Stonehenge was Built to Amplify Sound During Ancient Rituals

A new study by acoustics engineers at the University of Salford suggests that the ancient pagan religious site of Stonehenge may have been designed to amplify sound in very specific ways. 

Constructing a 1:12 scale model of the site, with missing stones also represented, the engineers tested the sound properties of the structure they called "Minihenge." Speakers and microphones were placed in and around it, and then ultrasonic sounds 12 times their normal frequency were used to account for the difference in scale.

The Remnants of Armenia's Pagan Past

Garni Temple 2014 (Photo: Pandukht/Wikimedia Commons)

Originally published at Armenian Weekly, this is an edited version of an article written by Knarik O. Meneshian:

[snip]

Armenians were initially nature worshipers. They worshiped eagles, lions, the sun and heaven. They called themselves Arevortik (Children of the Sun). The sun-god was called Ar (Arev, meaning sun in Armenian). Later, nature worship was replaced with national gods, among them Vanatur, the supreme god of the Armenian pantheon; Nar, the goddess of fertility; Nane, the goddess of motherhood, wisdom and family protection (Nane’s influence is still a part of Armenian traditions, for the people usually call their grandmothers Nane, Nani or Nan); Tir, the god of writing and science, which shows that Armenia had a written language before their Christian alphabet was invented in the 5th century (“a type of hieroglyphics called Mehenagir [Pagan Temple Script]”); Tsovinar, goddess of the sea; followed by Zoroastrianism and Mithraism, and finally Christianity, which inspired a flood of literary works, art, architecture, (though some features of pre-Christian architecture can be found, such as the ancient monastery of Geghard), and an assortment of other works in various fields. “Art historians have always singled out Armenian architecture for its uniqueness.”

Pagan Art: "Thor's battle against the Jötunns" by Carl Johan Bonnesen

In this iconoclastic age, when statues are being toppled by people who have little understanding of history, it is interesting that this sculpture, which problematically features several swastikas, is still standing atop the Carlsberg building in Copenhagen.

THE THUNDER GOD OF LEWIS?

Due to the cultural genocide of our pagan traditions by the Dark Age totalitarianism of the Christian Church, we have only been left with a few scraps and remnants of our ancient beliefs. There are vast yawning gaps in our knowledge, and to have any sense of our ancestral faiths we must spin out the little we can be sure of, with much conjecture and occasionally a little archaeology. 

Such is the case of the Callanish Stone Circle on the Island of Lewis.

The Pagan Sites of the Middle East Remembered: (4) The Temple of Anahita at Kangavar

On a flat-topped hill in the small Iranian town of Kangavar, you can see the remains of the vast temple of Anahita, an ancient Iranian goddess whose origins date back before Zoroastrianism, but who continued to be venerated long into the reign of the new religion, and whose memory has not been erased even by the advent of Islam.