Monthly Archives for February 2009

ChampagneHenge, A Henge with Us in Mind!

champagnehenge

henge and photo by Matt DeHaven, with permission

Oh, how Clonehenge has risen up the social ladder, from spaghettio-and-sausage henge to Dom Perignon henge! Built, back–lit, and sent in by an alert reader, this henge is built of the black gift boxes in which Dom Perignon is shipped (are the bottles in there? impossible to tell!).This is not Matt’s personal stash, by the way, but some bottles ordered for a party at the restaurant he manages–or so he claims . . .

With Matt DeHaven’s admission that he built this henge “after recently discovering Clonehenge“, we have now gone from documenting Stonehenge replicas to generating them! We are feeling chuffed. Thank you, Mr. DeHaven!

Is that bottle a heel stone? Or is it the other way and those flutes are bluestones? It matters not. Those boxes certainly loom impressively like sarsens. That’s good enough for us. Score: 6½ druids for bubbliest henge yet!

Dating with Stonehenge

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henge and picture by Blake Meyer, completely without permission

Okay, it’s late on Valentine’s Day. A certain someone is crashed out and we may or may not have had a lovely Beaujolais with a bit of chocolate. We have been waiting to hear from this henger for a long time,  possibly an absent blogger of a long-dead blog. We hereby break our own rules and repost without permission. A request from the blogger will delete this post.

In the meantime, here’s an  interesting replica of unknown inspiration. The post says: “ . . I cut the large pieces of cardboard (courtesy of the dining common) into the correct shapes and I folded and duct-taped large crinkled pieces of paper on a few of them . . . Then I spray-painted the Stonehenges (I did buy the paint), and stapled them to scrap wood from stage for stability. And VOILA! STONEHENGES! They were a big hit at the outing and now they reside as decoration in my room.” And he’s right–that Erika is cute!

Bravo, Blake! Your mysterious “Stonehenges” are a hit with us! Score: 7 druids for a bl***y good job making a Stonehenge out of scraps just lying around! We hope you have gone on to larger, more permanent replicas, and that you’ve hung on to the lovely Erika!

Poem Henge: Fridge Doors at the (New) Jersey Shore

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Photos by Sister72 (Jackie Fritsche), with permission

In 2005, in celebration of the autumnal equinox, the Belmar Arts Council of Belmar, New Jersey, sponsored a Poem Henge on the beach. Part of the official announcement read: “Three dozen discarded refrigerator doors will be erected in the shape of Stonehenge, the ancient ruins in England. Local artists and art students will paint words onto magnets from poems created by members of the Blue Collective.”

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Well, we have to say that this is an interesting idea.  We like seeing the Atlantic Ocean out behind the henge. You have to wonder who thought of it. And where did the refrigerator doors come from? Summer rentals abandoned for the winter? You can see a few more of the poems here. We chose these pictures for the views of the structure.

Is this weird or brilliant? You decide. We have to like the idea of Stonehenge replicas as a base for other kinds of creation. You could have an art-henge, or a fashion-show henge. We’ve seen Surf Henge (there’s more than one!) and BoatHenge. The possibilities are endless! Score: 6 druids for this equinox henge. How many times do we have to tell you not to poetry-slam the refrigerator door!?

We have now heard from one of the originators of the project. Please read the first comment for more information. Thank you, Kevin!

Snowhenge Bristol

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photos by Phredd Groves, with permission

As some of you may know, Great Britain has been, um, blessed with snow this winter and although in many places they received no more than six inches, leave it to the resourceful English to fashion many kinds of snow creations from almost nothing! Including this snowhenge built by members of the University of Bristol’s Archaeology Department, including, in order as pictured above, Becca Pullen, Stuart Ladd, Sian Thomas, and Sean Clifford.

snowhenge-phredd-2As you can see here, although they did not make the henge circular, they did go to the trouble of making a bank, which is as good as a ditch and bank in this situation, we think. Wouldn’t want them digging up the university lawn!

Bravo for this crew of eager henge builders! Whatever important tasks they should have been performing, we’re glad we put them aside and turned to henging! May it become the fashion.

Score: 6½ druids for this brilliant henge made from gifts that fell from the heavens.

Theatre District Replica, Milton Keynes (now defunct)

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photos from the MK News

We are leaving this post up as a memorial, but it has come to our attention that this lovely and unique black clonehenge was destroyed along with other sculptures in the Science Garden to make way for the new Premier Inn. Alas,  smol friend, Clonehenge will remember you!

For a nice Flickr photo, see here. In the theatre district of the city of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, this sculpture stands in a park where a ferris wheel once stood.One article says, “It has been designed by Pauley landscapes to represent civilisation, mankind and the universe.”

mk-2A Stonehenge replica is certainly a thoughtful choice for that representation. There was some trouble, though, when local pagans objected to this secular use of the sacred image of Stonehenge (This is one of those incidents that sets the U.K. in a positive light compared to the States!) Ha, MK Pagans–take a look around Clonehenge. The world is lousy with secular replicas! The good thing is that they always generate interest in Stonehenge among people who didn’t know it before.

In the role of peacemaker, the local pagan priest offered assistance in aligning the circle and requested that a plaque about stone circles be posted by it. “ ‘I think it is fantastic, such a lovely thing to have,’ he added.” It looks as if  this replica could turn out to be even better than it was meant to be!

As for scoring, well, we don’t know the materials used or much else about it but we encourage the building of Stonehenge replicas in public spaces! Score: 7½ druids for the little Stonehenge in the park!

Was Stonehenge a Building? Bruce Bedlam’s model

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model and image by Bruce Bedlam, with permission

The above is a virtual model, of course, but it represents a real model that was made by the artist. Pictures of the real model can be seen here. The idea Mr. Bedlam has come up with is that Stonehenge is the remnant or foundation of what was once a large wooden building. For more about it and a good look at the model itself, you can view this video:

Of course the theory sounds wacky at first but it’s partly because we haven’t considered it before. If Woodhenge had a roof, why not Stonehenge? We are willing to add it to the list of possibilities.

And what of the model? The model of the stones before the wood was added is rather a nice replica of the original structure as it imagined to have been. We think this kind of speculation is fresh and fun and fully in the spirit of Clonehenge! Score: 8 druids for Bruce Bedlam’s model of Stonehenge as a wooden star! Now, what’s the deal with that crystal thing at the bottom of this page?!

Doghenge

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henging and photo by deadeyebart a.k.a. Brett, with permission

Okay, we’ve been weak on the silly stuff lately, so this is the antidote, a henge of plastic toy dogs and bones. Some might even argue that this is barely a henge at all, but you can tell it is one because it says so in clear letters. 😉 We chose this picture of Doghenge for the lighting but there’s a whole series of them as you can see here.

As some may remember, Brett is the same mad henger who brought us Pezhenge and Peephenge. He takes henging to the level of art–that kind of art some call conceptual. Doghenge is a loose interpretation of the henge concept with just enough hint at accurate detail to make it work.

We want to encourage more mad henging! Score for this conceptual henge, 6½ druids. How can we not like a henge that can aim its plastic howl at the moon?

Silver Charm, Add Stonehenge to your charm bracelet

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photo from justsimplycharming.com (warning–bright orange colour and large, dark print. Website may be annoying.)

We suppose the idea must be: If you were awestruck by this huge ancient monument, why not wear a teeny-tiny sterling silver version of it hanging from your wrist or around your neck? And you can’t blame this one on the States, friends. The website says clearly, All charms are made in the United Kingdom. So there.

We won’t linger on this one. We do find it amusing, but we can barely bring ourselves to give it 5 druids–and they would have to be the tiniest druids ever!

Wallington’s Stonehenge: “Forgotten Technology” in Michigan

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photo from Mr. Wallington’s website (site now defunct), with permission

Many things about Stonehenge remain mysterious. The biggest mystery is probably why it was built, but certainly one issue that has caused speculation over the years has been the transportation and handling of the huge stones. A man in Flint, Michigan believes he has a contribution to make in that department and he is building a Stonehenge replica on his property in order to prove it. You may have seen this video of him around teh intertubes or other info at his website, The Forgotten Technology:

We don’t know how far he has gotten but his stated intent is to set up a circle of eight uprights topped by seven lintels, pretty much by himself. Impressive! Congratulations, Mr. Wallington! No scoring for now.

It is worth noting that Mr. Wallington’s methods don’t explain how huge uneven bluestones were transported over hundreds of miles of uneven territory, over mountains and through swampy areas, or even how the much larger and less evenly balanced sarsens were moved to the Stonehenge site from Westwood. His ability to move perfectly evenly balanced “stones” on even and solid ground in a clever manner doesn’t shed as much light on how Stonehenge was constructed as some people would like to believe. And of course it sheds no light on the more challenging questions like why it was built at all.

With this and the Nunica henge and one we hope to post in the future at the Raven Hill Discovery Center, Michigan has more rStonehenges than most! What is in the water up there? And can we have it piped to places around the world, especially to South America where we still don’t have a henge!? (Recent correction—now we have one in Brazil, where else?)

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Spinal Tap, Our 100th Post!

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from the movie Spinal Tap

When you say Stonehenge replica, people say Spinal Tap. And something about dwarfs. This rock spoof movie has etched the idea of Stonehenge replicas into the public consciousness, for better or worse. We run into it everywhere in our searches, often from folks who think they are brilliantly original to think of it. *wink*

spinaltapAt least one real band did use a Stonehenge replica as a set back in the heyday of boomer rock, one so large that it didn’t fit into some venues. Which band? We’ve seen two or three mentioned but we’re told it was really Black Sabbath and that Ozzy Osborne is still paying for its storage in a New York warehouse. If we could get a picture, it could be a post of its own!  The story of the Spinal Tap replica is shown in the video below.

Many thanks to our readers and contributors for making our first 100 posts possible! Score for the Spinal Tap relica: 5 druids. It’s just a trilithon, after all!

[Note: after the next couple posts, we hope to slow down to just a few posts per week. Surely the number of replicas is not infinite! Right? Right!?]