Daily Archives: May 30, 2008

Stonehenge — Just a Graveyard? Say it ain’t so!

Front page. Washington Post: Researchers Say Stonehenge Was a Family Burial Ground

No ancient sacrifice?

No hooded figures chanting?

No witchcraft?

No magic?

No Duncan?

According to extensive research done by National Geographic, Stonehenge was just a cemetery for a ruling family. This news is a little shocking to me and I certainly do not agree with this statement by Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield:

“This is really exciting, because it shows that Stonehenge, from its beginning to its zenith, is being used as a place to physically put the remains of the dead.”

Sorry, Mike, but a cemetery is not exciting. Now, had National Geographic discovered that Merlin had actually lived and magicked the mammoth sarsen stones from Ireland to Salisbury Plain, that would have been exciting. Or discovering that the Druids had really used Stonehenge as a sacrificial temple would have been cool too.

But a cemetery? Pish.

I did find some of the information interesting though, like the linking of other ancient sites in the area such as Woodhenge and a place I’d not heard of, Durrington Walls.

So, thanks, National Geographic and Professor Parker Pearson, for taking the magic out of Stonehenge. Science — mutter mutter — who needs it anyway?

That guy from Spinal Tap agrees with me: