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Ancient Art's theme for 2023 is Interesting Archeological Sites, and we invite you to join us for some vicarious travel to different places all around the world.
This is June's color of the month - and it is inspired by Stonehedge! Ancient Arts Socknado is a yummy and squashy fingering weight yarn. Each 100 gram skein of Socknado has 385 yards (350 meters) of 80% superwash fine merino / 20% nylon goodness.
Below follows the email details on this colorway from Ancient Arts:
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As summer arrives in the Northern Hemisphere, the next stop on our tour of Famous Archeological sites takes us to the Salisbury Plain in south-western England. We are visiting the world’s most famous prehistoric monument at Stonehenge. This unique, man made monument has fascinated scholars, engineers, writers, and artists for centuries.
The entire site is an archeological treasure trove of Bronze and Neolithic age artifacts, and includes some of the earliest burial sites in Britain. Important archeological finds of jewelry, pottery, and animal bones lead researchers to believe that the Stone Circle was used for important ceremonies and rituals.
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| The actual circle of stones that everyone thinks of when they think of Stonehenge was erected in the late Neolithic period, about 2500 BCE, about 4 and a half thousand years ago! There are two types of stones used in the circles; the larger sarsen stones, which are silicified sandstone boulders brought from the chalk downs in southern Britain, and the smaller bluestones. The Bluestones (so named because they appear blue when wet) are from an area in southwestern Wales that is 230 km (140 miles) away! Each ring of stones are generally uniform in size and shape, and each weighs approximately 25 tons. There are many theories about how the stones were brought to the site and set into the ground. |
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Although we will never now exactly how or why Stonehenge was built, we do know that the stones were deliberately placed so that they align with the sunrise at the summer solstice and sunset at the winter solstice. From the middle of the Stone Circle, you would see the sun rise just to the left of the Heel Stone. There is a large stone hole to the left of the Heel Stone that may have held another stone, and if that is the case, the sun would appear to rise between them. This alignment of the stones with the celestial movements, along with the monument's enormous size and meticulous craftsmanship, shows Stonehenge's immense importance for the agricultural, religious, spiritual and ceremonial needs of the people who built it.
Researching Stonehenge has been fascinating, and there is lots more we could share, but we don't have room! To learn more about Stonehenge, please visit the English Heritage website. You can take a virtual tour inside the Stone Circle here, and you can learn more about the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge here.
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