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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sepulchrave II" data-source="post: 9129050" data-attributes="member: 4303">Stonehenge and Avebury are generally regarded as being late Neolithic structures from the mid 3rd millennium BCE - the structures don't show any evidence of being worked with metal tools. West Kennet long barrow - associated with the Avebury complex - is much older, from around 3700 BCE. Although it's possible that they were still active religious sites into the Bronze Age, Stonehenge may have fallen into disrepair within 50 years of its completion according to Ronald Hutton. I think it's this video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjC0lGr4h04" target="_blank">here</a> although the whole series is interesting.This is where we enter the realm of aetiological myths - the idea of various "waves" of conquering peoples (Nemedians, Milesians etc.) in Ireland is very much a later retrojection, and like all such stories was designed to crystallize group identities and bolster various legitimacy claims. Like other origin myths (Aztecs, Mycenaeans, Hebrews etc.), we are told of a group or groups which overcame by force, although this mytheme seems to obscure the more pedestrian truths of acculturation and emergence from the native populations. Even the Adventus Saxonum is looking pretty sketchy these days.There are no written sources for Cuchulain prior to the 7th-8th Century CE; his story is set in the First Century BCE, firmly in the Iron Age. Eight hundred years is an awfully long time to trust an oral transmission; it's just as likely that whoever originally penned the Cuchulain myth made it up in 680 or something.I agree that the Atlantic Bronze Age was a fascinating time, and I am rather sympathetic to Koch and Cunliffe's argument that the Atlantic seaboard was the Urheimat of the Celtic culture, although it remains a minority opinion and Cunliffe can be a bit fringe-y:[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.transceltic.com/pan-celtic/origin-celts[/URL]</blockquote>

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