Arcadia Discussion Zone

Sort of Stonehenge news, or at least news of a Stonehenge replica, at an unlikely sounding location:





http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... ademy.html

Edit to Add: Here's a Youtube film of it - not very "Stonehenge-like" at all, really, that was just a lazy generic description, but a very beautiful location.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuFhleClirM

Stonehenge Light Show

Nice little slide show below showing some rather remarkable light effects created at Stonehenge by the photographer Marc Bower-Briggs, using LEDs, lasers, long exposures, etc.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/cult ... light.html

Lighting up Stonehenge at night would turn it into a "theme park", says a senior Druid.
Lady Mimi Pakenham from Warminster sparked the idea of illuminating the stones to "really display them" in a letter to a national newspaper.
Senior Druid, King Arthur Pendragon, said it would "detract from the very purpose of Stonehenge".
English Heritage, which manages the site, said it could be a distraction for nearby traffic.
Lady Pakenham, who raised the idea on the letters pages of the Times, said lights would give the monument dignity.

Experts say they have confirmed for the first time the precise origin of some of the rocks at Stonehenge.
It has long been suspected that rhyolites from the northern Preseli Hills helped build the monument.
But research by National Museum Wales and Leicester University has identified their source to within 70m (230ft) of Craig Rhos-y-felin, near Pont Saeson.
The museum's Dr Richard Bevin said the find would help experts work out how the stones were moved to Wiltshire.

A bit more on the lighting up Stonehenge story, in the form of some counter-arguments to those against it, from the Eternal Idol website:

http://www.eternalidol.com/?p=10344

I think the lights are pretty and I love lights being a connoisseur of the Himalayan type in the middle of the tropics.

but they have a point - L.E.D.s are low level laser and a they affect the area around them. I wanted to put LED's in a computer but my friend suggested I don't because there were reports that they effect the electronics. I won but I do know that unusual things happen. For instance I have a bioptron(The BIOPTRON Light Therapy)which is based on healing light but conversely light while it can heal can also affect and some cases destroy tissue. The bioptron also uses colour therapy - different colours work on different bacteria and affects mood. Coloured light has been shown to alter the psychological of persons and animals, for instance blue lights have been shown to decrease aggression and violence and are utilised around toliet blocks and railway stations.
So when it comes down to it, while it might be beautiful to view, lights would affect Stonehenge and the way we perceive it. It may damage it to surround it with light and for future generations we should preserve it to the best of our abilities.

You never know, things always change. If there is money(tourist dollars) involved I'm sure some people can be convinced.

Yes, that's a very fair point, but I think if done tastefully, and not over-lit, it would enhance the site, and it doesn't have to be forever. We light other monuments, after all. I also think I may have felt obliged to defend Lady Packenham's idea because the druids attacked it, and I do personally get a little irritated by the way in which some druids see themselves as the self-appointed guardians of that site, despite there being no connection between their Iron Age priestly forebears and a much older Neolithic monument. They're certainly not protecting it on my behalf.

English Heritage - also agin it - are a different matter, and they may have a point when they caution against the possibility of traffic accidents on the adjacent highway, caused by people slowing down to look at it (something they do during daylight in any case), but then again, Health and Safety (duly capitalised) tends to get used a lot these days as an excuse not to do things. One of the banes of our life, actually .........

Unfortunately, whether it's lit up or not, Stonehenge is a dismal place to visit, really, because it's completely ruined by being yards from one of the busiest roads in England and a constant cacophany of noise. There's been talk for years about tunneling the road, but I doubt it will ever happen; it's just too expensive, especially these days. But I do find it a bit of an embarrassment - it's why I much prefer going to Avebury - so I just think that compared to the A303 dual carriageway flying past, lights on the stones wouldn't be too much of an intrusion upon the landscape.

So I get what you're saying, but I'd err on the side of aesthetics on this one, and say, put up the lights, and see how it goes. But I'm sure it won't happen.

On an island off Britain's northern tip, new discoveries suggest a huge Stone Age ritual complex is older than Stonehenge.

But age is only the half of it. Researchers say the site may have in fact been the original model for Stonehenge and other later, better-known British complexes to the south.

First discovered in 2002, the waterside site—called the Ness of Brodgar ("Brodgar promontory")—lies on Mainland, the largest of Scotland's Orkney Islands.

According to recent radiocarbon dating of burned-wood remains, the Ness was first occupied around 3200 B.C. and went on to include up to a hundred buildings within a monumental walled enclosure.

By contrast, the earliest earthworks at Stonehenge date to about 3000 B.C. And it would be roughly another 500 years before the first of the famous stones were set on Salisbury Plain.

In addition, ritual gatherings at the Ness of Brodgar may have foreshadowed feasts Stonehenge and similar sites such as Avebury.

The "druids" and English Heritage seem to be against it, but I think it would be a good idea.

what have the Druids got to do with Stonehenge?

I wasn't directing that question at you btw, Richard it was a more generalised WTF?

(mind you, I can remember going there as a child in the 1970s, and being able to walk about inside the stones, but I appreciate that they have to protect it from the much higher number of visitors that go there today).

IMHO, Avebury is a much more rewarding place to visit.

My favourite stone circle would have to be Castlerigg. No presumptions...it's just there for you to enjoy ...

please do go. I have Copeland's book also. Rupert Soskin (Henry's) son has produced a marvellous film called Standing With Stones in which he visits many sites in UK/Ireland. He told me his fav circle was also Castlerigg.
It's set in a marvellous surround of hills, it's almost like a natural amphitheatre and I have always found the place very serene

Are you mixing up Julian Cope with Stewart Copeland, by any chance? Or Aaron Copland?

But no, seriously, I know exactly what you mean, and that is an absolutely superb book, as is the follow-up one he did on European sites. I only got the book on UK sites quite recently, and am still going through the essays, as it was out of print in the UK for a long time, and very expensive to buy second-hand. And then I saw it at the bookshop at Avebury last summer, and they explained that it had been re-printed, so it was great to be able to buy it. And as a bonus, it had been signed by the author, who lives in the Marborough area, I believe, and often pops in to that shop. Great book, with great photos, by a great enthusiast.