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From: dgary@ecsvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang.celts,net.general
Subject: Re: Stonehenge and the Celts?
Message-ID: <2925@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Jul-84 13:12:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: ecsvax.2925
Posted: Thu Jul 12 13:12:50 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Jul-84 02:28:56 EDT
References: denelcor.499
Lines: 15

Lyle McElhaney refers briefly to Celtic hill forts.  Some of these are
among the most mysterious objects in archaelogy.  Part of the stone in them
has vitrified, which requires intense heat.  Recent experiments involving
huge woodpiles with imbedded stones showed only slight vitrification after
many hours of burning.  To my (admittedly very limited) knowledge of the
subject, no one has offered a truly satisfactory explanation.  Accidental
perhaps?  How?  No accident seems able to account for it.  Deliberate?  Why?
It doesn't seem to strengthen the forts any, or damage them either.  Perhaps
part of a ceremony of consecration?  Unsatisfactory, but perhaps the most
nearly plausible notion.

D Gary Grady
Duke University Computation Center, Durham, NC  27706
(919) 684-4146
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