Absolutely phenomenal work chaps. Just stumbled upon your channel last night and I’ve binged 2 or 3 hours of it already. I’m so impressed and pleased that this kind of content exists amongst all the conspiracy theory nonsense that is out there thanks to the History Channel and Ancient Aliens. I’m an early medievalist myself but always had a soft spot for the Neolithic since childhood. It’s a delight to see these sites presented in such high quality videos with such enthusiastic and knowledgeable hosts. You should be really proud of what you’ve achieved here. I’d love to be able to collaborate with you at some point in the future. I’m planning on tackling Neolithic Britain in a full length documentary one of these days. Anyway- Really fantastic work. I’d love to see more. Please keep making these videos !
Dear Pete. Thank you so much for your really kind words. Always does us the power of good when we get feedback like this and helps give us energy to carry on! Indeed, it actually makes a lot of difference to our supporters on Patreon (I've conveyed your words to them) as this kind of feedback confirms to THEM that their money is going to a good cause, especially when it comes from someone who knows what's involved. So hats off to you too! We know what it takes to put watchable programmes together - you clearly love what you're doing and the results are tremendous. A deservedly healthy subscription level too - we'll get there one day! In the meantime, do not be shy about getting in touch if there's something you'd like to chat about. Michael & Rupert
Absolute dream to find you and your work here, I intend to find more of your work past and present! You are a great presenter who I find engaging, captivating and open minded to all possibilities in your quest to find truth about our ancient past. And dare I say with no other agenda but to do just that. Applauding you and your quest. Fascinating is an understatement. Much gratitude and appreciation for all your efforts and endeavours to bring us unbiased povs. Your passion for this subject is contagious and inspirational to say the least. What a joy. ❤
What a difference a drone makes Twenty-four little hours Brought the sun and the flowers Where there used to be rain Sorry but that song popped into my head when I read your comment
"Many a year has come and gone, but progress marches slowly on, mother nature hides the stain, 'cuz everybody is going insane..the one thing that will sustain are the Rollright Stones." Traffic, 1973
According to myth, if you walk around the circle and count the stones you get a different answer each time. On my first visit about 25 years ago with a young lady (who is now my wife) I decided to try this out. We were about 10 stones in when we spotted a man sitting cross legged and naked on the other side of the circle. We decided to give it a miss and walked over to the Whispering Knights instead.
Did a Oxford University (external) course about the prehistoric landscape of that area, and at the end of it we traveled around to vist the many remaining prehistoric structures that litter the area - even finding the remains of a totally unknown causewayed enclosure! Thank you for you hard work!
Gents, this is a work of art. I really need to catch up on more of your work, this is such a beautifully put together film. I am sat trying to work out if its the script, the cinematography, the setting, the shot planning. Its probably a little of everything! I genuinely aspire to this level of production.
I live on a boat near Banbury and visited the Rollright stones a few years back, a beautiful place very mysterious, will have to visit again! I'm fascinated to learn how our ancestors lived!
Great work! The Rollrights are part of my family's Oxfordshire history and i've lost count of the times I've visited there. I am more and more convinced that the Rollright-style of stone circle is an 'entombment' or enclosure of an ancestral building, such as a roundhouse if you like. By encircling a building, it became a place for the growing community to worship the ancestors and to legitimise their territorial claimsie: Mike Parker Pearsons theory of 'wood into stone'. Woodhenge to Stonehenge. There is evidence that some longbarrow structures were built over abandoned dwellings. So maybe some of the circles like Rollright are the expressive cultural link between the 4th millennium BC longbarrows to the third millennium stone circles?
Just stumbled on this and really impressed. Visited the stones a few times this year and always wondered why they are there. Great presentation and so refreshing to see that you haven't edited it to death so the presenter is twitching about all over the place.
I love how professionally made your videos are. I've never visited The Rollright Stones but it is somewhere I'd love to visit some day. Thanks for sharing!
It's just my guess but I reckon it's a meeting/trading/ neutral site. Clearly a circle was and is considered sacred, offers "protection' within it a certain level of behaviour would be expected. Grudges , vendettas or just quarrels are left outside the circle. They also mark the landscape and make movement before maps or roads easier. Maybe they were even "safe" places to stop when travelling, it being bad medicine or taboo to attack or rob anyone inside the ring. It would be interesting to plot the stone circles to see how many are on known trade routes or close to known places where resources or products were available. Henges are sacred spots, in sacred places marking celestial events. They link the sky with the ground, the burying into the ground as important as the reaching to the sky By joining the earth and the sky, marking where the sun or moon touch the horizon they join this world with the otherworld, ancestors and the past with the timeless unknown future. If you follow the setting sun you come to the west coast and the seemingly endless ocean. Barrow entrances are aligned to the sun especially mid winter. This is the perfect time for a soul to travel to the otherworld, perhaps along that ribbon of light. The western sea would be a sort of half world. We also know amphibious animals were used in shamanic ritual and otterskin was found in burials of people who's grave goods indicate they were priests or shamans. A fish diet also seems taboo at certain parts of history, a strange choice to ignore such an abundant source of calories and protein. To their view an animal able to to travel too and from that halfworld between life and death must have seemed magical.
Brilliant film, loved it. I only recently watched the Standing with Stones series - don't know how I missed it! ...and just bought the book too. Wonderful stuff. Many thanks guys.
Using some well known constants of the builders this circle can be shown to be aligned to the equator and the original prime meridian. That places it in the age of great monuments like Grainseach, (Loch Goir); Grainseach Nua, (Newgrange ) and Stonehenge as it was the same basic (though brilliant for that time) geometry that was used to align it. Its diameter would have been 100 feet exactly with a circle of 95 stones exactly and like Grainseach it would have been a closed circle with as you say, one or two entrances.
Very enjoyable video. I live not far from the stones so like to get over often. I didn't realise just how much we don't know about the site. By the way the three wicker witches/norns/fates/fairies I think have been removed fairly recently.
The King's Stone is very close to being directly aligned with The North Star or Pole Star - aka Polaris when stood in front of it. It's also been suggested recently that the stones themselves were a sort of Neolithic clock dial - using the star constellations as a device for measuring time.
Michael here. I don't see how the King's Stone is aligned with anything. There's nothing to align it with on the ground and what part of the stone would you begin to use for any accuracy?
@@ThePrehistoryGuys When you stand in front of it (where the slab of stone is outside the gate that surrounds it) it is facing north towards Long Compton, too. The significance of this is founded upon other ancient sites which use the constellations for the placement of their structures. Of course, this is speculatory as there is no scripture to suggest otherwise.
Yes - that gnarly limestone is always going to look older than the dressed sarsen of Stonehenge. But its look tells us nothing about when the circle was erected. As we say, there is no firm dating for the site - it's all based on typology comparing the King's Men to the Cumbrian circles - but there's no reason to date it earlier than other circles that have been dated, no earlier than 3,000 BC. So - yes - perhaps it's got 500 years on Stonehenge!
That was very nicely produced, and I enjoyed it. Excellent music choice. But I must say, I prefer the banter between you two that most of your videos contain. I hope that these polished episodes will be sparse, and that your usual mode will continue to be the norm. Or you could make some that begin with a scripted documentary followed by the more casual banter.
Truth and fact are fantastic. A good story can keep you alive. Yes we should strive to know the truth about these things. But the storeies do have value. Its a different kind of value of course. They give the world a bit of magic and these days in particular thats not a bad thing.
You seem somewhat put out, Rupert, by the inevitable conclusion you come to. Does the fact that we now know a great deal of what stars are diminish the meaning of constellations? If these stones were intended to express deep-seated beliefs, now lost to us, by their creators, does our projecting our myths and beliefs onto them now mean we failed them? Or does it signify the uncanny brilliance of these monuments beyond what their creators could possibly have imagined?
Can't say that I'm satisfied with the myths, legends and stories attached to these items. I love hearing then and even studying how, why and whan they came about but that's doesn't interfere with my interest in finding out the truth as well. It might for tourists but I'm fairly certain that it doesn't effect the archaeologists desire to know either.
can be good to inform in the video with writing messages about the name of the archaeological site because people from other languages can't understand well,because the translator don't work properly in it, and the name of the wood decoration .. I wish find about more about this particular wood circle folklore but not idea about the name. Thanks!!
Excellent, as always. Personally, I’m not interested in myths or wishful thinking. I want any facts we have, about what people a few thousand years ago, doing. Although maybe that’s wishful thinking?
We tell stories to explain anything we dont understand. Thunder bolts are weapons wielded by gods like Thor. Gods must have created the earth and all the living things. What intrigues me is the millions of people who believe the stories told in ancient times and melded into religions. I knew, somehow, as a child that the stories about girls turned to stone for dancing on a Sunday were as flimsy as the stories I read in Grimms, Anderson and hhe Arabian nights.
Absolutely phenomenal work chaps. Just stumbled upon your channel last night and I’ve binged 2 or 3 hours of it already.
I’m so impressed and pleased that this kind of content exists amongst all the conspiracy theory nonsense that is out there thanks to the History Channel and Ancient Aliens. I’m an early medievalist myself but always had a soft spot for the Neolithic since childhood. It’s a delight to see these sites presented in such high quality videos with such enthusiastic and knowledgeable hosts. You should be really proud of what you’ve achieved here. I’d love to be able to collaborate with you at some point in the future. I’m planning on tackling Neolithic Britain in a full length documentary one of these days. Anyway- Really fantastic work. I’d love to see more. Please keep making these videos !
Dear Pete. Thank you so much for your really kind words. Always does us the power of good when we get feedback like this and helps give us energy to carry on! Indeed, it actually makes a lot of difference to our supporters on Patreon (I've conveyed your words to them) as this kind of feedback confirms to THEM that their money is going to a good cause, especially when it comes from someone who knows what's involved.
So hats off to you too! We know what it takes to put watchable programmes together - you clearly love what you're doing and the results are tremendous. A deservedly healthy subscription level too - we'll get there one day!
In the meantime, do not be shy about getting in touch if there's something you'd like to chat about.
Michael & Rupert
Absolute dream to find you and your work here, I intend to find more of your work past and present! You are a great presenter who I find engaging, captivating and open minded to all possibilities in your quest to find truth about our ancient past. And dare I say with no other agenda but to do just that. Applauding you and your quest. Fascinating is an understatement. Much gratitude and appreciation for all your efforts and endeavours to bring us unbiased povs. Your passion for this subject is contagious and inspirational to say the least. What a joy. ❤
What a difference a drone makes....fantastic!
What a difference a drone makes
Twenty-four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain
Sorry but that song popped into my head when I read your comment
Love visiting from Michigan almost every year. Very magical feeling there.
"Many a year has come and gone, but progress marches slowly on, mother nature hides the stain, 'cuz everybody is going insane..the one thing that will sustain are the Rollright Stones." Traffic, 1973
Brilliant. Thank you Avi - had no idea (or maybe had forgotten) that Traffic had that in their back catalogue. Nice one.
According to myth, if you walk around the circle and count the stones you get a different answer each time. On my first visit about 25 years ago with a young lady (who is now my wife) I decided to try this out. We were about 10 stones in when we spotted a man sitting cross legged and naked on the other side of the circle. We decided to give it a miss and walked over to the Whispering Knights instead.
Did a Oxford University (external) course about the prehistoric landscape of that area, and at the end of it we traveled around to vist the many remaining prehistoric structures that litter the area - even finding the remains of a totally unknown causewayed enclosure! Thank you for you hard work!
Gents, this is a work of art. I really need to catch up on more of your work, this is such a beautifully put together film. I am sat trying to work out if its the script, the cinematography, the setting, the shot planning. Its probably a little of everything! I genuinely aspire to this level of production.
Thank you so much!
I live on a boat near Banbury and visited the Rollright stones a few years back, a beautiful place very mysterious, will have to visit again! I'm fascinated to learn how our ancestors lived!
Cropredy? Fenny Compton?
@@ThePrehistoryGuys I'm actually located between the two, nearer Cropredy at the moment!
Great work! The Rollrights are part of my family's Oxfordshire history and i've lost count of the times I've visited there. I am more and more convinced that the Rollright-style of stone circle is an 'entombment' or enclosure of an ancestral building, such as a roundhouse if you like. By encircling a building, it became a place for the growing community to worship the ancestors and to legitimise their territorial claimsie: Mike Parker Pearsons theory of 'wood into stone'. Woodhenge to Stonehenge. There is evidence that some longbarrow structures were built over abandoned dwellings. So maybe some of the circles like Rollright are the expressive cultural link between the 4th millennium BC longbarrows to the third millennium stone circles?
Thank you, I visit the Rollrights and it was interesting to know how little is factually know about them, plus an enjoyable film, well made.
Thank you Kay - glad you enjoyed it!
Very neat. Great 👍
Such a beautifully filmed piece:) Shared! What is the music used in the film?
Excellent.
Just stumbled on this and really impressed. Visited the stones a few times this year and always wondered why they are there. Great presentation and so refreshing to see that you haven't edited it to death so the presenter is twitching about all over the place.
Watch this in 1080p the quality is amazing.
That was remarkably well put together, well worth wait. Great job guys.
Thank you - appreciated!
I love how professionally made your videos are. I've never visited The Rollright Stones but it is somewhere I'd love to visit some day. Thanks for sharing!
Appreciated - especially coming from another pro! Thanks Lucas.
Simply a must, you will have no regrets, try sunrise or set, it is pure magic !
It's just my guess but I reckon it's a meeting/trading/ neutral site.
Clearly a circle was and is considered sacred, offers "protection' within it a certain level of behaviour would be expected.
Grudges , vendettas or just quarrels are left outside the circle.
They also mark the landscape and make movement before maps or roads easier.
Maybe they were even "safe" places to stop when travelling, it being bad medicine or taboo to attack or rob anyone inside the ring.
It would be interesting to plot the stone circles to see how many are on known trade routes or close to known places where resources or products were available.
Henges are sacred spots, in sacred places marking celestial events.
They link the sky with the ground, the burying into the ground as important as the reaching to the sky
By joining the earth and the sky, marking where the sun or moon touch the horizon they join this world with the otherworld, ancestors and the past with the timeless unknown future.
If you follow the setting sun you come to the west coast and the seemingly endless ocean. Barrow entrances are aligned to the sun especially mid winter.
This is the perfect time for a soul to travel to the otherworld, perhaps along that ribbon of light.
The western sea would be a sort of half world.
We also know amphibious animals were used in shamanic ritual and otterskin was found in burials of people who's grave goods indicate they were priests or shamans.
A fish diet also seems taboo at certain parts of history, a strange choice to ignore such an abundant source of calories and protein.
To their view an animal able to to travel too and from that halfworld between life and death must have seemed magical.
A great vid. Marvelous.
Many thanks!
Standing with Drones? 😉 Excellent stuff as ever.
Many thanks from Michael! So glad you enjoyed it 😊
Another fantastic video
Beautiful cinematography
Thank you Carole! 😊
Brilliant film, loved it. I only recently watched the Standing with Stones series - don't know how I missed it! ...and just bought the book too. Wonderful stuff. Many thanks guys.
Glad you enjoyed it!
History is always more interesting and important than folk lore IMHO. Great work always enjoy your posts thank you very much appreciated.
Just found this vid , great work went there today and unlike most also put a pound in as well as you .
Using some well known constants of the builders this circle can be shown to be aligned to the equator and the original prime meridian. That places it in the age of great monuments like Grainseach, (Loch Goir); Grainseach Nua, (Newgrange ) and Stonehenge as it was the same basic (though brilliant for that time) geometry that was used to align it. Its diameter would have been 100 feet exactly with a circle of 95 stones exactly and like Grainseach it would have been a closed circle with as you say, one or two entrances.
Interesting thanks so much
Very enjoyable video. I live not far from the stones so like to get over often. I didn't realise just how much we don't know about the site. By the way the three wicker witches/norns/fates/fairies I think have been removed fairly recently.
Oh that's sad. 😕They were quite a feature.
That's where we are. At 5:00, walking through the country side, but a tower crane behind.
The King's Stone is very close to being directly aligned with The North Star or Pole Star - aka Polaris when stood in front of it. It's also been suggested recently that the stones themselves were a sort of Neolithic clock dial - using the star constellations as a device for measuring time.
Michael here. I don't see how the King's Stone is aligned with anything. There's nothing to align it with on the ground and what part of the stone would you begin to use for any accuracy?
@@ThePrehistoryGuys When you stand in front of it (where the slab of stone is outside the gate that surrounds it) it is facing north towards Long Compton, too. The significance of this is founded upon other ancient sites which use the constellations for the placement of their structures. Of course, this is speculatory as there is no scripture to suggest otherwise.
Always interesting. 👍
Bring my my broadsword and clear understanding
Great Video with lovely music
Very kind of you to say so! 😊Best wishes from Michael
I've been to Rollright Stones. I sat on one of them lol! Love it and I was in awe!
This sight, based on apearance, is truly ancient; much more antiquated than stone henge.
Yes - that gnarly limestone is always going to look older than the dressed sarsen of Stonehenge. But its look tells us nothing about when the circle was erected. As we say, there is no firm dating for the site - it's all based on typology comparing the King's Men to the Cumbrian circles - but there's no reason to date it earlier than other circles that have been dated, no earlier than 3,000 BC. So - yes - perhaps it's got 500 years on Stonehenge!
That was very nicely produced, and I enjoyed it. Excellent music choice. But I must say, I prefer the banter between you two that most of your videos contain. I hope that these polished episodes will be sparse, and that your usual mode will continue to be the norm. Or you could make some that begin with a scripted documentary followed by the more casual banter.
Truth and fact are fantastic. A good story can keep you alive. Yes we should strive to know the truth about these things. But the storeies do have value. Its a different kind of value of course. They give the world a bit of magic and these days in particular thats not a bad thing.
Michael here. Yes - where would one be without the other? We need to keep in mind which is which though! 😊
Is the admitence fee still 50p?
Hi Jo! Michael here - there's an honesty box at the gate. I think the recommended amount is £1.
Oddly, this really is the one that looks the most like people!
You seem somewhat put out, Rupert, by the inevitable conclusion you come to. Does the fact that we now know a great deal of what stars are diminish the meaning of constellations? If these stones were intended to express deep-seated beliefs, now lost to us, by their creators, does our projecting our myths and beliefs onto them now mean we failed them? Or does it signify the uncanny brilliance of these monuments beyond what their creators could possibly have imagined?
Oooh - we'd love to answer that fully at some point. Maybe frame it for an answer on the LIVE Q&A? ruclips.net/user/postUgyAdGMMLx0qNtzeU8V4AaABCQ
@@ThePrehistoryGuys You're on! 😃
Sunrise ... Mid-day ... Sunset
I don't want "stories" but truth.
''Brown Sugar!, how come you taste so good!?''
remintin to put the penny inn ...
Doctor Who Hideout?Maybe.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3zKrB1QdWP1vdFtQ0dY3nGq/the-fourth-dimension
The Prehistory Guys thanks!
Can't say that I'm satisfied with the myths, legends and stories attached to these items. I love hearing then and even studying how, why and whan they came about but that's doesn't interfere with my interest in finding out the truth as well. It might for tourists but I'm fairly certain that it doesn't effect the archaeologists desire to know either.
Adding to the stories …
can be good to inform in the video with writing messages about the name of the archaeological site because people from other languages can't understand well,because the translator don't work properly in it, and the name of the wood decoration .. I wish find about more about this particular wood circle folklore but not idea about the name. Thanks!!
Excellent, as always. Personally, I’m not interested in myths or wishful thinking. I want any facts we have, about what people a few thousand years ago, doing. Although maybe that’s wishful thinking?
Launcesten triple circles
Plenty of what but still no why. 🤔 (Green Fire, UK) 🌈🦉
I wanna get that hang pan and ride over it with a road roller
We tell stories to explain anything we dont understand. Thunder bolts are weapons wielded by gods like Thor. Gods must have created the earth and all the living things. What intrigues me is the millions of people who believe the stories told in ancient times and melded into religions. I knew, somehow, as a child that the stories about girls turned to stone for dancing on a Sunday were as flimsy as the stories I read in Grimms, Anderson and hhe Arabian nights.
Just crying out for a proper dig and some dating and science on the job with modern technology.
Clearly this place cries out for further investigation
Given no evidence, why should any man’s speculations count for anything?
Why should they not?
@@Happyheretic2308 First you answer my question, then I yours.