-to-new-theory\" target=\"_blank\">Enjoyably daft new theory about Stonehenge<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Julian Spalding, which has prompted a classic archaeologist putdown from Sir Barry Cunliffe, emeritus professor of European archaeology at Oxford,\u00a0\u201cHe could be right, but I know of no evidence to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The idea that Stonehenge might have been built as the base for\u00a0a higher structure is initially attractive, but doesn\u2019t bear much thinking about.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If you want to construct a high building, everyone from Egypt to Mesoamerica did so by creating a wide and stable mass\u00a0&#8211; like a pyramid &#8211; so that you could erect upper storries.<\/p>\n<p>Having a thin wide circle as the base for a higher walkway or superstructure seems deeply illogical, as the late Leonard Nimoy would say.<\/p>\n<p>That there was an element of procession, both to and around Stonehenge, seems very probable, not least because of the evidence provided by the nearby oval Cursus, the Avenue to Stonehenge, and from what we know of prehistoric man\u2019s instincts around the world.\u00a0 But the idea that they walked around on top of the stones may be seductive, but is highly unlikely.<\/p>\n<p>More consistent\u00a0is the idea of a concealed place, like Bronze Age mortuary circles:\u00a0 that the outer ring \u00a0delineated a private space within, which may have been only accessible to the privileged or theocratic, as discussed in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thewhiterock.co.uk\/?page_id=1811\">The Green Road into the Trees <\/a>when talking about Seahenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enjoyably daft new theory about Stonehenge\u00a0from\u00a0Julian Spalding, which has prompted a classic archaeologist putdown from Sir Barry Cunliffe, emeritus professor of European archaeology at Oxford,\u00a0\u201cHe could be right, but I know of no evidence to support it.\u201d The idea that Stonehenge might have been built as the base for\u00a0a higher structure is initially attractive, but [&hellip;]<\/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":"","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":"","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 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