Chris Seager
27. fév. 2017 02:55 heures
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Chapter 2 Journal Activity

Chapter 2 Journal Activity

Chapter 2 Journal - When? Whom? How? Why? Convinced?

2

With the fleeting & ephemeral nature of our ancient ancestors activities, it is extremely difficult to accurately determine the exact answers to the questions of When, by Whom, How & Why.

Am I convinced by the proposed solutions?
I believe the focus on factual scientific evidence, utilising the various modern technological tools from a multitude of disciplines creates a good starting point, the framework, for building the full picture of Stonehenge & its surrounds. A form of forensic investigation into an extremely cold case. While I'm not fully convinced by all of the proposed solutions, I feel the archaeologists are definitely on the right track.

Within this particular chapter of this course, I have personally found the hypothetical stories/myths somewhat distracting and overshadowed the factual evidence found to date. (Apart from the "Ikea Henj" pictorial instruction leaflet which I absolutely love).
For example is the young man who was found buried very near Stonehenge. He was shot with arrows from behind & from the side, then buried in a shallow grave. In one video this killing was depicted as a ritual human sacrifice, yet in another video this same man was depicted as a transgressor trespassing where he shouldn't have been & subsequently shot & killed. The evidence provided in both videos were by the same Osteoarchaeologist, Jackie McKinley.

While I accept the norm for modern documentaries include an over-the-top helping of creative licence, I feel it would be more beneficial to us students to be provided with something like a detailed summary of facts for each of the study segments, date they were established, what method/s used, % of confidence, and where possible a link to the more detailed papers or lecture or whatever.

So, is it true? Does Stonehenge, not only aligns with the winter solstice sunset but also with the major "Lunar standstill"???

Commentaires

Graeme Davis (instructor)
avant environ 7 ans

The alignment with the lunar standstill has consensus support. This is short of proof as it could be coincidence, but most likely the alignment does exist.

You are right in spotting the problem with documentaries in that they do tend to like what you are calling the "over-the-top" approach. Every presenter wants to feel that they are somehow solving the Stonehenge puzzles and telling their viewers the new revelation. This noted the quantity of studies on Stonehenge and the new technologies available does mean we are learning more.

Graeme

Chris Seager
avant environ 7 ans

Thank you Dr Graeme,

I suppose one way confirm/deny the lunar standstill alignment is a little more than a coincidence is to have someone at the site every 8.? years over a period of decades - weather permitting - to document the event.

It would be refreshing to see future documentaries to be closer to 85% facts & only 15% creative story telling (+/-10%) - like the works by Sir David Attenborough, Prof Brian Cox and even Time Team (before the format changed).

Chris

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