NASA Adds to Evidence of Mysterious Ancient Earthworks - The New York Times

NASA Adds to Evidence of Mysterious Ancient Earthworks - The New York Times:

Stonehenge Was Ancient Rave Spot

British researchers unveiled a new theory for the origins of Stonehenge, saying the ancient stone circle was originally a graveyard and venue for mass celebrations.

The findings would overturn the long-held belief that Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in southwestern England was created as a Stone Age astronomical calendar or observatory.

A team led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson of University College London said Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is both older and had a different function than previously thought.

http://news.discovery.com/history/religion/stonehenge-was-ancient-rave-spot-130310.htm

"In many ways our findings are rewriting the established story of Stonehenge," Parker Pearson said.

The archaeologists carried out a decade of research which included excavations, laboratory work and the analysis of 63 sets of ancient human remains.

They said the original Stonehenge appeared to have been a graveyard for elite families built around 3000 BC, 500 years earlier than the site that is famous today.

The remains of many cremated bodies were marked by the bluestones of Stonehenge, Pearson said.

Further analysis of cattle teeth from 80,000 animal bones excavated from the site also suggest that around 2500 BC, Stonehenge was the site of vast communal feasts.

These would have been attended by up to one tenth of the British population at one time in what Parker Pearson said resembled "Glastonbury festival and a motorway building scheme at the same time."

It seemed that ancient people traveled to celebrate the winter and summer solstices but also to build the monument, he said.

Mini-Stonehenge Found: Crematorium on Stonehenge Road?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091005-mini-stonehenge-bluestonehenge-bluehenge.html

Perhaps a prehistoric crematorium, 33-foot-wide (10-meter-wide) "Bluestonehenge" was discovered just over a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the original Stonehenge in Salisbury, United Kingdom, scientists announced today.
The 5,000-year-old ceremonial site is thought to have been a key stop along an ancient route between a land of the living, several miles away, and a domain of the dead—Stonehenge.
Named for the color of its long-gone stones, Bluestonehenge, or Bluehenge, was dismantled thousands of years ago, and many of its standing stones were integrated into Stonehenge during a rebuilding of the larger monument, according to the archaeologists.

Megaliths of Hyderabad

http://indculture0.tripod.com/megalith.htm

All over Hyderabad and surounding areas there are prehistoric monuments ascribed to the megalithic peoples. They were skilled in handling large granite slabs mainly found in their tombs. The stone tombs are usually 3 metres underground and are marked on the surface by a circle of large rounded boulders. In Hyderabad area they are dated variously from 300 BC to 400 AD by archeologists, who say similar constructions in the sandstone area to the south date from 1300 BC.

Signature of the sky in rock

http://www.thehindu.com/2006/04/19/stories/2006041921290200.htm

HYDERABAD: An early representation of the Great Bear constellation dating back to around 500 B.C. has been discovered on a piece of rock at Mudumula village of Mahabubnagar district by the University of Hyderabad.

The University's History department dated the find to the megalithic period and suggested the sky map as being the earliest physical representation of the sky discovered in the country. "This probably could even be the earliest such representation in the entire South Asia," Reader in department of History K.P.Rao who led the team, claimed at a media conference here on Monday.

The representation of the group of stars was found on a square table-like rock with a flat slanting top. "This appears to have been deliberately planted by the megalithic people to plot the Great Bear constellation, also known as `Ursa Major' and referred to as `Saptarshi Mandala' in Indian astronomy," Dr.Rao said.