Category Archives for Uncategorized

Oxford’s Secret Treasures–Megalith Models at the Pitt Rivers Museum

photos from the website Rethinking Pitt-Rivers

We don’t need to do a full post on this, but it was passed along to us by the ever alert Mr. Peter Glastonbury, and now that we know about it, we feel Clonehenge would be incomplete without it.  What we’re talking about here is this:

“Hidden away in a box in the Pitt Rivers store rooms are a set of 13 models depicting various megalithic monuments from England and the Isle of Man.” (See here.)

Brilliant, right? No Stonehenge, but we do find an old friend among them: Wayland Smith’s grave, now known as Wayland’s Smithy, a wooden model of which we posted here.

We’ve posted models of places other than Stonehenge before, of course, but to find a set of models of megalithic sites that even megaraks might concede to be obscure is extraordinary. Men-Al-Tol, Chun Quoit, the Calderstones: who builds models of these? Great stuff. Well spotted, Mr. Glastonbury. You will go down in the annals of Clonehenge history!

You, too, can make Clonehenge history, Gentle Reader, and, no–you don’t have to go down in any annals if that’s what’s worrying you! Find or build a model or models of any megalithic site, preferably in the British Isles or Europe, and send a picture, description, and if possible your motivation to us so we can do a post about it. Worldwide fame awaits you! Or at least some very wary looks from people who find out!

Until next time, friends, happy henging!

Simple and Easy Do-It-Yourself Stone Henge Instructable!

photos by McNopants13 on Instructables.com

Pardon us, but we must begin with a lengthy quotation:

“I had a stage show to put on with some of my students and thought it might look cool to see them carry on and build stonehenge during a certain scene so away i set off to build the elusive stone henge …. but GASP! I don’t have the money nor the resources for giant stone slabs … “fear not handsome craftsman” a voice said to me in my head… I will make a giant paper mache version of the sotnes and so I set off once again with a plan. and alot of boxes here are some photos from the build and some of the final stones on stage. ENJOY!”

Above you see some of the papier mache versions of the aforementioned sotnes,as they are so delightfully misspelled. The accompanying pictures show a process of taking smaller boxes, attaching them to make long rectangles, covering them with papier mache and painting them grey. And then, of course, forming trilithons with them.

Curiously, despite the replacement of the continuous circle with simple trilithons and the completely un-Stonehenge-like shapes of the stones, the creator/instructor remembered to add bluestones of a sort, a nice touch which might gain them a much-needed druid for their score. Or we should say–his score, the clever hengineer being Monsieur McNopants13. Or Madame McNopants13, as the case may be. If it is a female McNopants, of course, we would want to know, as it’s the sort of thing we would prefer to lead off the post with so as to acquire the trashier reputation we feel we need in order to draw more readers.

As you can see above, even as far as this creation is from resembling Stonehenge itself, it still has an atmospheric quality when used as a stage prop and lit well. And let it never be said that most henge-o-philes are not generally well-lit. Har. And speaking of heavy drinking, for no reason at all we are reminded to thank Matt Penny aka @salisbury_matt, the High Lord and Grand Poobah of Salisbury and Stonehenge.net, for sending us the link to this “instructable”.

As for score, it’s like this–the do-it-yourself aspect and the bluestones are on the plus side. The strange proportions and the fact of the trilithons without a circle are on the other side. We award this one 6 druids! Quite high, really, as, let’s face it, those who created it probably were, too! We want to encourage this kind of thing, after all. More henges, less guns; more papier mache, less greed. That’s what the world needs! More or less. And until next time, friends, happy henging!

Henge-Podge: Odds and Ends That Have Come Across Our Desk, Part Two

from designboom

First on this second edition of Henge Podge is not a Stonehenge replica but a clever henge-related item: Ikea-like instructions for the construction of Stonehenge. We couldn’t possibly say anything as clever as this is, so we’ll just post a second picture, advise you to click on the link because there is more to it, and move on. Yes, that is a druid you see there.

Next bit is something we’re keeping an eye on: a tentative plan for a Stonehenge replica, this time in Harwich. Reading the article here we are uncertain how much like Stonehenge this so-called “version of Stonehenge” will be. They have the stones, granite from a dismantled railroad bridge, and not much else so far. It remains to be seen if it happens at all and if it does, whether they bother to put on the all-important lintels. Maybe we should send them the Ikea instructions!

photo from a nut in a nutshell

And finally we present the only snowhenge we saw this winter, despite all of the snow that fell. We believe this was sent to us by the absolutely marvelous Matt Penny aka @salisbury_matt , sole proprietor and strong proponent of  Salisbury and Stonehenge.net. Thank you, sir. He and Señor Glastonbury are duking it out for top Friend of the Blog status, which entitles one to every cent of the money we have made up until now by doing the Clonehenge blog. The suspense is killing!

Meanwhile we can’t remember who sent us the other two items. Thank you, whoever you are. Comment on this post with the information and we’ll add it.

In the old days we might have done a whole post on the snowhenge, but that url blasted across it is too much, so this is what you get. We do, however, have a couple more  items recently submitted. A henge documenter’s work is never done! We’ll be back when we can see our way clear to doing something this constructive again.

Who knows when that will be, but until then, everybody, happy henging!

Does This Even Qualify? Philly Flower Show Henge!

photo by Michael L. Lahr

A quick news post. This was spotted in the Visit Ireland exhibit at the prestigious Philadelphia Flower Show, this trilithon is probably meant to be a dolmen rather than a Stonehenge replica, but we’re especially entertained by megalithic replicas at flower shows. We’ve posted some before, here (South African orchid show) and here (Salisbury Community Show).

This one is nicely done, with fake stones that pretty much look like stone, and moss drapes gracefully like a sort of full-body toupee. No score because if it’s in the Ireland exhibit, it can’t be Stonehenge. Just wanted to give it a mention. You people just can’t help yourselves, can you?

Happy henging!

Henge-Podge: Odds and Ends That Have Come Across Our Desk, Part One

photo by Kerry McKenna

We have been accumulating odds and bits related to Clonehenge, none of them quite right for an entire post, but each a curiosity worth a look. Take the example above, a typical Englishman in tradition dress out for his stolid and dignified constitutional. Barely worth a second look if it weren’t for the henge-ish thing there: four trilithons in a circle surrounded by bluestones. We thank friend of the blog Feet, oops, we mean Pete, Glastonbury for drawing our attention to this. (That’s not him.) We also thank the shadows and the robe for being so helpfully strategic! Oo-er! We were going to make a comment about “stones” but, really, we’re better than that.

Also from Mr. Glastonbury, photo taken by him, is the curious grouping of stones at the left. He says, “I spotted this in the garden of Teachers Cottage in Avebury High St. It is a representation of the Obelisk and the inner stones of the southern circle in Avebury. An Avebury Model in Avebury!” Just the sort of obscure and odd thing we like, but it makes us wonder–do people build little pyramids next to the Pyramids? Or is it a thing that only henges do to the mind?

And last for this post, for we find, now we’ve started, that we have more of these bits than we thought, is this card we received for winter solstice (and related holidays) from Mr. @jwisser, aka Jonas Wisser, who is, in the interest of full disclosure, the progeny of the Clonehenge perpetrator(s). He had these cards made by [name to be inserted here later because we once again did not do our homework] especially for him. The sun is rather large, but we do believe in poetic license in such cases, and we think it is a cleverly fashioned thing, all in all. Quite observant, putting the remaining three connected lintels front and center.

We will save the rest of our hengy bits for another post. That way those of you who subscribe to our feed get the thrill of yet another of our delightful posts showing up in your inbox just when you need a lift! And we get to go do something else now. Keep sending in your Clonehenge-related news! Frankly we are surprised at the lack of snowhenges this year and suspect some people have been lax about bringing them to our attention. Ahem.

And until next time, happy henging!

Aedes Ars, New Stonehenge Model for Sale, Made in Spain!

photo from the aedes ars website, used with permission.

We should have held out for a bribe! For the first time in our two-plus years of folly, a company contacted us in advance to announce the release of a new Stonehenge model. Did we maximise? Did we monetise? No. We’re just doing another post for free, losers that we are.

The kit’s dimensions are listed as 280 x 280 x 70 mm., about 11 inches square, for those who think in old units. Pretty small. All of the 121 pieces are fine quality ceramic fired at 800° C.

We’re told by the people at Spanish manufacturer aedes ars, “The main work with this kit (different of the rest of our products) is to scrape the surface of the pieces to make them irregular and to let the clay colour mix appear in the surface.” So they’re going to some trouble to make the stones look suitably old and stony, always a good sign. They haven’t quite got their English right, but we don’t score on that. Our Spanish isn’t that great, either, a decir la verdad.

What we don’t know yet is how much it’s going to cost, but the company seems very proud of this Stonehenge model, as it is pictured on the cover of their latest catalogue. So, how shall we evaluate it? Our only other commercial clay Stonehenges, the models by Hawkes Nest in North Olmstead, Ohio, got 7 druids, but this one is a little finer, with better-shaped stones and a more professional look. Still, the Hawkes Nest models had a nice wood base…

We like sets you assemble yourself, though. Makes it easier to use for history class dioramas, etc. While the set is of the Stonehenge-as-it-is-imagined-to-have-looked-at-first variety, you could make a good stab at setting it up as it is now. That’s a plus! We like the current, disheveled look of the grey monster of Salisbury Plain better, all in all.

Score? We give it 8 druids. Nice set. Things that future model-makers can do better: 1) shape stones individually to match each real stone at Stonehenge, as they did in the exquisite cardboard Stonehenge, 2) include a larger baseboard with room for Aubrey holes and a heelstone, and more space so it doesn’t look so cramped, and 3) draw stone positions for the current state of the monument on the reverse side of the base material.

Now, for those thinking of contacting us with commercially available Stonehenges in like manner in the future: we figure we should get about €2000 per druid scored!  Or, you could just ask us politely like they did and we’ll probably do it for free. This is our mission: to demonstrate to the world the incredible rate at which Stonehenge is reproducing itself like a virus, using human minds as cells to incubate and create its young and thus to take over the world!!!1!

We don’t have to be paid to sing our siren of warning into the vastnesses of cyberspace. We just hope for a monument to be built to us after mankind realises the fate we’ve saved it from. We’re thinking of a nice linteled stone monument, about 33 meters across, surrounded by a circular earthwork…

The BBC Inflatable Trilithon–Bring on the Helium!

photo by Thelma June Jackson, used with permission.

Is it just us, or has there been a surge of Stonehenge-related news (ish?) lately? Of course when it comes to this obscure topic, it IS just us: Stonehenge-Replicas-R-Us! (Which it happens is the name of our new retail outlet, still in development… Okay, then, very early stages of development… Oh, all right, we just then made it up. Happy? Now stop interrupting!)

Anyway, this is the first, and the most earthshaking, of a few posts for which we have been forced to come out of retirement, which, we find, is much less restful than one might think anyway. We present to you, Gentle Readers, the fabled inflatable Stonehenge! It’s only a trilithon, but with the way Stonehenge has been reproducing around the world, a full Stonehenge is only a matter of time. Just lock this trilithon in a room with one of Spinal Tap’s inflatable touring trilithons and in no time there will be little inflatable Stonehenges hopping about the fields and meadows, looking adorable while American and Japanese tourists snap away on their cameras! Exciting.

Until then, this remarkable construction is being hauled around Great Britain–well, minus Scotland and Cornwall–as part of the BBC’s Hands on History tour, The Secrets of Stonehenge, for half term break.  Brilliantly, people have been kind enough to take pictures the same way they might for someone who had a legitimate worthwhile blog, but for us instead!

photo by the Wiltshire Heritage Museum, used with permission

Note how the “logs” in the top picture are being used to roll the fourth “stone” in the second picture. Children and presumably some adults* are permitted to try their hands at moving an inflatable megalith. Fun!

Of course, the real stones at Stonehenge are not light weight inflatables, but are huge, enormously heavy rocks. We don’t actually know that they aren’t hollowed out, though. Some, in fact, suggest that they’re filled with a very advanced sort of clockwork for which the Antikythera mechanism was just a mock-up, and that on December 21, 2012, a huge stone clown’s head will leap out of the ground in the center of the circle while the stones play, “Pop goes the weasel!” Frankly, it’s no loonier than much of what we hear said about Stonehenge, so who knows?

After all that blithering nonsense we come to the score. The thing these inflatables have going for them is that they are close to full size. Adds a full point. Some trouble has been taken to make them look rough and uneven. They are educational and can be touched by children… We award these trilithons 6½ druids! That is possibly the highest score we have ever given t0 a mere trilithon!(Meaning we can’t be arsed to check.)

The illusive inflatable Stonehenge finally appears on Clonehenge. We’ll post one again when it’s listed in next year’s Ann Summers catalogue. Finally inflatables will make it possible to live two great fantasies at once. Humph. And people say the future isn’t bright!

*Those who, unlike one adult we won’t name (but who rhymes with Feet Crastonbury), could be trusted to approach the inflatables without attempting to pop them.

NEWSFLASH!! As of April 19, 2012, the inflatable Stonehenge dream has been even more fully realised! Click here for our post on Jeremy Deller’s inflatable bouncy Stonehenge. Humbling to see mankind reach its highest purpose in our lifetimes, is it not?

Bog Roll Tube Henge, aka Toilet Paper Tube Henge

Photos provided by Simon Burrow, henger and hengeophile extraordinaire.

The key to henging fame is not necessarily to do something first, but to do it better than those who came before. Simon Burrow has taken the second route to henging greatness with Toilet Paper Tube Henge 2010. He writes (in his blog, here): “Kimberly Clark’s announcement that the toilet paper tube was an endangered species inspired this tribute.”

That’s right–the paper products company is pioneering the tubeless paper roll. So if you want to build your own bog or toilet paper roll henge, you’d best do it soon! We doubt, however, that you will surpass this thoughtful and detailed construction. Mr. Burrows has been doing henges for a long time and has hit just the right balance between thoughtful and silly.

Note the higher inner trilithons and the scattered loose “stones” in what we assume is the direction of the rising sun. We admire the rough look attained by leaving bits of paper that adhered to some of the tubes. There are inaccuracies but we assume the master artist left them in so as not to be too literal. Score? We award it 6½ druids!

And then there is the matter of the item he has labeled the “Awful Tower.” Hmmm . . . there must be a blog for those, too. How will mankind go on when these versatile materials are no longer available? What will happen to our souls when they are no longer enlivened by creations like this???!!!! But alas! That day hastes toward us like a flock of dead birds hastes toward the pavements of Arkansas.

For similar henges, see the slide show on the MySpace page of Captain Henge, the Bog Roll Mania blog, and . . . dang! we can’t remember where we saw the third, so until we remember, how about a nice soap henge?

We end with a tribute to Mr. Burrow, who has dedicated himself as few have to the continuation and perfection of the henging art. Thank you, sir, for your contributions to the field. We look forward with great eagerness to your next creation!

What will it be, you ask? Here is the last part of the missive containing the announcement of this tube henge:

“Next year Knit Henge! Stay tuned.  Simon”

Joyous Yule!

Photo by Jill Warvel.

Season’s greetings. The blog has been inactive for a while, but we still exist floating somewhere out in the blogosphere, and we want to say hello and best wishes for a lovely solstice or holiday of your choice, and happiest of New Years to all who wander here!

We have featured this garden Stonehenge replica once or twice before on Clonehenge, but we recently received this photo in an email from lovely Friend of the Blog Jill Warvel and it was too good to pass up! Thank you, Jill and thank you to all of our lovely readers. Enjoy the rest of December and all of 2011. And think of us when you here of, create, or wake up naked next to a Stonehenge replica. Pictures are always welcome–of the replica we mean, of course!

Remember, you don’t have to be at Stonehenge to notice the path of the rays of the rising solstice sun. Mark your desk, mark your wall, mark your garden or trees. Honour the play of the sun with the land! Something real that enters all our virtual lives.

For All You Druids In Tulsa Oklahoma, a Hidden Henge

photo from article in News on 6

Hey, we’re baaaack! Albeit just briefly. Could not ignore this nifty news item sent in by alert and helpful reader Matt Penny, aka @salisbury_matt , still a friend of the blog, Salisbury and Stonehenge enthusiast, and still, as far as we know, perpetrator of the Salisbury and Stonehenge website.

Faculty members at Tulsa Community College’s West Campus have discovered a functioning henge, hidden (as is the method of secret societies like the Illuminati!!1!1!) in plain sight. Henge detector extraordinaire, Earl Goodman, Jr., noticed the suspicious array of posts (see above) and began to plot shadow positions over time. Lo and behold, Voila!, Aha!, and other exclamatory interjections–Mr. Goodman was able to mark out the tracks, or analemmas, showing how the sun’s position moves over the course of the year. Read it here. And here. Although the second link lacks the crucial video–more on that later.

Okay, admittedly we’re being silly here, frankly, in a desperate and pathetic effort to be entertaining, but if we may be serious for a moment, well, we need to put a cape on this guy and a brilliant logo incorporating the letters HD , and send him around the world with the mission of detecting hidden henges everywhere!!! We’re not saying that being stuck in Tulsa for a lifetime is a tragic waste of human life (Why bother? We’re sure others have and will say it.), but let’s face it, someone with this man’s talent could be rooting out henges everywhere, causing education and knowledge to smite people with the suddenness and power of a million lightning bolts!

*Wipes foam from mouth* Ahem. Aaaanyway, we’re pleased to see that so far no one is clamouring to have the whole structure ripped out to save students from pagan influence, as they are at Arlington Texas’s Caelum Moor. The professors are right that this is an excellent learning opportunity and we applaud them.

And now to the extra geeky joy of all this, a special moment in that video at the first link. At around 5 seconds into that video, a henge appears on the screen behind the newsperson. Wait! What is that?! Pause and look . . . that ain’t Stonehenge, people! We used to pride ourselves on being able to name any Stonehenge replica just by looking at a thumbnail, but we’re a little rusty these days. Still, our best guess is that we’re looking at the UK’s Foamhenge, a temporary henge built for a BBC project. It’s possible it’s the Texas Hill Country’s Stonehenge II, but the proportions look wrong. At any rate, we were excited to see another Stonehenge replica involved in the story, even if it’s by mistake.

This is not, as the faithful readers we fantasize about would know, Oklahoma’s first permanent Stonehenge replica. That title goes to the replica at Stonehenge Realty in Stillwater, Oklahoma. These south central states certainly have their hidden corners. Oklahoma and Texas together now have 6 entries on our list of large permanent replicas. Hey, what’s really going on down there?!

Many thanks to Mr. Penny. Keep those cards and letters coming in, friends. We’ll add ’em as fast as you send ’em. Well, almost.