Thank you very much for writing in and if you’d like to tell us all more about your related discoveries or thoughts, then please feel free to submit all the material and links you like.

If anyone doesn’t know, they have done a holographic reconstruction of the archer’s face now, which you can see in Salisbury Museum.

As for sending in multiple comments, you’re more than welcome, as is anyone at all who can contribute any original thought on Stonehenge or Silbury Hill. Pete and I spend a great deal of time, in various ways, engaged with these two monuments, and we have a great deal to say about them, either by way of covering the excavations or else by putting in the public domain various matters we’ve discovered, such as the Altar Stone.

There’s no requirement for us to agree with what people have to say or vice versa, because anything that gets the grey matter working has simply got to be a good thing, as I never tire of writing. Non-specialists and non-archaeologists always welcome.

And thank you also for your kind words – they’re always welcome too!

This article reminded me of a chapter in Janet and Colin Bord’s book “Earth Rites”. Chapter nine was entitled ‘The ritual sacrifice of the divine victm” It opens with this paragraph ” Among primitive societies in many parts of the world it was custom to kill their kings as soon as they showed the slightest sign of old age or whilst they still reigned with full health and vigour’ (referenced as Frazer, The Golden Bough ch XXIV).

William II (i.e Rufus third son of William The Conqueror) was named as a willing victim – killed by an arrow! That may be just a coincidence as Beckett was also considered to have been a willing sacrifice but the parallels to the article above was a bit of a “Eureka” moment.

Waiting to be “shot down”

As for duels or duellists, this was the most convenient term I could think of, but I didn’t mean to imply that I thought a set of sporting Queensbury Rules was in place at the time. There was a formal challenge at Nemi when the Man Who Would be King broke a bough in the grove, but otherwise, we get the impression that the resident priest went around in a constant state of apprehension, which implies he was worried about an unannounced attack, just as any other watchman, lookout, guardian or sentinel would be.

Otherwise, I’ve heard that there’s some new dating evidence on Stonehenge available, so as soon as I can get hold of it, I’ll post it up along with a link for everyone to see.

You’re quite right – we could argue for hours – but thanks for writing in and thanks also for the compliment.

Best wishes from

Dennis