Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Stonehenge Version 2.0 Completed

Posted by Zonk on from the sound-for-what? dept.

Antarctic Lemur writes "The Stonehenge project previously mentioned has been completed near Wellington, New Zealand. This newer version utilises multiple ancient astronomical technologies (scroll down) and the BBC reports it is wired for sound."

3 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Re:But, what is it good for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Generating profits from tourism, for one.

  2. Re:But, what is it good for? by YankeeInExile · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let me understand ... one of the dominant pastimes of the slashdot communal consciousness is playing computer games, and you have the audacity to ask What is it good for??

    Well, if nothing else it's an excuse to go visit the big room with the blue ceiling. And since Kiwi summers are during winter for the vast majority of us, it sounds like a great time to enjoy their version of the big room while our neighbors are up to their tits in snowbanks.

    --
    How does the Slashdot Effect happen given that no slashdotters ever RTFA?
  3. Why bother-Stonehenge is depressing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Believe me, I've passed it often enough on the way to and from Heathrow. It is actually depressing. Not too be too snobbish or prone to flamebait, but the site is surrounded by a poorly maintained wire fence, has a hideous car park, and in the summer is full of gawpers who seem rapidly to have lost interest. And the heritage industry wants to turn it into a kind of theme park., which probably means even worse. Strangely, the problem is not really the roads that go past two sides of the site, but the appalling state of the site itself. It is clearly administered by people who really do not care. I suspect Stonehenge is so well known only because of its very accessibility and because of the lunatic books written about it.

    Unfortunately it was ever thus. There are some really ancient monuments on Malta and Gozo which are far more impressive - the Maltese one even has some of the carving still visible. Last time I was there I was really upset and embarrassed because I had to tell a group of US tourists to stop climbing on the stones. They had no idea how to behave on archaeological sites, or that they were doing damage.

    At one time it was seriously suggested that the real Stonehenge be closed off to the public and replaced with a concrete replica. Perhaps this is the answer to all valuable ancient monuments: make accurate replicas for tourists, ban the general public from the real sites and only allow access to people who can prove, perhaps by taking some sort of test, that they have a bona fide interest in the subject and understand that monuments must be treated with care for their own protection.