Vent: People keep calling every old pile of rocks a 'henge' when it's clearly not

Was at a local dig near my town in Vermont last weekend, and some volunteer kept pointing at a circle of field stones and calling it a 'mini Stonehenge'. No, Brenda, it's a 19th century root cellar foundation. A henge has a bank and ditch, not just some rocks in a circle. Drives me nuts how folks throw that term around. How do you handle it when armchair experts mislabel stuff on your site?

2 comments

2 Comments

mary_kelly10d ago

Respectfully push back because I see it a bit differently. Around here in New England, those old field stone circles are almost always colonial-era sheep pens or root cellars, but I get why a volunteer might make the comparison. In my experience, most people don't know the difference between a true henge and a random stone feature. Take it with a grain of salt, but I usually just say something like "interesting structure" and then later explain the bank and ditch thing if they seem curious. Your mileage may vary, but a little patience usually goes further than getting frustrated.

davis.linda10d ago

@mary_kelly But what if the pile of rocks was placed by ancient Vermonters and NOT colonists?