Back in February, I wrote up a story that the missing altar-stone of Stonehenge had reportedly been tracked down by archaeologist Dennis Price, and this week comes news that he believes he has found the location of the fabled and 'lost' City of Apollo. Details from 'This Is Wiltshire', in response to an article that was posted on his website, 'Eternal Idol', back in July...Dennis Price, who is an expert on the history of Stonehenge and who used to work with Wessex Archaeology, believes the lost city of Apollo is located at King's Barrow Ridge, overlooking Stonehenge. The lost city is believed by many to be mythical but, after working with language experts at Exeter University, Mr Price is convinced the city exists and that it is right here on the outskirts of Salisbury.
The team painstakingly deciphered the works of an ancient Greek mariner named Pytheas of Massilia. For an explanation of why Price believes Pytheas may be referring to Stonehenge in his writings, we're next off to the 'Eternal Idol' website, where further details have been written up...
The first person known to have visited ancient Britain and to have left an account of his travels was the Greek mariner Pytheas of Massilia, who came to this island in around 325 BC. His original report, entitled 'On the Ocean', has not come down to us in its entirety, but fragments have survived in the writings of later authors such as Hecateus of Abdera and Diodorus Siculus, who composed his famous history in the first century BC.
The most famous and tantalising fragment of this history has long been thought to refer to Stonehenge, and it is not difficult to see why when we examine the passage speaking of a wonderful discovery on the Island of Hyperborea, or Britain:
“And there is also on the island both a magnificent sacred precinct of Apollo and a notable temple decorated with many offerings…spherical in shape [and] a city is there which is sacred to this god… and the kings of this city and the supervisors of the sacred precinct are called Boreades, since they are descendants of Boreas…”
It has previously been suggested that Pytheas may have been referring to the standing stones at Callanish, up in Orkney, or even Silbury Hill, elsewhere in Wiltshire, the site of a recently discovered Roman settlement. However, as he points out, none of these are 'spherical' in shape, but neither is Stonehenge. One other notable, and visibly stunning construction that would have been visible during these times is Newgrange, over in Eire, but as far as I can see, no account is taken of this possibility, and as far as I know there is no ancient city that has been rumoured to exist or found at that location, either, but others might contend that it might be worth taking into consideration. Price is fairly convinced that Pytheas is referring to the British mainland when speaking of Hyperborea, referring to the following quote from Diodorus Siculus...
“Of those who have written about the ancient myths, Hecateus and certain others say that in the regions beyond the land of the Celts (Gaul) there lies in the ocean an island no smaller than Sicily. This island, the account continues, is situated in the north, and is inhabited by the Hyperboreans, who are called by that name because their home is beyond the point whence the north wind blows…”
The reference to the size of Sicily again suggests somewhere on the scale of Ireland rather than Britain, but that's just my opinion - here's some further comment from Dennis Price...
By the time that Diodorus Siculus was writing, Britain was well known, as Caesar had attempted to invade the island twice in 55 and 54 BC, while a recent discovery of a Roman coin in Cornwall has been dated to 146 BC. However, Diodorus Siculus spells out that he is writing of ancient accounts of visits to this island, while a Roman writer named Avienus speaks of a Massiliote seaman in 525 BC who described Britain as “The Land of the Albiones”.
It is clear that The Land of the Prettanike, Britannia, Albion, the Land of the Albiones and Hyperborea were all one and the same place, as opposed to the mysterious Ultima Thule, an even more northerly island discovered by Pytheas for which a number of geographical locations have been suggested. Pytheas was undoubtedly referring to structures in Britain and the famous passage has been written about in a serious fashion by reputable publications such as the National Geographic Magazine and British Archaeology, among others, but I’ve been unable to find any truly informed or in-depth study of the original ancient Greek text, which is surprising, considering its huge potential importance......
...When I first read the translation, it seemed to me that there were some ambiguities in this much-quoted passage. When Diodorus writes “And there is also on the island both a magnificent sacred precinct of Apollo and a notable temple decorated with many offerings…” there appears to be a clear distinction between the “magnificent sacred precinct” and the “notable temple”, implying that Pytheas was referring to two separate structures; furthermore, while Stonehenge possesses, or possessed, a striking ring of curved lintels suspended in the air, no one could accurately describe such a thing as being “spherical in shape”.
And whilst Newgrange isn't strictly spherical in shape, its overall appearance is a great deal more spherical than Stonehenge, Callanish or even Silbury Hill, theoretically reflected in the waters of a surrounding ditch - indeed Newgrange seems such a closer fit for this description, I'm surprised to see no mention of it, but Dennis Price evidently disregards it as a possibility...
"...there is no other known structure in Britain from the time of Pytheas’ visit that could reasonably be described as a “magnificent, sacred precinct of Apollo” nor is there a “notable temple, spherical in shape..” Regardless of whether Diodorus was describing one or two structures in this passage, the only one that remotely fits the bill is Stonehenge.
So although he could be correct in saying that there might not have been anything else on the British mainland that would fit the description of Pytheas, apart from perhaps Maes Howe, for me Newgrange, faced with glistening white quartz and upwardly spherical in appearance, is at least superficially a much better descriptive fit. It was built before Stonehenge, and probably therefore has an even longer tradition of ceremony than its British counterpart - it is also known as the 'Cave of the Sun', so there is a solar connection there, although the same could be claimed for many other stone circles, although in many cases, as at Stonehenge, there was a lunar component in the alignments as well. Here's a related entry on Wikipedia, regarding John North...
"Despite as many as 20,000 people visiting Stonehenge during the 2005 summer solstice, growing evidence indicates that ancestors did not visit at all in the summer, but rather during the winter solstice. The only megalithic monument in the British Isles to contain a clear, compelling solar alignment is Newgrange which famously faces the winter solstice sunrise. The most recent such evidence includes bones and teeth from pigs that were slaughtered at nearby Durrington Walls, their age at death indicating that they were slaughtered either in December or January every year. Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield has said "We have no evidence that anyone was in the landscape in summer."
I'm fairly sure the time of year associated with the porcine slaughter has been disputed elsewhere, but it's a good indication as to how there is almost no universal agreement in interpreting any aspect of Stonehenge, or indeed the vast majority of megalithic centres.
However as we know, the Roman goddess Diana, who would have been known to Pytheas and his Greek compatriots as Artemis, was the huntress, depicted with bow and arrow, and unlike the solar god Apollo, was associated with the Moon, so theoretically it would be just as feasible for her to have been the focus of worshipful attention.
"Apollo was notably a god of archery and this element exists in abundance at Stonehenge. In 1978, the skeleton of a man who died in 2,300 BC was found in the ditch surrounding the ruins, his body pierced by six or more arrows. In May 2002, archaeologists announced the discovery of the grave of “The King of Stonehenge” at nearby Boscombe, although this was more commonly known as the “Amesbury Archer” on account of the sheer number of arrowheads found with him. He was also found buried with the earliest known gold in Britain, a metal that has long been synonymous with the sun, while he had died at the same time as the man buried in the ditch at Stonehenge.
A year later came the discovery of the Builders of Stonehenge, a group of people so-named because tests on their teeth showed that they had most likely originated in south Wales, the home of the famous bluestones. Once more, however, the archaeologists chose to call these people the “Boscombe Bowmen” on account of the number of arrowheads buried with the senior adult in the grave. Recent excavations at Durrington Walls by the Stonehenge Riverside Project show beyond doubt that bizarre displays of archery regularly took place there as part of the funerary ceremonies that were linked with nearby Stonehenge.
The vast majority of the victims of these prehistoric bowmen were young pigs, but at least one human femur has been excavated that shows sign of having been hit by two flint arrowheads. It is generally thought that few arrowheads have been found at Stonehenge itself, but this is to overlook the results of an excavation conducted by the Duke of Buckingham in 1620, when he dug a pit in the centre of Stonehenge and found, among other things “a great many, batter-dashers (presumably clubs, and) heades of arrows…”
But it is the 'city' at Stonehenge, that is possibly the real nature of Vespasian's Camp, which has Price convinced that he is on the right track - to his mind, the temple and the city are referred to as being in close proximity with one another, and if the nearby earthwork can be excavated and conclusive evidence of a large Neolithic or Bronze Age settlement is found there, he may well feel justified in his current efforts to prove his case. At the moment, I don't believe there are any plans to excavate the earthworks, while the more pressing concerns of how to preserve Stonehenge, and similar sites such as Thornborough, which appears to be in imminent danger of destruction from local quarrying activity, continue to rumble on in the background.
My final points would be briefly wonder why NASA dubbed their Moon rockets after the sun god Apollo, instead of Artemis or Diana, but that's already probably been asked about and explained many times over, elsewhere, as well as to ponder why there was no Roman equivalent of the god Apollo - they merely used the same name as the Greeks before them had done.
In any event, there is plenty to read on the Eternal Idol website - the debates over the veracity or otherwise of his claims will doubtless continue long into the night - having worked at and around the site in a professional capacity has obviously endowed him with a good depth of knowledge regarding Stonehenge and its contemporary history, and I'm sure there will be future news regarding his work, which hopefully will be updated on this blog as well.
image from here
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment