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6000-Year-Old Tomb Complex Discovered

Posted by samzenpus on from the nobody-knows-who-they-were-or-what-they-were-doing dept.

duh P3rf3ss3r writes "National Geographic reports that a 6000-year-old tomb complex on 200 hectares (500 acres) has been discovered on the Salisbury Plain just 24 km (15 miles) from Stonehenge. The site has come as a surprise to the archaeologists who had thought that the area had been studied in such depth that few discoveries of such magnitude remained. The site, fully 1000 years older than Stonehenge, has been called 'Britain's oldest architecture.'"

24 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. crop mark != crop circle by QuantumG · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Given away by strange, crop circle-like formations seen from the air, a huge prehistoric ceremonial complex discovered in southern England has taken archaeologists by surprise.

    Umm.. Crop marks, not crop circles.

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    How we know is more important than what we know.
    1. Re:crop mark != crop circle by syousef · · Score: 3, Funny

      Umm.. Crop marks, not crop circles.

      Oh come on, we all know it's discovery is actually due to all those cameras the UK government has installed on every street corner and in every crop field. Where's my tin foil hat? I need to have it upgraded to platinum to keep out the camera rays and ward off 6000 year old British zombies.

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    2. Re:crop mark != crop circle by Celeste+R · · Score: 4, Informative

      Crop marks can indeed be shaped into looking like circles, but they're not the crop circles most people think of.

      Yes, these are man-made, but they're certainly not attributed to UFO's, decorative burning, prank helicopter slash-and-burns, or hoaxes of the same sort.

      Crop circle-like is an accurate way to describe it. They're not crop circles (per the popular definition), but they are similar. Accordingly, the article is more accurate than it could be if it said "crop circle formations", even if the terminology can be further improved.

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    3. Re:crop mark != crop circle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      ... they're certainly not attributed to UFO's

      Good boy! You just keep believing that and let us take care of everything.

    4. Re:crop mark != crop circle by fractoid · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...and ward off 6000 year old British zombies.

      Or you could just park in the marked bays and buy a ticket so they don't fine you. 6000 year old British zombies are lawful evil and can't write you an infraction unless you break a by-law.

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      Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
    5. Re:crop mark != crop circle by The_REAL_DZA · · Score: 2, Funny

      There's two reasons now to fear the British government!

      Quite right! Two reasons to fear the British government:

      1. Fear
      2. Surprise
      3. A ruthless efficiency!
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      This space intentionally left (almost) blank.
    6. Re:crop mark != crop circle by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 4, Funny

      We have this cool feature of the English language call the simile. With this simile, we can describe the features of an object by comparing it to another, unrelated object.

      Example:

      Joe is so strong, he is like an ox.

      In this example, Joe clearly has no actual relation to an ox (we hope), however comparing him to an ox relates a charactaristic of Joe's, his strength, with a charactaristic easily noted when one looks at an ox - oxen are very strong compared to humans. This simile does not even imply that Joe's strength is equal to that of an ox, in this example hyperbole (more on that in another lesson) or exageration is used to highlight the quality of Joe that is being described.

      In the example of the summary, they use simile by saying "crop circle-like" to describe what the formations look like. This does not imply that these formations ARE crop circle markings, in fact, the use of simile could actually imply that they are NOT the same thing. Had they simply said "crop circle", they would have either been incredibly inacturate or really, really bad at using metaphore (similar to simile, but not covered in this lesson).

      In other words, you're an idiot.

      --
      Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
  2. Surprised? by Sardak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The site has come as a surprise to the archaeologists who had thought that the area had been studied in such depth that few discoveries of such magnitude remained.

    If they believed a few remained, why are they so surprised to find one of them?

    1. Re:Surprised? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "If they believed a few remained, why are they so surprised to find one of them?"

      BECAUSE only a few remain. D'oh!

      If there are only a few lottery tickets with a top prize, and you drew one, would you describe your condition as 'surprised'? Or would you say that statistically it had to be drawn so this is not an unusual event....

    2. Re:Surprised? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Only for certain small values of funny.

    3. Re:Surprised? by consonant · · Score: 2, Informative
      They didn't believe that "a few" remained - the prevailing belief was that "few" were left to be discovered, which translates to "practically nothing".

      Linky.

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    4. Re:Surprised? by M-RES · · Score: 2, Funny

      I don't know what you're talking about - I don't watch Lost! ;p

  3. Hello Cleveland! by FrankDrebin · · Score: 4, Funny

    'Britain's oldest architecture'

    Performed By Britian's Loudest Band

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    1. Re:Hello Cleveland! by laejoh · · Score: 2, Funny

      In ancient times...

      Hundreds of years before the dawn of history

      Lived a strange race of people... the Druids

      No one knows who they were or what they were doing

      But their legacy remains

    2. Re:Hello Cleveland! by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Funny

      If I could mod you +11 funny, I would.

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      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  4. British histroy is now complete. by arthurpaliden · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well that about wraps it up for all the archaeology in Britain. After all once you reach back 6000 years there is no more to find.

    --
    Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
  5. google maps link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here it is on Google Maps... you can see a faint circle where the mound is located.

    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=damerham&sll=38.892091,-77.024055&sspn=0.487938,1.045761&ie=UTF8&ll=50.937232,-1.873689&spn=0.003086,0.00817&t=h&z=18

    1. Re:google maps link by DerekLyons · · Score: 2, Informative

      And here it is on Bing - with the circles just barely visible: http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=50.937445~-1.874886&style=h&lvl=18&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&where1=50.937232%2C-1.873689&encType=1. (You'll have to zoom in.)
       
      Which shows how hard these things are to discover - different light angles and ages and types of crops change the visibility greatly.
       
      I know there are some UK [aerial photography] sites as well - any links from them?

  6. I tried by peipas · · Score: 4, Funny

    I tried to RTFA but when it came time to click on to page two I got distracted by the "Jackass Penguins Freed After Rehab" link. Oh well.

  7. More Giant Circles by mrdbeaton · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just emailed this to National Geographic:
    We'll see what happens...

    "I believe I have discovered circles similar to the ones referenced in your article 'Huge Pre-Stonehenge Complex Found via "Crop Circles"'.
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090615-stonehenge-tombs-crop-circles_2.html

    There are two 380-foot diameter circles located at Longitude/Latitude 50.977866,-1.963204
    These may be seen at Google maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=50.977866,-1.963204&sll=50.977866,-1.963204&sspn=177.15044,360&ie=UTF8&ll=50.977872,-1.963205&spn=0.01016,0.021865&t=h&z=16&iwloc=A
    There are variations in the color of vegetation at this site that indicate that there may be other circles as well, of similar size.
    There is also a serpentine color variation about 750 feet long and 60 feet wide.

    Please forward this to the appropriate researcher."

  8. Hyperbole by thegoldenear · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is hyperbole from National Geographic. Calling the structures 'tombs' in the title implies it's an underground complex, which it wasn't. This is the remains of Neolithic barrows, which the countryside around Stonehenge is completely covered in. These barrows that have just been discovered are only the remains too, where-as there are innumerable surviving barrows all over that area of countryside, and in many many places all over Britain.

    Pete Boyd

    1. Re:Hyperbole by smoker2 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      "A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. The term generally refers to any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. The word is used in a broad sense to encompass a number of such types of places of interment or, occasionally, burial ..." Link

      Anyway, the bodies ARE buried under ground. The ground is piled up over the tombs. Or does grass grow in the air ?

      This is the remains of Neolithic barrows

      THESE ARE ...!

  9. Britain is Freaky by Bicx · · Score: 3, Funny

    They have these big mounds of dead people from thousands of years ago.... STILL SITTING AROUND!

    In the U.S., we know how to handle an ancient burial ground properly: bulldoze it flat, then build a Wal-Mart on top of what's left.

    1. Re:Britain is Freaky by Anonymusing · · Score: 3, Funny

      You think that's freaky?? Clearly you've never been in the basement at Wal-Mart.

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