Stonehenge replicas and derivatives
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The fame of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge has led to numerous efforts to recreate it, using a variety of different materials, around the world. Some have been carefully built as astronomically-aligned models whilst others have been examples of artistic expression and/or tourist attractions. This list of Stonehenge replicas and derivatives seeks to collect all the non-ephemeral examples together.
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[edit] Astronomically-aligned replicas
There is a full-size replica of Stonehenge as it would have been before decay at Maryhill in Washington state, built by Sam Hill as a war memorial. It is even aligned to the midsummer sunrise, but to the true position of the sun at the virtual horizon, rather than the apparent position of the sun at the actual landscape horizon.
Stonehenge Aotearoa in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand is a modern adaptation aligned with the astronomy seen from the Antipodes, it was built by the Phoenix Astronomical Society from wood and sprayed concrete.[1]
A full size, correctly aligned replica made from carpet tubes and polystyrene was constructed for a UK TV show entitled "Stonehenge Live" broadcast in June 2005. The positions of each stone were accurately plotted using RTK GPS, which has centimetric accuracy. The replica quickly became known as "Foamhenge". It was removed soon after filming, and the 'stones' remain in storage (January 2006).
The University of Missouri–Rolla has a half-scale replica built from solid granite located on campus.[2]
[edit] Less accurate replicas
Carhenge was constructed from vintage American cars near Alliance, Nebraska by the artist Jim Reynolds in 1987. A full-size Strawhenge was assembled in Kemnath in Bavaria in 2003 from 350 bales of straw and used as a music venue.[3] Another Strawhenge is in Ontario[4] whilst a Mudhenge was erected for the 1996 Burning Man Festival.[5] Another Burning Man replica was Twinkiehenge, constructed in 2001 out of Twinkies.[6]
Another replica, called Stonehenge II, in Texas is constructed from an adobe-like material. East Stroudsburg University, in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, has a small replica located on its campus called "Stroudhenge". Mystical Horizons, located near Carbury, North Dakota, consists of six granite walls of varying heights that are intended to represent a 21st century Stonehenge. It functions as a working solar calendar. It was built in 2005.
Tankhenge existed in the border zone of Berlin in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Wall. Tankhenge was constructed from three ex-Soviet armoured personnel carriers.
A full-size Stonehenge made out of foam — and inevitably called Foamhenge — stands near Natural Bridge, Virginia[7] whilst a polystyrene version was built by British television station Channel 5 in 2005 as the centrepiece for a programme on the original monument.
Scientists from the National University of Singapore created the smallest 3D replica of Stonehenge. Measuring only 80 micrometres in diameter, the Stonehenge microstructure was created by a process called silicon micromachining which uses a high-energy proton beam writer to produce 3-D microshapes and structures of high structural accuracy on the surface of materials such as silicon.[8]
The rock band Black Sabbath featured a Stonehenge stage set for the 1983-1984 Born Again tour that ended up being too large to fit in most venues. When bassist Geezer Butler was initially asked by the stage designer how he visualised the Stonehenge set, Butler responded, "Life size, of course." This was ridiculed in the movie This is Spinal Tap, when the band orders a Stonehenge set but it arrives in miniature due to a confusion between feet and inches.
In 1995, Graeme Caims of Hamilton, New Zealand, built a replica of Stonehenge out of 41 refrigerators.
In New York City, due to the street grid's skew of about 28.9° and the strict grid plan on most of the Manhattan isle, the sunset is aligned with the street grid lines in May and July, as well as the sunrise in December and January. This phenomenon is known as Manhattanhenge.
Similarly, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the sun shines directly down the Infinite Corridor twice each year. This is sometimes called "MITHenge".
The producers of National Lampoon's European Vacation set a scene at Stonehenge, wherein, after briefly touring the attraction, they accidentally knock down a replica, domino fashion, with their rental car.
[edit] Derivative names for other sites
Aside from modern replicas, several other archaeological sites have had Stonehenge's name partially or fully incorporated into their own names. America's Stonehenge is an unusual and controversial site in New Hampshire. A henge near Stonehenge containing concentric rings of postholes for standing timbers, discovered in 1922, was named Woodhenge by its excavators because of similarities with Stonehenge. The name Woodhenge is also used for the American site of Cahokia. The timber Seahenge in Norfolk was named as such by journalists writing about its discovery in 1998.
In November 2004, a 7 m diameter circle of postholes was found in Russia and publicised as the Russian Stonehenge. Other prehistoric sites elsewhere, often also with proposed astronomical alignments, are often described by journalists as being that region's '"answer to Stonehenge".
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.astronomynz.org.nz/stonehenge/stonehenge.htm
- ^ http://web.umr.edu/~stonehen/
- ^ http://www.strohhenge.de
- ^ http://www.belluzfarms.on.ca/category/25
- ^ http://www.lvtv.com/thirdivan/burningman96/pages/Bm-019_jpg.htm
- ^ [1] Accessed 26 October 2006
- ^ http://www.tackytreasures.com/tackyhtml/places-foamhenge.html
- ^ http://www.nus.edu.sg/corporate/research/gallery/research25.htm
- Hall, R, Leather, K, Dobson, G, Stonehenge Aotearoa (Awa Press 2005)
- Mooney, J, Encyclopedia of the Bizarre (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2002)
