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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!"
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All errors in this comment are mine. Corrections are considered a derivative work, and punishable under copyright law.
Does New Zealand not have any heritage of its own which it can reproduce? I'm not really that pleased about my country's being disrespected in this way.
Click here plskthx
Before building it, remember that ' is feet and " is inches.
It has been determined recently that Stonehenge was a giant vagina.
Discover our erected rocks!
Am I the only one who is glad New Zealand is on the other side of the planet, and faaaar enough away from any 'normal' civilisations??
I remember watching on TV how they recreated a single piece of stonehenge using 'original' techniques. At the time I thought it would be a better idea to recreate the whole thing with modern techniques, and so here we are...
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!
I'm not very much into 'scientific' promotion that aim to interest people in the past. Let's talk about how we can change things, make things better. Let's talk about the science in invention and innovation! Let's work on tchnologies that make the future better!
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Months ago, there was talk of burrowing a road underneath Stonehenge at great cost and it raised great concern amongst many.
How about this time they put the road in, and *then* place the stones?
However many hundreds of years on, surely we've learnt something about planning!
'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
must come down.
Yet another reason to book a ticket!
Husband: I know we've been flying for 13 hours to get here but let's go right to see Stonehenge Aotearoa.
[later]
Wife: This is it? It's a bunch of rocks!
Husband: No, no, you don't understand. This is astronomically significant!
Wife: [reading plaque] "Time to harvest the kumara" What's a kumara?
Husband: It's a sweet potato.
I imagine at this point the wife will sacrifice the husband on the pagan altar, or whatever they install at this thing.
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.
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Sam hill already built a Stonehenge replica near Goldendale, WA USA. It's near the Mary Hill museum of Art, noted for it's collection of relics from the last czars of Russia... some of the few that didn't burn when the revolution came.
I believe it was built as a 1st World War memorial rather then to study astrometry.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Despite our clear, dark sky we have the hell job getting funding for modern observatories here in New Zealand, so we might as well build something that can be claimed to have an astronomical use!
Come on! A stone circle built in NZ isn't going to work properly. Stonehenge on its own is just a pile of rocks. You need a properly aligned networks of temples and natural features to generate the correct psychic energy flows.
You know this new stonehenge is actually a new network hub..
It should also be noted that north of the Stonehenge memorial in the town of Goldendale, WA, USA is the Goldendale Observatory Interpretive Center. It has a publicly accessable 24.5 inch telescope which according to the Tri-cityherald is America's largest publicly accessable telescope, assuming the WA state parks department didn't close it down due to budget cuts.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
do you think, future archeologists will catch this???
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.
Once again, no reason to renew my subscription to the pulp version of wired when I can get it free online, just a few weeks later...
--- Relax, that mass muderer is just trying to reduce our carbon footprint, one fetus at a time...
"Mexicans to Americans"? Do Australians really thing of themselves as being like Americans? Dude, sorry, but that's hysterical! Australains are nice, but man, you've got one backward country there! It's like a giant sandbox full of bugs! Of the two places, at least New Zealand has nice scenery! Australia is like a board with dust heaped on it! The United States of Australia! HAHAHAHAHA! Dream on!
Whilst most assume that Stonehenge was used to establish the position of the stars, there is another explanation.
The stars may have been used to accurately establish the orientation of Stonehenge.
In otherwords, the builders cared not one whit where the stars were, but they cared greatly as to the position and alignment of stonehenge.
They knew that astronomical observation and unique annual events could achieve this objective.
So the real question is "Why would it be important to precisely position and orient Stonehenge?"
It would be important if there was more than one Earth, e.g. in a parallel universe.
How else could builders on both planets construct something in precisely the same place and orientation?
What would be the benefit to having two Stonehenges in identical positions and alignments?
A gate. Morphic resonance. Weave your way through one henge and pop out at the other.
Dangerous stuff.
And if you decide you don't like the gate, or the folk who come through it? Knock it down until it stops working.
I second the "mod up" recommendation
You do know that you are seriously going to confuse the aliens when you put stonehenge in the southern hemisphere.
Philip
Signatures are broken
...we should stop looking backwards and look forward to a future where all superstition is relegated to where it belongs: in the past.
Stick Men
ya little Kiwi battler you
Given that claims have been made in recent years that stonehenge itself was almost completely rebuilt in the 20th century (based on evidence like constables paintings and contemporary photos), I don't understand why anyone would get their backup about a reproduction being made. (Granted there were many counter claims) [Personally I'd be interested in seeing even the techniques used even in 1902 reemployed in NZ]
That's only really true of Scandinavia and some other parts of northern Europe. Greece, for example, has been largely Christian since Christianity was first started. It's true that the ancient Greek religions were pagan, but they're hardly pagan in a way that's closely related to northern European paganism (and certainly not to neopaganism), and the development of modern Greek culture has been far more influenced by 2000 years of Christianity, particularly the Byzantine Empire.
Similar things might be said of Italy, Spain, and Portugal.
[Note that I'm personally not a member of any religion.]
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
He runs like a Welshman. Doesn't he run like a Welshman?
Looks like those concrete buildings styled in a modern roman style from the seventies .
:-)
But in a nod to the old, the finished henge will be coated with cement and covered in plaster sculpted to look like stone.
We know from experience plastering it grey is not going to make it look any better, communist architecture anyone
Besides plaster and stuff? This is going to last even less then the white stuff they put on the pyramids to make them shine.
I prefer the vision of that European mechanical clock made from durable material that is designed to show the right hours and minutes for thousands of years.
Stonehenge? Who needs one?
o .zealand.reut/index.html
If I was in NZ I would build an enbankment to protect me from the wall of molten acidic volcanic death!
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/05/03/volcan
The people that think neo-stonehenge is more important than this need to be summarily shot, drawn, quartered, and forced to watch Friend's episodes until completely unmasculated.
Nebraskans already built a replica of Stonehenge
SCO claimed ownership of the Stonehenge design and announced a lawsuit aganst the Phoenix Astronomical Society for copyright infringement. "Stonehenge was clearly an early computer, and as such, it might be used to run an early version of Unix. Which we own."
--
Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
The religion that built stonehenge died out around 1100BC. The religion that tends to be called things like british paganism or druidism started around 600BC. There are no identifiable traces of the old (circle-building) religion, and there haven't been any since it died out in the first place. Feel free to lobby for more recognition for British paganism, but bear in mind that it's quite different to the old greek religion and has NOTHING to do with stone circles. Wheras all of Europe has been christian.
In soviet russia stale jokes recycle you!
The fence around the English Stone Henge was errected in order to prevent vanadalism. At least thats the offical line.
I have been told, by two sources (who don't know each other) a very interesting story. Take this with as many grains of salt as you wish:
Both sources had visited stone henge in the days before the fence. Both had reasons for spending the night with in stone henges stone circle. Both woke up the next day in the place they woke up the day before (i.e. one guy had traveld from Manchester to stone henge, and woke up back in Manchester the next day).
From what I'm told, this only happens on solstices (solsti?).
Anyway, that the word on the street (or lay line....)
It might be offtopic but i'd rather see the marbles of Parthenon back to where they belong rather than seeing a replica of a pile of oddly shaped/placed rocks.h tm
Have a look at http://www.parthenonuk.com/
and at http://www.uk.digiserve.com/mentor/marbles/index.
to see what i'm talking about.
Roses are red, violets are blue, most poems rhyme, but this one doesn't...
"My crazy brother"- Prentice Hall
somehow from the time between 6:00am and 7:00am there's a strip of light about 3 inches wide that hits ONLY the top quarter of the bed.
-d
Of course, 4000 years ago a bunch of scientists were probably sitting around, staring at a decaying set of rocks 8000 years old, called someotherhenge. They were asking themselves who built them and why, which is when they decided to replicate someotherhenge and build what we now know as stonehenge, in england.
... will you be hated by anthropologists and archeologists. Think about it - after any writing is worn away, someone will dig it up and compare it to the original (which is a National Treasure of Some Sort (TM), so it'll be safe).
At that point, they'll wonder if we're still pagans, or if pagans survived and migrated, or what... After all, they'll be able to date this one to 2005 AD, and the other one is thousands of years old.
Stonehenge -- astronomically significant?? Naawwwwww. I coulda swore that this is where the Pagans congregated to have leisurely man sex with the devil. Then again, I also thought the Chinese built the Great Wall for shits n giggles.
Next month I'm planning on redoing the Sphynx. Seriously...
"[I] came up with the idea of [Sphynx] because it doesn't matter who you are -- everyone looks at the Pyramids and [the Sphynx] and structures like that (and asks) who built them, why did they build them?"
My purpose for rebuilding the Sphynx (which makes just as much sense as the quote in this topic): because NoThumbsForMe wanted to touch the rainbow...
now stand up and smell your chair...
The Department of Physics and Astronomy ot the University of Massachusetts in Amherst undertook a similar project a few years ago.
What makes their project unique is that the design is NOT a replica of Stonehenge but, rather, a reconceptualization of the calendar wheel based on a modern understanding of astronomy.
Check it out here.
Surely what's impressive to us about Stonehenge nowadays is that the stones are massive but it was built in a time without the engines and machinery we have today?
If so, why build a similar-scale henge? That's no news. You need to build something like a 200 storey skyscraper - that'd get them thinking in the future.
Next they erected the pillars and lintels, hollow structures constructed using wood and cement board (hewn stone would have been too expensive and time-consuming to erect). But in a nod to the old, the finished henge will be coated with cement and covered in plaster sculpted to look like stone. Inside the "stones" will be some modern accoutrements: wires to allow a sound system to be installed. "We've already got two couples who want to get married out here," says Hall.
I thought it was a pretty neat idea until I read that. It sounds more like something that you might find in Vegas than New Zealand if you ask me! Seems a bit cheesy when you think that it's basically going to be a glorified stage set!
A little planning goes a long way...
Recently discovered evidence suggests that Claudius did not invade Britain to distract the populace from their unfavourable views on politics and the state of the Roman economy, nor as commonly thought was it a play to gain control of a large quantity of the worlds mead.
Narcissus and Polybius pointed out to Cladius that the Britains were actually harbouring WMD's, and as such represented a threat to the known world(then largely under roman control).
Later this was not found to be completely true, although based on sound olfactory evidence from multiple sources.
After the invasion and occupation it was discovered that rather than running the worlds nastiest chemical warfare program; the smell was due to the ancient Britains reluctance to bathe.
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.
..." or "Under God, we establish ...", just a non-exclusive mention of its historical importance, which I indeed believe was one of the crucial factors in shaping out Europe (and certainly not only in positive ways).
I am forcing my beliefs on you there??? For a start, I am not even religious, I am agnostic. Then, Europe's non-religious heritage is mentioned in the Constitution as well. Lastly, I fail to see why mentioning the role of religions in shaping Europe's history forces people to believe anything. We are not discussing a mention like "This Union, following the Christian Principles,
And BTW, I am French and takes laicity very seriously. I would be totally opposed to any mentions like the American "under God" or the "In God we trust" in French or European documents, and I am adamantly opposed to having religion influencing politics. I just do not think that rewriting history to fit current beliefs is right, and the current opening statement of the constitution which describes the big influences which shaped Europe without mentioning Christianity is just that.
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As a New Zealander I would have to agree.
And good use of inverted commas - although I think you need them around 'civilisations'.
Zilch
Logic is not Divine.
the proposed pictures show a very "complete" and structurally intact stonehenge.
I believe, for it to generate enough public interest, the structure has to have enough signs of wear and tear - be it caused by time, or annexes/captures/attacks by helpful enemies.
Without that sign of missing elements, wear and tear, and a well-rounded story (or myth) to go with it, there'd be very less talk to go about with at the pub with a pint of the best local bitter!
http://efil.blogspot.com/
Maryhill overlooks the Columbia River, but is not in Goldendale. It's a bit to the west.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Richard Hall, president of the Firefox Astronomical Society?
There is a replica of Stonehenge and also two large Easter Island statues near Kerrville Texas, here is a web page: http://www.texastwisted.com/attr/stonehenge2/ Marc
Actually they are scheming to reconfigure the Earth's axis of rotation for arcane purposes. Why else build it more or less exactly opposite England?
:-) for the humor-impaired.
The two circles are ectoplasmic bearings. When Stonehenge B is up and running, all of the ley lines will snap together through the line between them, the planet will be wrenched into a new and more mystical rotational mode, and astronomers will rule the world! (Hey, it's easier than building a dimensional redistributor -- the tubes are so hard to come by.)
UMR did this many moons ago.
Sig? What sig? Do I have to have a sig!?!?
The University of Missouri Rolla has had a 1/2 scale replica of Stonehenge since the 1970's. It was cut out using water jets that the mining department and the engineering research lab had been working on.
The henge itself was a collaboration between the mining dept and the physics dept. Physics got involved to make sure it was accurate. After all, the original is several thousand years out of date. Whenever you see a show describing it, they usually talk about how they had to model where the sun was in the sky at the time when Stonehenge was in active use, and by-golly, it worked. UMR's henge works correctly as a solar calendar calibrated for now.
Kind of an interesting project, and one of those sort of distinctive things around the campus.
Not like the ugly pink bathroom signs. (Previous link, beneath the UMR henge.)
Here's an existing Stonehenge copy in Texas:
e d. html
http://www.alfredshepperd.com/stonehenge/untitl
Take a look at them. They are janky POS's. Its built from freaken wood. The wonderment we get from the originals is not really the shape or the function of it, but rather the fact that it was built from huge blocks of impossible to move rocks. Its the fact that the blocks are so wildly huge that we can only guess how they were able to build something to such a high degree of precision, while we who are so advanced would struggle to reproduce it.
So Im sorry, but some bone heads making a fake stone henge out of wood which wont last 10 years let alone 10,000 is just LAME!
http://www.maryhillmuseum.org/about.htm
Anybody know if Spinal Tap is already booked there?
"...and ours will be 100x bigger and better than the primitive ones built by those english bastards!"
Seriously, what's the point? People have much more accurate ways to construct a calendar nowadays... The original stonehenge was driven by need, and people admire it because it was a hard thing to do given the architectural standards of the time. The new stonehenge is unnecessary and pretty easy to do. Sounds like an unoriginal publicity stunt to me.
everyone looks at the Pyramids and Stonehenge and structures like that (and asks) who built them, why did they build them?
People know why they built them... they're going to look at this one and ask wtf?
Of course, there have were some wonderful mishaps with stonehenge in the year 2000... First of all, there were the solstice celebrations/banning by the british from 1985-2000 here, which led to wonderful clashes with the british police. Then there was the attempt to recreate the trek of bringing the massive rocks to stonehenge here, which ended in dismal failure, and the sinking of a great bluestone rock. I guess New Zealand couldn't possibly do worse...
It just won out over all of the others due to a better business model.
There is one at @ meuseum in Oregon. Linkage : http://www.maryhillmuseum.org/about.htm#ston
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
--
USA: home of the world's largest terrorist training camp.
First trial run:
Quarry the stones from the same place as the original to really confuse the future. Thats why we're doing this, right? Fucking with future scientists/aliens who may study our dead world sometime in the future?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
This got rejected as a Slashdot story submission:
Wally Wallington moves huge objects alone.
See also Ancient Construction.
long, long time ago..
Some people heard a legend about strange big stone structure somewhere far away that maybe was completely useless or it might have some arcane nifty properties, or maybe there even wasn't such thing. They wondered and wondered about these stories and just couldn't figure it out. All this work, why? So they had to test it and build their own Stonehenge. Nothing happened. Damn. Now today..
Not only has this already been done, but it was done 10 years ago in New Zealand
But doesn't this thread belong under the "Stand Alone Calendar App" topic?
You can drop the "on a mid-life crisis" bit from that sentence. Just an observation.
What if someone a long time ago made a little rock sculpture, and people in Europe was like woah that's kind've cool, we should do that. And so they did. The original one is gone now, but the one in Europe still stands (but isn't it starting to fall down or something?) So now we build a new one, the 2nd falls, and the people in the future look back and wonder what the hell this thing the people in 2004 built is for, then decide to make their own. And it just goes on and on.
In other words: "Backward compatability".
-*- Any technology indistinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced -*-
It is made out of coarse aggregate cement and it isn't aligned with the sun correctly. I wouldn't even stop by on the way to the Mary Hill museum.
I'm not sure if I find the Informative moderation funny or disturbing.
...leads to more questions.
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?"
So, we're building something out of rocks because we don't know why someone else built something out of rocks? What will people think in 5,000 years when they come across the new Stonehenge? "Hey, these people were obviously great astronomers!" Wrong! They were copycat idiots with too much time and money on their hands.
How do we know that Stonehenge itself wasn't built without a reason other than "because we got bored"? That's why I do everything I do, from turning Cray YMP hard drives into margarita mixers to writing a Lisp interpreter instead of studying for finals in college, so there's no legitimate reason to believe that Stonehenge doesn't have similar roots.
Actually, despite wired saying "this article will be available on $date", they're all available if you can guess the name of the html page. open up one that *is* available & replace the name with your guess - they tend to be 8 letter names.
heh!
just what i need to spend 1000's of dollors to go to new zealand rather then pay less to see the real thing or if you want to see a replica for real cheap then go about 20 miles east of the Dalles on I84 cross the Columbia River to Washington state and follow the signs(htis is dirrections from portland OR if you live in seattle drive to portland then get on I84 east if you live in eastern washington then follow state 94 south)...there is also a replica in wyomming or something that is made out of cars...car henge...yippy
Is this really going to be a lasting archeological feature? They are making hollow wooden structures with a bit of concrete and plaster around the edges.
Where's the stone? A wooden henge seems unlikely to stand the test of time
Nothing's built to last these days. Back in my time they would have used stone. Or at least some crazy alloy.
n/t
UMR Stonehenge was dedicated on June 20, 1984 (summer solstice), at the site of the northwest edge of campus. Approximately 160 tons of granite were used in the monument. The rock was cut to the proper dimensions by UMR's Waterjet equipment. This equipment used two waterjets cutting at a pressure of 15,000 pounds per square inch traversing the surface just like a conventional saw. The cutter moved at a speed of about 10 feet per minute and cut between one-quarter and one-half inch on each path.
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
The Tri-cityherald article actually says "one of" the largest and I know of one that definitely is larger. Chabot Observatory in Oakland, CA has a 36" reflector and the observatory is open to the public on weekend evenings and certain other times. I've not visited it since it moved to its current location but anyone who is able should do so.
Cf http://php.indiana.edu/~chumphre/
What's the point of building something like this out of - of all things - a wooden frame, cement boards, and plaster?
Personally, what's cool about stonehenge is not that it points to the stars' alignment, or that it measures time in seasons, years, and decades. What's cool about it is the mystery surrounding it: it was built long before modern machines, by the sweat of the brow and ingenious engineering. It is a massive undertaking, even by today's standards (considering the size and numbers of the rocks). What's more, the exact purpose of Stonehenge isn't terribly well known, and there's a fair bit of question: why would someone build such a massive structure, if not for practical reasons?
This modern implimentation of stonehenge is a joke. It'll last a couple hundred years - at best! - and be forgotten, as perminant materials weren't used.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
If they put in all these references to planting sweet potatos and ancienct Polynesion culture, anthropologists in the future won't know who to give credit to. 2000 years from now, people will think the Maori routinely wired their structures for sound.
If you must moderate, please moderate as irrelevent, not something bad, because I'm sure someone will find this interest