Curiously, Stonehenge was an astrological observatory originally positioned ten thousand years ago; about 8000BC two large wooden poles were erected, aligned east-west, and acted as equinox-sighting markers.  There were many other celestial observatories and tracking stations with permanent reference points built across Great Britain as well.  This region obviously held great importance to our ancient ancestors.

When Skara Brae and Stonehenge, among others, were abandoned in 2655 BC, the town of Giza in Egypt was founded and the Great Pyramid was begun several years later in 2638BC.  The current monarchy of the United Kingdom traces its ancestry back to Thorofinn, the first Norse ruler of Orkney, and it is in these northern Scottish islands we find Skara Brae today.

Upon St Michael’s Line, a very ancient and venerated pilgrimage route, and stretching across the longest dry-land straight line in England from Land’s End in Cornwall to the coast of East Anglia in the North Sea, are found some of England’s most famous prehistoric sites, such as Glastonbury and Avebury.

Episode Treatment:

Turkey and Brutus segues nicely into Great Britain.  There is certainly quite a lot to look at and talk about in this vicinity of the world… from Skara Brae in the north to Stonehenge in the south, from The Isle of Man to the Mists of Avalon; not to mention Roslyn and the ancient globe-trotting jarls of Norway.

Obviously, there is a lot of speculation concerning Britain’s recent (since the retreat of the glaciers) origins and history.  In this episode, we will introduce (sacred) geometry and the correlation between the various henges and the pyramids at Giza, as well as the megalithic yard and the intriguing leylines connecting Britain and Europe with Greece and Israel.  As you might expect, the true history of Great Britain also compellingly intertwines England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

• Traditional history: Henge builders, sky watchers and remote coastal dwellers
• Legendary history: Grooved Ware people, their pottery and hallucigenens
• Mythological history: Genesis, giants and Land’s End
• Alternative history: Manu, and Atlantis of the West

As BBC commentators constantly remind us, before the Romans landed ‘Britain’ was just a geographical entity and had no political meaning and no single cultural identity.  The BBC would also have us believe that prior to the Romans, the land was inhabited by small tribes of no consequence.  After all, people have been living on the islands since the lower Palaeolithic period, beginning nearly 750,000 years ago with Homo Erectus, and they all eventually came and went.

The most recent glaciers covered Britain in fact. Then 8,500 years ago, the rising sea levels caused by their rapid melting separated Britain from continental Europe for the last time.  Based on new discoveries, the Neolithic cave-dwelling inhabitants of Britain were highly mobile, roaming over wide distances and carrying ‘toolkits’ of flint blades with them rather than heavy, unworked flint nodules or improvising tools extemporaneously.

Farming of both crops and domestic animals was adopted in Britain around 6,500 years ago.  However, Stonehenge was an astrological observatory originally positioned ten thousand years ago, when two large wooden poles were first erected, and aligned east-west, that acted as equinox-sighting markers.  When Skara Brae and Stonehenge, among others, were abandoned in 2655BC, the town of Giza in Egypt was founded – and the Great Pyramid was begun several years later in 2638BC.

At Skara Brae the dwellings contain a number of stone-built pieces of furniture, including cupboards, dressers, seats, and box beds.  A sophisticated drainage system was even incorporated into the village’s design, one that may have included a primitive form of toilet in each dwelling.  They also used Grooved Ware pots, but did not leave behind evidence of either metal or weapons, neither did they employ wood nor mortar in their construction.  By all accounts, this points to a highly civilized society.

Grooved Ware pots excavated at Balfarg in Fife have been chemically analysed to determine their contents.  It appears that some of the vessels there may have been used to hold black henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) which is a poison but also a powerful hallucinogen.  This discovery is briefly explored by the Internet Archaeology Journal of the Council for British Archaeology in the article ‘The use of henbane as a hallucinogen at Neolithic ‘ritual’ sites: a re-evaluation.’ See also “The Stoned Ape Theory” as a sidebar with respect to evolution.