So I guess today really started last night as I didn’t go to bed until 2:30. I needed to be up by 4:30 and of course I pulled a Beth and turned off my alarm while I was still asleep. So instead of waking up 15 minutes before I had to leave, I woke up 2 minutes before I had to leave. It was a good think I decided to pack my day bag at 2am and sleep in my clothes! I booked it out of the hostel and practically ran to the station, where I found the gates closed. After waiting 5 minutes, searching for another entrance, and having no one open the door, the gentleman who was waiting with me finally said, “Well it’s not locked” and pushed the grate aside. In the end, I made the train, which got me to the bus to Stonehenge. The driver didn’t have me on his list because I had signed up at 10 the night before, but next time I will definitely book earlier because one girl missed the bus and he called her on the number she provided (it’s required), told her where the next stop was, and then waited a couple extra minutes for her. Talk about great service.
So I fell asleep on the way to Stonehenge, but as it was after dawn before the bus even picked us up, we didn’t get there as the sun was rising. However, we did get to walk all in amongst the stones and our tour guide was absolutely FANTASTIC. We weren’t allowed to touch the stones because it kills the lichen (some of them are only supposed to grow in wet climates, while others are rare for the whole country). I did lose my balance and accidentally step on one, but I refrained from touching them, even though I really wanted to. So as far as Stonehenge goes, he told us the names of all of the rocks and apparently it used to be a ditch, then a bunch of blue stones (even though they don’t look blue now, they turn really blue in the rain when they aren’t covered in lichens), something like 30 of them, then the complete circle of the tall stones with the lintels on top of them, the 5 really big triliths in the center, and finally the altar stone. Scientists apparently have no idea really what this was for but it was built roughly 2,400 BCE and abandoned around a thousand years later. I took several pictures of the actual construction of the stones, how the lintel stones actually had hollowed out holes in them to set on top of the post stones which had little bumps on top to keep the lintel in place. Additionally, the circular ring where all the lintels connect employed a tongue and groove system to keep them from sliding apart. Not only was this impressive what with stone tools and all, but they also managed to curve the outsides of the stones in the circle so that they actually formed a full circle, not just a bunch of angles. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, the composition of the rock mean they the closest place they could have come from was 70-80 miles away (each weighs roughly 40-45 tons). When they were placed in the ground, the builders only put them a couple feet deep, but planed the sides to be smooth and straight. Additionally, the centers of each of the stones in the lintel circle are equidistant. The gaps between vary in size, based on the stone’s width but the centers are all the same distance apart. The top, were it still there, is also level. The builders accomplished this even with a tilt in the ground because they carved the stones at the bottom of the tilt to be taller than the others, creating a level circle. There are a lot of alignments (summer/winter solstice and the spring/fall equinoxes) at Stonehenge and summer is not the place to go. Last year 35,000 people went and left 4 tons of trash. Last winter, however, there were 5 people. So I think I might have to come back in the winter.
The countryside around Stonehenge is filled with small mounds – burrows from past cultures burying their dead. A few years ago an archeologist realized that they had never found a shred of day-to-day living evidence around any of the tombs. Looking at a map he decided a likely place to dig a bit south of Stonehenge. He was refused funding but brought in archeologists anyway and turned up buckets of evidence from the Stone Age. One of the best finds in his dig was the complete floor plan of a house from the period. There had been partials discovered before, but nothing finished. With-in a year they had gone from having no complete floor plans to having discovered 9. Also found was evidence of a wooden henge that would have aligned with the winter solstice sunrise (Stonehenge aligned with the sunset – now however, everything is slightly off because the Earth has tilted on its axis and won’t return until early in the 3000s). The path of that henge connects to the river, where further down, another path connects to Stonehenge. Interestingly, there were no signs of year-round inhabitation by peoples in the area and all animal remains have been placed about 70-80 miles away. The current theory that has emerged from this new evidence is that the settlement was visited once yearly at the winter solstice (caring for summer crops would have most likely prevented summer visits) where there was great feasting. The sun would rise through the wood henge at the village and the people would then travel up the river (next to or on it) to the path to Stonehenge. There are about 8 hours between sunrise and sunset on the solstice, which is about how long it would have taken. Considering the wealth and number of burial mounds, it is suspected that people of importance were entombed while common people were cremated and their ashes spread. It is speculated that the festival had something to do with celebrating the end of the year and ancestor worship. This is currently getting wide support in the scholarly fields.
After much fun at Stonehenge, we hopped back on the bus and headed to Salisbury. I had my first pastry (bacon, cheese, and leek) and meandered for a bit before going to the Salisbury Cathedral. It’s a lovely church, but more importantly houses one of only 4 remaining copies of the Magna Carta, the one that has been best preserved, even though it’s missing it’s seal (it was probably the best preserved because it was put away in a drawer and forgotten for a few centuries – no joke). After this I headed to a local church in town that house the larges doom painting in England of it’s time – I don’t know if it’s still the largest (doom paintings are the ones that show the judgment dealt out by God/Christ).
After this we left to return to London and I again took a nap on the bus. We got to the city a little before I had expected and I rushed to get to Temple Church before it closed. I made it with 10 minutes inside, very pretty. Afterwards I walked down to the Tate Modern via the Blackfriar Bridge and spent several hours happily looking at modern art (I took several pictures including some of the museum signs in case you wanted to learn a little more about the movements. I also tried to get the nameplates of some of the more uncommon artists but some are in front of their work and some are behind – I didn’t really have any order. I also photographed the names of the 4 exhibitions I walked through, but 3 I photographed before walking through and one I photographed after walking through, sorry about that). I rode back to the hostel on an enormously crowded train but found that there was a fresh fruit stand set up just outside the station. I had some blackberries on the walk back but it didn’t do me and I ordered a crème brulé from the kitchen. Not the best, but still pretty good.
Several of the pictures I took today were just tourist-y and frequently I didn’t stop walking to take them, so they may be a little blurry. Others I really tried to do a good job of capturing. I hope you like them!
Hello, sister. or World.
ReplyDeleteHey matt set this up so I am trying it now
ReplyDelete