Stonehenge - new theories and facts

I read the news today oh boy
A thousand holes in Blackburn lancashire


IT MIGHT BE THE LAST TIME
THE INDEPENDENT NOW COSTS £1


i dont think i can afford to read the news.

Not so much a reply, as a question.
I watched the Nova show today on the Stonehenge.
There seems to be alot of Mystery about how they moved the stones .
As I was watching the Areial view that shows the ditch around it and the trench leading across the plain to some small river . Yes?

Has anyone ever enhanced the idea that that ditch was filled with water and when it froze in the winter the stones could have been slid along the trench and around the site to placement posistions.????

Are the elevations there suitable to that type of a thing to be done.?
I ask that because the trench leading to it seems to follow the earth.
Just a thought I guess ha

I rewatched the Nova Stonehenge episode. Perhaps, I was too tired when I watched the program initially. Perhaps, I had the same thought and forgot it.

What is remarkable is the African archaeologist's comment that stone was used for the dead and degradable materials for the living. Add to it that Stonehenge is aligned with the summer and winter solstices, and the lay of the land and the monuments begins to recall some of old Irish myths. Add the evidence that seasonal feasting was held at the houses for the living, and you might remember that the seasonal feast days (quarter days) were times when the doors between the world of the living and the world of dead opened.

The Medieval Irish legends might have been folk memories of banquets to honor the dead. Both the Irish and the Vikings told stories of people burned inside "iron" houses during banquets.

missed this thread the first and second times it came around. Lord Elpus! one of a2ks greatest posters. Has he gone to join Stonehenge's builders at that great big feasting hall in the sky somewhere?

I was at Stonehenge when I was a kid so my memory is a wee bit fuzzy. I don't remember the channels, I'm not sure how deep they are or how much water they would hold. It's an interesting idea though. That been said, I doubt England even back in the day would have the temps to make ice thick enough to the slide massive stones on, unless the water was very shallow. Walking on ice, even 3 inches thick is not sufficient to carry the load of an adult. In Canada, we have ice roads, and unless the ice is at least 12 inches thick, it will not hold vehicles weighing up to 2000 lbs, the average car. You must have at least 15 inches to carry a cube van and even thicker ice, up to metre thick to insure a heavier load on big rigs will not go through the ice.
Most of these roads are on deep bodies of water, lakes, and in some cases moving water, such as rivers.. The temperature must be below -10C or below for a sustained period before it becomes dependable, the lower the temp the faster ice will thicken. If the ice is covered with snow, it's insulated and is not trustworthy or if it's cloudy it has become degraded and it's too dangerous.
I think I read a long time ago, so I can't verify this... that the channels were thought to be used to ferry the stones on rafts. But, if the mean winter temperature was cold enough for long enough, it could be possible the stones could have be slid along shallow ice wells. But that would mean the temperatures were horrible mid-winter for the ancients, and maybe they were.

I thought the same things but I've never been to England (but I kinda like the music -- couldn't resist quoting that song) so, I wasn't really certain about the climate. I have always thought it milder, because of the Gulf Stream, than our climate.

I think that the while the henge monuments were no longer used that people still continued to honor the same holidays. The Irish feast days were Imbolc (February 1 or the Feast of St. Bridget, co-opted by the Catholic Church as Candlemas day, which is moved over by 24 hours to the 2nd); Lughnasa (August 1 which celebrates the harvest and the god Lugh, the handy god who made things); Samhain (this is the biggie, October 31- November 1, which more than any other celebrates the dead and is the forerunner of our HAlloween) and, finally, Beltaine (May 1).

These are not functionally far removed from the English Quarter Days -- Lady Day (25 March), Midsummer Day (24 June); Michaelmas (29 September) and Christmas (25 December) -- which do just what they are advertised as doing: divide the year into quarters.