HapSmo19 wrote:OK. Back to Balsiefen...Balsiefen wrote:A trap, no; temple, maybe
Why take care so that the sun would move exactly through the central stone at midsummer and midwinter? Why line the outside banks with gleaming white stone so it can be seen from miles around?
Why go through all the trouble to quarry ALL OF THOSE monoliths from whales, and somehow move them there to co-incide with two asrological occurences?
Because it was Religion. Why would people in medieval times spend millions of pounds, hundreds of lives and a huge amount of workforce building massive cathedrals while everyone else is in extreme poverty? The same reasons apply to both civilizations.
And you think the trap is elaborate? Where are the markings of any kind, charting the seasons? There are none.
Where are those gleaming white stones? I don't see them.
By elaborate I didn't mean in that sense. You are a bronze age bloke living in south England, You need to get huge stones (I'm not even sure what weight they are) all the way from Wales to Saulsbury. Once you get them there, you have to stand them upright (consider their weight, this is not as easy as it sounds, It took hundreds of years for historians to figure it out) And then you have to mount the crosspieces (which still no-one can entirely agree on, I'm not sure i could even take a guess) Now, all you have to do this with are stone and wood (and quite possibly bronze which is a rather soft compared to most metals).
As for markings, agreed there aren't any, possibly the stones were symbolic enough. possibly they are contained within the wooden structure some say used to stand in the center of the circle, possibly they have been destroyed over the years (as have most roman artifacts and carvings not buried) by natural forces or Christians who wished to destroy pagan imagery (they did have a campaign of destroying stonehenge at one point but gave up believing it was cursed when the stones started falling over themselves and killing people).
The white stuff is definitely there, but currently buried under the outermost mound, and due to military activity over the years, rather destroyed.
Balsiefen wrote:The second thing is, its far too ceremonial for a simple trap (which could be made as you described by nothing but a few mounds of earth and a locally sourced stone.)
Less work than three mounds,...you can predict a solstice with two points,...right?
Ah, yes but you cant build a temple with two, the function of Canterbury cathedral could have been achieved with a large empty wooden building with a load of chairs and an alter, but it isn't, because the function of a religious building isn't just to pray in, it is to impress. The priests bring the peasants in from their one room hovels and give them a taste of heaven and the glory of god.
If you visit Canterbury slaughterhouse however, you will find it it has no more than what it needs for its function.
) which was made entirely out of wood.
