Who were the people of Stonehenge? Curators' Tour of The World of Stonehenge 

Find out more about our Stonehenge exhibition here: bit.ly/3tZWtps And if you can't make it to the show, you might want to check out the exhibition book here: bit.ly/3IhiXaI If you're outside of the UK you can also buy the exhibition book here: bit.ly/3IchOBa

the upside down tree in middle is such a cool detail, it shows so much intentionality

The polished axe IS a better tool than the rough surfaced biface version. A skilled knapper can make can make a biface axe in 20-30 mins. The polished version will take around 60 hours more. Why do this? Because the polished axe will last more than ten times longer. The reason? Each impact puts stress forces along the axe. The rough surfaced biface will cause those forces to concentrate in areas when passing over the dimples and ridges, which will likely cause the tool to fracture at some point. With the mirror smooth surface of a polished axe those shock waves can pass freely long the surface and into the handle, reducing the stress on the tool and significantly extending its life. Neolithic people had better things to do than polish rocks for the fun of it.

That pendant is absolutely stunning. I also love the idea of “deep history” instead of “pre-history.” Really interesting to see how human culture changed over those thousands of years.

I grew up around forests where everyone had an axe. They sanded and polished the handles to make them last longer, less damage from the weather, and to preserve them. To carve a new one was labor intensive and it was prudent to make the effort worthwhile, instead of letting it deteriorate and discarding it. Although it made the handles look nice, beauty was not as important as function.

The exhibition is truly spine-tingling. I saw it a few weeks ago, travelling from the north of England, and I am going to see it again this weekend. If you get the chance at all, go ! The stone axes are just magnificent in their collection and display. Their uniformity in design and subsequent development is also astounding.The lighting is quite dark in the cavities between the exhibits, which really adds to the mood. The pieces are all magical, but for me the gigantic aur head and the 9000 year old antler head dress come close to simulating time travel. Thank you for putting this together !

This is the Best Example of the best of our Social Media today…..with so much gobbled-gook out there……this is Excellent Work….Kudos!

I thought Time Team showed how the Neolithic axe was superior to the Mesolithic axe. The shined up Neolithic axe cut cleaner and suffered less damage as easily as the Mesolithic one. I wish I could see this exhibit but alas I am a broke Alaskan and may never make it to my ancestral lands. Thank you for showing this amazing display!

You've got some really fantastic documentaries on here, from Stonehenge, the Vikings live, the Sutton Hoo helmet and sword, Roman Britain to the Yoginis: Goddesses of Tantra, all of it fascinating and informative with great hosts and narration. A great channel from a brilliant place

This is a beautifully done video. I was privileged to attend this exhibition back in May. I can say quite honestly that it was a peak experience of my life: so filled with amazing artifacts, beautifully lit, well-described, and with a trance-inducing soundtrack in the background. The curators did an outstanding job.

Bravo to whoever scripted this segment! What a beautiful job the curators have done giving us (who live so far away) such a meaningful tour.... I'm truly grateful

Absolutely fascinating! Thank you to all who participated in the production of this episode

I do believe that their was a rise of aesthetics in their tools but It has been proven with modern replicas that the smooth polished axe heads cut cleaner and keep their edge longer than the those that were simply flint knapped. Phil Harding of Time Team gave a demonstration of this in one of their episodes.

14:30 It was interesting to hear about the importance of Pleiades to Northern Hemisphere peoples because it was just as important in the Southern Hemisphere as well. Here in NZ, we are about to celebrate Matariki (the very first indigenous public holiday in the world) which is the Māori new year, based on when Matariki (Pleiades) re-appears above the horizon.

Very well presented & narrated. Thank you, I enjoyed the journey you took me on. ❤

Polishing axes DOES enhance their functionality and durability. A polished axe makes cleaner cuts and is less prone to shattering and needing constant re-sharpening. This has been proved beyond doubt many times by experimental archaeologists! Quite shocked to hear this outdated and disproven nonsense about polishing being purely aesthetic in an official British Museum video!

I wish I could see this in person, but this video is a great introduction. Thanks so much for sharing!

Awesome thank you for sharing your hard work everyone

there was reason for polishing the axes. polishing would make them less likely to break. see James Dilley’s explanation in his video Graig Lwym Axe Landscape on his AncientCraftUK youtube channel.

I’m thrilled to see so many memories from Time Team explorations.

We should add the intriguing fact that the Nebra Sky disk was made with copper from today's Austria, but with tin and gold from Cornwall. The Nebra Sky disk is thus not only a portable Stonehenge, it is additionally a product of the trade that connected continental Europe with the British islands.

Very interesting. Of course, "prehistory" has a very specific meaning that is well understood by anyone who has read even a little on the subject. It remains a perfectly appropriate term to describe the period in question. I'd also add that there is good research to suggest that the polishing of axeheads did, in fact, offer practical benefits. We are often all too ready to fall into the trap of ascribing "ritual purposes" to any prehistoric phenomena that is not immediately decipherable through a modern lens. I am very much looking forward to visiting the exhibition. My thanks to the curators for sharing their insights in a video format, especially for those who will not be able to make the journey to the BM.

I hope that people will finally put to rest the idea that ancient people only moved a few miles around their homes. They probably had more freedom to travel than we do today.

2 thumbs up! This channel never disappoints.

What a wonderful explanation. It now makes way more sense. Thanks.

Thanks you Jennifer and Neil, can't wait to see this exhibition.

I love rewatching Curator's Corner and just last week I got to Neil's videos on Stonehenge and smaller objects in the collection, and in those he looks so stressed out and awkward compared to this tour. You can really tell how much the experience of presenting for those videos has contributed to him feeling very comfortable in this one. Absolutely enchanting video, wonderful presenters, thank you to the team!

There's something about that sun pendant. It is really beautiful and timeless. It could have been created in the modern day. It's very special

Another superb one, guys. Thanks for sharing!

If you’d ask Irving Finkel about the importance of the Plejaden in ancient Mesopotamia, he‘ll probably point to one of their Sumerian names being MUL, which just means star. The Sumerians viewed them as archetypical stars, which may be connected to their function as the indicator for leap years in Mul-Apin. They were also seen as gods (Sebetti) and quite the number of prayers to them has survived to this day. With the appearance of the Mittani kingdom they also appear in northern Mesopotamian Glyptic, though not so much in the south.

Fascinating and well presented. Thankyou. 10/10

Yep! It was a truely great exhibition - well done Neil, Jennifer and Rose

I always feel something inside whenever I hear the word Stonehenge or watch videos about it. I know I was there before. This video put me in a trance.

The "who they were" and "what they were doing" gets me every time.

Absolutely superb program. Thanks for sharing .

I am fascinated by the Nebra Sky Disc. I think it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen ❤.

Excellent presentation! Thank you!

There is the precession problem with the hypothesis of the seasons regulated with the Pleiades as it would slip over millennia. The reason is that the Taurid Stream seems to emanate visually from the Pleiades and when we cross that night time pre-perihelion it is the time to add 5-6 days to the 360 day year, thus the New Year is established as it should be on October 31st today. This is the meteor stream that caused the Pleistocene / Holocene shift and why there are seven avians in a row at Gobekli Tepe. And because of precession the festival of the dead / New Year would be commemorated around May 1st 12,000 years ago.

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful exhibition 🌍

Thank you for sharing this excellent presentation, I really appreciated it from start to finish.

Find out more about our Stonehenge exhibition here: bit.ly/3w0v0Gu And if you can't make it to the show, you might want to check out the exhibition book here: bit.ly/3l0z82S If you're outside of the UK you can also buy the exhibition book here: bit.ly/3KXpmZS

Thk all of U for this extraordinary presentation!!!!!

This is a fabulous presentation!

That was fascinating. I felt touched by this - when looking at the trees and imagining the family watching the sun come through the branches - I got goose-bumps. I would love to be able to come visit the exhibit, but am very appreciative to be given a little look - thank you.

Fascinating. Thank you.

Beautifully presented, beautifully photographed for this video, and endlessly fascinating. I can’t wait to visit the British Museum again to see this breathtaking exhibition!

Flippin' awesome. Thank you for this.

This is an exquisite documentary !

I visited the exhibition with my son on Easter. Just brilliant and thank you for the memories!

Fantastic. Thanks for producing such interesting work!

Top stuff BM. A story well told. Thank you

Polishing a stone axe actually does enhance its functionality. It reduces the chance for fractures from rough peaks being chipped or spalled off the main rock body. It allows the axe blade to bite into the wood more cleanly, imparting more force to the attack, since there are no peaks to get lodged too son, reducing the depth of each impact. And it allows easier extraction if it gets caught in the fibers, reducing friction. These may seem like minor changes, but when every single tree has to be cut down by very hard and laborious work, working only with stone tools, with no metal and no saw blades, even tiny changes can make a huge difference over the long run.

Thank you for sowing us this interesting artifacts and explaining what was used and built as humans were developing civilization in Great Britain.

Fascinating!

This presentation was as brilliant as the sun! Thank you! Hope I can get to London to see the exhibit. Well done and congratulations to all who were challenged by the usual issues putting together such a major exhibit, and to do it during the worst of the pandemic is testament to the skills of ALL who were involved. thanks from Minnesota, US

Thank you for a beautiful video report.

It is a bit sad to me to have to watch a video of Curators' Corner of the British Museum to see the Nebra sky disc, when it usually is displayed just a few hundred meters from my home. But of course, it is now shown in a big, great context. :)

Great video. Looks like a great exhibition :)

This was so good! Thank you 🙏

Wonderful in every way.

Fantastic!

Fascinating beautiful objects

the finest craftsmanship ever witnessed.

Polishing stone blades allow the waste chips of the material being cut to scour more easily and eliminate shallow fissures that are the beginning of cracks that eventually destroy the tool. In turn, they also likely boned their fresh wood handles to make them slide more efficiently in the hand.

Fascinating

they are both really charming, it's a pleasure to listen to them while they explain stuff 😌👍

This is amazing.

Wonderful video!

Very well said!

Thank you!

I saw this exhibition before it closed. It was wonderful and is up there with the Viking exhibition as the best the museum has ever done.

fascinating

Delightful 👍👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍

finding high quality minerals is Not Easy. beautiful collection.

Around the 10:00 mark a new group of people are introduced who migrated into the British Isles from Europe, and are described as having "step ancestry". I wonder if the closed captioning should have read "steppe ancestry"?

Very good presentation. Fleshes out what I learned in my studies watching 20 seasons of Time Team. 🙂👍

Imagine when metallurgy was new and the Nebra disk had just come out and people thought "Well now Stonehenge is unnecessary and obsolete"...Like when computers came out and there was all that talk about saving paper and books becoming obsolete.

Great, interesting exhibition and presentation - I do wonder if the tools were sanded and polished to a fine surface to prevent abrasions/calluses to the palm, in tools that could have been used by hand as well as in a wooden axe frame.

We will never know why Stonehenge was built, but we sure used to, part of the problem is that England attacked Scotland and Ireland at a time when this was general knowledge and if you can kill enough people who hold the knowledge than all is lost. Like these people talking are speculating, not taking into account of where the Celtic people even come from, all you have to do is follow the bread crumbs and you will see more monuments and then you begin to see a clearer picture. They were master builders and they built things that they felt important to this world, and know we shall never know and that sucks.

Hopefully you all do a book or two for us stuck across the pond. Wonderful episode

I just learned about Seahenge last month!! The removal of the posts from the site is a huge controversy, and I was sad to see how the site was treated. But they are doing a good job presenting it in this exhibit.

The stones hardness and toughness were the determining factors, plus polishing revealed layers and fossils.

love the video and your star of david.

As a child my parents took me to all the major museums in London - we lived there. To see the quality and the beauty humans created thousands of years ago is beyond fascinating, it leaves one in awe of the capabilities of a, - our forefathers - people who, should we not have this evidence, would perhaps have been easily dismissed as primitive, and unskilled. For me, it is a privilege to live here and to witness, via modern technology, the magnificence which has gone before us. Every generation leaves behind knowledge which we have the obligation and the privilege to continue to build upon. I find it sad(for me) that I shall not live to stay here right to the end of what I call, 'The Movie.' I want to stay until the very end.

It's a shame I missed the exhibition. I have a fascination with Stonehenge and the pre history period.

Nice 👍

Magnificent!!!! Is this going to travel ? Ty !

Not sure the hard work of digging in the sun would be anything I'd care for, but I'm bloomin' grateful for what archaeologists have done through the centuries - especially the diggers. Thank you for getting these fascinating stories.

Fantastic exhibition. Visit it in the flesh if you can

Fascinating coincidences(?) to consider: the full moon / crescent moon disk has 29 circles--a very close approximate of the number of days in a full cycle; seven of these circles are in a cluster that can organize the 28/29 into four week patterns making them easier to track. 28 days x 13 moons a year=364 days in the year. The outer ring contains 39 punctures (3 x 13) so every three years you would need to begin fresh as the partial days left over would begin to wreck solstice timings. A Stonehenge data disc.

I’ve dealt with suicidal thoughts as long as I can remember. I know it’s common to give away your most prized possessions at the end of life. I’m still here, turns out I’m hard to kill though not through lack of trying. I’ve given away a lot before I woke up still alive. This is past, ok-ish now. Getting ride of a deceased family members stuff feels kinda like this. It’s nice stuff but very specific to them. That engraved sword? Specific to family that doesn’t want it? Collector? Trash? Stuff just gets lost in time as stuff.

Enjoyable video. Thanks. You say the people of Stonehenge left us no art with which to know/understand them, I would say the henge was their art (geometry as earth measure), and you should study it accordingly. The major standstill of the sun and the moon did not just mark out opposing crescents, split asunder by the equinox sunrise/sunset. The standstill points/azimuth marked out the location of the primary and secondary rainbows at dawn/dusk upon those equinoxes, that created cones pointing East and West. Hence a pot of gold at the end of the primary rainbow and a pot of silver at the end of the secondary rainbow. The epitome of which was refractive index square root 9/5th, that created a perfect 3/4th square within the circle of the raindrop, but had a perfect elevation/azimuth of a 3:4:5 triangle. This is symbolised/marked by the station stones that sit offset upon the Aubrey hole circle, as a 1:2 gradient square, placed within an octagon. Hence Alexander Thoms megalithic Easter eggs. This tilted square also gave Solstice + 1/8th year sunrise at Syene, from whence the metrology of the Earth was measured, with ecliptic matching latitude. Cut into two circles for azimuth east and west, the same squared the circle by perimeter and area, when using 25/8th Pi and the 8x8 grid as a 360" human circle, 5x5 common cubits square and 5x5 remen royal cubits tilted square. This geometric ecliptic was that necessary, to allow the solstice to rise at the 6 radial points at the latitude of the corners of a cube, whose great circles then met at 8 radial lines to create an octahedron. Hence the pertrospheres from the recumbent stone circles. At Stonehenge they had something much more detailed though. Using the 450" wavelength of the bank/ditch (Flinders Petrie) and the 250" wavelength of the Avenure bank/ditch (survey sections & Petrie), to be rolled by a circle cut into 24 parts. Those wheels were 80" and 144" diameter and rolled 24x 18.75" (common cubit at 1,512,000,000) and 24x 10.4166" (10" or half barley cubit at 1,512,000,000). Thus the node of the bank/ditch at 4050" diameter (Petrie 3595", 4045", 4495") was cut into the 32' arc of the sun as 1/675th part with 216 part diameter. These cubits were also the cubit described by strabo as 252,000 stade of 300 cubit at 144"/7 (at 1,555,200,000) Sunrise was designed to hit the Aubrey column Pillars at 25" radius, 125" mid height level to sun center, with an 18.75" diameter, using 5:6 conical columns with capitols, based of the 1250" Sarsen circle diameter. At 96" height rather then 125", the sun would be pushed out further to the 30 point polygon of the 4050" node . This was maximum reach of a human, as opposed to the bank & head height of 72" and the eye line at 14/15th of this height. Hence the Djed Pillar artwork and the requirement of cos 6 degrees or 30 pillars. For sunrise, there were two geometrical methods of calculation for shortcutting spherical trigonometry. One uses a cleaved horizon solstice circle, to create a rectangle, whose height is inscribed by a circle. This circle circumscibes a hexagon, square and double trigon, whose lines projected east west to the horizon circle mark Solstice +- 0/24th, 2/24th, 3/24th and 4/24th Year. The same can be done with double east west circles and cosines, for stonehenge... Acos(38/250)/2 = 40.628576 Solstice azimuth +- 0/24th Year Acos(91/250)/2 = 34.326973 Solstice azimuth +- 2/24th Year Acos(144/250)/2 = 27.415153 Solstice azimuth +- 3/24th Year. (Hence 250" and 144", where 0.576 is a 10:1 fractal of the Greek radian) Acos(197/250)/2 = 19.000500 Solstice azimuth +- 4/24th Year Acos(250/250)/2 = 0.000000 Solstice azimuth +- 6/24th Year Syene Ecliptic with solstice azimuth by Acos(38/250)/2... to match lunar standstill azimuth to latitude... Sin( 40.62857634 ) = sin( 24.09484255 ) / sin( 38.82636250 ) Sin( 51.17363749 ) = sin( 29.23775305 ) / sin( 38.82636250 ) 29.23775305 - 24.09484255 = 5.14291050 Lunar Inclination 51.17363749 + 38.82636250 = 90 (Latitude 51d 10' 25.09") Syene Ecliptic with solstice azimuth by Aubrey Column... to match lunar standstill azimuth to latitude... Sin( 40.62879969 ) = sin( 24.09484255 ) / sin( 38.82615300 ) Sin( 51.17384699 ) = sin( 29.23770171 ) / sin( 38.82615300 ) 29.23770171 - 24.09484255 = 5.14285916 Lunar Inclination 51.17384699 + 38.82615300 = 90 (Latitude 51d 10' 25.85") Syene Ecliptic with 36/7 lunar axial tilt, to go with 360/7 Avebury latitude and 3600", 360", 36" & 3.6" Anthropomorphic metrological fractal system... Sin( 40.62880849 ) = sin( 24.09484255 ) / sin( 38.82614475 ) Sin( 51.17385524 ) = sin( 29.23769969 ) / sin( 38.82614475 ) 29.23769969 - 24.09484255 = 5.14285714 Lunar Inclination 51.17385524 + 38.82614475 = 90 (Latitude 51d 10' 25.88") More here, for fully rebuilt Stonehenge... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KwopKpJXRic.html More here, for how this led to Christian symbolism via the celtic christian and coptic chritian church.. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ar50Tls4kBo.html Feel free to contact me for dimensional details if you ever want to build a scaled reconstruction.

This is dope.

they missed a trick here by showing the shield of Nebra in the thumbnail when the BERLIN WALL came down dealers were taking state-of-the-art metal detectors in the old east germans and on one f those hunts the shield came up what is not widely known is there were two solid gold wizards hats found with the shield 1-metre tall cone shaped solid gold hats I have seen pictures of these but have no idea where they ended up

"No one knows who they were... or what they were doing... but their legacy remains... hewn into the living rock of Stonehenge."

Thank you, superbly presented information, providing clarity on new discoveries and materials. Very enjoyable and satisfying to watch and listen to - very well done indeed :)

Very interesting. Not sure about the glib 'insights' about Neolithic spiritual/religious faith though. There are pragmatic reasons that could explain the special value of Italian jade axe heads (other than their source being high up 'close to heaven') and the example of the upturned tree section (i.e. the fact that it's a ready-made Y support). Other than these unsupported claims, a nice insight into Stonehenge culture. Would love to see the actual exhibition.

What?! "Prehistoric" has a very specific meaning. It's all about the written record. I have other notes, but, overall, good job. Great show. 👍👍👍

Shame the exhibition can’t travel the country.thank you for sharing via social media.

It's prehistory because it is. History starts when we start writing (and stop losing the records). Prehistory ended a very long time ago in the Middle East, and much more recently in the Americas. (Many of the people of the Americas had ways of keeping records, but unfortunately, a lot of the records have been lost and the knowledge of how to read or interpret them have often also been lost.)