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The liver is the largest of the body's internal organs. The skin is the body's largest organ. |
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How Welsh bluestones helped heal the ancients
Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 (CST) by Thoth
 Stonehenge was a place of healing and not a place for the dead, according to a scholar who attributes its powers to its Welsh origins. Professor Timothy Darvill shed new light yesterday on the purpose of the ancient stone circles of Stonehenge.
The academic says the basis for his findings is found in the Preseli Mountains in West Wales, where he and colleague Professor Geoffrey Wainwright have found bluestones used in the construction of Stonehenge's stone circles 155 miles away.
Stonehenge was erected between 3000BC and 1600BC. There has always been intense debate over the reason it was built, with theories ranging from human sacrifice to astronomy. But Prof Darvill believes the thousands of solstice revellers who visit the monuments on the longest day of each year to mark the arrival of summer are celebrating in error.
He said they should instead visit during the winter solstice when the ancient stones are at their most potent.
Prof Darvill, who is head
of the archaeology group at Bournemouth University, said, "First, there
is folklore in the form of accounts written in the 14th century which
refer to a magician bringing the stones from the west of the British
Isles to what we know as Salisbury Plain.
"It was believed these
particular stones had many healing properties because in Preseli there
are many sacred springs considered to have health-giving qualities.
"The water comes out of the
rocks used to build Stonehenge and it's well established that as
recently as the late 18th century, people went to Stonehenge to break
off bits of rock as talismans.
"Also, around the
Stonehenge landscape there are many burials, some of which have been
excavated and amongst these there are a good proportion of people who
show signs of being unwell.
"Some would have walked
with a limp or had broken bones - just the sort of thing that in modern
times pressurises people to seek help from the Almighty."
Dr Raimund Karl of the
University of Wales, Bangor, said he was familiar with the notion that
the stones used to construct the circles at Stonehenge came from the
Preseli Mountains.
But Dr Karl, a senior
lecturer in archaeology and heritage, questioned whether finding the
remains of sick people in and around Stonehenge proves it was intended
to be a place of healing.
"It's a possibility that it
was a place of healing, but whether there was a predominance of sick
people buried there I'm not so convinced.
"Many prehistoric burial
grounds everywhere show various signs of illness because people in
prehistoric times didn't have a modern health service and many of them
had lots of illnesses."
Prof Darvill suggested the
deity worshipped at Stonehenge would have been a pre-historic
equivalent of the Greek and Roman god of healing, Apollo.
He added, "Although his
[Apollo's] main sanctuary was at Delphi in Greece, it is widely
believed that he left Greece in the winter months to reside in the land
of the Hyborians - usually taken to be Britain.
"Altogether, and with the
incorporation of the stones from Wales, Stonehenge is a very powerful
and positive place of pilgrimage, although whether the monument's
healing power actually worked is a matter for further discussion."
Prof Darvill's findings appear in his new book Stonehenge: The Biography Of A Landscape.
Prof Darvill believes the
monument's powers are at their peak in winter because that is when our
ancestors believed that the henge was occupied by Apollo.
Stonehenge was constructed in three phases and required an estimated 30 million hours of labour.
Each monument was a
circular structure, aligned with the rising of the sun at the midsummer
solstice, and was a focal point in the landscape.
A huge effort and great
organisation were needed to carry the stones hundreds of miles by land
and water and then to shape and raise them.
Why did the ancients build Stonehenge?
People continue to wonder why Stonehenge was built, with some suggesting it was used as a giant astronomical observatory.
Stonehenge is also known
asthe "Giant's Dance" and in the 18th century people believed scrapings
from the stones could heal wounds.
Another theory has it that
Stonehenge was a religious site where animal sacrifices were offered to
the gods. Remains of decapitated pigs have been found on the site,
supporting the idea that it was a place where animals were sacrificed.
Copyright: icWales
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Re: How Welsh bluestones helped heal the ancients
by drdave616 on Monday, November 20, 2006 (CST)
(User Info | Send a Message) | | I visited Stonehenge in 1973, in the winter, and found it to be a stark, but calming place. It was impressive, to say the least, but, I felt only positive energy. Not like that of some of the more Macabre sites I visited in Europe, and the British Isles. |
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Re: How Welsh bluestones helped heal the ancients
by visionenhanced on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 (CST)
(User Info | Send a Message) | | maybe the giants dance refers to the procession of the galaxies through the universe. the solar system seems small. even the mayan calendars show the procession of galaxies. i wonder if their rounds could be used and lined up with stonehenge. |
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