Stonehenge

Since I can remember such things, I have been fascinated by Stonehenge. Construction was begun as far back as the time of the early pyramids in Egypt, perhaps earlier. Since Stonehenge was created by a culture that left no written record, no one knows for certain why it was built, but the theories are endless. Supernatural explanations also abound.

Stonehenge is located in a relatively flat, grassy area in southern England, not far from Salisbury, where we spent the night. The surrounding landscape for a few miles is covered with several hundred small hills which are actually burial mounds for the dead which were created over 2,500 years ago.

When these have been excavated, cremated human remains are found in their centers. There is no archaeological evidence of villages within about two miles of Stonehenge. However, there is ample evidence of a road that led from Stonehenge to the nearby river. Two miles away, where the road meets the river, remains of a village and evidence of another 140 foot circular structure (a circular ditch) have been found which is sometimes referred to as Woodhenge (the wood posts are long gone). Archaeological studies show good evidence that Woodhenge was a monument to the living, and Stonehenge was a monument to the deceased.

Stonehenge was built in three phases over several hundred years. The first phase was built close to 5,000 years ago and looked something like this.

Stonehenge I, museum model

Over 50 of these stones, weighing 2-4 tons each were placed originally in this circle over 300 feet in diameter. The heel stone was placed northeast of the center of the circle. They are believed to have been transported about 150 miles to this site.

The larger inner stones came later. Stonehenge III came into being about 700 years after Stonehenge I. It probably looked something like this.

Stonehenge III, museum model

Stonehenge III, museum model
Inner Sarsen Circle, 2,200 BC

aerial view today

The largest of these stones, in the center, weigh as much as 50 tons. How did people only with primitive tools move these stones? Of course, there are many theories. Here is a demonstration of one of these theories.

How to log roll a 40 ton stone

Others believe that aliens undoubtedly played a role, and it is clear that Stonehenge functioned as at least a primitive observatory. At the time of the summer solstice, the sun would rise directly over the heel stone to the northeast from the perspective of the center of the inner circle.

The are two major schools of thought regarding the sophistication of Stonehenge as an observatory. The observatory school makes the case that Stonehenge was used to predict eclipses. Indeed, strong arguments can be made that the placement of the stones made these predictions possible. A lot of thought has gone into this.

Hoyle, On Stonehenge, p 155

Others will argue that an unwarranted assumption can usually lead to a foregone conclusion, and that even a random collection of stones will usually be aligned with something. Who knows?

The video displays below cannot be seen on most

phones and pads. Please use a real computer.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich

During our three days in London, I visited the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, a 30 minute riverboat ride down the Thames River. There are actually three major museums in Greenwich. The other two are the National Maritime Museum and the Cutty Sark Clipper Ship.

Royal Observatory

National Maritime Museum

Cutty Sark Museum

    I only had time for the Royal Observatory, a place I have been reading about for many years. My first exposure to Greenwich was as a 12 year old ham radio operator. When communicating with people in many different time zones, the standard time is Greenwich Mean Time.

    Construction of the Royal Observatory began in 1675. King Charles II designated John Flamsteed as the first Astronomer Royal whose mission was to "apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rectifying of the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting of the art of navigation." The second Astronomer Royal was Edward Halley who is best known for computing the orbit of the comet named after him.

Royal Observatory aka Flamsteed Building 1824

"I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It's coming
again next year and I expect to go out with it."
                                                        Mark Twain, 1909

    The need for an observatory was primarily about maritime navigation. British ships had this nasty habit of running into unexpected coast lines with considerable loss of lives, ships, and goods because they could not accurately determine their position. Position is determined by knowing both the latitude and longitude. Latitude was straightforward to calculate. Celestial observations could be used to calculate the distance from the equator.

    Longitude was a problem. Unlike latitude, there was no natural 0° longitude (the equator is 0° latitude). Furthermore, celestial observations were limited for determining longitude without a reliable way of accurately measuring time.

    The first clock in the Royal Observatory had had a 13 foot pendulum and an unparalleled accuracy of +/- 7 seconds per day. This was useful for observations at the observatory, but did not help to avoid shipwrecks. So motivated was the British parliament in 1714, they offered a reward of £20,000 ($4.4 million today) to anyone who could develop a maritime clock accurate enough to place the calculated location of a ship within 30 nautical miles of its actual location. The ultimate winner of this prize was John Harrison, who devoted 36 years of his life to the project. The clock design went through many iterations, with the final chronometer resembling a giant watch. One of the earliest versions is on display at the Royal Observatory - and it works!

Harrison clock, made about 1730

Harrison's model H1 clock springs

    Unlike a pendulum clock which depended on gravity, this clock was counterbalanced with springs so it was independent of gravity and from rolling waves at sea. I did not see clock models H2 - H5 because they are on display at the Maritime Museum.

    Greenwich is best known for Greenwich Mean Time (also known as GMT, Universal Time Coordinated [UTC], and Zulu [military time]), and the Greenwich meridian (also known as the prime meridian and the 0° meridian). Latitude of 0° is defined by the equator which in turn is defined by the rotation of the earth. However, 0° longitude is completely arbitrary.

    In 1884, The International Meridian Conference was held in Washington, D.C. At that conference, the meridian line through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich was selected as the 0° or prime meridian, and has remained so ever since. So now, the Greenwich meridian, along with the 180° meridian on the opposite side of the earth, divides the earth into the western and eastern hemispheres.

  

 

    

straddling two hemispheres

green laser beam illuminates the 0° meridian

 So, perhaps I have provided you with a little too much information, but I had fun putting this together. Next entry - Stonehenge.

London

For our second trip outside of France, we went to London by train to take in the sights and museums, do a little theatre, and join family and friends. We had a fine visit.

We checked into the Ampersand Hotel in South Kensington. Not only was it a wonderful hotel, the location was perfect, a two minute walk to the South Kensington underground station.

Our niece Emily and her boyfriend James joined us, and we hit the streets. Our first stop was Harrods, where the billionaires shop.

We were looking for a present for our nephew. but quickly realized we were in over our heads. We got out unscathed, and joined our cousin Debbie, her son Emi, Emi's girlfriend Consuelo, and our family friend Peter at a Chinese restaurant.

Debbie Consuelo Emi

Peter                                             Emily                                             James

Eric             Jessica

    The next day, we spent a few hours underground in the most remarkable Churchill War Rooms, which have been transformed into a museum. The museum consists of the Cabinet War Rooms, and a biographical museum of Winston Churchill. The Cabinet War Rooms construction began secretly in 1938 beneath the (now) Treasury building. They became operational in August 1939, and were abandoned in August 1945 after the surrender of Japan.

    During the darkest days of World War II, these underground reinforced rooms served as the British control center for their war effort. In May 1940, Churchill declared, "This is the room from which I will direct the war." For security reasons during the bombings of London, both civilian government leaders including Prime Minister Churchill and the War Cabinet, and military leaders resided nearly continuously in these rooms. The main room was the Cabinet Room, in which 115 cabinet meetings were held.

    The War Rooms were protected by a massive 5 foot thick slab of concrete. Other rooms included multiple residences for the military and civilian leaders, dormitories for staff, a map room from which daily intelligence reports emanated, a communications room, Churchill's bedroom which combined his living quarters with BBC broadcast equipment, a Transatlantic telephone room with cutting-edge technology for secure scrambled communication between Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, Chiefs of Staff Conference Room for meetings of military leaders with a civilian representative, and of course a kitchen.

Cabinet Room

Communication Room

Winston Churchill's bedroom

BBC broadcast equipment in background

white bowl on floor was for cigar butts

Chiefs of Staff Conference Room

                   Chiefs of Staff Conference Room                                             Somebody's doodling on map

                       The doodling is located toward the top of the map above the 2nd chair from the left

Switchboard Operator

note the gas mask lower left, just in case

word processors

Kitchen

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill
Bond Street, London

From the museum, it was a short walk past Parliament to the Thames River and the Westminster Bridge. We took a riverboat from the bridge downstream for the 30 minute ride to Greenwich. It was a beautiful clear day, better than we had a right to expect in mid-December. Initially, we had planned to go to the Royal Observatory, but there was not enough time. (Eric returned to the Royal Observatory the following day which he describes in the next blog entry.)

That evening we met Debbie, and went to a fine Indian restaurant called Thali on Old Brompton Road, a 15 minute walk from the hotel.

The following Tuesday evening, we met Emily before the theatre, and went to the El Nivel Mexican Restaurant & Bar.  This is a new family-owned restaurant in the London theatre district. Part of that family is Jesse who is an old friend of Conor, Erica's son and Jessica's and Eric's nephew. Jesse treated us well, and we had the opportunity to sample three amazing tequilas, ranging from young to old.

    We were in the theatre district for a reason: to see Mathilda, the musical based on the classic children's novel by Raol Dahl. What a delightful show! Check out this scene and song, When I Grow Up  from the musical. We loved it!

stage at Cambridge Theatre, London

Our last morning in London, we spent at the British Museum, founded in 1753. It was the first national public museum in the world. It is huge. We only had two hours before we had to check out of our hotel and head for Salisbury for our upcoming visit to Stonehenge (more on that later).

We each went our own way in the museum.

two heads are better than one

In anticipation of our upcoming trip to Germany, Jessica had targeted the special exhibit, Germany: Memories of a Nation. Please watch the video on this link. 

Frau mit totem Kind
(Woman with dead child) 1903
 by Käthe Kollwitz

Eric spent most of his time exploring Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, and ancient Egypt. Of particular interest was the Rosetta Stone.  The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of an Egyptian decree inscribed in stone in 196 BC. 

Clearly demonstrated are three inscribed languages:

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs

Egyptian Demotic script

Ancient Greek

Before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were not well understood. That changed with the discovery, since the hieroglyphs could now be translated by using the better understood languages.

We reunited two hours later at the Volkswagen in the lobby, and set out on the continuation of our trip. Next stop - Salisbury.

1953 Volkswagen