9 replies to this topic

[dbdude99]

I'm looking for good, lenghty documentaries on megalithic sites around the world.  In-depth, scholarly documentaries would be preferable, but I'll take any suggestions at this point. Can anyone suggest some titles and a place to find them online ?

[Shropshire Traveller]

Good morning there

As far as I am aware, there are no DVDs that cover global megalithic content... though I would dearly love to know if there were. Unlikely me thinks.

Maybe odd ones on national sites - Julian Cope did one on telly a few years ago; Channel 5 also did a tour around the communities that love stones. Though both informative and entertaining, neither were scholarly in the academic sense.

Anyone else know?

Cheers

Tim

[Nigel]

The recent Channel 5 programmes "Stonehenge Live" had some scholarly discussions* intermixed with "fun".

Pure scholarship and high viewing figures don't usually go together, hence the limited number of programmes. I suspect the programme makers are underestimating the public though.

* Some might say, not so much scholarly as argumentative!

[Jimit]

For those who were there (and others) at the "Stonehenge Live" filming, this site, in particular the update, shows the difficulties in combining archaeology and TV.  http://www.stonehengetheanswer.com/

Jim.

[dbdude99]

What about "teaching" films put out by archaeology departments of universities or museums ?  Most of what I've seen have covered Classical (Egypt, Greece & Rome) or Biblical Archaeology but the only megalithic-oriented films I've encountered were put out by people or organizations that believe space aliens stacked the stones of Stonehenge via tractor beams    I'll start searching museum & university "store" pages....

[Genesis Veracity]

It seems that the time as come for such a film to be made.

And don't forget to include the submerged megaliths near the mouth of the Guadalquivir River of southern Spain, and those near Sliema and Gozo of Malta, and those rumored, but not yet documented, to be submerged off southern England and Ireland (off Scilly, the legendary city-state of Lyonesse, and the legenadary Hy-Brasil).

It is astonishing to me that these submerged megaliths have not been more fully investigated, divers have noted the extensive walls, citadels, and temples of several of these sites.

But of course, the lack of investigation is probably due to the fact that such submergence was due to the end of the Ice Age, and so, the conventional date of circa 10000 B.C. for the end of the Ice Age necessitates that the now submerged megaliths were built before that date, a very unpalatable notion for the conventional archaeologist.

[Jimit]

The last Ice Age to affect the British Isles was the Devensian which peaked about 20,000 yrs ago and was in retreat 10,000 yrs ago and seems to be still continuing. During the peak the sea levels were at least 300M below present levels. The melting of the ice took many thousands of years and the present (known, not rumoured) drowned sites could have been constructed well into the archaeologically known periods of the paleo/neolithic.
Occupation of the British Isles is documented even during the peak of the glaciation. A well known example is "The Red Lady of Paviland",
buried in a cave about 27,000BCE, now on the coast of S, Wales but then at least 70 miles from the sea.   http://www.answers.c.....20of Paviland  

Another thing to consider is the "bounce-back-effect". As the ice slowly melted from N. England and Scotland, the release of pressure allowed the underlying land to rise. Conversely, the S. of England, which had been pushed up by the weight has been sinking ever since.
So some sites in the S. and in N. France, although built well into the early Neolithic, have been inundated first.
  
Buried sites in the S. of England are well known from the Solent area and elsewhere and so far as I know have never caused archaeologists any particular problems as they are aware of the above.

IF recognisible megalithic sites were found at the bottom of deep trenches in the Med or off the coast of Ireland THEN I would revise my opinion, until then I'm reasonably happy with the status quo.

This site gives some idea of the huge potential of the drowned landscape off the British Isles.   http://observer.guar...1046445,00.html

Jim.

[Genesis Veracity]

What megaliths may be off Cornwall and Ireland has yet to be investigated, that I know of, and of course, the confirmed megalithic ruins off Spain, Malta, Egypt, Lebanon, Greece, India, Indosnesia, and Japan look much like the megaliths still on land in those respective regions that are thought to have been built circa 2000 B.C., so there is about an 8,000 year gap back to the conventional time for the end of the Ice Age.

[Robert Henvell]

Try some of the links on this website.The owners have amassed a wealth of data.

[Genesis Veracity]

A wealth of data about what specifically?