Hugh Newman is an earth mysteries and megalithic science researcher. He organises the Megalithomania Conferences (www.megalithomania.co.uk), co-edits Avalon Rising (www.avalonrising.co.uk) magazine and is the Earth Energies and Divinatory Arts coordinator at the Big Green Gathering. His most recent book, Earth Grids - The Secret Patterns of Gaia's Sacred Sites, has been published by Wooden Books. He is an honorary member of The Antiquarian Society and has spoken at conferences in the UK, US, Malta and South America.

MEGALITHIC SITES OF NEW ENGLAND

The northeastern states of America have a remarkable amount of megalithic structures with some that go back to over 4000 years. Vermont has numerous rock chambers and standing stones that form an archaeoastronomical complex over a broad area. New York state has a mix of earthen mounds, megalithic chambers, giant dolmens and the homestead of Rob Roy, who constructs modern megalithic monuments in his front garden. New Hampshire boasts "America's Stonehenge", another archaeoastronomocal complex that stretches back to neolithic times along with a nearby ovoid stone circle and several more chambers. On the coast of Rhode Island, the famous Dighton Rock, with bizarre petroglyphs and images sits inside a newly constructed museum. In Massachusetts, a strange "hill that roars" sits near a selection of megalithic chambers, cairns and mounds of ancient origin. New Jersey, Maine and Connectitcut also have numerous ancient sites that cannot be explained by traditional archaeology of North America. Even the native americans do not know who constructed many of these sites and there is abundant evidence that this part of the US was visited by advanced civilisations in prehistory that are restored in many of the ancient legends of the area. Hugh will explore these theories in detail in a presentation that gives a broad new view of the origins of ancient America.