Stonehenge, stone circles, dolmens, ancient standing stones, cairns, barrows, hillforts and archaeology of megalithic Europe
by Paola Arosio & Diego Meozzi
We both enjoy computers and megalithic sites. During our journeys to Ireland (1989), Scotland (1990 and 1998), Sardinia (1991 and 2001), Southern England (1992), France (1996), Wales (1997), Apulia and Corsica (2000) we took several thousands of pictures and collected a lot of information about local stone circles, dolmens and standing stones. After joining the Internet community - in 1995 - we decided to share the knowledge gained by our experience in those countries. Thus, in February 1996 we started the Stone Pages: the very first online guide about European megalithic sites and other ancient monuments.
Since then, this website has grown to over 2,000 pages and we set the standards for many other websites devoted to the same subject. For instance, we broke the ground with the first CD-ROM devoted to megalithic monuments (for SCRAN in 1998); we coined the term ambience to describe an ancient site by its location on an environment presumably close to the original (in 1996); we pioneered the use of QTVR 360-degree panoramic movies to show prehistoric sites (since 1997); and our open forum has been the first of its kind for all users interested in European megalithic monuments (since 2000).
We live with Alice (our daughter born in 2002) in Trevignano Romano, a peaceful village on the lake of Bracciano, about half an hour drive north of Rome (Italy). Our hopes and resources are now directed to a new project: Cartabianca, a publishing company specialized in history, archaeology, travel and technical guides. But we don't forget we are "megalithomaniacs", so in the future we'd like to build new Stone Pages sections about Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Malta and Valcamonica (Italy).
Paola was born in Milan (Italy) in 1964. She is a journalist. She has worked in magazines dealing with travel, young people and popular science. Since 1991 she has worked in the monthly magazine Airone, an Italian kind of National Geographic; later she has worked mainly on the Internet, writing reviews, creating and maintaining Web sites. Among her interests: reading books, socializing and cooking spaghetti, gnocchi, fettuccine... all kinds of pasta! Paola is fond of cetaceans, particularly dolphins.
Diego was born in Rome (Italy) in 1963 and he has worked as a freelance journalist for over 20 years, writing more than 2000 articles for several Italian magazines dealing with electronic music, computers, photography, video and astronomy. He is also a webmaster and a photographer. His photographs have been published on the cover of music, video and astronomy magazines, on the NASA website and on several books. One of his Stones of Stenness images is on the cover of Van Morrison's The Philosopher's Stone. He is also a QTVR expert and he worked for FIAT and Alfa Romeo, making virtual movies of FIAT Multipla and Alfa 166. A few years ago he made some professional videos on Turkey and Portugal. Diego plays guitar and keyboards and he has a small recording studio (in his bedroom!). He has little time to play. But he had the chance to work for Peter Gabriel's latest live album (Secret World Live), recording computer data from electronic instruments. Diego is fond of nocturnal birds, particularly nightjars, and he has published some research papers on this odd species.
Paola Arosio & Diego Meozzi
