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4 votes
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Ancient technology: Saxon glass-working experiment
5 votes -
These circular ruins at Smeerenburg are all that remain of a 17th-century Arctic whaling outpost
4 votes -
An archaeological fairytale – medieval ships found in the heart of Oslo
5 votes -
What responsibility do archaeologists have when their research about prehistoric finds is appropriated to make 21st-century arguments about ethnicity?
8 votes -
Swedish authorities have announced the first Viking boat grave discoveries in the country in more than fifty years
7 votes -
Ancient indigenous aquaculture site Budj Bim added to UNESCO World Heritage list
8 votes -
Digging deeper into Pompeii's past
6 votes -
Climate change could ruin archeological sites before we get the chance to study them
7 votes -
New investigations into the Tahitian Mourner’s costume
1 vote -
Germany: 1,000-year-old sarcophagus opened in Mainz
8 votes -
Beer archaeologists are reviving ancient ales — with some strange results
14 votes -
11,000-year-old Turkish town about to be submerged forever
11 votes -
'It would destroy it': New international airport for Machu Picchu sparks outrage
12 votes -
Britain's equivalent to Tutankhamun found in Southend-on-Sea
7 votes -
'It could change everything': Coin found off northern Australia may be from pre-1400 Africa
10 votes -
Irving Finkel | The Ark Before Noah: A Great Adventure
7 votes -
Long-lost shipwreck found off Victorian coast, seventy-seven years after being torpedoed by Japanese submarine in WWII
4 votes -
Designing the linguistic and translation mechanics in Heaven's Vault, a game about science fiction archaeology
8 votes -
New species of ancient human discovered in the Philippines
7 votes -
The general was female? ASU professor, colleague uncover 200-year-old mystery from the American Revolution
10 votes -
When we first made tools
9 votes -
The Neanderthal renaissance
6 votes -
The imitation game: Some of the most beloved objects in Washington museums are not as authentic as visitors might assume
3 votes -
Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1,000 years stuns archaeologists
6 votes -
There’s new evidence for what happened to people who survived Vesuvius
8 votes -
First confirmed Denisovan skull piece found
6 votes -
The Metropolitan Museum will return prized gilded coffin after learning it was stolen
5 votes -
How the Latin East contributed to a unique cultural world
4 votes -
Untouched 4,400-year-old tomb discovered at Saqqara, Egypt
22 votes -
Weewarrasauras: Lightning Ridge discovery the first dinosaur to be named in NSW in almost a century
2 votes -
A 4,000-year old tale of trade and contraband
3 votes -
Brazil museum fire: Prized 'Luzia' fossil skull recovered
5 votes -
Archaeologists have just unearthed an inscription in Pompeii that suggests the Ancient Roman city might have been destroyed a full two months later than previously thought.
10 votes -
Underwater archaeologists may have discovered the oldest known shipwreck in Lake Erie
6 votes -
Dirty dishes reveal what ancient civilizations ate. Food scraps on 8,000-year-old ceramic shards found in Turkey include barley, wheat, peas, and bitter vetch.
12 votes -
Cheese played a surprisingly important role in human evolution
10 votes -
Earliest known drawing found on rock in South African cave. Researchers believe the pattern on the fragment of rock is 73,000 years old, but are perplexed as to what it might represent
6 votes -
1600s Native American fort is one of the most important Northeast finds
4 votes -
Ancient Egypt: Cheese discovered in 3,200-year-old tomb
7 votes -
How one of archeology’s great mysteries was solved: uncovering China’s lost warriors.
7 votes -
Looted Iraqi antiquities return home after UK experts crack cold case
3 votes -
Walrus bones provide clues to fate of lost Viking colony
4 votes -
Earliest version of our alphabet possibly discovered
6 votes -
Drone reveals massive Stonehenge-like circular monument in Ireland
2 votes -
Coin found off Arnhem Land coast could be among Australia's oldest foreign artefacts
2 votes -
World's oldest bread found at prehistoric site in Jordan
3 votes -
Archaeologists and astronomers solve the mystery of Chile's Stonehenge
7 votes -
Crop circle reveals ancient ‘henge’ monument buried in Ireland
8 votes -
The location for Stonehenge may have been chosen due to the presence of a natural geological feature
I watched a documentary about Stonehenge tonight, and it proposed the theory that the location for Stonehenge was chosen because of a natural geological feature in the area. There's a man-made...
I watched a documentary about Stonehenge tonight, and it proposed the theory that the location for Stonehenge was chosen because of a natural geological feature in the area.
There's a man-made path that proceeds south-west towards Stonehenge: "The Avenue". This path was built around the same era as Stonehenge itself. If you walk westward along The Avenue on the winter solstice, you'll be facing the point on the horizon where the sun sets. However, under The Avenue, there's an old natural geological formation from the time of the Ice Age: a series of ridges in the rock which just coincidentally align with the sunset on the winter solstice (an "axis mundi"). Before Stonehenge was built, there was a chalk knoll on that location. That meant that you could walk along a natural geological path towards the sunset on the shortest day of the year, and there was a local geological landmark in front of you.
The theory is that these natural geological formations coincidentally aligning with an astronomical phenomenon made the site a special one for early Britons. That's why there was a burial site there, and later Stonehenge was built there.
Here's the article by the archaeologist who discovered the Ice Age ridges: Researching Stonehenge: Theories Past and Present
13 votes