Andy Burnham's Blog, page 82

Monte da Gurita Petroglifo

Carving the Sky: Rock Art and the Stars, and more from The Journal of Skyscape Archaeology, which features lots of other Open Access articles on rock art around the world, more in the comments . Gurita 1 (Galicia) features a three-dimensional Sun motif in a relatively central position of a very large outcrop (see pic lower left). This contrasts with hundreds of flat carvings of deer.

Sewing Needle of The Virgin Mary

The very tall and impressive standing stone with this unusual name is located only 2 metres off the east wall of the church of Avaldsnes. It is among the tallest standing stones in Norway - around 7.10 metres in height, and 80 cm wide. An old myth says the world will end when the stone touches the stone wall of the church!

Slettavegen-Grimstad

As so many barrows in the Toten and Hedmark areas of Oppland, Norway that they appear much like "islands" in the flat agricultural landscape. In an open grain field just east of the massive burial mound "Prinsehaugen" are three smaller barrows. They are all located on top of natural, forest-covered hills, making the barrows appear much larger.

Prinsehaugen/Kongehaugen

This huge and beautiful round barrow is called Prinsehaugen (The prince barrow) or Kongehaugen (The Kings barrow). The mound is large, around 45 metres in diameter and around 5 metres in height. It has a beautiful rounded shape and it is very easy to see from the road.

Manoir de Coadélan menhir

A 6.6 metre tall menhir in the grounds of the Chateau Coadélan

Eastertown Cairn

"The cairn is small and in an unusual situation lying on a gently sloping terrace and its kerb is also of unusual construction. It is being preserved along with the stones on the basis that they are of astronomical significance." Back in the 1980s a forestry colleague of mine confidently told me that the winter solstice 'set' through the V of the standing stones over Loch Duntlechaig.

Ragno massi cuppellari

Four cup marked stones on a meadow above Magadino, Canton Ticino, Switzerland.

Gunung Padang

A sensationalist paper that the pyramid under Indonesia’s Gunung Padang site is 25,000 years old is dismissed by archaeologists around the world, more in the comments.. Megalithic site near Karyamukti, Cianjur region of West Java, Indonesia. The largest megalithic site in South-Eastern Asia.

The Rumps

Rumps Point is a double promontaried headland, one of which is spectacularly notable for its dinosaur like stone ridges rising from the sea. It juts out into the north Atlantic ocean to the north of Polzeath and the Camel Estuary. The fort is defended from the mainland by a large double row of banks and ditches cut right down into the bedrock at the narrowest part

Northern Earth Issue 174 is Out Now

In this issue • The Haunted Stone of Beeston - An uncanny stone in the remains of an old priory in Norfolk draws Alan Murdie • Swastikas, fylfots and triskeles on both sides of the Atlantic • Waun Mawn: A precision equinox detector - Robin Heath sheds even light on a Welsh Neolithic site• Can the mediaeval tales in the Mabinogion be traced in the modern landscape? • The Alt-Antiquarian:Walking myth into place - The old earth mysteries concept of the landscape
zodiac has been damned to the lunatic fringe, but is that the best we can do?