It appears as though everybody has a an assumption for why the remnants were built. Some are more possible than others. With March 20 denoting the vernal equinox (one of two days throughout the year where day and night are the same length) consideration turns again to one of the more determined hypotheses for Stonehenge's source. In a 1965 book, "Stonehenge Decoded," astronomer Gerald Hawkins offered the latest hypothesis by that time thorough speculation to date of Stonehenge's motivation. Hawkins saw the bunch of stones, developed in stages from around 3100 B.c. through 1600 B.c., as an aged galactic schedule. (See pictures of the seven miracles of the world.)
In his dissection, he distinguished 165 different focuses on the landmark, and interfaced them to celestial wonder like the two solstices and equinoxes and lunar and sun powered shrouds. It's a troublesome hypothesis to negate totally and some confirmation is influential — at day break on the Spring solstice, for instance, the focal point of the Stonehenge ring, two adjacent stones (The Slaughter and Heel Stones) and the su...
Stonehenge: a Human Vulva or Temple, or something else…? The content of this project is based on the largest and most complete megalithic structure in Europe, The Stonehenge. It resides in center of the southern England; on the wide spread Salisbury Plains. It is said to be old approximately four thousand years, and it is even considered older than the Great Pyramids of Egypt.
Stonehenge is located on Salisbury Plain in Southern England. Although it is not the largest henge (circle of stones) of the Neolithic Period, it is a remarkable site because it is one of the most complicated megalithic sites. Stonehenge was repeatedly reworked from 3100 to 1500 B.C.E. (Encyclopedia Brittanica 287). Each new major building phase added new elements to the site. The present-day arrangement at Stonehenge is the result of the last building phase which ended nearly 3,500 years ago.
The oldest part of Stonehenge, called Stonehenge I (constructed ca. 3100 BCE), consists of little more than a circular ditch dug in the soil of the Salisbury plain, with the excess soil piled up to make an embankment approximately six feet tall. This area is approximately three hundred thirty feet in diameter, and encompasses “Stonehenge proper” – the familiar circles of massive stones that once stood upright as well as the large horseshoe arrangement of standing stones near the center of Stonehenge. (Trefil 48)
However, that meaning is not always known. It is believed that Stonehenge was most likely made to bring people of a community together as well as to mark a place where individuals could gather to perform rituals, although many theories about why it was built and the purpose it serves exist. For example, recent studies show that the monument may mark the graveyard of a ruling dynasty. There is evidence of over 200 cremated human remains that have been buried at the site within a period of 500 years. Some evidence suggests the site may have been a piece in a larger series of structures used for funerary rituals. The only thing that is knows for sure “is that Stonehenge held meaning for the Neolithic community that built it”
This paper will discuss three specific instances: Le Sacrifice, Psappha, and Metastasis. The first principle that I will discuss is the Golden Section. The Golden Section can be found in art and architecture dating as far back as the Parthenon, as well as different places in nature, such as the nautilus shell. The Golden Section is essentially a proportion that is established by taking a single line and dividing that line into two separate sections of unequal lengths, one quite longer than the other.
The Parthenon was built to honor the goddess of wisdom, Athena. When structures are built using straight lines they tend to look slightly distorted due to the science of optics. The architects Iktos and Kallikretes were skilled architects of their time and they used illusory tactics to create an ideal aesthetic for The Parthenon. The architects compensated for these visual illusions by counteracting them in their design. The end result is a structure that is not composed of straight lines, but when viewed by the human eye, looks perfectly straight. Plato would have mentioned one of his famous dictums, ?That which changes least is most real.? He would have viewed Iktos and Kallikretes designs as less real than other designs that do not u...
Behind every great structure in the world, there are the people who made them, and who took the time and effort to design them. Those who made Stonehenge succeeded in creating an incredibly complex and mysterious structure that lived on long after its creators were dead. The many aspects of Stonehenge and the processes by which it was built reveal much about the intelligence and sophistication of the civilizations that designed and built the monument, despite the fact that it is difficult to find out who exactly these people were. They have left very little evidence behind with which we could get a better idea of their everyday lives, their culture, their surroundings, and their affairs with other peoples. The technology and wisdom that are inevitably required in constructing such a monument show that these prehistoric peoples had had more expertise than expected.
Having arranged the grouping, the expression, the tout ensemble of his characters, Raphael must have felt somewhat at a loss for a fitting scene in which to place them. The architecture of the structure in the grand manner helped with conferring unity and opportunity to place the groups in a harmonious manner. The flight of steps is key to the placement of the philosophers into and across the space of the picture and permits the construction of an architectural framework which is not only rational spatially, but is in harmony with the significance of the subject (Murray, 64). On the one side, as presiding deity, he placed the sculptured image of Apollo, the god of inspiration, and of high endeavor; on the other, Minerva, the genius of wisdom, science, and practical life.
The conflict contained in this poem is reflected first and foremost in its theme. Much controversy surrounds the purchase of these ancient works of art. The lawfulness of the removal of these statues from the Parthenon is under review still to this day. The question remains, was Lord Elgin justified in removing the collection, and if not, should it be returned to Athens. While Lord Byron criticized its removal in his poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" stating that "Dull is the eye that will not weep to see / Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed / By British hands" (Canto II line 129-131), Keats was deeply inspired by them and supported the efforts of Haydon who wished to have the collection preserved in the museum to be displayed before the country. Keats went as far as to compose another sonnet upon viewing the marbles, which is addressed directly to Haydon in an attempt to express his indebtedness towards him for this inspiration. The writing of this second sonnet suggests that Keats feels his abilities are lacking, in that he allows for his greatness to be attributed to another.
Stonehenge is located on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. It is a megalithic monument built during the Neolithic Period, approximately between 2750 and 1500 B.C..(Stokstad, p.54-55) The builders of this magnificent monument remain unknown although it was once incorrectly thought to have been built by the Druids.(Balfour)
The Parthenon was built during the Golden age in Athens, Greece. The Parthenon is made of mainly columns; there is a 9:4 ratio. It was almost destroyed in war; the ruins that remained were dedicated to Athena. The purpose of the Parthenon was to house the statue of Athena, made of ivory and gold, and also Athena’s treasure. The ratios and the equations used to make the Parthenon were used as a sign of the harmony in the natural world around us. The mathematical harmony in the world shows how we can work with the world rather than destroy to make it what we want. The Parthenon also has no straight lines. The columns of the Parthenon are angled going up getting smaller the higher they get. This was done so that you could get the best lighting
In the early 1400s, Italian engineer and architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, rediscovered the system of perspective as a mathematical technique to replicate depth and form within a picture plane. According to the principles, establishing one or more vanishing points can enable an artist to draw the parallels of an object to recede and converge, thus disappearing into a “distance”. In 1412, Brunelleschi demonstrated this technique to the public when he used a picture of the Florence Baptistery painted on a panel with a small hole in the centre.3 In his other hand, he held a mirror to reflect the painting itself, in which the reflected view seen through the hole depicted the correct perspective of the baptistery. It was confirmed that the image
There are several theories as to what Stonehenge was. These ideas range from a calendar to an astronomical observatory to sacred grounds. These inferences are based upon the shape and positions of the stones that make up the monument. Stonehenge is made up of megaliths, or giant rocks. There are two kinds of these rocks at the structure, bluestones, which are about 8,000 pounds each, and sarsen stones, which can weigh up to 100,000 pounds each (Rattini, 2008). These rocks make up a henge, a group of circular ritual structures unique to the Late Neolithic era in Britain (Pitts, 2008). The first ring is a sarsen stone circle, the next ring a smaller circle of blue stones, then an even sm...
The mysteries of Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plains of England have perplexed human-kind since the beginning of recorded history. Some of the stones weighing as much as 40 tons were said to be transferred from Wales, which was a distance of about 137 miles. With the use of radiocarbon analysis at the site of Stonehenge it has been determined that the monument was built between 3000 and 1500 BC. The original purpose of Stonehenge has been lost in the pages of time, and therefore has been a major topic of discussion for archaeologists. Since the mid 12th century archaeologist, geologists, historians, and even some authors have put forth their own opinion of when and why Stonehenge was built. Throughout this essay I shall analyse and interpret different theories on Stonehenge in an attempt to understand what we know so far. It is in the mid 1100’s that we come across our first theory on Stonehenge, given by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Analysis of Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, The Prelude, The World is Too Much with Us, and London, 1802