Slashdot Mirror
Ancient Village Unearthed Near Stonehenge
cityhunter007 writes to point out coverage on CNN.com about an ancient village discovered two miles from Stonehenge that may have housed workers building the monument, or perhaps visitors after it was constructed. The village, at a site known as Durrington Walls, dates from about the time Stonehenge was built, 2600 BCE. The article says: "The researchers speculated that Durrington Walls was a place for the living and Stonehenge — where cremated remains have been found — was a cemetery and memorial... Stonehenge was oriented to face the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset, while the wooden circle at Durrington Walls faced the midwinter sunrise and midsummer sunset."
Nobody knows who they were
Or what they were doing...
(But they did have the sense to make Stonehenge a bit taller than 18".)
That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
The article calls Durrington Walls a "place for the living"? The houses appear to have been abandoned while still intact, given the artefacts found within them.
Silly question: where did everyone go?
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Nothing to do with Stonehenge per se, just an anecdote. We have a neolithic stone, known as the Long Stone, a ten minute walk down the road from where I'm writing this, which is on the edge of the Wye Valley , right up against the Welsh border. It's a single stone, sticking up at an angle of about 75 degrees, perhaps seven feet tall. A few years ago I had to walk from my village to the nearest town to sign on the dole - a tedious 40 minute slog along unmaintained road verges - but passing the stone, I always felt compelled to reach out and give it a pat. I'm a hardcore, Dawkins-type rationalist, but I don't see any contradiction between that and a consciously irrational but of behaviour like patting the stone... it fits my brain, somehow, and it feels good to be connected with the people who lived here four thousand years ago. Poor bastards, it must have been miserable during the winter nights.
Everything I needed to know about life, I learnt from Blake's Seven
Before Stonehenge, there was Woodhenge and Strawhenge, but a big bad wolf came and blew them down, and three little piggies were relocated to the projects.
2 miles of walking is about half an hour each way. So the Stonehenge workers spent a hour-a-day getting to and from work.
Some things never change.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
no pun intended (or is there?)
Yup, there's various periods of Stonehenge, including when they got by with wood markers. I hear that all the tourists asking why the place was called Stonehenge drove the druids to do the later versions.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
BCE WTF?? At least Y2K is both culturally OK and well understood. I vote for BY2K.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
The SPLA: Stonehenge Project Licensing Authority official gift shoppe.
"My parents visited Stonehenge and all I got was this lousy cloak"
KFG
CE and BCE have the advantage of not being religion-based. In paticular, AD is offensive, as Domini is the root for dominate : unsuitable for free minds.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
And, IMHO, it makes at least as much sense as 'common era', since the numbering of the era is intrinsically tied to Christianity, and wrapping it in the name "common" doesn't really change that (and hey, are you trying to be some sort of Western imperialist declaring your era numbering to be the one "common" system and implying other alternative calendars are uncommon? Well, not that they aren't, but... :D)
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
CE and BCE have the advantage of not being religion-based.
No they are religion based because of the choice of zero year. Renaming them does not alter that and to be honest seems more insulting because it seems to suggest that a non-christian will somehow be stupid enough not to notice what you are doing!
All the major religions have their own system of years so either we ought to use one and call it that for cultural reasons or else choose a non-religious event of world significance (invention of printing press, landing on the moon spring to mind) and use that as zero. Renaming them "BCE" and "CE" is just stupid and from my point of view infinitely more insulting to a non-christian.
On the plus side the first time I saw "BCE" I was in Canada and briefly thought that this must be the Canadian equivalent of "BC"...."Before Christ Eh?"
The OP didn't say Domini wasn't Latin for "Lord", he said: Domini is the root for dominate Which is entirely separate from what you're saying, and correct, to boot.
CE is offensive as it implies that people born in the last 2007 years are common.
The last time I took LSD was at the Stonehenge Free Festival in 1983 (AD).
I can confirm that, even then, there were still little tiny dancing people living in the area.
Little tiny dancing people... and a dog with a human head.
The Independent: Reverend Spooner Arrested in Friar Tuck Incident - ISIHAC, Historical Headlines