Stonehenge: Paganistic Burial and Astrological Ritual Complex, England (5,100-3,600 years ago)

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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*Around 5,000 years ago Stonehenge (Britain):

Stonehenge: Paganistic Burial and Astrological Ritual Complex, England. 

Stonehenge evolved in several construction phases, 1 (5,100 years ago), 2 (5,000 years ago), 3 I (4,600 years ago), 3 II (4,600-4,400 years ago), 3 III (2400-4,280 years ago), 3 IV (4,280-3,930 years ago), & 3 V (3,930-3,600 years ago). Anatolian/Turkish-farmers built Britain’s famous Stonehenge, as well as current males of Britain, 60-65% have Turkish genetics. Almost as the same as in Ireland where 85 percent of Irish men are descended from farming people that arrived 6,000 years ago. At or around Stonehenge 5,000-4,400 years ago, there were two separate burial rites, either letting the birds feed on bodies or cremation. And a 4,000-year-old burial pit for elite contains 14 females and only 9 males, as well as a chieftain’s grave held several items including the depicted 4,000-year-old dagger. And a 4,000-year-old child’s grave held the depicted Folkton drums. As well as items from 4,600-3,600 involved gold beads, necklaces, ear-rings, pendants, and other jewelry shows sophisticated burial culture. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, & ref

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“Stonehenge evolved in several construction phases spanning at least 1500 years. There is evidence of large-scale construction on and around the monument that perhaps extends the landscape’s time frame to 6,500 years. The modern phasing most generally agreed to by archaeologists is detailed below. Features mentioned in the text are numbered and shown on the plan, right.” ref

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Sacred/Ritual Monuments of the Earth, as well as Stone or Wood such as Henges or Other Roughly Circular Earthworks, Seem to Start Around 7,000 years ago.

“There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three is that they feature a ring-shaped bank and ditch, with the ditch inside the bank. Because the internal ditches would have served defensive purposes poorly, henges are not considered to have been defensive constructions (cf. circular rampart). The three henge types are as follows, with the figure in brackets being the approximate diameter of the central flat area:

1. Henge (> 20 m). The word henge refers to a particular type of earthwork of the Neolithic period, typically consisting of a roughly circular or oval-shaped bank with an internal ditch surrounding a central flat area of more than 20 m (66 ft) in diameter. There is typically little if any evidence of occupation in a henge, although they may contain ritual structures such as stone circles, timber circles, and coves. Henge monument is sometimes used as a synonym for henge. Henges sometimes, but by no means always, featured stone or timber circles, and circle henge is sometimes used to describe these structures. The three largest stone circles in Britain (Avebury, the Great Circle at Stanton Drew stone circles and the Ring of Brodgar) are each in a henge. Examples of henges without significant internal monuments are the three henges of Thornborough Henges. Although having given its name to the word henge, Stonehenge is atypical in that the ditch is outside the main earthwork bank.
2. Hengiform monument (5 – 20 m). Like an ordinary henge except the central flat area is between 5 and 20 m (16–66 ft) in diameter, they comprise a modest earthwork with a fairly wide outer bank. Mini henge or Dorchester henge are sometimes used as synonyms for hengiform monument. An example is the Neolithic site at Wormy Hillock Henge.
3. Henge enclosure (> 300 m). A Neolithic ring earthwork with the ditch inside the bank, with the central flat area having abundant evidence of occupation and usually being more than 300 m (980 ft) in diameter. Some true henges are as large as this (e.g., Avebury), but lack evidence of domestic occupation. Super henge is sometimes used as a synonym for a henge enclosure. However, sometimes Super henge is used to indicate size alone rather than use, e.g. “Marden henge … is the least understood of the four British ‘superhenges’ (the others being  Avebury, Durrington Walls, and Mount Pleasant Henge)”. ref

Henges may be classified as follows:

• Class I henges, which have a single entrance created from a gap in the bank;
• Class II henges which have two entrances, diametrically opposite each other;
• Class III henges, which have four entrances, facing each other in pairs. ref

“Subgroups exist for these when two or three internal ditches are present rather than one. Henges are usually associated with the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, and especially with the pottery of this period: Grooved Ware, Impressed Wares (formerly known as Peterborough Ware), and Beakers. Sites such as Stonehenge also provide evidence of activity from the later Bronze Age Wessex culture.” ref

“Henges often contain evidence of a variety of internal features, including timber or stone circles, pits, or burials, which may pre- or post-date the henge enclosure.” ref

Some of the best-known henges are at:

• Avebury, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, in Wiltshire
• Knowlton Circles henge complex in Dorset
• Maumbury Rings in Dorset (later reused as a Roman amphitheatre and then a Civil War fort)
• Mayburgh Henge in Cumbria
• The Ring of Brodgar in Orkney
• Thornborough Henges complex in Yorkshire ref

“Henges sometimes formed part of a ritual landscape or complex, with other Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments inside and outside the henge. Earlier monuments associated with a later henge might include Neolithic monuments such as a cursus (e.g., at Thornborough Henges the central henge overlies the cursus), or a long barrow such as the West Kennet Long Barrow at Avebury, Wiltshire, or even, as in the case of Stonehenge, Mesolithic post holes. A c. 2 km circle of large pits has also been discovered centered on Durrington Walls henge. Later monuments added after the henge was built might include Bronze Age cairns as at Arbor Low. ref

 Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Masseboth similar but much smaller than a European Menhir, dates to around 13,000-11,000 years ago in the Near East. Kurgan a burial mound over a timber burial chamber, dates to around 7,000/6,000 years ago. Dolmen a single-chamber ritual megalith, dates to around 7,000/6,000 years ago. Ziggurat a multi-platform temple around 4,900 years ago. Pyramid a multi-platform tomb, dates to around 4,700 years ago. #3 is a Step Pyramid (or proto pyramid) for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser it went through several revisions and redevelopments. First are three layers of Mastaba “house of eternity” a flat-roofed rectangular structure, then two step pyramid one on top the other, showing the evolution of ideas.

Before the monument (from 8000 BC):

“Archaeologists have found four, or possibly five, large Mesolithic postholes (one may have been a natural tree throw), which date to around 10,000 years ago, beneath the nearby old tourist car-park once used. These held pine posts around two feet six inches (0.75 m) in diameter, which were erected and eventually rotted in situ. Three of the posts (and possibly four) were in an east-west alignment which may have had ritual significance. Another Mesolithic astronomical site in Britain is the Warren Field site in Aberdeenshire, which is considered the world’s oldest Lunar calendar, corrected yearly by observing the midwinter solstice. Similar but later sites have been found in Scandinavia. A settlement that may have been contemporaneous with the posts has been found at Blick Mead, a reliable year-round spring one mile (1.6 km) from Stonehenge.” ref

“Salisbury Plain was then still wooded, but 4,000 years later, during the earlier Neolithic, people built a causewayed enclosure at Robin Hood’s Ball and long barrow tombs in the surrounding landscape. In approximately 5,500 years ago, a Stonehenge Cursus was built 2,300 feet (700 m) north of the site as the first farmers began to clear the trees and develop the area. A number of other previously overlooked stone or wooden structures and burial mounds may date as far back as 6,000 years ago. Charcoal from the ‘Blick Mead’ camp 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from Stonehenge (near the Vespasian’s Camp site) has been dated to 6,000 years ago. The University of Buckingham‘s Humanities Research Institute believes that the community who built Stonehenge lived here over a period of several millennia, making it potentially “one of the pivotal places in the history of the Stonehenge landscape.” ref

Stonehenge 1 (around 5,100 years ago)

“The first monument consisted of a circular bank and ditch enclosure made of Late Cretaceous (Santonian Age) Seaford Chalk, measuring about 360 feet (110 m) in diameter, with a large entrance to the north east and a smaller one to the south. It stood in open grassland on a slightly sloping spot. The builders placed the bones of deer and oxen in the bottom of the ditch, as well as some worked flint tools. The bones were considerably older than the antler picks used to dig the ditch, and the people who buried them had looked after them for some time prior to burial. The ditch was continuous but had been dug in sections, like the ditches of the earlier causewayed enclosures in the area. The chalk dug from the ditch was piled up to form the bank. This first stage is dated to around 5,100 years ago, after which the ditch began to silt up naturally. Within the outer edge of the enclosed area is a circle of 56 pits, each about 3.3 feet (1 m) in diameter, known as the Aubrey holes after John Aubrey, the seventeenth-century antiquarian who was thought to have first identified them. The pits may have contained standing timbers creating a timber circle, although there is no excavated evidence of them. A recent excavation has suggested that the Aubrey Holes may have originally been used to erect a bluestone circle. If this were the case, it would advance the earliest known stone structure at the monument by some 500 years. A small outer bank beyond the ditch could also date to this period.” ref

“Archaeologists, excavated more than 50,000 cremated bone fragments, from 63 individuals, buried at Stonehenge. These remains had originally been buried individually in the Aubrey holes and subsequently re-interred together in one hole, Aubrey Hole 7. Analysis of the remains has shown that the cremated were almost equally men and women, and included some children. As there was evidence of the underlying chalk beneath the graves being crushed by substantial weight, the team concluded that the first bluestones brought from Wales were probably used as grave markers. The remains date to around 5,000 years ago. The bones of many of the individuals that buried there where around the time of construction and had probably come from near the source of the bluestone in Wales and had not extensively lived in the area of Stonehenge before death.” ref

Stonehenge 2 (around 5,000 years ago)

“Evidence of the second phase is no longer visible. The number of postholes dating to the early third millennium BC suggest that some form of timber structure was built within the enclosure during this period. Further standing timbers were placed at the northeast entrance, and a parallel alignment of posts ran inwards from the southern entrance. The postholes are smaller than the Aubrey Holes, being only around 16 inches (0.4 m) in diameter, and are much less regularly spaced. The bank was purposely reduced in height and the ditch continued to silt up. At least twenty-five of the Aubrey Holes are known to have contained later, intrusive, cremation burials dating to the two centuries after the monument’s inception. It seems that whatever the holes’ initial function, it changed to become a funerary one during Phase two. Thirty further cremations were placed in the enclosure’s ditch and at other points within the monument, mostly in the eastern half. Stonehenge is therefore interpreted as functioning as an enclosed cremation cemeteryat this time, the earliest known cremation cemetery in the British Isles. Fragments of unburnt human bone have also been found in the ditch-fill. Dating evidence is provided by the late Neolithic grooved ware pottery that has been found in connection with the features from this phase.” ref

Stonehenge 3 I (around 4,600 years ago)

“Archaeological excavation has indicated that around 4,600 years ago, the builders abandoned timber in favor of stone and dug two concentric arrays of holes (the Q and R Holes) in the center of the site. These stone sockets are only partly known (hence on present evidence are sometimes described as forming ‘crescents’); however, they could be the remains of a double ring. Again, there is little firm dating evidence for this phase. The holes held up to 80 standing stones (shown blue on the plan), only 43 of which can be traced today. It is generally accepted that the bluestones (some of which are made of dolerite, an igneous rock), were transported by the builders from the Preseli Hills, 150 miles (240 km) away in modern-day Pembrokeshire in Wales. Another theory is that they were brought much nearer to the site as glacial erratics by the Irish Sea Glacier although there is no evidence of glacial deposition within southern central England. Evidence of Megalithic quarrying had been found at quarries in Wales identified as a source of Stonehenge’s bluestone, indicating that the bluestone was quarried by human agency and not transported by glacial action.” ref

“The long-distance human transport theory was bolstered by the discovery of a megalithic bluestone quarry at Craig Rhos-y-felin, near Crymych in Pembrokeshire, which is the most likely place for some of the stones to have been obtained. Other standing stones may well have been small sarsens (sandstone), used later as lintels. The stones, which weighed about two tons, could have been moved by lifting and carrying them on rows of poles and rectangular frameworks of poles, as recorded in China, Japan, and India. It is not known whether the stones were taken directly from their quarries to Salisbury Plain or were the result of the removal of a venerated stone circle from Preseli to Salisbury Plain to “merge two sacred centers into one, to unify two politically separate regions, or to legitimize the ancestral identity of migrants moving from one region to another”. Each monolith measures around 6.6 feet (2 m) in height, between 3.3 and 4.9 ft (1 and 1.5 m) wide and around 2.6 feet (0.8 m) thick. What was to become known as the Altar Stone is almost certainly derived from the Senni Beds, perhaps from 50 miles (80 kilometres) east of Mynydd Preseli in the Brecon Beacons.” ref

“The north-eastern entrance was widened at this time, with the result that it precisely matched the direction of the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset of the period. This phase of the monument was abandoned unfinished, however; the small standing stones were apparently removed and the Q and R holes purposefully backfilled. Even so, the monument appears to have eclipsed the site at Avebury in importance towards the end of this phase. The Heelstone, a Tertiary sandstone, may also have been erected outside the north-eastern entrance during this period. It cannot be accurately dated and may have been installed at any time during phase 3. At first it was accompanied by a second stone, which is no longer visible. Two, or possibly three, large portal stones were set up just inside the north-eastern entrance, of which only one, the fallen Slaughter Stone, 16 feet (4.9 m) long, now remains. Other features, loosely dated to phase 3, include the four Station Stones, two of which stood atop mounds. The mounds are known as “barrows” although they do not contain burials. Stonehenge Avenue, a parallel pair of ditches and banks leading two miles (3 km) to the River Avon, was also added. Two ditches similar to Heelstone Ditch circling the Heelstone (which was by then reduced to a single monolith) were later dug around the Station Stones.” ref

Stonehenge 3 II (around 4,600-4,400 years ago)

“During the next major phase of activity, 30 enormous Oligocene–Miocene sarsen stones (shown grey on the plan) were brought to the site. They may have come from a quarry around 25 miles (40 km) north of Stonehenge on the Marlborough Downs, or they may have been collected from a “litter” of sarsens on the chalk downs, closer to hand. The stones were dressed and fashioned with mortise and tenon joints before 30 were erected as a 108-foot (33 m) diameter circle of standing stones, with a ring of 30 lintel stones resting on top. The lintels were fitted to one another using another woodworking method, the tongue and groove joint. Each standing stone was around 13 feet (4.1 m) high, 6.9 feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighed around 25 tons. Each had clearly been worked with the final visual effect in mind; the orthostats widen slightly towards the top in order that their perspective remains constant when viewed from the ground, while the lintel stones curve slightly to continue the circular appearance of the earlier monument.” ref

“The inward-facing surfaces of the stones are smoother and more finely worked than the outer surfaces. The average thickness of the stones is 3.6 feet (1.1 m) and the average distance between them is 3.3 feet (1 m). A total of 75 stones would have been needed to complete the circle (60 stones) and the trilithon horseshoe (15 stones). It was thought the ring might have been left incomplete, but an exceptionally dry summer revealed patches of parched grass which may correspond to the location of removed sarsens. The lintel stones are each around 10 feet (3.2 m) long, 3.3 feet (1 m) wide, and 2.6 feet (0.8 m) thick. The tops of the lintels are 16 feet (4.9 m) above the ground. Within this circle stood five trilithons of dressed sarsen stone arranged in a horseshoe shape 45 feet (13.7 m) across, with its open end facing northeast. These huge stones, ten uprights, and five lintels, weigh up to 50 tons each. They were linked using complex jointing. They are arranged symmetrically. The smallest pair of trilithons were around 20 feet (6 m) tall, the next pair a little higher, and the largest, single trilithon in the southwest corner would have been 24 feet (7.3 m) tall. Only one upright from the Great Trilithon still stands, of which 22 feet (6.7 m) is visible and a further 7.9 feet (2.4 m) is below ground. The images of a ‘dagger’ and 14 ‘axeheads’ have been carved on one of the sarsens, known as stone 53; further carvings of axeheads have been seen on the outer faces of stones 3, 4, and 5. The carvings are difficult to date, but are morphologically similar to late Bronze Age weapons. Laser scanning of the carvings supports this interpretation. The pair of trilithons in the northeast are smallest, measuring around 20 feet (6 m) in height; the largest, which is in the southwest of the horseshoe, is almost 25 feet (7.5 m) tall.” ref

“This ambitious phase has been radiocarbon dated to between 2600 and 2400 BC, slightly earlier than the Stonehenge Archer, discovered in the outer ditch of the monument in 1978, and the two sets of burials, known as the Amesbury Archer and the Boscombe Bowmen, discovered three miles (5 km) to the west. Analysis of animal teeth found two miles (3 km) away at Durrington Walls, thought by Parker Pearson to be the ‘builders camp’, suggests that, during some period between 2600 and 2400 BC, as many as 4,000 people gathered at the site for the mid-winter and mid-summer festivals; the evidence showed that the animals had been slaughtered around nine months or 15 months after their spring birth. Strontium isotope analysis of the animal teeth showed that some had been brought from as far afield as the Scottish Highlands for the celebrations. At about the same time, a large timber circle and a second avenue were constructed at Durrington Walls overlooking the River Avon. The timber circle was oriented towards the rising Sun on the midwinter solstice, opposing the solar alignments at Stonehenge. The avenue was aligned with the setting Sun on the summer solstice and led from the river to the timber circle. Evidence of huge fires on the banks of the Avon between the two avenues also suggests that both circles were linked. They were perhaps used as a procession route on the longest and shortest days of the year. Parker Pearson speculates that the wooden circle at Durrington Walls was the center of a ‘land of the living’, whilst the stone circle represented a ‘land of the dead’, with the Avon serving as a journey between the two.” ref

Stonehenge 3 III (around 4,400-4,280 years ago)

“Later in the Bronze Age, although the exact details of activities during this period are still unclear, the bluestones appear to have been re-erected. They were placed within the outer sarsen circle and may have been trimmed in some way. Like the sarsens, a few have timber-working style cuts in them suggesting that, during this phase, they may have been linked with lintels and were part of a larger structure.” ref

Stonehenge 3 IV (around 4,280-3,930 years ago)

“This phase saw further rearrangement of the bluestones. They were arranged in a circle between the two rings of sarsens and in an oval at the center of the inner ring. Some archaeologists argue that some of these bluestones were from a second group brought from Wales. All the stones formed well-spaced uprights without any of the linking lintels inferred in Stonehenge 3 III. The Altar Stone may have been moved within the oval at this time and re-erected vertically. Although this would seem the most impressive phase of work, Stonehenge 3 IV was rather shabbily built compared to its immediate predecessors, as the newly re-installed bluestones were not well-founded and began to fall over. However, only minor changes were made after this phase.” ref

Stonehenge 3 V (around 3,930-3,600 years ago)

“Soon afterward, the northeastern section of the Phase 3 IV bluestone circle was removed, creating a horseshoe-shaped setting (the Bluestone Horseshoe) that mirrored the shape of the central sarsen Trilithons. This phase is contemporary with the Seahenge site in Norfolk.” ref

After the monument (around 3,600 years ago to the Middle Ages)

“The Y and Z Holes are the last known construction at Stonehenge, built about 1600 BC, and the last usage of it was probably during the Iron Age. Roman coins and medieval artifacts have all been found in or around the monument but it is unknown if the monument was in continuous use throughout British prehistory and beyond, or exactly how it would have been used. Notable is the massive Iron Age hillfort Vespasian’s Camp built alongside the Avenue near the Avon. A decapitated seventh century Saxon man was excavated from Stonehenge. The site was known to scholars during the Middle Ages and since then it has been studied and adopted by numerous groups.” ref 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“Quacking find: These two stone carvings in the shape of ducks, dated to around 2,700 years ago, were discovered near Stonehenge and are thought to be the oldest ever unearthed in Britain.” ref 

• Stonehenge a Burial Ground, Archaeologists Say 
• Stonehenge burial pit for the Neolithic elite contains a ‘surprising’ number of women: Find suggests females played a key role in the society and had same rights as men 

“Between 100 and 200 people are said to have been buried across the Stonehenge site during the late Neolithic and copper age. Burial at Stonehenge was likely for people of higher status.” ref 

“A 3,500-years–old bejeweled Stonehenge 14- or 15-year-old boy—buried outside the town of Amesbury (map), about three miles (five kilometers) from Stonehenge (map)actually came from the Mediterranean and this Bronze Age teen was on epic “grand tour,” demonstrated by tooth analysis. In fact, evidence shows that Bronze Age people journeyed all the way from the Mediterranean coast (regional map)—more than 500 miles (805 kilometers) away—to see the standing stones on Britain’s Salisbury Plain. The teen was buried wearing an amber necklace of about 90 amber beads. Such exotic materials demonstrate that he was from one of the highest echelons of society. The bejeweled boy is just one of a number of burials near Stonehenge that show that the monument drew visitors from far and wide. For instance, one of the earliest known Stonehenge visitors is the “Amesbury Archer,” also buried about three miles (five kilometers) from the standing stones. A similar tooth analysis has shown that the archer traveled all the way from the foothills of the German Alps around 4,400 years ago.” ref 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art 

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Sky Burials: Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, and Paganism

“In archaeology and anthropology, the term excarnation (also known as defleshing) refers to the practice of removing the flesh and organs of the dead before burial, leaving only the bones. Excarnation may be precipitated through natural means, involving leaving a body exposed for animals to scavenge, or it may be purposefully undertaken by butchering the corpse by hand. Practices making use of natural processes for excarnation are the Tibetan sky burial, Comanche platform burials, and traditional Zoroastrian funerals (see Tower of Silence).  Some Native American groups in the southeastern portion of North America practiced deliberate excarnation in protohistoric times. Archaeologists believe that in this practice, people typically left the body exposed on a woven litter or altar.” ref

Ancient Headless Corpses Were Defleshed By Griffon Vultures

Sky burial ( Animal Worship mixed with Ancestor Worship) is a funeral practice where a human corpse is placed on a mountaintop, elevated ground, tree, or constructed perch to decompose while be eaten by scavenging animals, especially birds. This Animal Worship (or Zoolatry) rituals may go back to the  Neanderthals who seem to Sacralize birds starting around 130,000 years ago in Croatia with eagle talon jewelry and oldest confirmed burial. Or possible (Aurignacian) “Bird Worship” at  Hohle Fels cave, Germany, early totemism and small bird figurine at around 33,000 years old, which had been cited as evidence of shamanism.

As well as possible ‘Bird Worship’ (in the Pavlovian culture/Gravettian culture) part of Early Shamanism at Dolní Věstonice (Czech Republic) from around 31,000-25,000 years ago, which held the “first shaman burial.” The shamanistic Mal’ta–Buret’ culture of Siberia, dating to 24,000-15,000 years ago, who connect to the indigenous peoples of the Americas show Bird Worship. The Magdalenian cultures in western Europe, dating from around 17,000-12,000 years ago have a famous artistic mural with a bird that I think could relate to reincarnation and at least bird symbolism. Likewise, there is evidence of possible ‘Bird Worship’ at  Göbekli Tepe (Turkey), dated to around 13,000/11,600-9,370 Years ago with “first human-made temple” and at Çatalhöyük (Turkey), dated to around 9,500-7,700 Years ago with “first religious designed city” both with seeming ancestor, animal, and possible goddess worship.

The Tibetan sky-burials appear to have evolved from ancient practices of defleshing corpses as discovered in archeological finds in the region. These practices most likely came out of practical considerations, but they could also be related to more ceremonial practices similar to the suspected sky burial evidence found at Göbekli Tepe (11,500 years ago) and Stonehenge (4,500 years ago). ref 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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There is evidence of possible ‘Bird Worship’ Stonehenge may have been built was as a giant bird perch (for pre-cremation ‘sky burial’!) “Whatever, a question we might consider is why single skulls, parts of skulls and single large bones are found scattered about sites. Even when graves are excavated, complete skeletons are, throughout the 5,500 years in question, very rare, perhaps unknown. Stonehenge, as a sacred area, is far older than initially thought. For instance, postholes were found and the wood was pine, not a common local timber at that time; they were erected, perhaps carved, as totem poles, in 10,820 to – 9,730 years ago, around 5,000 years earlier than the sarsen circle. Stonehenge began as this stone circle, around 5,000 – 4,920 years ago, comprising of 56 bluestones sitting on cremated remains and built almost 500 years before the sarsen circle was created. Some of the bodies were women and children and if these were double or triple funerals, as it were, it may be that precisely 56 inhumations (ancestor worship funerals) took place under the 56 bluestones. The remains were originally placed beneath each stone, and crushed into the chalk that formed the socket. The burials took place over 200 years, from 5,000 to 4,800 years ago. The only grave goods found were one mace head, which may imply a warrior/chieftain and an ‘incense burner’, which implied a religious leader or shaman. But the presence of women and children’s bones seem to be denied the circle as a warrior or religious burial area.” ref 

“Findings of an extensive study utilizing remote sensing technologies and geophysical surveys to uncover a hidden landscape of mysterious ritual structures surrounding Stonehenge. Amongst the new finds announced was a long barrow burial mound that predates Stonehenge. The people who constructed this house of the dead are believed to have carried out complex burial rituals. “The rituals included exposure of the dead bodies and defleshing, the evidence suggests that such techniques were once widespread. By the late Neolithic, or Chalcolithic Age, immediately prior to the rise of the Bronze Age excarnation seems to have been the chosen means of disposing of the dead and may have been associated with ancestor worshipper, indicated by the frequent removal of, and separate treatment of the heads. At archaeological sites, the discovery of metatarsals, the bones of the fingers and toes, in isolation, are considered an indicator of excarnation. It is thought likely that the dead were laid on a woven litter or placed on an altar and that these bones, given their small size, could easily be overlooked, having fallen or rolled away during the excarnation process leaving a tell-tale sign of disposal via exposure to nature. Once all the flesh had been removed from the skeleton, the bones were often collected and stored in ossuaries. Ossuaries take numerous forms, from being relatively portable, in the form of boxes or vessels, to pits or the large burial mounds which became a recognisable feature of the human landscape, like the barrow house near Stonehenge or the West Kennet Long Barrow near Avebury, constructed around 5,650 years ago, which held a jumble of bones representing the incomplete remains of 46 individual.” ref 

Moreover, “Arkaim is a henge archaeological site in Russia, situated in the steppe of the Southern Ural, attributed to the early Indo-Europeans of the Sintashta culture, which some scholars believe represents the proto-Indo-Iranians before their split into different groups and migration to Central Asia and from there to Persia and India and other parts of Eurasia (see Indo-Aryan migration theory). It looks as though Arkaim served simultaneously as a fortress, dwelling, temple and social center. The site was occupied for about 200 years and then was suddenly deserted. Arkaim pre-dates Troy by around 500 years, and was a flourishing city at the time the pyramids were being built. The site of strange burials, Scythian-style cave paintings, and heaps of folklore, it’s still up for debate as to exactly who these people were. And Arkaim wasn’t the only one of these settlements found. All told, more than 20 of the circular settlements have now been found throughout the southern Urals and northern Kazakhstan, suggesting a widespread civilization with a very set plan for constructing townships. Many bodies were uncovered that had been buried in the fetal position, and some were uniquely posed. One grave contained the body of a man embracing a woman while she held a battle axe over his head. Ritual spirals of stones made by Rodnovers in the areas around Arkaim. The site is generally dated to the 2,170 years ago. Earlier dates, up to the 2,200 years ago, have been proposed. It was a settlement of the Sintashta culture of the northern Eurasian steppe on the borders of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, dated to the period 4,100 to 3,800 year ago. Arkaim is similar in form but much better preserved than neighboring Sintashta, where the earliest chariot was unearthed. The site was protected by two circular walls. There was a central square, surrounded by two circles of dwellings separated by a street. Genetic relationship between peoples of Corded Ware culture and Sintashta culture, which “suggests similar genetic sources of the two,” and may imply that “the Sintashta derives directly from an eastward migration of Corded Ware peoples.” Sintashta individuals and Corded Ware individuals both had a relatively higher ancestry proportion derived from the early farmers of Central Europe, and both differed markedly in such ancestry from the population of the Yamnaya Culture/Yamna culture (Yamnaya, Light Skinned, Brown Eyed….Ancestors???) and most individuals of the Poltavka Culture that preceded Sintashta in the same geographic region. Scientists now believe that this ghost population has been identified as the Yamnaya and that they began a mass migration in different directions, including Europe, about 5,000 years ago.  Along with their light skin and brown eyes, they brought along with them their gene(s) for lactose tolerance. It also explains how people from Germany, for example, are showing small percentages of Native American ancestry.  Their common ancestors were indeed from central Asia, thousands of years ago, and we can still see vestiges of that population today in both groups of people. So, if the Yamnaya people are the ghost people, the ANE, Ancient Northern Europeans, who are they? The Yamna culture was primarily nomadic and was found in Russia in the Ural Region, the Pontic Steppe, dating to the 5,600-4,300 years ago.  It is also known as the Pit-Grave culture, the Ochre Grave Culture and feeds into the Corded Ware culture. Europeans are the descendants of at least three major migrations of prehistoric people. First, a group of hunter-gatherers arrived in Europe about 37,000 years ago. Then, farmers began migrating from Anatolia (a region including present-day Turkey) into Europe 9000 years ago, but they initially didn’t intermingle much with the local hunter-gatherers because they brought their own families with them. Finally, 5000 to 4800 years ago, nomadic herders known as the Yamnaya swept into Europe. They were an early Bronze Age culture that came from the grasslands, or steppes, of modern-day Russia and Ukraine, bringing with them metallurgy and animal herding skills and, possibly, Proto-Indo-European, the mysterious ancestral tongue from which all of today’s 400 Indo-European languages spring. They immediately interbred with local Europeans, who were descendants of both the farmers and hunter-gatherers. Within a few hundred years, the Yamnaya contributed to at least half of central Europeans’ genetic ancestry. Using a statistical method population geneticists calculated that there were perhaps 10 men for every woman in the migration of Yamnaya men to Europe (with a range of five to 14 migrating men for every woman). That ratio is “extreme”—even more lopsided than the mostly male wave of Spanish conquistadores who came by ship to the Americas in the late 1500s, Goldberg says. Such a skewed ratio raises red flags for some researchers, who warn it is notoriously difficult to estimate the ratio of men to women accurately in ancient populations. But if confirmed, one explanation is that the Yamnaya men were warriors who swept into Europe on horses or drove horse-drawn wagons; horses had been recently domesticated in the steppe and the wheel was a recent invention. They may have been “more focused on warfare, with faster dispersal because of technological inventions” says population geneticist Rasmus Nielsen of the University of California, Berkeley, who is not part of the study. But warfare isn’t the only explanation. The Yamnaya men could have been more attractive mates than European farmers because they had horses and new technologies, such as copper hammers that gave them an advantage, and findings show that Yamnaya men migrated for many generations.” ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref 

“The greatest mistake we can make is to see Stonehenge as just a single feature, and not realize that it dominates an expansive ritual area with varied uses. There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three types is that they feature a ring bank and ditch, but with the ditch inside the bank rather than outside. Henges are usually associated with the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, and especially with the pottery of this period: Grooved Ware, Impressed Wares (formerly known as Peterborough Ware), and Beakers. Sites such as Stonehenge also provide evidence of activity from the later Bronze Age Wessex culture. Henges often contain evidence of a variety of internal features, including timber or stone circles, pits, or burials, which may pre- or post-date the henge enclosure. Henges are mainly found in Britain, and began as a circular outer bank with an inner ditch enclosing a ‘ritual’ space. That is the opposite design of the defensive hillforts, with an inner bank and outside ditch, all of which were built much later than Stonehenge. The building of the present Stonehenge dates to around 4,500 years ago. The earlier henges had been built of soil or pebbles, and only later did they erect stones as part of the henge. Other than at Stonehenge, no other henge was built with dressed stone. At first, in 6,000 years ago, the same period in which cattle first appeared in Britain, it was focussed on building large chambered tombs, then, in 5,700 years ago, they built causewayed enclosures, which are usually banked and ditched circles broken by paths, or causeways, leading inside. No pattern exists and one causeway or perhaps up to five, broke the circle. Finally, the people moved on to building stone circles in around 5,000 years ago. Henges sometimes formed part of a ritual landscape or complex, with other Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments inside and outside the henge. Earlier monuments associated with a later henge might include Neolithic monuments such as a cursus (e.g., at Thornborough Henges the central henge overlies the cursus), or a long barrow such as the West Kennet Long Barrow at Avebury, Wiltshire, or even, as in the case of Stonehenge, Mesolithic post holes.” ref 

“Stonehenge may have been a burial site for Stone Age elite, Centuries before the first massive sarsen stone was hauled into place at Stonehenge, the world’s most famous prehistoric monument may have begun life as a giant burial ground, with more than 50,000 cremated bone fragments, of 63 individuals buried at Stonehenge, have been excavated and studied for the first time by a team led by archaeologist Professor Mike Parker Pearson, who has been working at the site and on nearby monuments for decades. He now believes the earliest burials long predate the monument in its current form. The first bluestones, the smaller standing stones, were brought from Wales and placed as grave markers around 3,000 BC, and it remained a giant circular graveyard for at least 200 years, with sporadic burials after that. The latest theory is based on the first analysis of more than 50,000 fragments of cremated human remains from one of the Aubrey holes, a ring of pits from the earliest phase of the monument, which some have believed held wooden posts. Crushed chalk in the bottom of the pit was also revealed, suggesting it once supported the weight of one of the bluestones. Dating the bones has pushed back the date of the earliest stone circle at the site from 4,500 to 5,000 years ago.” ref 

“There is some evidence for the beginning of construction at sites with a ritual or astronomical significance, including Stonehenge, with a short row of large post holes aligned east-west, and a possible “lunar calendar” at Warren Field in Scotland, with pits of post holes of varying sizes, thought to reflect the lunar phases. Both are dated to around 10,000 years ago.” ref 

Let’s not forget around 12,000 years old Gobekli Tepe in Turkey that involves a circle of monolithic pillered stones. “A stone circle is a monument of stones arranged in a circle or ellipse. Such monuments have been constructed in many parts of the world throughout history for many different reasons. The best known tradition of stone circle construction occurred across the British Isles and Brittany in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with over 1000 surviving examples, including Avebury, the Ring of Brodgar and Stonehenge. Another prehistoric tradition occurred in southern Scandinavia during the Iron Age, where stone circles were built to be mortuary monuments to the dead. Outside Europe, examples of stone circles include the 8,300~8,900 years ado Atlit Yam in Israel and 5,000 to 6.000 years ago Gilgal Refaim nearby, and the Bronze Age monuments in Hong Kong. Stone circles also exist in a megalithic tradition located in Senegal and the Gambia. This is an incomplete photographic list of these stone circles.” ref 

Ancient DNA evidence shows hunter-gatherers and farmers were intimately linked 

“A study in (2017) shows that such contacts between hunter-gatherers and farmers went beyond the exchange of food and artefacts. As data from different regions accumulate, we see a gradient across Europe, with increasing mixing of hunter-gatherers and farmers as we go east and north. Whilst we still do not know the drivers of this gradient, we can speculate that, as farmers encountered more challenging climatic conditions, they started interacting more with local hunter-gatherers. These increased contacts, which are also evident in the archaeological record, led to genetic mixing, implying a high level of integration between very different people. The findings are a reminder that the relationships within and among people in different places and at different times aren’t simple. It’s often said that farmers moved in and outcompeted hunter-gatherers with little interaction between the two. But the truth is surely much richer and more varied than that. In some places, as the new evidence shows, incoming farmers and local hunter-gatherers interacted and mixed to a great extent. They lived together, despite large cultural differences.” ref 

17 structures arranged across a five-square-mile area, with the Stonehenge monument at its heart. 

“The most spectacular revelation of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project is the discovery of a massive religious monument made of 60 stones and located two miles northeast from the famous site. It has long been thought that Stonehenge stands alone. The underground scanning suggests that the stones of this newly discovered monument are at least three meters long by 1.5 meters wide and positioned horizontally, not vertically, within its earthen matrix. Some of the stones remain under the ground. The monument is believed to have surrounded Durrington Walls, a neolithic settlement thought to have housed some 4,000 people. It is thought to be Britain’s largest prehistoric henge, roughly 12 times the size of Stonehenge itself. The four-year-long digital mapping project has further revealed a staggering 17 structures arranged across a five-square-mile area, with the Stonehenge monument at its heart.” ref  

“Dozens of burial mounds were scanned in detail by the team, including a long barrow dating to before 4,500 years ago. Within this 33-meter-long barrow the archaeologists found a large wooden structure. Evidence suggests it was the setting of complex rituals involving the dead, including the removal of flesh and limbs. Although the area was a key religious site in its time, a group of domestic or livestock enclosures have also been discovered, suggesting that housing settlements developed along processional ways or pilgrimage routes in Stonehenge’s sacred landscape.” ref  

“The seventeen previously unknown monuments found around Stonehenge, dramatically altering the prevailing view of the neolithic site as a solitary masterpiece, visited only by Druidic high priests. Instead, it is revealed as a busy religious center, with people coming and going to more than 60 locations to fulfil their religious obligations. It changes how we should understand Stonehenge. The seventeen circles, which range up to 30 metres in diameter, plus dozens of smaller shrines and pits, were discovered scattered across Salisbury Plain by the most extensive geophysical survey of a prehistoric site ever, involving magnetometers, ground penetrating radar and measurements of electrical resistance.” ref  

“Possibly the biggest surprise was a line of up to 60 buried stone pillars, 330 metres long, inside the bank of a large, bowl-shaped feature called Durrington Walls, Britain’s largest henge, which sits beside the River Avon. The three-metre stones are laid horizontally inside the mound, but could have stood vertically in neolithic times. A mound between Durrington Walls and Stonehenge has been revealed as a 6,000-year-old, 33-metre long, wooden House of the Dead, similar to structures from the same period in what is now Eastern England which show signs of ritual practices including excarnation, in which the skin and organs of the deceased were removed.” ref  

“The team has also discovered Bronze Age burial mounds, Iron-age tombs and more recent remains, including the site of a First World War airfield and practice trenches, and the neo-Druid festivals that were conducted around Stonehenge in the 20th Century. “The only reason we can see them is that they dropped beer caps,” said Professor Gaffney, adding that they are being treated as worshipers too. The equipment used on the 12 square kilometre English Heritage site was cutting edge, some of it built the week before it was used. In one case, when a mobile carrier for an instrument “exploded”, Professor Gaffney had to recruit engineers from a nearby dairy operation to repair it. Stonehenge was built 4,600 years ago, about a century before the introduction of copper from Ireland and the subsequent dawn of the bronze-age in about 4,150 years ago.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Animism: Respecting the Living World by Graham Harvey 

“How have human cultures engaged with and thought about animals, plants, rocks, clouds, and other elements in their natural surroundings? Do animals and other natural objects have a spirit or soul? What is their relationship to humans? In this new study, Graham Harvey explores current and past animistic beliefs and practices of Native Americans, Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and eco-pagans. He considers the varieties of animism found in these cultures as well as their shared desire to live respectfully within larger natural communities. Drawing on his extensive casework, Harvey also considers the linguistic, performative, ecological, and activist implications of these different animisms.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope (Said as “At” “Hope”)/(Autodidact Polymath but not good at math):

Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist, Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Jeweler, Poet, “autodidact” Philosopher, schooled in Psychology, and “autodidact” Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Pre-Historian (Knowledgeable in the range of: 1 million to 5,000/4,000 years ago). I am an anarchist socialist politically. Reasons for or Types of Atheism

My Website, My Blog, & Short-writing or Quotes, My YouTube, Twitter: @AthopeMarie, and My Email: damien.marie.athope@gmail.com