Monday, June 20, 2011

America's Stonehenge

Over two years ago my husband would go once a month to Masterpiece Tattoo in Salem, NH to sit for 6-8 hours getting work done on his tattoo sleeve. Dan Carroll is the shop owner and worked on this sleeve for almost a year and a half. (I think the total was 84 hours-the tattoo is incredible-you can see it on my facebook page-it includes an exact replica of "The Illustrated Mermaid" by the incomparable David Delamare) After attending one of the sessions I figured I had better find something interesting to do in the area while my husband's arm was being worked on. Low and behold I found the most fantastic place practically right down the street-THE OLDEST MAN MADE STRUCTURE KNOWN IN AMERICA-it's over 4000 years old! What was very cool too is that there is an alpaca farm there-that still makes me laugh.

I'll include the web address but here are the first few lines from www.stonehengeusa.com:
What is America's Stonehenge?
Built by a Native American Culture or a migrant European population? No one knows for sure. A maze of man-made chambers, walls and ceremonial meeting places, America's Stonehenge is most likely the oldest man-made construction in the United States (over 4000 years old).

Like Stonehenge in England, America's Stonehenge was built by ancient people well versed in astronomy and stone construction. It has been determined that the site is an accurate astronomical calendar. It was, and still can be, used to determine specific solar and lunar events of the year.

Various inscriptions have been found throughout the site including Ogham, Phoenician and Iberian Punic Script. Dr. Barry Fell of Harvard University did extensive work on the inscriptions found at the site. They are detailed in his book America B.C.

So fascinating!!

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