Stonehenge at LDSOA

In Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy described the solitude of Stonehenge:

 ‘What can it be? … A very Temple of the Winds’ … ‘It seems as though there were no folk in the world but we two’ … they … listened a long time to the wind among the pillars … Presently the wind died out, and the quivering little pools in the cup-like hollows of the stones lay still."

A prehistoric icon that is also an enduring puzzle, recent excavations and research at Stonehenge over the last seven years have produced new archeological understandings about the age and significant of this epic monument. One of the participants in those excavations, Professor Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield, will make a presentation at the Lamar Dodd School of Art on Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 5 p.m. Parker Pearson will present the results of the Stonehenge Riverside Project and discuss current theories about Stonehenge.

As a result of Professor Parker Pearson’s excavations, we now know much more about the people who built Stonehenge – where they came from, how they lived, and how they were organized. Not only has the project discovered a large settlement of many houses, thought to be for Stonehenge’s builders, at the nearby henge enclosure of Durrington Walls but it has also re-dated Stonehenge and investigated its surrounding monuments and sites, many of which were hitherto undated and unknown. This presentation will provide a brief overview of some of the project’s highlights, including the recent discovery of Bluestonehenge. One of the greatest mysteries – why some of Stonehenge’s stones were brought from 180 miles away – is currently being investigated and brand new results will be presented at the lecture.

The lecture is sponsored by the Archeological Institute of America and the department of Classics at UGA, in collaboration with the school of art. The event is free and open to the public.

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 5 p.m. Room S150. Reception to follow.

Image courtesy of M. Parker Pearson