Stonehenge Discovery using 3D Laser Scanning

Alligator Descartes writes "The BBC reports - 'High-tech lasers have been used to unlock the secrets of Stonehenge. The work at the ancient site in Wiltshire has already uncovered two carvings which are invisible to the naked eye.' The project website contains lots of images plus some nice animations of the scan data."

Comments

Bad Link in story

[Brahmastra]

Here's the correct link

Re:Bad Link in story

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a link to a press release from Wessex Archaeology that includes pictures: http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/press/stonehenge_laser s.html

Re:But how do they know...

[stevesliva]

Could the stone arrangement predate the carvings?

From the press release:

The stones at Stonehenge were put up in about 2,300 BC. The axes are of types made around 1,800 BC, so the carvings are likely to be five centuries younger than the stones. Their purpose is a mystery.

Re:Erm, radio carbon dating huh?

[PainKilleR-CE]

Right, carbon dating rocks eh? Using what carbon? Carbon dating can only date things which had sufficient carbon 14 content and is based on its radio active decay to carbon 12. It only works on things that were once living (I'm no scientist but I'm pretty sure these rocks weren't) and even then it can produce hideously inaccurate results.

compared to http://www.c14dating.com/int.html

Of major recent interest is the development of the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry method of direct C14 isotope counting. In 1977, the first AMS measurements were conducted by teams at Rochester/Toronto and the General Ionex Corporation and soon after at the Universities of Simon Fraser and McMaster (Gove, 1994). The crucial advantage of the AMS method is that milligram sized samples are required for dating. Of great public interest has been the AMS dating of carbonacous material from prehistoric rock art sites, the Shroud of Turin and the Dead Sea Scrolls in the last few years. The development of high-precision dating (up to +/-2.0 per mille or +/-16 yr) in a number of gas and liquid scintillation facilities has been of similar importance (laboratories at Belfast (N.Ireland), Seattle (US), Heidelberg (Ger), Pretoria (S.Africa), Groningen (Netherlands), La Jolla (US), Waikato (NZ) and Arizona (US) are generally accepted to have demonstrated radiocarbon measurements at high levels of precision). The calibration research undertaken primarily at the Belfast and Seattle labs required that high levels of precision be obtained which has now resulted in the extensive calibration data now available. The development of small sample capabilities for LSC and Gas labs has likewise been an important development - samples as small as 100 mg are able to be dated to moderate precision on minigas counters (Kromer, 1994) with similar sample sizes needed using minivial technology in Liquid Scintillation Counting. The radiocarbon dating method remains arguably the most dependable and widely applied dating technique for the late Pleistocene and Holocene periods.

Materials that can be carbon-dated using current methods include:
# Charcoal, wood, twigs and seeds.
# Bone.
# Marine, estuarine and riverine shell.
# Leather.
# Peat
# Coprolites.
# Lake muds (gyttja) and sediments.
# Soil.
# Ice cores.
# Pollen.
# Hair.
# Pottery.
# Metal casting ores.
# Wall paintings and rock art works.
# Iron and meteorites.
# Avian eggshell.
# Corals and foraminifera.
# Speleothems.
# Tufa.
# Blood residues.
# Textiles and fabrics.
# Paper and parchment.
# Fish remains.
# Insect remains.
# Resins and glues.
# Antler and horn.
# Water.

rock art, metal casting ores, water? I'm pretty sure these weren't living, either.

A link from the site to http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/stoneh/start.htm
yields the following:
# A thorough reassessment of all existing radiocarbon dates was attempted.

# New samples were selected according to rigorous selection procedures.

# Radiocarbon dating was carried out on these samples, either using Liquid Scintillation Counting or Accelerator Mass Spectrometry.

# Rigorous quality control procedures at the dating laboratories ensured the scientific reliability of the measurements.

# Statistical analysis and calibration of the reliable results using the calibration and analysis program OxCal (v2.16) enabled us to model the chronology of Stonehenge.

Re:[Blank Stripped]Google cache with pix

[derubergeek]

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:BAqUaiHp3yAJ: www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART18464.html+s tonehenge+laser+scan&hl=en&ie=UTF-8