Happy solstice and happy/merry other end of the year holidays to all! May 2024 surprise us by being wonderful.
Friends, when I started Clonehenge the internet was a different place. Blogs were all the rage and quirky niche stuff was everywhere. All the fun people with odd interests were coming out of the woodwork.
Search engines were actually good then! Put a search term in quotes and you only got results with those search terms. Facebook was still mostly for college students. Twitter didn’t exist. The internet was fun.
Times have changed. I was thinking of semi-retirement for Clonehenge some time soon but then earlier this year, about the time Threads started up, Instagram changed its search function and I could no longer find the things I need to keep Clonehenge social media accounts active. I could no longer find the latest large permanent replicas appearing around the world. And at the same time Twitter searches for Stonehenge brought up ugly arguments and racist posts that I didn’t want to read. The fun had gone out of what was meant to be a fun hobby. It never did make any money . The fun was my remuneration.
So I’m closing up shop, everywhere but especially on WordPress. I pay quite a bit for this site, along with a clonehenge.com domain and email address. It doesn’t make sense anymore.
I’ve had a great time, met wonderful kind people, and I’ve learned a whole lot. I love learning!
Many thanks to everyone who ever paid any attention to Clonehenge. I know there will still be new Stonehenge replicas cropping up around the world. I know people will keep making cheesehenges and boxhenges, Jengahenges and many variations I can’t even imagine. Just this week I received a Stonehenge block set, by Artor Blocks, one I had never heard of before. It never ends.
And so in closing I wish all of you, for the rest of your lives, happy henging!
Our ancient ancestors left stone monuments for us to admire and wonder at but the most lasting legacy we’re leaving for our descendants may be plastic waste.
National Geographic’s 2019 campaign “Planet or Plastic” included a competition for young architects to create an art installation representing the topic, one that could become a landmark. Among the over 1600 entries from 86 countries was this remarkable trilithon made from bales of crushed plastic water bottles created in Milan by the architectural group VATRAA and entitled “Plastic Monument”. VATRAA, based in London and Bucharest, as founded by two young Romanian architects Anamaria Pircu and Bogdan Rusu.
Rusu said in an interview in Fast Company, “Our ancestors left us real assets like the pyramids, the Colosseum, or Stonehenge, but part of our legacy might be plastic waste.” Other ancient sites were considered for the recreation but in the end Stonehenge was chosen for its pure form. The uprights and lintel are actually hollow, with their form created by 8-inch outer skin of crushed plastic bottles encased in mesh. A nice touch is that the mesh trilithon “was sculpted to add the kind of texture that a stone pillar might show, based on a preexisting 3D model of the Great Trilithon.” That’s the kind of detail Clonehenge likes to see!
“Plastic Monument” in Milan
On our social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook group, Facebook Page, Mastodon, and Instagram) and on this blog we discuss the many things Stonehenge means to many different people. Here we see the iconic form of the inner trilithons being used to symbolise the legacy left to us by mankind of the distant past. The powerful and unmistakable form of the stone trilithon speaks to us of the strength of those in the past who found their way in a wild and untracked world toward civilisation as we, I was going to say as we know it today, but perhaps at this point it is best to say civilisation as we once knew it. Maybe hollow fake stones formed of crushed plastic water bottles are a fitting monument to what we have become today.
An article posted by Design Boom about this installation says: “It is hoped that ‘Plastic Monument’ will be reinstalled in other iconic locations across the world in hopes to continue the spread of this powerful message. Bogdan Rusu, founding partner at VATRAA, notes: ‘The installation is not designed to be beautiful, but to make us think about the consequences of our actions in the long run. We hope that this will inspire people of influence or regular plastic users to consider the bigger impact of the decisions they make today.’”
Clonehenge covers replicas and models of Stonehenge from the sublime to the ridiculous. We’re inclined to file VATRAA’s remarkable work toward the sublime end of that spectrum. A wonderful use of Stonehenge’s iconic status in the global consciousness.
We hope to write a post here about Joe McNamara’s recent work ‘Unhenged’ in Brentwood, UK before long. Until then, kind friends, we wish you good days and happy henging!
Image from Disney+ upcoming series Cars on the Road, from this tweet by @PixarCarsFacts1
Cars on the Road is the name of a new series based on the Cars animated movies, to be released in September on Disney+. We have never seen any of the Cars franchise but the trailer for this series caught our attention by briefly featuring a Stonehenge replica! The vehicles who seem to be the protagonists in the show are seen at Carhenge in Nebraska.
As some of you may be aware, many movies and shows have featured Stonehenge as part of the plot or at least scenery, so many that we made up a list of them (see A Quick List of Stonehenge Movies), including the good and the bad. But so far we are not aware of any movies or shows that featured a large Stonehenge replica not being used to represent Stonehenge but simply as itself. We’ve been waiting. We were certain it was going happen, and this appears to be the first. (Although it is worth mentioning that the best known Stonehenge replica in Indonesia, Stonehenge Merapi, was used in a popular music video there over a year ago.)
We don’t know anything about the circumstances of the Carhenge appearance in Cars on the Road or whether it is identified in the show as Carhenge in Nebraska. When we learn we’ll add that information here. Meanwhile another show caught our interest recently when in Umbrella Academy two characters are crossing through Pennsylvania and one while reading a list of roadside attractions mentions “Cowhenge”. While there is no Cowhenge (We live in Pennsylvania so we’re quite sure of this), a: It’s exciting that they’re recognising and mentioning henges as roadside attractions! and b: Maybe there should be one! 🐄🐄🐄
We’ve mentioned, probably a few times, a moment in the show Elementary when Sherlock is building a Stonehenge of gold bullion. Small replicas are cool but we think the larger standing Stonehenge replicas will show up on screen because of their uniqueness and ambience. Imagine a movie scene where to people are talking (or firing at each other!) at Washington State’s Maryhill Stonehenge or at the impressive Stonehenge replica in Odessa, Texas. Think of the light and shadows. Or imagine romance or drama unfolding at Montana’s beautiful limestone Stonehenge, set by a lake near mountains and a forest, with a rolling golf course and an air museum featuring vintage aircraft. Many possibilities!
Stonehenge itself is rich with symbolism of many kinds. Using a Stonehenge replica in a story can imply some of that depth without the heavier ancient implications. Stonehenge replicas are also, at least to us, implicitly humourous if you care to take it in that direction. Hollywood is often hungry for visuals that imply meaning and for places that capture light in interesting ways. Maybe they’ll discover North America’s Stonehenges as places people go on their way somewhere else or as destinations in themselves. We’ll be watching when they do!
Until then and until next time, friends, we wish you happy henging!
A new addition to our list of 100 Large Permanent Replicas (which is soon to be removed to a better url)! In the western end of Hungary, not far from Lake Balaton, is a basalt mining area that includes Zalahaláp Mountain (whose correct name may possibly be Haláp Mountain—Hungarian is not one of our languages). So much stone was removed during the 20th century mining years, which included World War I and World War II, that the former volcano which once rose to 358 meters now measures only 291 meters and is flat on top except for a rock cliff on one side. The mountain experienced some basalt mining during Roman times too.
An educational trail highlighting the history and natural features of the place now takes hikers to the flat space and on up to the highest point. A popular feature of the trail is the Awakening Volcano Sculpture Park, a set of sculptures made from the basalt of the mountain and commemorating the mines and the people who worked in them. And of course we wouldn’t be talking about it if there weren’t a trilithon or two involved!
We first started seeing the trilithons on Instagram a while ago when we did our daily Stonehenge searches, as they are often tagged #Stonehenge, but it took a while for us to learn the story behind them. One of the pleasing aspects of what we do is that every Stonehenge has an interesting story and a creative person or people behind it. In this case the sculptors are Rhea Marmentini and Zoltán Balanyi. The sculpture park and educational trail were just finished in 2019.
What prompted the sculptors to include trilithons among their mountain top sculptures? We would love to know. They certainly seem to create an Instagrammable view with the backdrop of the broad green landscape reaching to other mountains in the far distance. These are known as the Witness Mountains and of them we read in translation:
“The most beautiful natural values of the Balaton Uplands are the so-called „tanúhegyek” (Witness Mountains) which were given this name because they are witnesses to the pre-historic times.
Several million years ago, the mountains didn’t create a chain but stood alone out of the Pannon-sea. 20 million years ago, when the majority of the area of the country was covered by salty water, a significant volcanic activity took place here, due to which the shapes and forms of today were created.“
So today we learned about Lake Balaton, also known as the Hungarian Sea, which is the largest lake in Central Europe and about the Witness Mountains as well as basalt mining in Hungary. Here at Clonehenge we love that our pursuits take us to new, interesting, and beautiful places and force us to learn new things about the world. We have many more Stonehenges to add to the blog. Who knows what we’ll learn next!
Thank you for stopping in and until next time, friends, happy henging!
Keijo Nevaranta: Stone Age 1998 from his Facebook page
Because of Kari Kola’s brilliant Snowhenge we’ve been thinking a lot more about Finland lately. (We can’t really say this is Finland’s day in the sun. We believe that day is in June. Haha. Sorry.) Sadly the wonderful Snowhenge can’t be added to our List of Large Permanent Replicas since before long it will melt, but that doesn’t mean Finland doesn’t make our list at all! Near the border between Finland and Sweden on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia in a park in the city of Kemi stands a granite sculpture modeled after Stonehenge, entitled Stone Age. It was designed by artist and poet Keijo Nevaranta and donated to the city in 1998.
Built roughly on a 1/2 scale of Stonehenge itself, it is oriented to the same directions as the original so that it marks “the sunrise of the summer solstice, the sunrise of the winter solstice, [and] the northernmost and southernmost of the moon” according to Mr. Nevaranta’s blog. He states, “Like Stonehenge, the original idea of ”Stone Age” has been to move something from the spiritual tradition of mankind over time to the end of the second millennium and the following centuries, from the dawn of mankind to perhaps the twilight of mankind.” (A bit ominous but, it must be said, not inappropriate.)
We were curious about how firmly the stones are set into the ground, and we find the artist says, “When I designed the work and applied for a building permit from the City of Kemi, the city representatives were promised a 2,000-year warranty on the work. Yes, it will remain upright in this place for at least as long as Stonehenge, which is at the base of nature. This is better established.” Turns out it has concrete bases for the stones.
From what we have read, the artist devoted 18 months to the design and creation of the work. It was paid for by Ahti Mäntylä, owner of a granite mine who wanted a monument to the Finnish mining industry and to the Elijärvi mine, Finland’s largest mine, not far north of Kemi.
Stone Age stands in a park in Kemi. At one time the park, Ruutinpuisto, was threatened by development, but that threat seems to have passed for now, as some photos of the sculpture are pretty recent.
As for the monument from our point of view, it looks good but a bit in the mode of the Rolla, Missouri Stonehenge, small, without bluestones, and with very straight and even shapes for the stones. The artist says the reason for the straight lines is to create a visual conversation with the city buildings nearby. The inner trilithon horseshoe does face the three-lintel stretch, always a sign that someone’s paying attention. We’re convinced Mr. Nevaranta was paying close attention to Stonehenge as he conceived and created the work.
We were delighted to find this Stonehenge replica in far away Lapland! We first saw it on Twitter in June, in a video posted by @kaukamieli which can be seen here. The caption says, “”Mooooommmm! Let’s go see Stonehenge!” “We have Stonehenge at home.” Stonehenge at home:” He is obviously unimpressed. 😂 https://twitter.com/kaukamieli/status/1410212893451243520?s=20
We will add Mr. Nevaranta’s excellent sculpture to our list of large permanent replicas and hope that no one talks the city council into letting them develop the park and destroy it. We would love to find our way to Finland one day and see it in person! There is one more Stonehenge-ish structure in Finland beside this and the ephemeral Snowhenge. We’ll have to tell you about that one some time!
Have a great weekend, friends, and until next time, happy henging!
A full-sized Stonehenge sculpted from snow—one of those things we didn’t know we needed until we saw it! [See a short but wonderful video of the sculpture here] Look at the shapes of the trilithons and the arrangement of the “stones” of this Snowhenge in Finland. Time and thought have been taken to make it seem like the real one. I would love to experience what it’s like to walk among them!
This remarkable installation arose from the brilliant mind of Finnish light artist Kari Kola. On his Facebook page he writes:
“I wanted to create something iconic to these harsh times and i was thinking the strongest places i’ve been… then everything was clear! Let’s build Stonehenge on 1:1 scale from snow! Project is called Snowhenge! It’s been a privilege to work with ice-sculpting masters Mr. Anssi Kuosa and Mr. Lkhagvadorj “George” Dorjsuren with this project. Also this wouldn’t be possible without creative construction consultant Mr. Brendan Savage from Ireland to realize the exact scale and positions. Also it’s a privilege to be supported from Stonehenge, thank you Jessica Trethovan and Jennifer Davies! This is located in my gardens at my hometown Joensuu before it melts.”
An article about the snowhenge in Finnish STT info says “The multiple Finnish master of ice sculpture Anssi Kuosa has been responsible for the sculpture together with the world champion of Mongolian ice sculpture Lkhagvadorj “George” Dorjsure. Kola asked Brendan Savage, an Irish creative construction technology consultant with more than 30 years of experience in large structures and scale, to join the project.“
Kola’s snowhenge is also lit by the artist.
The article goes on to say, “Stonehenge has never before been built on a 1: 1 scale from snow. The stone circle is 32m in diameter and the largest stones are about 6m high. Construction of the project started on 27.12. and the project has been under construction by about 10 people. The complex is expected to be on view until mid-March in the Botanical Garden in Joensuu, owned by Kola.”
That is, until it melts. Is it just us or does anyone else hope there is a lengthy timelapse of it melting when this is all over? Watching Stonehenge Melt seems like a good title for a video, or for something at least.
Part of Kola’s motivation for making the Stonehenge is to encourage the creative arts. On his Facebook post about the Stonehenge replica he also writes: “I think it’s very important to remember history and importance of culture and arts. In these crazy times with the pandemic its been very sad to see many governments to have very low support for the arts and artist. I hope that the project will inspire other artists to keep creating beautiful projects all over the planet.“
What a wonderful project,! It’s the kind of thing that shows something we’ve reflected on from time to time. Doing Clonehenge allows us to see the best and most creative sides of people at a time when it’s easy to forget that humanity has a good side. Think of all the thought, planning, work, and certainly money that has gone into making this beautiful sculpture that has no practical use. It was built knowing that before long it will melt away. Instead of men at work, although they have certainly worked, it is in a sense men at play. For us this makes the list, with Jeremy Deller’s inflatable Stonehenge, of our favourite Stonehenge replicas of all time. Bravo to its creators and to the spirit of creativity and joy that it embodies!
People in this world with us are still brilliant, doing brilliant things! We can’t wait to see what youdo. So until next time, friends, happy henging!
Late-breaking news: since posting this we found this wonderful 360° experience of Kola’s Snowhenge, which allows the user to view it as if from inside, even providing a choice of day or nighttime! https://360panorama.fi/360BotaniaTalvipuutarha/
Sad news: one of the Stonehenge sculptures we had been planning to put on our large permanent list was dismantled in January. The sculpture, in Kharkiv, Ukraine and entitled Scythian Heritage, included a Stonehenge-like sculpture of concrete blocks, some marked with symbols, and a few stylised human figures in imitation of ancient Scythian statues. On the 4th of January the Kharkiv city government without notifying the sculptor, Eugene Kulik, had the sculpture dismantled. The artist was not even told where the pieces were taken. :’-(
You can see a short video walk-through taken about a week before its sudden disappearance at this link from @rtplaysocial on Instagram.
We’re always sorry to see a Stonehenge go! And it may be a while before anyone in Ukraine is thinking about building Stonehenges again. Best wishes to everyone there.
In order to bring this blog alive we’re going to start posting a Friday foodhenge here as we do on all of our social media accounts. We’ll start with this vegan sausagehenge which is exactly as absurd as we need it to be as we launch this new feature! Posted by @student_veganlife on Instagram.
Have a wonderful weekend, friends, and don’t forget to henge! 😄
Well, here’s the story. For the last few years we have neglected this original Clonehenge blog, focusing instead on our presence on Twitter, Facebook, and eventually Instagram. Recently we’ve even dreamed of getting a cute animé 2-D avatar and becoming a Clonehenge V-tuber! Why not? We have to move with the times. 😉 Meanwhile we’ve let this WordPress blog fall into ruins, littered with broken links and humour that we (unlike everyone else) once thought funny but that is now super cringe. This past year we were even considering deleting the blog once we completed the mythical possibly never-to-be-completed Clonehenge World Map.
BUT things happen, plans change, often precipitated by unforeseen events. In this case the unforeseen event is called Mike Pitts*, or more properly a book written by him, set to be released in a few weeks, the book you see above entitled How to Build Stonehenge. Written by Pitts, well known archaeologist, journalist and Stonehenge scholar and enthusiast (he’s shown up on this blog in the past, I believe, bouncing on Jeremy Deller’s inflatable Stonehenge and saying he recognised every stone. Hmm, must check we didn’t say anything in that post we might wish we hadn’t!), the book talks about how Stonehenge was built including the accumulated scholarship of the past plus all of the latest research, with lots of interesting tidbits thrown in to create a uniquely comprehensive and fascinating look at how it came together along with other points of interest about the iconic monument. We think. Haven’t actually read it, since it isn’t out yet, but we will see soon enough.
Normally the announcement of such a book would simply be delightful, if potentially expensive, news. But on the 16th of December of last year the author tweeted out a few photos of his author’s copy including part of a page of the preface and Lo, there in the that image was the name Clonehenge! Our thanks to Tim Daw of the informative Stonehenge website www.sarsen.org for drawing our attention to it. The photo not only mentions the name Clonehenge but also the name of the one behind the curtain, who honestly would never even have guessed that the esteemed Mr. Pitts knew their name.
image of pages of the preface to How to Build Stonehenge: the reference is just over halfway down the right page
Notice however that this mention doesn’t name our Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram accounts. No, just this old WordPress blog which frankly we had stuck against the back wall of the garage behind some boxes, old sleds from when the children still lived here, and that former favourite no-longer-working lawnmower that’s just too good to throw away. I think some squirrels actually nested in this blog at some point and when we got it back out last month to have a look we had to dump nut shells, sticks, and grasses out of some of the posts from roughly 2013 to 2016. Yet when the book comes out and people become curious and look us up, this old abandoned wreck is what they’ll see.
So after lengthy panic (our area of expertise!) and a certain amount of contemplation, what we recommend for everyone who sees this is of course to buy Mike Pitts’ book How to Build Stonehenge, to be released 17 February in the U.K. and mid-March in the States, if you haven’t pre-ordered already, and not to look at any posts on this blog that are more than a year or two old. There aren’t any fleas but we can’t guarantee you won’t feel a little itchy after reading some of those old posts.
For our part we will start by writing brief new posts about Stonehenge replicas worldwide not yet added to our Large Permanent Replica list—there are well over 100 now and we need to catch up—and then eventually we’ll go back and improve old posts. There are well over 400 posts on this blog though, so it won’t happen overnight. Please bear with us. There’s only one of us and we have another blog on another subject with many more followers that also requires tending. If you run across any dust or nutshells in the meantime just toss them aside. Squirrels can be such a nuisance.
We thank you for being here, gentle readers, and until the next time, happy henging!
*Mike Pitts’ archaeology journalism blog can be found at Digging Deeper.
In gearing up for the Clonehenge World Map which is due to be finished by September or October, we commissioned a new logo and a new banner image to use on our social media accounts. In the banner above you can see, left to right, the Odessa, Texas Stonehenge, the Maryhill Washington State Stonehenge, Carhenge in Nebraska, and a small wooden Stonehenge. We think Lena Bane, the artist, did a wonderful job.
The new Clonehenge logo.
A side effect of this is that we can now offer Clonehenge merchandise bearing the new images! To do this we have opened 3 shops on Etsy, one for the U.S., one for the U.K., and one for Australia. All of them are print-on-demand, which means the items are printed after being ordered, in the country where they were ordered, and none have to be shipped internationally unless you are ordering from outside those 3 countries.
And you can order from the US shop here: Clonehenge US
So far we only offer mugs and t-shirts but we’re open to suggestions or requests for other items. (You may not be impressed that we figured out how to make three shops in three different countries but we’re rather chuffed.)
Here we see long time friend of Clonehenge Simon Burrow sporting a brand new Clonehenge t-shirt:
Simon Burrow on Piestewa Peak, Arizona
And here is friend Timon Greenwood with a Clonehenge banner mug!
Timon Greenwood
Purchases will of course help us to defray the costs of having the beautiful graphics created by Lena Bane, @lenabanegx on Twitter. But the best part of course will be how unattainably cool you will become just by owning one of these rare collectors’ items!
The Clonehenge mugs. I’m not sure both versions on all stores right now but that will happen.
So thank you in advance for any purchases you decide to make! By the way, we did another interview recently, this time on BBC Somerset in the U.K., and we think Stonehenge replicas and the ideas around them are just coming into their own. There are a lot of you with fun ideas out there. We can’t wait to see them. And if you buy our merchandise, please send or post pictures!
CLONEHENGE 