Stone henge; Worship, Astronomical observation of defense?

[caldrail]

How much study have you done on the religion of the peoples who built stonehenge?

I'd like to know how much anyone can do, because their religion is lost to us other than we know they charted the various heavenly bodies. If you want to bring up all this modern neo-pagan stuff, please don't, because thats not based on ancient worship, its just a vague reproduction of what some people would like it to have been.

 

Their World revolved around celestial bodies, and the cycles of the year. All of their yearly holidays were based on Solar and lunar cycles. The solstices, the equinoxes, and the full, and new moons were their lives.

Woooah.... Holidays? Thats a roman concept, not neolithic. Unfortunately you're wrong. Their world did not revolve around heavenly bodies, it revolved around the natural cycle, and was convenient that the heavenly bodies moved in time with seasonal changes.

 

That's not giving those ancient peoples much credit. People of the ancient world were more advanced than you might think.

Not in neolithic times I'm afraid. They definitely had a strong cohesive culture with a rich religious life, and yes, up to a point were capable of communal engineering.

 

They understood medicine, knew astrological facts we've only rediscovered in the last few centuries, and performed engineering feats that in some cases we are STILL incapable of reproducing

Well thats not giving us much credit is it? What neolithic engineering are we incapable of reproducing? Successful demonstrations of stonehenge building have already taken place, and we do have the advantage of modern materials and heavy plant. Incapable? Hardly. Its just a question of who pays for it.

 

Incidentially, astrology has no bearing on this. You're making an assumption that astrology is a proven science - it isn't - its a superstition structure based vaguely on whats left of Chaldaean rites, with a great deal of commercialised bunkum thrown in for good measure. Astrology as we understand it wasn't present in Wiltshire back in stonehenge times.