Starship Asterisk*

Dr Lizzie Wright of English Heritage wrote:

The late Neolithic site of Durrington Walls is thought to have been the settlement where the people who built Stonehenge lived. It was occupied at around the same time that the stones at Stonehenge were erected (about 2500 BC) and appears to have had a ceremonial function. Both sites seem to have had particular significance during midwinter. The Southern Circle at Durrington Walls is oriented to the midwinter sunrise, in a complementary arrangement to the orientation of Stonehenge, where the Avenue and stone circle are arranged to focus on the midwinter sunset...

Tens of thousands of animal bones have been recovered during recent excavations at Durrington Walls. Their study has led to some exciting revelations about how the animals were being kept during the Neolithic period and what part they had both in everyday eating and in feasting.

Pigs were by far the most common animal found (followed by cattle), so must have formed an important part of the diet...

We discovered that the pigs were overwhelmingly being killed quite young, at around nine months of age. The most likely time of year that pigs would have been born during the Neolithic period was spring, so when they were nine months old it would have been midwinter.

They were gathering in large numbers, eating massive quantities of pork and celebrating midwinter. That doesn’t sound too dissimilar to our seasonal festivities at midwinter today!

Ann wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 3:06 pm Happy solstice! This is particularly for you, Chris!

Celebrating winter solstice is an ancient tradition indeed.

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 7:11 pm Ever wonder why ancients were so abscessed with the stars? 8-)

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 7:16 pm

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 7:11 pm
Ever wonder why ancients were so abscessed with the stars?

No. But I do wonder why so many moderns aren't.

(Waiting for Art to comment on your post...)

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=abscess wrote:
<<obsess (v.) c. 1500, "to besiege" (a sense now obsolete), from Latin obsessus, past participle of obsidere "watch closely; besiege, occupy; stay, remain, abide" literally "sit opposite to," from ob "against" (see ob-) + sedere "to sit," from PIE root *sed- (1) "to sit." Of evil spirits, "to haunt," from 1530s. The psychological senseof "to haunt as a fixed idea" developed gradually from 1880s and emerged 20c. The 1895 Century Dictionary has only the two senses "to besiege" (marked obsolete) and "to attack, vex, or plague from without.">>
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<<abscess (n.) in pathology, "collection of pus in some part of the body," 1610s, from Latin abscessus "an abscess" (the Latin word was used in a medical sense by Celsus), literally "a going away, departure," from the stem of abscedere "withdraw, depart, retire," from ab "off, away from" (see ab-) + cedere "to go, withdraw" (from PIE root *ked- "to go, yield"). The notion is that humors "go from" the body through the pus in the swelling.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absence_Makes_the_Heart_Grow_Fungus wrote:
<<Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus is the first instrumental and sixth overall studio album and by Omar Rodríguez-López, released by Infrasonic Sound on September 19, 2008. The album features several tracks that were "originally intended for use by The Mars Volta". The second half of "Hands Tied to the Roots of a Hemorrhage" was reworked as a middle section of "Eriatarka" on The Mars Volta's first full-length, De-loused in the Comatorium. "Tied Prom Digs on the Docks" features musical ideas that were later used on "Cassandra Gemini" on Frances the Mute. In addition, the song "Teflon" from the 2009 album Octahedron would be based on the instrumental "A Story Teeth Rotted For".>>