Stonehenge - Blog Posts

Driving past this place is a goddamn nightmare

🔎 Lava Lake Discovery 

🌋 Raikoke Volcano Eruption

🔥 Uptick in Amazon Fire Activity 

2019 brought many memorable events on Planet Earth, and NASA satellites and astronauts captured a lot of the action! From new discoveries to tracking natural events and capturing amazing scenery, here are a few highlights from around the globe. 

Read more about the images in this video, here. 

We had our first of many definite final meetings at Stonehenge version '18. The last updates before a battle. That was no battle. Only switching to pure fiction. End of reality. Maybe like the druids in the past. If they did meet. If not, the more appropriate: Also fiction. I was a bit emotional. So close to my dear and loyal friends. Also the ones the story hadn't created yet: Dear and loyal. Like the "I" that was more me than I. Like Laurie, Senhor Passo, the whole gang. And the extras waiting for their cue. If the story would give them a line. We all joined hands and jumped into my pool of imagination. Well, no. Not really. I made that bit up. That's what I do. Only this time I was a little anxious. A hidden agenda in my mind. Or in. Somewhat stupid. A hidden agenda, yeah right: Not at all! It was in my thoughts. As my figures and the story. So of course they knew. No thought can be hidden among thoughts. Still, I wasn't sure how they'd react. Our story had to be postponed about a month. But hey, they knew. And told me, or I told "I", or… You know! The story would unfold and be alive anyway. No matter what matter. I rediscovered: The story was actually and always ahead of me. We, in front of that Stonehenge version '18, allowed me a short detour: https://www.facebook.com/events/339594393188134/ I promised, during my being absent-minded, that I'd finish my "Part 4" of 'Klynk & Ynk': That WILL be posted… #mantelmomento #danielmantel #afladninger #udenfilter #åbybibliotek #laurieandthestoryof + #primeiroproximopasso (Will return; actually not away, just deeper in fiction...) #aakb #volume2 #maxmadsen #stonehenge #thisisjustacirclebeingclosedcalledAfladningerstartedatDokk1throughKulturmødetMorstonowÅbylibraryasoneyearofAfladningeronAfladningerifthatmakessenseifnotthencomeandseeforyourself (Usual one-off hashtag...) (her: Stonehaven)

Northern lights over Stonehenge

Northern Lights over Stonehenge UK

Ep. 4 Henges and Archaeoastronomy - HD and the Void

Henges are only one type of astronomical tracking and observation monument. Other kinds include using big rocks that already exist and then building something close enough to observe its interaction with the Sun; building an observatory or a big p...

Henges! What the heck are they? And why is the word for studying them (and various monuments around the world that serve a similar purpose) so friggin long? Archaeoastronomy? What even is that? I got quite a few requests for this one so hopefully I did it justice... in my own special, somewhat contrary way.

Below the cut is some elaboration on the episode itself, including my sources, music credits, a glossary, some Google Maps images of the locations I talk about, and a transcript (not an exact record of this episode, but it’s the loose, fairly conversational script I was working with). I mention a couple of books and quote a couple people in this episode so if you want to see that written down, those sources are there too. I’m also on Twitter at @HDandtheVoid.

Let me know what you think of this episode, let me know what you think I should research next*, tell me a fun space fact… anything’s helpful at this point!

*(My thoughts were planets or star classifications. Give me some feedback by May 25th so I can start working on it! The next episode will be on June 5th.)

Glossary:

archaeoastronomy - the study of the astronomical practices, celestial lore, mythologies, religions, and world-views of all ancient cultures. The anthropology of astronomy.

equinox - twice a year, in the spring (vernal equinox) and fall (autumnal equinox), the 23.5-degree tilt of the Earth’s axis and Earth’s orbit around the sun combine in such a way that the axis is inclined neither away from nor toward the sun. The day and night are of equal length.

henge - a prehistoric monument consisting of a circle of stone or wooden uprights.

kiva - a room used for rituals and political meetings for many Southwest American Indian tribes.

petroglyph - rock carvings made by pecking directly on the rock surface using a stone chisel and a hammerstone. The desert varnish on the surface of the rock is chipped off, exposing the lighter rock underneath.

solstice - twice a year, in the summer (Midsummer) and winter (Midwinter), the 23.5-degree tilt of the Earth’s axis and Earth’s orbit around the sun mean that the axis is inclined away from or toward the sun. In Midsummer, the day is longest; in Midwinter, the day is shortest.

Script/Transcript (I do tend to embellish in the moment of recording so it’s not exact, but all the facts are there and I can’t know a fact and not talk about it so trust me, all you’re missing is probably another swear word or two)

Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, United States of America

Chichen Itza, Yucutan, Mexico

Stonehenge, Salisbury, England

Newgrange, County Meath, Republic of Ireland

Sources:

The definition of ‘henge’

A slightly more exciting definition of ‘henge,’ with pictures

Classifications of henges in the British Isles

The definition of a petroglyph, with pictures

A 3-minute video about solstices and equinoxes that has images of Chichen Itza and Stonehenge as well as Macchu Picchu, via National Geographic

Another explanation of the equinoxes and solstices; no video, though

The great Stonehenge Purchase!

More on the great Stonehenge Purchase!

Neil deGrasse Tyson writes about Manhattanhenge

Find your own city’s henge!

Burl, Aubrey. The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany. Yale UP: New Haven, CT, 2000. Located on Google Books.

Crouper, Heather and Nigel Henbest. The History of Astronomy. Firefly Books: Buffalo, NY, 2007.

Clive Ruggles quote: “Generally people in indigenous cultures in the past tried to make sense of the cosmos—of the world around them—by drawing links between things; things in the sky, things around them in the landscape, and social things too—all mixed in” (14).

G.B. Cornucopia quote: “One of the Chacoan people’s tools was certainly astronomy, and they were interested in astronomy because anyone living in this harsh environment who does not understand their environment will not survive” (11).

Ed Krupp quote: “Usually monumental architecture isn’t dedicated to observing the sky. It’s a way that people express how they feel at home in the universe; but also how they control the universe” (21).

Glowacki, Donna M. Living and Leaving: A Social History of Regional Depopulation in Thirteenth-Century Mesa Verde. U of AZ P: Tucson, AZ, 2015. Located on Google Books.

McCluskey, S. C.  “Historical Archaeoastronomy: The Hopi Example.”  Archaeoastronomy in the New World.  Ed. A. F. Aveni.  London: Cambridge UP, 1982 (31-58).

McCluskey quote: “began watching when the sun ‘went in’ near the cultural center and motel on Second Mesa” (38).

Williamson, R. A. et al.  “Anasazi Solar Observatories.”  Native American Astronomy.  Ed. A. F. Aveni.  Austin: U Texas P, 1977 (203-218).

Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity

Filler Music: ‘Leaves’ by Patients aka Ben Cooper, who primarily releases music as Radical Face but also has at least three other bands or band names he’s working with/has released music as.

Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught

I

The bois messin around at Stonehenge