観望鳥瞰

今天は方々から様々な、仰山のお客様が当地にお越しになられまして、或る者は海を越ゑ、また或る者は車を駆って、此の偉大な岬の先っぽにお越しになられた。
此の地が担った過去の役割や、時間の残滓。そのまた欠片の断片をつなぎ合はせ、現代人達は頭を捻り、蘊蓄を述べ、論じ、頷き、意見を述べ合ひ、論を戦はせる。そんな探索者たちの至福の時間は、刹那に過ぎて行く。
これらの人間達の交流は、いったい何を生み出し、後世に何を残して行くのだらうか。我輩は常に控ゑの間に潜伏し、あらゆる本流の脇に立ち、全ての流れの行く末を見届けやうとぞ思ふ。
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さて、極西の大英国島はストーンヘンジで進められてゐた発掘調査が終了し、取り敢へず其の成果簡介が発表された。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
Stonehenge could have been resting place for royalty

Archaeologists at the University of Sheffield have revealed new radiocarbon dates of human cremation burials at Stonehenge, which indicate that the monument was used as a cemetery from its inception just after 3000 B.C. until well after the large stones went up around 2500 B.C.

The Sheffield archaeologists, Professor Mike Parker-Pearson and Professor Andrew Chamberlain, believe that the cremation burials could represent the natural deaths of a single elite family and its descendants, perhaps a ruling dynasty. One clue to this is the small number of burials in Stonehenge´s earliest phase, a number that grows larger in subsequent centuries, as offspring would have multiplied.

Many archaeologists previously believed that people had been buried at Stonehenge only between 2700 and 2600 B.C., before the large stones, known as sarsens, were put in place. The new dates provide strong clues about the original purpose of the monument and show that its use as a cemetery extended for more than 500 years.

The earliest cremation burial dated ― a small pile of burned bones and teeth ― came from one of the pits around Stonehenge´s edge known as the Aubrey Holes and dates to 3030-2880 B.C., roughly the time when Stonehenge´s ditch-and-bank monument was cut into Salisbury Plain.

The second burial, from the ditch surrounding Stonehenge, is that of an adult and dates to 2930-2870 B.C. The most recent cremation comes from the ditch´s northern side and was of a 25-year-old woman; it dates to 2570-2340 B.C., around the time the first arrangements of sarsen stones appeared at Stonehenge.

This is the first time any of the cremation burials from Stonehenge have been radiocarbon dated. The burials dated were excavated in the 1950s and have been kept at the nearby Salisbury Museum.

Another 49 cremation burials were dug up at Stonehenge during the 1920s, but all were put back in the ground because they were thought to be of no scientific value. Archaeologists estimate that up to 240 people were buried within Stonehenge, all as cremation deposits.

The latest findings are the result of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, a collaboration between five UK universities, which is funded by the National Geographic Society and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), with support from English Heritage. The project´s last digging season near Stonehenge saw excavation of houses at nearby Durrington Walls, the precise dating of Stonehenge´s cursus ― the ditched enclosure nearly two miles long that has long puzzled archaeologists ― and new discoveries about the "Cuckoo Stone" and the timber monuments south of Woodhenge.

Professor Mike Parker-Pearson, from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield, who leads the Stonehenge Riverside Archaeological Project, said: "I don´t think it was the common people getting buried at Stonehenge ― it was clearly a special place at that time. One has to assume anyone buried there had some good credentials.

"The people buried here must have been drawn from a very small and select living population. Archaeologists have long speculated about whether Stonehenge was put up by prehistoric chiefs ― perhaps even ancient royalty ― and the new results suggest that not only is this likely to have been the case but it also was the resting place of their mortal remains."

Notes for Editors: The Stonehenge Riverside Project is funded by the National Geographic Society and Arts and Humanities Research Council, with support from English Heritage. Directors of the Project include Mike Parker Pearson (The University of Sheffield), Julian Thomas (The University of Manchester), Joshua Pollard (The University of Bristol), Colin Richards (The University of Manchester), Chris Tilley (University College London), and Kate Welham, (Bournemouth University).

More on Stonehenge can be viewed at www.nationalgeographic.com/stonehenge.
A short-form video on these discoveries is available from nationalgeographic.com and can be embedded on your Web site. To do so, please contact Barbara Moffet, National Geographic on 001 202 857-7756.

The work at Stonehenge is featured in the June 2008 issue of National Geographic magazine. An exclusive look at the new discoveries will appear in a global premiere on the National Geographic Channel ― "Stonehenge Decoded" ― on Sunday 1 June. Stonehenge is also featured in the June/July 2008 issue of National Geographic Kids magazine.

For further information please contact: Jenny Wilson, Media Relations Officer on 0114 2225339 or email j.c.wilson@sheffield.ac.uk
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
諸説百家多事争鳴であった此の象徴的巨石遺跡の性格の一端が、今回明らかになったやうだ。
現在見られるトリリトン（三石塔）が築かれたのは紀元前1900年頃のことで、環状の溝と土塁、そして踵石（ヒール・ストーン）が設置された創始（第1期）が紀元前3000年頃とされるので、ストーンヘンジの変遷にしてみれば寧ろ後期のことだ。
今回の調査では、サラセン石やトリリトンなどの巨石が設置される前の時期に、多くの火葬骨が埋葬された痕跡が発見され、環状溝の中にも数多くの埋葬が行はれてゐたことが確認された様子。
古くは1920年代にも49体分の火葬骨が発掘されてはゐたが、それらはかなり時期の新しいもので考古学的な価値は無いと解釈されてきたのだが、どうやらそれらの火葬骨も古いものである可能性が高くなってきたやうだ。現在までにストーンヘンジで発見された人骨数は合計240体にも及び、最終的には巨石記念物として完成を見るストーンヘンジが、創世記には共同体の埋葬施設として機能してゐた可能性が高まったやうだ。
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　ストーンヘンジの変遷
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
古代部族の聖地（指導者たちの埋葬地であったり神々が降臨した場であったりさまざま）が聖地としての意識を保ち続け、同じ場所に其の時々の聖性を保ち続ける為の装置が繰り返し建造されてくる例はいくつもあって、西欧の例がわかりやすい。
ゴシック聖堂の地下にローマ時代の神殿が眠り、其の基礎にケルト人の聖所が重層する例も多く、シャルトル大聖堂や巴里のノートルダム寺院なども好例だ。
" The work at Stonehenge is featured in the June 2008 issue of National Geographic magazine."　と言ふことなので、その特集に期待しやう。
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