* Astronomy

Nine Neolithic-era buildings have been excavated in the Stonehenge world heritage site, according to a report in the journal British Archaeology. The structures, which appear to have been homes, date to 2,600-2,500 BCE and were contemporary with the earliest stone settings at the site. They are the first house-like structures discovered there. Julian Thomas, who worked on the project and is chair of the archaeology department at Manchester University in England, said Stonehenge could have been a key gathering place at the Neolithic era's version of a housing development.
The buildings all had plaster floors and timber frames, and most had a central hearth. Two, including a house possibly inhabited by a community chief or priest, were enclosed by ringed ditches, the largest measuring 131 feet across. Postholes indicate a wooden fence would have surrounded the smaller of the two structures.

"If the structure inside the large ditch was indeed a chief's house, this individual would have been living rather humbly like the rest of the population, since the building itself wouldn't have been elaborate" - Julian Thomas.

Near the buildings were remnants of grooved pottery characteristic of the period, along with stone tools. The findings suggest many people lived at the site around 4,600 years ago. Thomas thinks many more residences could have once stood there.

"People at that time were probably mobile and living in flimsy buildings, which would have since eroded"

Mike Pitts, editor of British Archaeology and a leading expert on Stonehenge, said the two isolated buildings at the site may have been shrines and not residences, but he thinks it's also possible the buildings were home to Stone Age VIP's.

"Perhaps these did house chiefs, or powerful priests. Work is continuing, but it is clear that at last we are starting to see the exceptional archaeology we would expect to find in a landscape that until recently was (thought to be) almost empty except, at its centre, for Stonehenge" - Mike Pitts.

Excavation work is expected to continue over the next three summers.

Source: Discovery Channel

Stonehenge visitors had the opportunity to get a glimpse of what life was like in Britain more than 4,000 years ago over the bank holiday weekend.

A team of 100 archaeologists, from various universities around Britain, along with Wessex Archaeology, has been carrying out excavations as part of the seven-year Riverside Project at Woodhenge, Durrington Walls and Stonehenge Cursus to find out more about the sites and their links with Stonehenge in the 26th Century BC.

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-- Edited by Blobrana at 21:23, 2006-09-12

A hot-air balloon will rise over Salisbury Plain today on a trip that will mark one of the country's strangest scientific breakthroughs: the 100th anniversary of the first aerial photograph of Stonehenge.

The 1906 flight was the first use of air reconnaissance for studying ancient monuments in Britain, and will be commemorated with a balloon flight of English Heritage officials and other VIPs.

"Aerial photographs are our main method for finding new (archaeological) sites. They are invaluable for studying the past" - Martyn Barber, of English Heritage's aerial survey unit.

Source

The first summer month is called "Tir" in the Persian language, meaning arrow. For Iranians, this name is reminiscent of a long tale of braveries in their ancient land.

The first month of summer is called Tir in the Persian language which translates into English as arrow. Choosing of this name was not an accident. There are many customs associated with the month of Tir, which itself is associated with the legend of the arrow.

Tirgan, the summer solstice celebrates the life of Arash Kamangir. Arash is an ancient Persian name which means bright and shining in English, and Kamangir in Persian language means one who gets the arch. Arash was the Persian national hero who sacrificed his life to preserve the territorial integrity of Iran.

Persian legend has it that at the end of a long-lasting war between Iran and Turan, the rulers of both countries determined to make peace and to fix the boundary between their kingdoms. It was determined that somebody should ascend Mount Damavand (Iran's highest mountain, situated 30 kilometres northeast of Tehran with a height of 5671 meters) and from there shoot an arrow towards the east and wherever the arrow lands, that would be the new border between the two countries. Arash, known as the swift arrow, and in modern Persian as Arash Kamangir, was the best archer in the Persian army who volunteered to shoot the arrow. On the bright morning of Tirgan, the first month of summer, Arash stripped naked, faced north, strained his bow as never before, let the arrow fly and rid with the arrow. According to Persian tales, the arrow flew the entire morning and fell at noon, on the 2250 kilometre bank of the Oxus River in what is now Central Asia. And the river remained the boundary between Iran and Turan for centuries until the Mongol hordes poured in to push the Persians southward in the 10th century AD.

Arsah was never seen after that day and his body was never found after his death. However, there are still stories from travellers who were lost in the mountain about how they heard Arash Kamangir's voice and the voice helped them find their path and saved their lives.

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