Monthly Archives for December 2008

Photoshopping Stonehenge

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Glaciation, photoshopped by kadath on the Freaking News site. All photos may not be reproduced without permissions.

One proof that something or someone is an icon is that he, she or it has become the darling of the photoshoppers. Stonehenge isn’t immune, of course, and the above photo is just one example. It was an entry in the Stonehenge photoshop pictures contest on a site called Freaking News.

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We posted the arctic version at the top because it looks seasonal, but some of the others are more like Stonehenge replicas, like the above, photoshopped by drhardryve and entitled The First Dominoes Pizza Location, and the one below, photoshopped by japcham

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and entitled Zebra Love. You can see many more entertaining entries at the contest link. Don’t neglect to click on the other two pages. Lots of Stonehenge fun!

How can we award druids for these? We’ll award 8 prehistoric megapixels to the folks at Freaking News for giving us a smile.

Stonehenge, the board game?

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promotional photos from Titanic Games

Here’s a fun angle on the Stonehenge reproduction: a board game in which plastic trilithons are pieces. (Is that not a druid we spy below?)

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Actually, it’s five games or more. The game company gave the board and pieces to five game designers and each wrote a game, then all sets of rules were included in the game box. Since then, not only was an expansion with more games and pieces released, but players have designed their own games and submitted them to the Titanic site (here) for others to try. They even have related puzzles online, like this one.

Well, we admit that it looks like fun. Any excuse to set up a Stonehenge replica in the living room when friends come over has a certain appeal for us. If anyone out there has this, please let us know how you like it.

The replica doesn’t appear to be very accurate, but we like the idea, the appealing game board, and the fact that there are many ways to play just as there are many ideas about how and why Stonehenge was invented. Score: 6½ druids, and it appears they can add one of their own. Oh, those druids, they must have a great PR group!

Stillwater Stonehenge, Oklahoma

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photos by Lynnola with permission

Two months ago, Rick and Ruby Schneider of Stonehenge Realty in Stillwater, Oklahoma began to construct their own version of that great monument on the Wiltshire downs. Partially inspired by stirring pictures Ruby’s brother brought back from a visit to England, the Schneiders’  replica is still being built, with, so far, a few standing stones, two trilithons, and a unique structure of three uprights with one lintel. Needless to say, we cheer them on and watching further developments with great interest.

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Ruby says students from nearby Oklahoma State University already stop to take pictures at this early stage. If we know the internet, before long they’ll be on the Wikipedia list, the Roadside America list, the Smithsonian list . . . and Clonehenge, of course—they don’t know what they’re getting into!

No score, as it isn’t finished, but hurray for the Schneiders and other henge-builders  still building wherever they are, and hurray for the germ Ruby’s brother  brought back from England to  inspire still another Stonehenge to rise from the land! Thanks to Lynnola, too, for her help!

P.S.: Isn’t that Smithsonian video a killer? It cheers us to be reminded that even after posting 41 Stonehenge replicas we still have a long way to go. Only now we’re all full of Pez-henge lust. Must. . find. . and . . post . . it!

Henge-Fest?

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potato henge and photo by Captain Henge

The International Virtual Henge-Fest was held at the beginning of 2007, and while it was on an extremely small scale, wouldn’t it be fun if this sort of thing would catch on? Entries included a bog roll (‘toilet paper roll’ in American) henge, a CD henge, a people henge, a Tardis henge and more, all pictured at the link above.

“Is it lame?” the original announcement read. “Only if you’re sober!” it declared But even sober people might enjoy competitive henging once in a while. We would certainly enjoy seeing the results.

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Tardis henge and photo by Robbie Bonham

“Everybody make and bring a henge!” isn’t the worst thing you could put on a party invitation. You never know what you might get! We award 7½ druids to Captain Henge and the Henge-Fest hengers for good henges and a great idea. May their numbers multiply!

Send your holiday (or other) henge photos to clonehenge @entermail.net, removing the space before the @, and we will post our favourites.

Foamhenge II: Meet Virginia

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photo by 100wordminimum, with permission

A classic American Stonehenge replica, Foamhenge, once located in Natural Bridge, Virginia, and now relocated to Cox Farms, Centreville, Virginia, was built by Mark Cline, an appealingly nutty artist (note that these things are generally built not by mystics or druids, but by artists, engineers and scientists), intentionally as a tourist attraction. A Renaissance festival called The Enchantment Faire at Foamhenge is held here once a year, although not at solstice.

This replica is full-sized and Cline made an effort to copy individual stone shapes from Stonehenge.  Kudos to him! So many Stonehenge replica builders seem to never even bother to check what Stonehenge actually looks like! Cline also created the remarkable Bamahenge, a fiberglass Stonehenge in Alabama, complete with dinosaur replicas!

For the curious, see the plaque that was at the monument before it was moved here, and a nice dawn photo here. We chose the picture above, which captures the sense we get from some pictures of Stonehenge, a sense of the stones as great old beings huddled together to discuss deep and timeless secrets. At Foamhenge, though, whatever they’re discussing, we know it’s nothing heavy! Score: 6½ druids for the big henge and we would love to get a better look at that mini-Foamhenge in the Mark Cline link above!

Also, at this Smithsonian link, scroll down and click on the video with the flaghenge for some information and a short interview with Mark Cline about his creation. Fun!

Boxhenge: a form that had to be

Okay, yes, this video could use some colour intensity and sharpening, but it is what it is, and we do like the quick action and good humour. It would go well with a little Keystone Cops music!

Boxes, being cuboid in form, lend themselves to henge making. Probably many boxhenges that have existed never made it to the interwebs. Even on the web, some get away. We like the outstanding boxhenge picture at this link, but we couldn’t find the email address for asking permission.

We speculate that the activity in the video above may have been inspired partly by the cement circle in the lawn. It’s the sort of thing that can stimulate a latent henge impulse, especially if there are boxes at hand. Scores for these: 6 druids for the proud henge builders in the video (plus thank you for preserving it for us to see!) and 7 druids for the impressive boxhenge at the mystery school. We’re always pleased to see evidence of a new generation of henge builders on the way!

Montana’s Stonehenge: Big Sky

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photos by Bob LeBlanc, with permission

Montana has the kind of landscape that  just begs for a Stonehenge replica, but that requires someone with the henge-building bug plus the space and money needed  to implement it. Could it be that the land itself lured in the well-to-do, brilliant inventor Jim Smith, who just happened to have a friend in the stone/masonry business? Voila! Big Sky Stonehenge!

This replica stands on a private golf course in northwestern Montana that isn’t open to the public. It did attract some interest among the crowd who use Google Earth to scan the earth for odd and interesting things, but there’s  really not anything mysterious about it beyond the Clonehenge Principle: that strange something that impels people to build Stonehenge replicas.montana-fireworks2

Montana’s Stonehenge, on a golf course near Crystal Lakes, is made of limestone blocks, with great care taken to match the original in size and proportion. Some say it is the most exact copy of all the replicas, but as connoisseurs would point out, many criteria exist beside the sizes of the stones and the proportions of the layout. Things like the ditch and bank and the Aubrey holes seem to be missing as far as we can tell from the gallery photos, and certainly the shapes of the stones were not copied as closely as they were in the cardboard replica or the U. K. Foamhenge.

Nevertheless, this is a beautiful henge. If you can, be sure to look over the gallery at the underlined link above. Score: 8 druids for this stirring structure!

African Stonehenge

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photo from advertisement

We’ve posted Stonehenge replicas from Europe, North America, Asia,  and Oz so far. We’ve had New Zealand, too, but if we’re checking off continents only three are left and we would like to cover them all. Fortunately for us, not far outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, in Parys, Gauteng Province, there is a lodge and conference center called–you guessed it–Stonehenge, and, as the ad says, “As Guests enter Stonehenge, they are greeted by large replication of the celebrated Stonehenge Monument and throughout the complex natural, strategically placed granite plinths reinforce the African Ambience.”

OMG, score! The picture above is the only one we could find, so we don’t know if the ‘replication’ consists of more than two trilithons, but that’s enough for us to count it. They’re actually nice big square trilithons that put us in mind of the Montana Stonehenge, except for that lovely pinkish cast. (We’re waiting for photo permissions, but will get you Montana’s one of these days so you can compare.)

It’s impossible to score this accurately since we don’t know how much more of it there is, but, hey, we’ve never scored accurately before,  so why start now? Score: 6 druids, plus an extra  ∏ for being in Africa! Anyone who can direct us to replicas in Antarctica or South America gets . . . a handwritten note and our eternal gratitude, or something cooler if we can think of it. Get someone on the space station to make a henge and get us the picture and, Wow! We’ll be like BFFs forever! Srsly!!!

Polystyrene Henge and the Topic of Henge Addiction

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model and photo by Sarah Denton of the Matchstick Henge Facebook Group

The term is henge addiction, that rare and possibly fatal need to make henges from anything, all the time. The support group for it on Facebook is Matchstick Henge, and while for now its numbers are low, they are bound to increase as awareness reaches the general public.

Of course at Clonehenge we advise caution and we hope people will examine closely the question of whether this is a lifestyle choice or something genetic, born into one’s very nature.  As you can see above, the syndrome can result in some admirable henges, in this case made at home with just a cutting utensil, some polystyrene or styrofoam, glue, matchsticks, paint and cardboard.

Bravo, Sarah, for making something good from life’s challenges! Perhaps we shouldn’t be framing this as a disease to be cured but as a condition which, if handled correctly, could be a boon for all mankind.

Score: 7 druids for this crafty henge. We hope the glue fumes have cleared away by now, Sarah!

Tankhenge, Berlin

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photo by Rene Menges, reblogged from Edgecentral

From the pleasure gardens of Thailand we go to post-Wall Berlin and the notorious Tankhenge built by the Mutoid Waste Company from German Panzers. Here you see it framing the Reichstag in 1992.

It is a striking piece of art more than it is a Stonehenge replica but we include it as many  Stonehenge replica lists have done before us. The Mutoid Waste Company, as Edgecentral says, is known for “mutating the refuse of modern culture into the Marvelous.” They seem to have a fondness for henges made of machines, and we’ll post their Planehenge somewhere down the line.

This is an exciting piece of guerilla sculpture, but we can’t bring ourselves to score it with druids. This henge scores 7 hunks of the Berlin Wall!