Stonehenge Revisited

I know from the number of hits these posts receive, that people are interested in how things looked in the past ..... although at least one commenter on an earlier post believed that contrary to all the evidence and skills of archaeology etc "the idea of "repairing" ancient structures like this is hilariously dumb, for the simple reason that we have no idea what they would have looked like originally and any attempt to rebuild them will only ever end up imposing the style and taste of the current era on it." .....

 

...... of course the idea that we don't know what ancient monuments looked like in their pomp is plain ignorant, but then that commenter was obviously none too hot on archaeology .... or much else really.

So purely for those of you who are more aware of the advances of archaeology, and theoretical structural archaeology, over the past fifty years .... the BBC ran a two part documentary called 'Operation Stonehenge' which detailed all the findings after the biggest survey of the site ever seen, which used ground radar, digs, aerial studies .... in fact the works. I would link to it, but as its on BBC iPlayer it will be taken down sometime soon.

Here's a few stills to give you an idea of what it looked liked. 

Evidence Of the Missing Stones Being In Place Once Was Found

How Stonehenge Looked In Its Pomp

Close Up Of How Stonehenge Looked In Its Pomp

The study was fantastic in its depth, and included the fact that contrary to the belief that the site was never completed, it had been, but that some of the stones had later been taken away in antiquity. Of course they also gave CGI illustrations to show how the site looked and tied in with the other sites in the area (some of which were found for the first time in centuries or millennia). It was interesting to note that the stones had originally been white .... they have greyed through the millennium.

Stonehenge Aerial Shot

Stonehenge In Its Original Environment

If you get the chance to watch the two parter (its bound to be repeated), it was very interesting, and if you don't like the fact that people speculate about restorations, because we have 'no idea what they would have looked like originally' .... then write to the BBC, and all the archaeologists involved in the study from around the world, because they are obviously all frauds.