Building A Modern Stonehenge In New Zealand

Flexagon writes "Wired News is reporting that a group of astronomy enthusiasts in New Zealand is building its own version of Stonehenge in a little more than a year. Why? "We came up with the idea of Stonehenge because it doesn't matter who you are -- everyone looks at the Pyramids and Stonehenge and structures like that (and asks) who built them, why did they build them?" says Richard Hall, president of the Phoenix Astronomical Society. Yet another reason to book a ticket!"

Comments

Europe's pagan roots

[pubjames]

It annoys me that some are insisting that the (future) EU constitution must stress Europe's Christian roots.

As sites like Stonehenge show, Europe doesn't have Christian roots. It's roots are pagan. Christianity is a foreign religion for Europe. I think we should insist on the constitution stressing Europe's pagan roots. Now that would be cool!

Re:Europe's pagan roots

[Anonymous Coward]

Correct, the history of Christianity in Europe has been littered with many shameful deeds, the Crusades and the loing persecution of the Jews being just two that spring to mind.

Not that I am saying christianity is bad. Just that religion in the hands of the state can be a powerful tool for evil.

Re:Europe's pagan roots

[Eivind]

Everyones roots are various nature-religions. Beliefs evolve and change just as any other aspect of culture. They start out from those things that matter to people, and which everyone can see, but not understand, and evolve from there.

It's no accident, for example, that the "sungod", the "moongodess", various gods for weather and bad or good hunting/harvest whatever developed multiple times independently.

It's also no accident that as more and more of the things we observe can be explained rationally, the importance of religion fades. Essentially, religion is that which some people clutch to to explain what we cannot (yet anyway) explain rationally.

Today, most people are satisfied that the sun is a large clump of hydrogen undergoing fusion. We know that ligthining is caused by electrical discharge, we can tell that the harvest is bad on that land not due to a curse, but due to a lack of say nitrogen-compounds and so on.

Stonehenge, and similar astronomical sites are important, because they give us an idea how much the ancients knew about the movements of the various stars, sun and moon. And it marks a first step from mystism to rationality.

The constitution of EU, ain't got much to do with this, but if it's any comfort to you, it's very likely to not mention any religions spesifically at all. If for no other reason than that the various religious nutcases could never agree on what to write.

Re:Europe's pagan roots

[UnknownSoldier]

> It's also no accident that as more and more of the things we observe can be explained rationally, the importance of religion fades.
>Essentially, religion is that which some people clutch to to explain what we cannot (yet anyway) explain rationally.

You have a very narrow view of what religion is.

Science is *just* as dogmatic as religion, and in fact, *is* a religion. Anything that seeks the Truth of how the universe works, and why, is "pure" religion. Just because Science does it objectively, does not negate the fact that one can also do it subjectively. There is knowledge outside the realm of Science that it will *never* know, but just because it can't know, doesn't imply that we can't know, and in fact I would argue, that we *can* know.

Peace

Re:New Zealand

[zokrath]

Who's country precisely did you mean? I am not really sure that the modern Britism Isles can claim stonehenge as their 'heritage' when it was built thousands of years ago by a very different people, who were later nearly erradicated by the Romans.

The next thing you know they will be stealing your Arthurian mythology.

At least your still have your cuisine...

Re:Science of the Future or Science of the Past?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well if people paid more attention to history then the human race wouldn't be doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. That would surely make the future better or at least give us the opportunity to create new mistakes.

Not to mention that working out how old science worked often leads to the development of 'new' sciences or new directions for current sciences.

Don't be so blinkered in your rush to the future.

What tells you that paganism is "native"?

[Kinniken]

It annoys me that some are insisting that the (future) EU constitution must stress Europe's Christian roots.

As sites like Stonehenge show, Europe doesn't have Christian roots. It's roots are pagan. Christianity is a foreign religion for Europe. I think we should insist on the constitution stressing Europe's pagan roots. Now that would be cool!


Every thing is foreign at some point - even the pagan cults surrounding Stonehedge probably draw from older pagan cults who appeared and developed outside of Europe ;)
Concerning the Constitution, I think Christianity should be mentioned since its role in Europe's history was indeed crucial. However, other religions who played a big role, including paganism (both Greek/Roman and Celtic), Judaism and Islam. Anyway, it's just a historical mention with no legal strength, and thus its effect is just symbolic.

Re:What tells you that paganism is "native"?

[pubjames]

Every thing is foreign at some point - even the pagan cults surrounding Stonehedge probably draw from older pagan cults who appeared and developed outside of Europe ;)

No, paganism is quite clearly linked to northern climates - the seasons play a central role in the makeup of paganism and so the beliefs are very unlikely to have come from anywhere near the equator.

I think Christianity should be mentioned since its role in Europe's history was indeed crucial.

What, crucial in terms of causing loads of wars and strife?

its effect is just symbolic

"Just symbolic" does not mean it is a trivial issue - otherwise why do you think church leaders are making such a big fuss about including it?

Re:What tells you that paganism is "native"?

[Trepidity]

I think Christianity should be mentioned since its role in Europe's history was indeed crucial.

What, crucial in terms of causing loads of wars and strife?

Yep---exactly like the pagans. You don't think the Norse warrior epics were stories about peace-loving warriors, do you?

Re:What tells you that paganism is "native"?

[Asic Eng]

Concerning the Constitution, I think Christianity should be mentioned since its role in Europe's history was indeed crucial.

I think it's even more crucial that today we have religious freedom for all, including the freedom not to worship any god. It's a shame that some people still insist on somehow forcing their religious beliefs and symbols onto others. Please grant other people the same freedoms you want for yourself.

think again

[beckerie]

The aim of the project, funded by a grant of NZ$56,500 from the Royal Society of New Zealand, is to generate interest in science among people who might not normally be keen on the subject.

It may well be a miscalculation to think that building a stonehenge somewhere will generate interest in the public. Some people may not even know what a stonehenge is, let alone participate and visit one.

Advancement and discoveries in science are happening all the time but as amazing and awesome as they are, the fact stands that what may be interesting to some people, is trivial to others.

Re:Thank God

[BiggerIsBetter]

As a New Zealander, all I can say is WTF? I'll stick to my Maori/PI/Asian/Antipodean/etc culture thanks (yeh I'm white but screw it, I'm not European, I'm a New Zealander). I don't really get the need to build a "me too" monument to astronomy, but hey, if it floats his boat let him build it.

Re:...and I think...

[perly-king-69]

Maybe it's because there people, like many other primitive cultures, used to think daft things like you have to sacrifice people and animals to make the sun come up again at certain times of year etc?

There's no evidence whatsoever of sacrifice taking place at Stonehenge. These monuments were all about taking control and ownership of the landscape at about the same time as society was transforming from a mobile hunter-gatherer one to a sedentary farming based one. It was about establishing control of the land.

Sunwise is anticlockwise in NZ

[Triskele]

Just remember sunwise is the other way round in the southern hemisphere as Stonehenge is a solar site.

PS: English Heritage are blasphemeous bastards as punters are supposed to go along the walkway (which is close as you can get to the stones these days) anticlockwise round Stonehenge