Crop circle reveals ancient ‘henge’ monument buried in Ireland | Hacker News Reader

Crop circle reveals ancient ‘henge’ monument buried in Ireland

globalnews.ca

124 pointsrmason36 comments

The article content isn’t too bad but having “crop circle” in the headline is ridiculous when the phenomenon of crop circles has nothing to do with the subject of the article. In addition, the article itself starts off with some mis-leading information.

It begins by implicitly indicating that “U.K. archeologists” were involved in the discovery (discussed in other comments). It also states that it was “drone enthusiasts” who captured the image in the first place. In fact, the drone belonged to an Irish historian, Anthony Murphy, who lives in the area and has been researching, recording images of and writing about the Boyne Valley monuments for the past two decades – so not just a random drone enthusiast. After making his discovery, he reported it to the National Monuments Service, an organisation that is part of the Republic of Ireland’s Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

The coverage by the Irish Times is much better than the linked article:

* Initial report: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/scorched-earth-d...

* Follow-up article: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/newgrange-more-u...

Further background on Anthony Murphy: https://www.mythicalireland.com/about/about-anthony-murphy/

crop circles: or does it??

The archeologist studied at Reading and Sheffield so probably from the UK. He is only one archeologist so unless there are only hiring foreigners probably better to say British and Irish. You never hear UK and Irish because of the north. Maybe UK and Irish of the Republic archeologists?

It's gets interesting alright. I am getting a sense now that the "South of Ireland" thing only exists because it's impolite to talk about Republics too much in Britain. It can be great to pointing out the most northernly point in Ireland is in "the south".

"Henge" meaning "big round structure of unknown function with ditch on the inside of a bank."

Several sites are presented, in close proximity. At least one appears to be mostly earthwork, and could be a classic "henge". In the most interesting one, I see no evidence of ditch or bank, just postholes and trenches in concentric circles. This one may be a large circular building. Of course, crop marks provide fairly limited information.

The use of the word 'henge' in the title is probably fine because it includes the meaning "Neolithic earthwork" but 'crop circle' and 'monument' are just journalistic click-bait.

Nit, but we know pretty well what the Neolithic structures were for now. It used to be the case that hey were a mystery.

So what were they used for? I thought it was still a mystery.

Celestial clocks for telling the seasons, and locations for convergent gatherings ever X seasons. The megalithic stone structures at least. The smaller but more numerous wooden pole circles (horseshoe shaped really) were centers of local villages, the Neolithic equivalent of a fort or medieval castle.

Unless you can produce a very strong source that those solutions are now considered universally to be true, I don't think you can say that to be definitely so.

Firstly, looking at the actual henge, though the defence hypothesis is strong, there are several henges throughout the UK that lack the defensive structuring, but still take the right form, making it at least partly unlikely. Secondly, they seem to have been built away from population areas. Whilst a strong theory, it hasn't solved those problems, and so other solutions hold equal weight.

Secondly, the celestial clock theory is actually fairly weak. Only about half of the henges featuring large stonework actually line up with astronomical events, even when modeled for the timelines we think they were put in place for. Some might be reasoned to track stars, some mountains, and so on. It doesn't quite fit, especially as their north-offsets are very consistent.

You have some theories, which are popular theories, but so far as I'm aware, there are other equally popular theories held by the people in the field, and this isn't considered to be 'solved'.

I wasn't aware we'd moved beyond:

a) Probably ritualistic site, of unknown purpose

b) Possible astronomical site

Which would still classify as mysterious to most. Has there been some breakthrough?

This discovery was possible by the current draught conditions in Ireland that's close to reaching the 1 month mark without rain (which in Ireland's terms is as rare as rain in the desert, if not rarer)

It’s also been much wetter there during the spring. Been a problem for the local bee populations.

Looks like this is the location on Google Maps: https://www.google.nl/maps/@53.6885648,-6.4832216,763m/data=...

While it could be my eyes playing tricks on me, the not stone circle one that is further away looks like it can be seen in the sheep field and the field beyond. Though it could also be my eyes playing tricks and finding patterns that I expect to be there.

The article starts with:

> U.K. archeologists are crediting...

And spends the rest of the article citing a researcher from University College Dublin.

Ireland is not part of the U.K.

Northern Ireland is a part of the UK

Dublin, however, is not part of Northern Ireland.

Nothing in the article is about Northern Ireland.

County Meath (where the "henge" was discovered) is in the Republic of Ireland...which is not Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is a province within the UK created after the partition of Ireland the landmass in 1921.

Dublin is in the Republic of Ireland and the capital city.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_Meath

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_of_Ireland

Thanks for being clear about the Republic of Ireland vs the landmass, unlike knolan!

You're welcome. I lived in County Donegal and used to travel regularly back through NI to Scotland for a few years, so I find it mildly irritating when folks get this kinda thing wrong. Especially when folks still believe the Republic of Ireland is part of the UK like some Westminster MP's who should know better (or have been trolling).

You may find this useful. https://youtu.be/rNu8XDBSn10

Posting youtube links without explaining why anyone should watch them is not considered useful by most HN people. I looked at the start, and it didn't seem useful for the issue at hand, which (to me) is that the Republic of Ireland and the landmass named Ireland are two different things.

The Republic of Ireland doesn't include Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.

The landmass named Ireland does.

I'm surprised to see that you are still missing that, but, ok, as an American maybe I'm not really understanding what's going on.

> a researcher from University College Dublin.

...who is British.

(Though I still think saying "U.K. archeologists" was a mistake)

This is of course Éire, not the U.K.. But the same is going on in the U.K. too.

* https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-44746447 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17489990)

* https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-44806069

* https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-4...

Things submerged under reservoirs are becoming temporarily accessible, as well.

* https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-44771632

* https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-politics-4476...

Davis says the buried structure caused the drought-stricken plants above ground to ripen at different rates, because the earth was deeper in some places than in others. This created a green-and-brown pattern in the plants that corresponded to the buried ruins.

Can someone please explain why this is the case? Is it because plants try to grow their roots deeper during droughts in order to access water that can't be obtained at the surface?

Assuming the round circle was built of stones, plants growing over stones tend to develop stronger, more entangled roots. These plants become hardy than similar species of plants growing nearby over loose soil. Rock crevices also tend to accumulate water which these plants should be able to use when other adjoining plants are dying. I think this is the reason why the circle became apparent during this drought.

Considering the wording, I'd expect the plants simply shoot their roots as deep and wide as they can, since those above stone can't sink theirs as far as the others they get less access to water and nutrient and thus mature slower for lack of resources. So they're still green while the others are already past that point.

If the markings were formerly large wooden posts, those would have decomposed over time and the enriched organic matter simply retains more moisture.

Separately, if they had dug trenches and lined with clay or something that retains water, it would still retain more water today. But as these markings are separated, I think it's more likely the first.

Even unlined trenches do this, because the underlying soil holds less moisture than to topsoil. Dig a trench, wait a long time, and smooth it out and you’ll end up with an area where the trench was with better soil.

This may help:

http://www.pastperfect.org.uk/archaeology/parchmarks.html

Interesting how there's also one of those little islands in the same field. Don't know what they're called but I've seen enough Time Team to know they sometimes hide archaeological treasure. Something either too cumbersome to move or something marked for preservation.

Either way britain feels like a giant trove of discovery when you pay some attention to popular archaeology.

Sorry to keep banging the drum, this is an article about Ireland, not Britain.

This constant confusion is really annoying for Irish people.

Sadly, there's so much of it in Britain[1] that we allow some of it to be destroyed. See, for example, this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11094744#11098678

[1] The article is about Ireland, not Britain.

That looks extremely circular. I'm not sure the association with "crop circles" aids credibility.

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