SWCAMBORNE

When visiting ancient sites like Machu Pichu, The Pyramids or Stone Henge we are asked to marvel at the amazing astronomical skills of the ancients. At the equinox or the solistice we are told the sun shines just so and this proves that the builders were really amazing blah blah blah.

Here is another theory. The two fixed objects in the sky are the North Star and the Southern Cross. if you build your big thing facing one of them on the solistice the sun will rise and set at exactly a right angle to the direction and amazing things will happen.

Look at this picture taken at the spring solistice:

Ignore the dog. My house was built facing north. When the sun shines in my East facing office window on the spring solistice it shines all the way into the front hall. Is this proof that the builders of my house were great astronomers or the unintended consequence of building the house facing north in the first place.

Last year we built Laptophenge and although it was fun and creative it did not measure up to Pigpothenge or its predecessor Cellphonehenge.

Laptophenge

Recently Stephanie R. sent me a picture of some monitors waiting to go to there final resting place and suggested a henge.

But I was at Chichenitza in Mexico and saw the pyramid and realized that monitors could be used to build a beautiful 5 to 7 meter (20 foot) high pyramid.

The Model for Monitor Pyramid

I am going to start working on this idea for early November. What is needed now is a better name than “Monitor Pyramid”, a venue and a charity to donate the proceeds of this great cultural event.

It’s spring in Southern California and an old mans fancy turns to thoughts of Henges.

Check out this article about Henges in America.

It doesn’t mention fridgehenge (shown above) but we found this link to Fridgehenge in Sante Fe New Mexico and this run of photos on Flickr

What better way to celebrate the New Year than to look at some pictures of Pighenge from last years event.

Happy Lunar New Year:

Pig love

Pig acrobats

Pigs and Hengers

Happy New Year

Discovery HD shows a one hour sunrise show every morning at 7am PST (check local listings).  This morning the show was Sunrise at Stonehenge. Excellent.

It reminded me of an idea that I had a few years ago for background video very similiar to this but with an advertisers logo on the screen.  My favorite idea was a day at a park bench.  But I also liked a year in the life of a tree shown in an hour.

We all appreciate background music why not background video.

This picture was sent by my brother Matt B.

This company makes fasteners for the railway industry. As an advertisment for their industry trade show they built this henge. “A New Age is Dawning” indeed.

A poem entitled ‘Ode to a Henge’
Subtitled, ‘It is difficult to find words that rhyme with ‘monolith’’

Today we gather on this lawn
With our closest, dearest friends
On which homage we shall pawn
To Simon as he erects two ‘henge.

One for money, one for tech
He builds for the ancient ruins
If they fall, what the heck?
I hope to the Rose Bowl go the Bruins!!!

In ancient days they danced ‘round
And prayed to large stone monoliths
Today we make merry on this ground,
Burrow! More wine for the wordsmith!

So gather near to see the ‘henge grow
Monuments for laptop and bank piggy
They are not so heavy for Simon to tow
Unlike his unfortunate ancestral druidy

And now, my friends, it’s time to end
This ode to hobbies most strange
I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblin’
Now, let’s toast to the latest ‘henge!

This poem considered by many to be the best “henge poem” ever written in the Western Hemisphere debuted at the Double Henge Installation on November 11.

It was written and read by Rachel B.  She has graciously set the bar for Henge poetry very low and at next years installation can expect some serious competition.

This is the back of the extremely non-commercial shirt sponsored by EF Hilton Co and the Dietz Family Foundation for the Henge installation on November 11.

To see more pictures of the Henges click here. 

To read the story of the recent Henge installation click here.

This Shirt is a good example of how an idea evolves. Andrew P heard that there was a potential t-shirt sponsor and emailed a humorous list of possible slogans for the shirts. Paul at EF Hilton was going to put his company logo on the shirt and simply “Henging 2006″ but when he saw the list he just decided to incorporate all of it with a few modifications. The comment about “Simon Needs to Get a Job.” is apparently just a jealous sentiment rearing its ugly head.

This is some excellent research on the origin of the word henge done by David B.

Click on the photo to see a run of Paula B’s
terrific photos from the henge event.

The following is from the Online Etymology Dictionary. These references provide an historical perspective of the origin of the word.
henge  1740, noted as a Yorkshire word for structures such as Stonehenge.
hinge   c.1300, “the axis of the earth;” 1380 as “movable joint of a gate or door,” not found in O.E., cognate with M.Du. henghe “hook, handle,” M.L.G. henge “hinge;” all derived from the root of the verb hang on notion of the thing from which a door hangs.

Stonehenge
c.1130, Stanenges, lit. “stone gallows,” perhaps so called from fancied resemblance to old-style gallows with two posts, with the second element related to the verb hang. Some antiquarians suggest the notion may be of “supported in the air, that which hangs in the air” (cf. henge-clif, for L. præruptum), in ref. to the lintel stones, but the order of the elements and the inflexion is against this. An ancient name for it was the Giant’s Dance.

Below is the definition of a henge from http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/henge.htm, one of the links of the Orkney Islands’ web site. I recommend that you visit this site and click on the links for several henges in these islands.
A henge is a roughly circular or oval-shaped flat area enclosed and delimited by a boundary earthwork – usually a ditch with an external bank.
The most distinctive components of any henge monuments are its bank and ditch. Most henges have either a single ditch or a pair of concentric ditches surrounding the central area.
This is not always the case, however, with some henges having no ditch while others have three.
The soil and bedrock taken from the ditch was used to build the henge bank which generally lay outside the ditch. The sizes of the banks varied proportionally with the size of the ditches. Typically, however, they seem to have been fairly broad at the base, five metres to 30 metres wide and up to five metres high.
Access to the central area was via formal entrances through the earthwork. Most henges have either one entrance or two opposed entrances.
The alignment of henges seen in the position of their entrances is highly variable and may have been as much conditioned by local geography as by any preferred orientation. There is, however, a slight tendency for henges with a single entrance to have that entrance set in the north or north-east sector while sites with two entrances are aligned SE-SSE to NW-NNW or ENE-E to WSW-W.
The original purpose and function of henge monuments is not fully understood. Because of the arrangement of banks and ditches it is generally accepted that they are ceremonial or ritual monuments.
Henges are generally classified into four main types according to the number of entrances and ditches they have. The traditional classification is as follows:
Class I Single entrance, single bank, and, usually, a single ditch circuit.
Class IA Single entrance, single bank, and double circuit of ditches.
Class II Two opposed entrances, single bank, and single ditch circuit.
Class IIA Two opposed entrances, single bank, and two or more circuits of ditches.
Class III Four opposed entrances, single bank, and single ditch circuit.

And an odd, but strangely enlightening, time was had by all.