MORE RESEARCH AT STONEHENGE.

MORE RESEARCH AT STONEHENGE. I posted here about some recent finds near Stonehenge and how, when we visited Stonehenge in 2001, Annalisa had been sure that there was a lot more to be found by archaeologists. This blog post by Martin Wainwright in the Guardian (June 22) reports on a ten-year research project by a team from Sheffield University and other major British universities. The Sheffield researchers advance the theory that Stonehenge symbolized “a grand act of union between previously warring groups of people who lived in Britain between 3000 and 2500BC.” There had previousl been hundreds of years of warfare between the eastern and western parts of England. Professor Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University says: “When Stonehenge was built, there was a growing island-wide culture – the same styles of houses, pottery and other material forms were used from Orkney to the south coast.” He supports the theory of unification by pointing to the thousands of workers who would have been needed to construct Stonehenge and the surroundings. When we visited Stonehenge, we were frustrated by the romanticized speculations on the audioguides. The evidence supporting the Sheffield theories seems more satisfying.