Picking a Bone with King Arthur Pendragon

This was going to be a post about the controversy happening over displaying human bones at the new Stonehenge Visitor Center but talking about King Arthur Uther Pendragon seems way more fun.

The new visitor center is to be completed by the end of the year and English Heritage wants to display the remains of the ancient inhabitants of the area. They believe that it will provide visitors with a direct connection to the 5,000 year old people who lived and worked by Stonehenge and assure that the display will follow the presentation, treatment and storage UK guidelines.

Sounds pretty cool, right? Well not to Pendragon who believes the bones are the remains of the "royal line" or "priest caste" who could have been the "founding fathers of this great nation." Pendragon says, "this is not only out of step with the feelings of many of the peoples and groups that I represent but is surely against the driving cultural principles of a Unesco World Heritage Site." Pendragon said visitors would be "appalled" and unless "models and replicas" were used he could "not rule out non-violent direct action against the proposals."

Who is this King Arthur Uther Pendragon dude? After looking this guy up how could I have lived my life not knowing about him? He is my new favorite everything. Pendragon is a Neo-Druid, a religion that promotes harmony, worship of nature, respect for all things and believes strongly in the veneration of ancestors, particularly those that belonged to prehistoric societies.

King Arthur Pendragon changed his name from John Timothy Rothwell in 1986 as he is the self-declared reincarnation of King Arthur. He is known for his ties to Stonehenge and his belief that because of the exclusion zone around Stonehenge, his freedom of thought, conscience, religion and freedom of expression are restricted. He has picketed Stonehenge multiple times and complains of English Heritage's mismanagement of the monument, including the recent lack of respect to the ancient British ancestors.

The picture of him on the motorcycle is going on the fridge.

Fun little tidbits:
Summoned to court over refusal to pay the Poll Tax, Pendragon was allowed to wear his robes and allowed to swear oath on his sword.

He has been arrested over 30 times (mostly for trespassing). Refusing to wear prison garments, he has been left without clothing entirely and put in solitary confinement.

Pendragon was coronated in 1998 and proclaimed 'Raised Druid King of Britain' by representatives from 5 Neo-Druid orders.

Watch the video below and wish you were as cool as he is.

Hanging Gardens of Nineveh

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that may not have ever existed. For now, they are purely legendary. The lack of physical evidence among other ancient remains in Babylon (53 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq) cause some to doubt its existence.

Ancient reports of the gardens are enough reason for some to continue the investigation and now a British academic is in the news for her abundance of evidence that the gardens indeed existed, although not in Babylon. Her 20 years of study on the gardens lead her to believe that they were in Nineveh, 300 miles north of Babylon.

Stephanie Dalley of Oxford University deciphered numerous Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform scripts and later reinterpreted Greek and Roman texts. She found descriptions of an "unrivaled place" and a "wonder for all peoples," declared by the great Assyrian king, Sennacherib. Dalley says he was describing Nineveh and its complex system of canals, dams and aqueducts used to bring water to the hanging garden.

Dalley realized that a relief from Sennacherib's palace depicted trees growing on a roofed colonnade exactly described in classical accounts of the garden. She also found that Nineveh may have been regarded as 'New Babylon' which could have led to confusion over where the gardens were thought to exist.

More evidence that Dalley found was in the topography of Babylon itself. The Hanging Gardens were a multi-tiered artificial hill about 25 meters tall and 120 meters across. Trees and flowers were planted along the roof colonnades. It is estimated that at least 9,000 gallons of water was brought by a canal and aqueduct system to maintain the gardens. Babylon's flat countryside would have made it impossible to deliver enough water to maintain gardens of this size. 

"It's taken many years to find the evidence to demonstrate that the gardens and associated system of aqueducts and canals were built by Sennacherib at Nineveh and not by Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. For the first time it can be shown that the Hanging Garden really did exist," said Dr. Dalley.

War of the World War II Sea Forts

The Maunsell forts are located in the estuary of the Thames river and were used during World War II to repel German forces en route to London. Assembled in response to the London Blitz, they jointly shot down 22 enemy aircraft and 30 VI flying bombs.

About six miles off the coast of England, Five of the structures circle a control center while the seventh, set further out, was used as the searchlight tower. They were all once interconnected by steel platforms. After the war they were used by pirate radio stations through the mid-1960's and a large broadcasting mast still remains.

I came across these forts while scouring the internet a few days ago and I just thought they were pretty cool. They are currently in the news due to Project Redsand (the charity dedicated to maintaining the structures) seeking financial support to make repairs and continue safeguarding of the landmarks.

AND DON'T THEY LOOK JUST LIKE THE WAR OF THE WORLDS THINGYS?