Stonehenge—A New Understanding: Solving the Mysteries of the Greatest Stone Age Monument
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j “cal BC” is an abbreviation for “calibrated years Before Christ” in which “cal” indicates that the date has been calibrated to account for variations over time in Carbon-14 levels in the atmosphere.
k The solstices are the longest and shortest days of the year, at midsummer and midwinter. They are not to be confused with the spring and autumn equinoxes, when night and day are of equal length.
l The tilt of the earth’s axis (the obliquity of the ecliptic) has moved slightly in relation to the sun since the third millennium BC, and the solstice alignment at Stonehenge today is therefore not the same as it was.
m The end of a ditch is always called a “terminal” in British archaeology.
n Two out of four Station Stones survive; they were laid out in a rectangle whose corners were on the circle of the Aubrey Holes. The Station Stones were erected in the stage after the Aubrey Holes were in use.
o One archaeologist suggested at the time that perhaps the inward-facing earthworks of henges are “ghost-catchers,” designed to safely corral the spirits, keeping them in, away from the outside world.7
p Because today’s Druids consider themselves to be adherents of a religious belief system, the word is now spelt with a capital letter in this context (like Buddhist, Christian, etc.); this also usefully distinguishes references to modern Druids from information about Iron Age druids.
q Julian Richards remained unconvinced, by the way. It is a disagreement in which we think we are right, based on our greater experience of excavating stoneholes. Without casting any doubt on Julian’s skill as a field archaeologist, we would argue that interpretation of features like this is not easy but a matter of experience and repeated exposure. We’ve simply dug a lot of very similar stoneholes and, purely by chance, Julian’s sites have never contained features like this one.
r Archaeologists still use such “parch marks” today to identify sites that are otherwise invisible above ground. They are one of the main reasons for taking aerial photographs. If the ground is sufficiently dry, grass grows less thickly on buried structures. A similar effect is produced in fields of crops, to form “crop marks.” These are, of course, nothing to do with “crop circles” which are created by a dedicated band of mathematically inclined enthusiasts, masquerading in the public imagination as aliens.
s A passage tomb is a stone chamber and entrance passage, covered by a mound; a gallery grave is a particular type of passage tomb with a long, gallery-like chamber. Passage tombs are not of the same construction as long barrows (their mounds are not so long); they are mostly found in Ireland and western Britain, whereas long barrows have a more easterly distribution.
t A portal dolmen (also known as a cromlech in Wales only) is an arrangement of two or more upright stones with a capstone or lintel on top. Some archaeologists think that portal dolmens were covered by mounds of soil, like passage tombs, but it is more likely the stone structures were free-standing. Carinated bowls have a steeply angled belly; this style was in use around 3800 BC (the Early Neolithic), and examples of it have been found throughout Britain, including the Stonehenge area (at Coneybury and beneath Woodhenge).
u That said, an internet hoax on December 28, 2008 (Spanish practical joke day, el día de los Santos Inocentes) claimed that Stonehenge was built by the Victorians.