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9 votes
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Stonehenge-like circle unearthed in Denmark – archaeologists suggest ‘woodhenge’ was built between 2600 and 1600BC on similar axis to English stone circle
14 votes -
Investigating the most extreme ancient village in the United States
9 votes -
Advanced technology discovered under Neolithic dwelling in Denmark – a stone paved root cellar, which could represent a remarkable technological leap in resource preservation
14 votes -
We may be close to rediscovering thousands of texts that had been lost for millennia. Their contents may reshape how we understand the Ancient World.
41 votes -
Stonehenge megalith came from Scotland, not Wales, ‘jaw-dropping’ study finds
24 votes -
The Philosophy of Liberty – On Liberalism
9 votes -
Government without states (how to raise a tribal army in pre-Roman Europe, part II)
8 votes -
Insular India - A video on the archaeological legacies of the Indian subcontinent
5 votes -
On the nature of ancient evidence
14 votes -
Ancient Beat - the newsletter of ancient history - celebrates its 100th Issue
6 votes -
The Silk Road - Into far lands
2 votes -
DNA from stone age chewing gum sheds light on diet and disease in Scandinavia's ancient hunter-gatherers
11 votes -
Mysteries of Neolithic Europe
11 votes -
Ancient Beat - A weekly newsletter about developments in the study of the ancient world
9 votes -
Archeologists in Norway found an arrow that was likely trapped in ice for 4,000 years
11 votes -
Long barrows are Neolithic constructions that might have been churches, or graveyards, or landmarks. And some are being built again: for the first time in recorded history.
15 votes -
When did humans start settling down? In Israel, new discoveries at one of the world’s oldest villages are upending the debate about when we stopped wandering.
21 votes -
You're not allowed in this cave. But there's a copy.
7 votes -
A Swedish orienteering enthusiast working on a map earlier in April stumbled across a stash of some fifty Bronze Age relics dating back over 2,500 years
8 votes -
Extraordinary number of arrows dating from the Stone Age to the medieval period have melted out of a single ice patch in Norway in recent years
8 votes -
Vast neolithic circle of deep shafts found near Stonehenge
7 votes -
Neolithic chewing gum helps recreate image of ancient Dane – analysis of birch tar describes a female hunter-gatherer with dark skin and blue eyes
13 votes -
This island of Minos: Crete in the Bronze Age
8 votes -
The Bronze Age of Scandinavia was made possible by trade with Great Britain
5 votes -
Out of the cradle - a high quality, short, cgi film series about human prehistory
6 votes -
The Neanderthal renaissance
6 votes -
Neanderthals could make fire – just like our modern ancestors
7 votes -
Drone reveals massive Stonehenge-like circular monument in Ireland
2 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