A revolutionary new idea on the movement of big monument stones like those at Stonehenge has been put forward by an archaeology student. He discovered that many of the late Neolithic stone balls had a diameter within a millimeter of each other, which he felt indicated they would have been used together in some way rather than individually.
The Ground Stone Tools of Britain and Ireland: an Experimental Approach
Andy's doctoral research explores the way ground stone tools are currently interpreted and examines the manufacture of a wide range of implements through experimental archaeology.
His research contextualises the nature of ground stone tools with reference to the Neolithic and Bronze Age, analysing the trajectory of their development over time and the ways technological innovation may have driven certain morphological changes.
He has developed a range of complimentary technical analyses which can be applied to experimental replication studies in order to better understand a wide range of tools.
Interpretations are based on qualitative and quantitive data, whilst at the same time examine the ways a post-processual-linked phenomenological perspective might be a valid means of enquiry, with special emphasis on craft skills.
New archeological finds shed light on the most misunderstood monument of the ancient world.
Dated to the late Stone Age, Stonehenge may be the best-known and most mysterious relic of prehistory. Every year, a million visitors are drawn to England to gaze upon the famous circle of stones, but the monument's meaning has continued to elude us. Now investigations inside and around Stonehenge have kicked off a dramatic new era of discovery and debate over who built Stonehenge and for what purpose.
How did prehistoric people quarry, transport, sculpt, and erect these giant stones? Granted exclusive access to the dig site at Bluestonehenge, a prehistoric stone-circle monument recently discovered about a mile from Stonehenge, NOVA cameras join a new generation of researchers finding important clues to this enduring mystery.
I AM pleased that Jeff Nisbet has managed to do what I have tried in vain to do for the past two years which is to get media interest into what may well be the first examples of art in Scotland ("New theory sheds light on mysterious stone balls found across Scotland", The Herald, May 4) with the suggestion that the balls are, perhaps, apprenticeship pieces for entry into the profession of stone masonry.
Hugh Newman investigates the geometric stone spheres found in Northeast Scotland, Orkney and parts of Britain and Ireland. What were they used for? How did they carve them? One was even found in Bolivia! Read Hugh's two-part article here: https://bit.ly/2H9YxU4.
This has some interesting basic facts and discussion, but it also suggests some complete bunk science and ideas like “energies” and “healing” which are far less likely. I’m not sure I can get behind any of the mathematical ideas.
Our archaeological art takes its inspiration from artefacts found in Orkney. Each one is a unique piece, made by archaeologist Chris Gee.
In the long summer evenings, when it hardly gets dark at all here in Orkney, you will often find Chris in his garden overlooking the archipelago, where he is chipping away at another stone. He finds delight in recreating Stone Age art using their tools and methods. And like them, he carefully selects local stone, with beautiful colours and patterns. In this way, he makes Neolithic ceremonial maces, stone axes, carved stone balls, enigmatic carved stone objects, and beautifully patterned sandstone which he sometimes colours with hematite and other natural dyes. It is awe-inspiring to think that his hands are recreating the same movements that someone right here in Orkney did more than five thousand years ago.
Archaeologist Chris Gee shows how he makes a Carved Stone Ball as they did in Neolithic times. Chris is from the Orkney Islands in Scotland and makes Neolithic art by hand, using the same methods as people would have done in Orkney 5000 years ago. Please visit our website www.brodgar.co.uk for more details about our stone sculptures, archaeological chocolate, and Orkney guided adventures.
Neil Wilkin is back with another bronze age adventure. In this episode he is joined by Susan Greaney, Senior Properties Historian for English Heritage to discuss the history and importance of Stonehenge. Going into the heart of the monument and looking at some related bronze age objects Neil and Susan explore the connections between Stonehenge, the rest of Britain and the continent.
Discover more about 'Making Connections: Stonehenge in its Prehistoric World' an exhibition that runs from 12 October 2018 until 21 April 2019: http://bit.ly/2QRzFDb
Watch James Dilley (@ancientcraftUK) as he recreates a Carved Stone Ball using the same techiniques and methods as stone workers from the late Neolithic era.
Prehistoric Petrosphere – Carved Stone Spheres and Balls Prehistoric Petrosphere – Carved Stone Balls are spherical human-made objects made from stone. These ancient artifacts have been created by carving by up to up to 5200 years ago. These carved stone balls dating from the Late Neolithic to as late as the Iron Age, are mainly […]
Plotting the find sites on a map shows that these petrospheres were often located in the vicinity of Neolithic recumbent stone circles. ❧
Annotated on July 24, 2020 at 03:06PM
They are usually round of reasonably uniform size at around 2.75 inches or 7 cm across. They can have from 3 to 160 protruding knob shapes on the surface. These carved stone balls are nearly all have been found in north-east Scotland, the majority in Aberdeenshire. As portable objects, they are straightforward to transport and have been found on Iona, Skye, Harris, Uist, Lewis, Arran, Hawick, Wigtownshire, and fifteen from Orkney. A similar distribution to that of Pictish symbols led to the early suggestion that carved stone balls are Pictish artifacts. However, examples have been found in Ireland and England. ❧
Some small pieces, loosely joined for owning one’s highlights online.
I ran across a Chrome extension for highlights, annotations, and tagging tonight. It’s called Learning Paths. It works roughly as advertised for creating and saving highlights and annotations online. With a social silo log in process (I didn’t see an email login option), you’ve quickly got an account on the service.
You can then use the extension to highlight, tag, and annotate web pages. One can export their data as a .csv file which is nice. They’ve also got an online dashboard which displays all your data and has the ability to see public data from other users as well.
Screencapture of the Learning Paths UI for their Chrome extension
One of the interesting pieces they support is allowing users to tweet a thread from all their highlights of a piece online. Upon seeing this I thought it might make a useful feature for getting data into one’s personal wiki, website, or digital garden, particularly now that ThreadReaderApp supports posting unrolled Twitter threads to one’s Micropub enabled website.
So the workflow goes something like this (with links to examples of my having tried it along the way):
Use Learning Paths to highlight an article;
Use the sharing interface to share the highlights as a Twitter thread;
Make any modifications to the Twitter thread and then post;
Screencapture example of ThreadReaderApp’s Authored Threads tab interface
While this works relatively well, there are a few drawbacks:
The UI for the annotations is a bit flaky at times and in my experience often disappears before you’ve had a chance to save them.
The workflow misses out on any of the annotations and tags you might add to each of the highlights (unless you manually add them to the thread, and even then you may run out of space/characters).
The appearance of the thread on your site is simply what you get.
While the idea works roughly in practice, it isn’t as optimal as the workflow or data fidelity I’ve found in using more robust tooling like that found in Hypothes.is for which I’ve also built a better UI on my website.
Still others, might appreciate the idea, so have at it! I’d love to see others’ ideas about owning their highlights, annotations, and related data in a place they control.
And God spoke:
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens above, on the earth beneath, or in the waters below.
–Exodus 20:1-4
I have a hypothesis that the admonition in the ten commandments to have no other gods nor to worship idols was the result of a power struggle among early peoples on the border of nomadic lives and settling down into agricultural lifeways. These peoples may likely have been associating their memories not only to standing stones, portable items (the Ark of the Covenant as an example which was historically said to be carried into war), or small idols and graven images.
By removing peoples’ valuable cultural and societal memories over several generations, a ruling priestly class, particularly in a society with not evenly distributed writing and literacy, would have been more easily able to aggregate power within the culture to itself. From a cultural perspective it would also have put an extreme emphasis on writing, literacy, and learning with them. Is this part of an explanation for why Jewish culture still has such an emphasis on these tools thousands of years later?
This obviously needs to be thought out further with supporting evidence from the historical and archaeological record, but on first blush, I feel like the evidence for this hypothesis generally exists.
If I’m right, then these few sentences have had a far more dramatic influence on Western and even human culture than we have previously thought.
Featured Image: The Crusader Bible, MS M.638, fol. 39v, Paris, France, ca. 1244–1254, 390 x 300 mm, via the Morgan Library & Museum, Purchased by J.P. Morgan (1867–1943) in 1916
David’s Greatest Triumph, The Ark Enshrined in Jerusalem, David Blesses Israel
Old Testament Miniatures with Latin, Persian, and Judeo-Persian inscriptions
David retrieves the Ark of the Covenant from Obed-Edom’s house, and a jubilant celebration ensues as the triumphant king, playing upon his harp, leads it into Jerusalem. Once the Ark has come six paces into the city, a sacrifice is made of an ox and a ram. No one is more overjoyed than the king himself, who dances and leaps before the procession. David’s wild behavior embarrasses Michal, who points accusingly at him from her window. But the king is unconcerned, wishing only to give thanks and humble himself before God. (2 Kings 6:12–16)
Andy Matuschak (@andy_matuschak), joins Erik on this episode. He is a technologist, designer and researcher. They discuss:
- The key thread throughout his work and what he’s trying to accomplish.
- Why people read books despite remembering little of what they read.
- What books should look like and the features they should have in the digital age.
- Why spaced repetition is so powerful.- His requests for startups in the space.
Jody Harrison (HeraldScotland)
