In the French edition* of National Geographic, August 2022, I find that the Early European Farmers arrived in 4000 BC, the stone circle in Preseli or Carn Menyn was built in 3300 BC and Stone Henge raised in 2500 BC. A space of 1500 years. Longer than Sweden has been unified (since c. 1000 AD) or Spain (since c. 1492). About the time from Clovis and St. Clotilda to ourselves.
Let's take this in my recalibration, shall we. I'll cite my tables, but because of a probably deliberate misunderstanding, but possibly shared by some without deliberation, first I'll clear something up. The format of my tables.
- Real year BC
- carbon 14 level (usually theoretic) back in that year in the atmosphere —> carbon date.
I say "usually theoretic" because for the years I have labelled nodes and numbered in Roman numerals, I base that on carbon dated archaeology and on (usually Biblical) historical real dates. Those nodes, I'm not giving the currently measured level of carbon 14, I'm giving the lower than 100 pmC level that it must have had back in the day in order to account for the discrepancy between the real date and the carbon date.
Example. En Geddi is excavated, and one of the habitations ended in the carbon date 3500 BC. That would be a carbon age of 5450 BP, calibrated, I presume. Now, if 5450 BP had been obtained as the raw date with the currently accepted halflife, the Cambridge halflife, it would mean the reed mats in the cave with the temple treasures have 0.5^(5450/5730) = 51.723 pmC. However, I hold that they are younger than 3500 BC, namely the date of Genesis 14 (Asason Tamar being mentioned as attacked and identified in Chronicles as En Geddi). In my Biblical chronology, that being the one of the Christmas day reading from the Martyrologium Romanum, the date would be 2015 BC - c. 80 years = c. 1935 BC. Why c. 80 years? It was after Abraham's vocation (chapter 12) at age 75 and before the birth of Ishmael (chapter 16) when he was 86.
The discrepancy is 1565 years. My proposal is, the reed mats were 1565 years old in carbon dating, given the then atmosphere and if carbon daters had been brought back in a time machine, because the then current atmosphere was 1565 years old. In other words, it had a carbon level of 82.753 pmC. Now, Genesis 14 is my node IV, and for years between nodes, I do a mathematically somewhat advanced interpolation.
So, Early European Farmers arise in Anatolia 7000 BC, leave Anatolia in 6000 BC, arrive in Britain in 4000 BC, build Carn Menyn in Preseli in 3300 BC and then Stone Henge in 2500 BC. Carbon dated.
- III—IV
- 2442 BC
- 57.683 pmC, dated as 6990 BC
- 2327 BC (!)
- 63.519 pmC, dated as 6079 BC
- 2304 BC
- 64.676 pmC, dated as 5906 BC
- 2028 BC
- 78.316 pmC, dated as 4048 BC
- 2005 BC
- 79.432 pmC, dated as 3909 BC
Ancient Anatolian farmers are archeologically identifiable since some time before 2442 BC, which is when Shem died. They went into Europe between 2327 and 2304 BC, before Serug was born. They arrived in Britain between 2028 and 2005 BC, around when Abraham was born.
- IV—V
- 1877 BC
- 83.97 pmC, dated as 3321 BC
- 1857 BC
- 84.371 pmC, dated as 3262 BC
The stone circle in Preseli was built between 1877 and 1857 BC. Terah had died, Jacob and Esau were soon to be born.
- V—VI
- 1678 BC
- 89.449 pmC, dated as 2600 BC
- 1656 BC
- 91.353 pmC, dated as 2404 BC
So, the main stone circle of Stone Henge is from between 1678 and 1656 BC, somewhat after Joseph died in Egypt and somewhat longer before Moses was born.
Let's resume.
Ancient Anatolian Farmers are a thing in 2442 BC, get into Europe in 2327 / 2304 BC (a bit more than a century later) and arrive in Britain between 2028 and 2005 BC, c. 300 years after they got into the Balkans, a bit more than 400 years after they are a big thing in Anatolia.
They arrive in Britain in 2028 / 2005 BC, they build Preseli stone circle in 1877 / 1857 BC, c. 150 years later, and they relocate it to Stone Henge in 1678 / 1656 BC, c. 200 years after Preseli and c. 350 years after they arrived.
According to the paper in National Geographic, the Yamnaya invaders replaced them. Some others would disagree:
The modern English inherited around 50% of their genes from early European farmers, 36% from western European hunter-gatherers, and 14% from the ancient north Eurasians. According to the study, published in Nature, modern Scots can trace 40% of their DNA to the early European farmers and 43% to hunter-gatherers, though David Reich, a senior author on the study at Harvard University, said the differences were not significant.
Perhaps Y-chromosomes were more replaced than the genome overall, but there are Y-chromosome lineages going back to Western Hunter Gatherers, who lived in Britain before the Ancient Anatolian Farmers arrived. Like I2. Also, did R1b arrive only with Yamnaya wave, or with Early European Farmers?**
The modern English inherited around 50% of their genes from early European farmers, 36% from western European hunter-gatherers, and 14% from the ancient north Eurasians. According to the study, published in Nature, modern Scots can trace 40% of their DNA to the early European farmers and 43% to hunter-gatherers, though David Reich, a senior author on the study at Harvard University, said the differences were not significant.
DNA study reveals third group of ancient ancestors of modern Europeans
Ian Sample, science editor | Thu 18 Sep 2014 09.50 CEST
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/sep/18/ancient-ancestors-europeans-dna-study
Meanwhile, it is nearly certain that the society that built Stonehenge fell. National Geographic speculates on plague, a milder but still not innocuous strain of Yersinia pestis. If they were indeed menaced by plague, it was not the best move to cluster in high density around huge cult places, of which Stonehenge wasn't even the biggest. Just as in 2020, a certain cluster of Pentecostals in Alsatia counted 5000 people in a single huge tent meeting. I noted that Catholic mass, not being a question of the priest's personal charisma, and Catholic society having usually many priests, isn't as likely to get 5000 people in one place. Also a Catholic mass (at least of the Latin rite) is c. 45 min. while a tent meeting lasts longer.
Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
St. Clotildis
3/VI.2026
Lutetiae Parisiorum sanctae Clotildis Reginae, cujus precibus vir ejus Clodoveus, Rex Francorum, Christi fidem suscepit.
* See: Sommaire du magazine National Geographic du mois d'Août 2022 : Les mystères de Stonehenge
De National Geographic | Publication 28 juil. 2022, 21:36 CEST
https://www.nationalgeographic.fr/histoire/2022/07/sommaire-du-magazine-national-geographic-du-mois-daout-2022-les-mysteres-de-stonehenge
** I can't access the newspaper, but I do access the online article of these two:
A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for European Paternal Lineages
Patricia Balaresque et al. | PLoS Biol. 2010 Jan 19;8(1):e1000285.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2799514/
= 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000285
The Times: First farmers in Britain were horsemen from the Steppes
https://www.thetimes.com/world/russia-ukraine-war/article/first-farmers-in-britain-were-horsemen-from-the-steppes-pb2b6txfc
