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Location:
Salisbury, England.
(O/S - SU
122 422) |
Grid Reference: 51°
10' 42" N, 1° 49.4' W. |
 The best known (and
most expensive) stone circle in the world.
The monument we see today
is the result of several different construction phases, with the same
area having been used long before Stonehenge itself existed as testified
by the adjacent cursus and large post-holes, both dated from well before
construction began.
The importance of the
location itself is also illustrated through the transportation of the 80
'Bluestones' to the site over 250 miles.
(1887 Map of
Salisbury Plain)
(Stonehenge site-plan)
The Stonehenge monument is now seen as a single
part of a larger, inter-connected prehistoric 'ceremonial' landscape.
The recent discovery of another henge-circle (Bluestonehenge), at the
other end of the 'Avenue', along with several other significant finds
are revealing indications that the whole area east of the Avon was
used as a vast funerary-complex.
(Scroll down for more)
|
Stonehenge:
(Physical description of site)
 The
'Avenue' -
The outermost element of the site is the 'Avenue' that runs
away from the site down a gentle slope for 530m into Stonehenge Bottom
(and the River Avon).
The
Avenue consists of twin banks about 12m (40ft) apart with internal
ditches which begin at the entrance to the
earthwork enclosure and terminate at the River Avon. The Stonehenge end
of the avenue is aligned to the
summer solstice sunrise, with the other end terminating at another
henge/circle by the River Avon.
A similar ceremonial route/avenue
(The 'West-Kennet' Avenue), ran from the River Avon past 'Old-Sarum' and
on to Avebury. It was marked along its route by large sarsen-stones
alternating between thin (male) and lozenge (female).
(More about the
Avebury/Silbury complex)
'Bluestonehenge' - 'Stonehenge'
It has been recently realised (2009), that the other end of the
'Avenue' also once had a henge-circle at its terminus. This newly
discovered part of the Stonehenge landscape has been dubbed 'Bluestonehenge',
due to the fact that it was formed of 24/25 'Bluestone' menhirs,
currently thought to have been later moved to Stonehenge during the
second phase of construction. The discovery another such monument on the
supports the
idea of an intimate connection between the megliths, the landscape,
the visible heavens and the after-life.
(More about
'Bluestonehenge')
The Heel-Stone - (See Photo, right) - At
20ft long (4ft underground), around 8ft wide by 7ft thick (3), this stone
is a classic example of an
outlier, standing at the entrance to the earthworks, and in line with 'The
Avenue'. The
'Heel-stone' is a large upright, un-worked sarsen (hard sandstone)
which lies immediately adjacent to the A344 road. The nearest source of stones of the size represented by the large sarsens
at Stonehenge is on the Marlborough Downs, near
Avebury,
about 30km to the NE.
 Extract from Burl
- 'The heel-stone is popularly thought to stand in line with the midsummer
sunrise but it does not and never did... Astronomical analysis has shown
instead that the stone is in-line with rising of the moon halfway between
its northern minor and major positions' (11).
The
'Heel-stone is
thought by some to be one of an original four stones that once stood at the entrance to the
henge. In 1620, Inigo Jones sketched the proposed sarsens
in-situ. (see diagram, left).
The Ditch and
Bank
or The 'Henge' -
Moving inwards from the Heel Stone is an earthwork enclosure that consists
of a ditch and an interior bank, the original height of which was calculated by
Professor Atkinson as being about 1.8m (6ft). It is known that there were
once two entrances, the one now visible (facing NE) and one to the
south.
(More about Henges)
The
Slaughter Stone -
Lying within the entrance is an un-worked and now recumbent
stone, stained a rusty red caused by rainwater acting on iron, and known
as the Slaughter Stone. This stone is about 21-ft long, and although it
was originally upright, it is now fallen and has now sunk so deep that
only its upper end shows. Hawkins (3) makes note that while all the other
stones were either bluestone or sarsen, the so called slaughter-stone is
'of fine-grained pale green sandstone, containing so many flakes of mica
that its surface, wherever freshly exposed, shows the typical mica
glitter'.
This stone seems to have come from the Cosheston Beds, composed
of old red sandstone, at Milford haven on the coast of Wales, some 30miles
to the southwest of the Prescilly quarries and is another example of the
specific selection of stones by the builders of the European megaliths.
Stonehenge has three different
types of stone in the overall structure: Over 80 5-10 ton
'Bluestones'' from Wales, The huge 20-50 ton Sarsens from 20km north near
Avebury and the mica-sandstone 'Slaughter stone'.
( More
about Specific Stone Selection)
The Station Stones
-
Part of the first design (Stonehenge I), and originally four upright-stones, the 'Station-stones form a quadrangle in the inner edge of the earthwork bank.
Apart from sharing the same orientation as the 'Avenue', the specific
significance of these stones has defied any traditional explanation by archaeologists in
the past as they are unique in British prehistoric architecture.
There are however, two other examples of megalithic
quadrangles in Europe, (one at Carnac in France
and the other at Xarez in Portugal), both of which
share several factors in common: Perhaps significantly, both are also associated with astronomy,
alignments, stone-circles and all were positioned at significant
latitudes.
(More about Quadrangular
Structures).
Stonehenge lies on the exact latitude at which the Midsummer Sunrise and
Sunsets are at
90° of
the Moons Northerly setting and Southerly rising. This particular
phenomena is only possible within a band of less than one degree,
of which Stonehenge lies in the middle-third.
(17)
The only latitude where the four station stones which
determine lunar and solar alignments can form an exact rectangle within
the limits of the Aubrey circle is at the
latitude of Stonehenge
(14)
The 'Station-stone-rectangle' has a perimeter the same
length as one side of the great pyramid.
(4)
The angle created by connecting
SS93 to SS91, the rectangle's hypotenuse, is at an angle of 118° degrees,
which has been noted as the same azimuth one would follow to reach Giza in
Egypt.
(3)
The Aubrey Holes
-
(Recently assigned a C14 date of 3,000 BC- 2,300 BC)
(15).
Immediately adjacent to the bank is a ring of 56 pits,
known as the Aubrey Holes, marked by circular concrete spots. The Aubrey
holes were suggested by Prof. G. Hawkins (3), to have been used for
calculating the phases of the moon and also for predicting the month of
the year in which eclipses would take place. The area between the inner
edge of the bank and the outermost stone settings includes at least two
further settings of pits: the Y and Z holes. These are now believed to
have once held the original 'bluestones'.
The Aubrey Holes as a Lunar eclipse
predictor:
It is now well known that the simplest
means of modelling the movements of the Sun and Moon (Tides) is
with a circle of 28 markers around a central earth. Moving a
'Moon-marker' one position per day and a 'Sun-marker' once every 13
days, provides a calendar accurate to 98%. By doubling the sun-moon
calendar to 56 markers, one can obtain an accuracy of 99.8%, with the
additional benefit of being able to predict eclipses to high
accuracy. (17)
The combination of astronomically
relevant orientations and means of accurate calculating both solar and
lunar cycles with the same 'monument/device' offers the clear
possibility that the (original) builders were already aware of 'Metonic'
cycle, whereby both the cycles of the sun and moon synchronise over a
period of 18.6 solar years or 235 lunations with an error of only
2 hours.
(Corrected for over a period of
223.2 solar years or 2820 lunations).
(More about Megaliths and the Metonic
cycle)
The Y and Z holes
- Almost every one of the 59, Y and Z holes had fragments of bluestone
in them.
...'Both the Y and Z circles
are irregularly spaced. The holes are generally rectangular in
shape, with the long axis following the circumference of their
circles; and the depths average 3 feet for the Y holes, and 5 inches
more for the Z's. There were no pressure marks on the bottom of any
of these holes which have been excavated-about half the holes of
each circle...'
...'The filling material of
these holes has been rich with archaeologically interesting finds.
At the bottom and sides of them the diggers have unearthed a thin
layer of chalk rubble, presumably the result of a few years of
weathering before deliberate filing of the holes took place. In this
earliest layer there usually was also found a single bluestone
fragment of the variety called "rhyolite"...The rest of the filling
of these holes was a rather uniform mass of fine dirt... Why was
there at the bottom of practically every one of them that solitary
bluestone fragment?...' (3)
The Sarsen Stones -
In its complete form the outermost stone setting would have consisted of a
circle of 30 upright sarsens, of which 17 still stand today, each weighing
around
25 tons. The tops of these uprights were linked by a continuous ring of
another 30 horizontal sarsen lintels, only a small part of which is now still in
position. The stones in the sarsen circle were carefully shaped and the
horizontal lintels were joined not only by means of mortise-and-tenon joints, but
were also locked using what is
effectively a dovetail joint. The edges were smoothed into a gentle curve
which follows the line of the entire circle.
According to Peter Le Mesurier
(The Stone Measurer), the Sarsen-ring (whose official inner
diameter is 97ft or 1162.8 primitive inches), has a circumference of
3652.4 primitive inches, which he suggested as indicating a knowledge of the Solar
year, it is also exactly one 'quarter-aroura', as
measured in ancient Egypt (1).
Flinders Petrie calculated the diameter at 1167.9 (+/- 0.7
British inches) (13), which works out at 1166.6 Primitive inches (giving a
circumference of 3663.1 primitive inches), which although still accurate
to within .03%, is not as exact as Le Mesurier suggested.
The Sarsen-ring has the same dimension as the flattened-top of nearby
Silbury hill.
The sophisticated construction techniques
applied to the sarsen circle.
(Other
prehistoric masonry techniques)
The Sarsen Horseshoe
-
Inside these two circles lies the sarsen horseshoe,
consisted originally of five sarsen trilithons (a Greek word that
means three stones), each comprising two uprights with a horizontal
lintel. Although now fragmentary, the arrangement shows the careful
grading of the five trilithons, the tallest of which is 6.7m (22ft) high
above ground level. Enfolded within this massive horseshoe lies a smaller
horseshoe arrangement of upright bluestones.
|
Stonehenge Fact:
The tallest upright stone at Stonehenge is 6.7m (22ft) high, with another
2.4m (8ft) below ground = 9.1m long and has an estimated weight of 40-50
tons.
|
The Bluestones -
As many as 85 of the 5+ton bluestones were erected around the
centre of
the old ridge system, with the stones being placed 6 ft apart and approx
35 ft from the centre point. It appears that the stones formed a double
circle, with a pattern of radiating spokes of two stones each. The stones
were transported at least 200 miles to the site, from the eastern end of
the Preseli Mountain in
Wales. (9) (The distance from the quarry to Stonehenge is 140 miles
as the crow flies (10), and various routes have been suggested both
over-land and by sea.
The radius of the 'Bluestone' circle (39.6
ft) is the same as the diameter of the 'Bluestone horseshoe'
(4).
The newly discovered 'Bluestonehenge'
circle has same dimensions as the inner bluestone circle.
The significance of the
'Bluestone' is not yet fully understood. Heath suggested that the location
of the quarry was determined through a geometric or geodetic p rocess
while Darvill
and Wainwright (below), have suggested that the Preseli rock might have
been considered to have 'magical' properties, based on
inscriptions at the quarry (based
on their interpretation of Neolithic rock-carvings).
New research suggests that the bluestones have acoustic
properties which may have played a part in the 'veneration' of the
prehistoric Presily landscape.
(More
about the source of the Bluestones: Carn Menyn, Presely)
Although it has been
suggested recently that the Bluestones were 'Glacial Erratics', and were
therefore not transported by hand, there are two
specific evidences which suggest otherwise: Firstly, there have been no
other discoveries of 'Erratic' bluestones in the area, and secondly,
the quarry in Preseli from which the stones originated, still show remains
of unfinished blocks and several Neolithic engravings.
'There were also a small number of limestone blocks and slabs
used in the construction of Stonehenge brought to the site for the specific
purpose of packing material to support the much larger sarsen uprights. The
limestone quarries have been identified as Chilmark, 12 miles west, and 3
miles southeast at Hurdcot'. (19)
Wiltshire
archaeologist J F S Stone in 1947, excavated an area near the Cursus and
discovered a scatter of bluestone fragments with a marked concentration
near the Cursus itself, and in 2006 a sizeable fragment of
spotted dolerite,
or bluestone was discovered in the south-western quadrant of Woodhenge. At
almost exactly the same time, a member of the archaeological team under
the direction of Colin Richards discovered another much smaller piece in a
test pit in a field close to the western end of the Cursus.
Other samples of the same Bluestone granite have been found at other
ancient and sacred sites as far removed as Denmark (18)
( More
about Specific Stone Selection)
|
Chronology of Stonehenge.
Archaeological research has determined that this site was
constructed and modified over several various phases, spanning over several centuries.
Pre-Stonehenge -
7,000 BC - Three
large wooden posts were erected where the car-park is today (See photo, right).
They were aligned approximately east-west.
Archaeological evidence
indicates
that just under a thousand years later (c. 6,000 BC), two more posts were erected only
350 metres away, also aligned east-west (16).
(Click here for diagram with location of post-holes)
Aubrey Burl had the following to
say on the matter:
'When the car park was extended in 1966 three, large and deep postholes were noticed
about 250 metres north-west of the circle. Their positions are marked by
white rings today (now
concrete posts). They had held tall posts and aroused much
enthusiasm. The late Peter Newham, author of an excellent, highly
regarded booklet on the astronomy of Stonehenge, wrote, 'These can be
regarded as the most positive "astronomical" discovery yet made at
Stonehenge...they align on sun and moon setting positions with an extreme
accuracy'...
...'The solution lies in the unpublished
Carbon-14 dates for the Stonehenge postholes. One was for 6,140 BC
(uncorrected), and the other for 7,180 BC (uncorrected), long before
Stonehenge... If the posts near Stonehenge were Mesolithic, erected
several thousands of years before the henge, then their extreme
astronomical accuracy was entirely accidental'.
(1)
R ecent
discoveries such as the stone-circles at
Gobekli Tepe, have altered the context of Mesolithic activities in
Europe. Alongside such discoveries, and in consideration of the
astronomical significance of its latitude (see below), make the
findings of cardinally orientated 'totem-poles' at Stonehenge is no
longer such an incredible idea.
The Stonehenge Cursus - Before the creation of the Stonehenge
monument, the landscape would have been dominated by the nearby
'major' cursus, which is over a
mile long and is orientated towards Wood-henge. This cursus was recently
radio-carbon-dated at 3,500
BC by a team from Manchester University
(8), and can be viewed as a
precursor to the evolution towards the circular design of henges and
stone-circles that became the fashion in Britain following a short period
of cursus construction c. 3,500-3,000 BC.
A contemporary evolution in design (from elongated cursus to circular
henges) can also be seen at Thornborough
in Northern England.
An artistic representation of the Stonehenge cursus (including both
sites?).
(More about Cursus)
Stonehenge 1
-
(3,200 BC)
(11): Construction of the circular bank
and ditch 'The Henge', the 56
Aubrey Holes, and the 'Station stones'. (At this stage, the
elements of Stonehenge indicate a lunar observation).
In the first construction, the sun apparently, 'did not interest the henge
builders'.
(11)
Traces of the Welsh 'Blue-stone' have
been found in the Aubrey Holes suggesting that they originally held stones
in them, and might have
been an element of the monument even at this early time.
(15)
Recent discoveries by the
Stonehenge Riverside Project have produced radiocarbon dates from
cremations within the area bounded by the henge monument. The
earliest, 3030-2880 BC, comes from a cremation of an adult within one
of the Aubrey Holes. The most recent dates to between 2570 and 2340
BC. It was the remains of a woman in her mid twenties buried in the
northern ditch. In all, around 240 people were buried within the
henge.
(More about Henges)
Stonehenge II -
(c. 3,000 BC): Widening of the old ditch-bank (3) with pottery, animal bones, and cremated human remains placed
back in
the ditch; cremations also deposited in some of the partially filled Aubrey
Holes and a complex of posts in the interior and in the entrance
causeway.
The major structural addition
at this time was the erection of roughly 80 bluestones, weighing up to 5
tons each, which were set up in two concentric circles around the centre. It
is currently believed that the original 56 stones from the Aubrey holes were
used, along with another 24 from the recently discovered
'Bluestonehenge', at the other end of the 'Avenue'.
Stonehenge III -
(c. 2,400-2,600 BC): Double circle of bluestones taken down
and replaced with around 80 sarsen stones, weighing between 25 and 50 tons
each. These were formed into a circle of continuous trilithon's, with a Horse-shoe of five
larger independent Trilithon's were erected in
the centre. The stones were quarried
from the Marlborough Downs about 20 miles north. (9).
Article: Antiquity (Volume 81 No. 313 September 2007),
by Mike Parker Pearson
et al entitled
“The age of Stonehenge”.
It is a summary of progress so far on the
Stonehenge Riverside Project
and the
Beaker isotope project,
and contains some interesting and important revelations about the
Stonehenge and its landscape.
It is now thought that the
trilithon's were erected not circa 2,300 BCE, but between
2,600-2,400 BCE, making them contemporary with Durrington Walls. They
now predate the earliest Beaker burials in Britain, shaking our
understanding of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age....
(Link
to summary).
The architectural uniqueness of this design has led many to
suggest a 'foreign' influence.
A Mycenaean Influence? 'There is
strong evidence that they (the builders of Stonehenge III) were in
communication with the great contemporary Mediterranean civilisations of
Minoan Crete, Mycenaean Greece, Egypt, and the ancestors of the
travelling-trading Phoenicians....Atkinson inclines seriously towards this
theory, stressing the importance of the evidence of the dagger carvings and axe
carvings (below), as well as Mediterranean artefacts found in the burials of
Stonehenge, and pointing out that Stonehenge is is unique not only in the
elegance of its construction but also the fact that it is the only stone
monument built by the Wessex people.' (3)
The surface shows signs of numerous
weathered 'daggers'.
It is
perhaps a coincidence that the Mycenaean's were constructing curved lintels at
the same time that Stonehenge III was being constructed c. 2,400 BC.
Mycenaean curved lintels
at the 'Treasury of Atraeus' (left), and the 'Lion-tomb' (right).
(Click here for more about Mycenaea)
|
Traditions, Myths
and Legends -
Early mention
of Stonehenge was made in 1135 by chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth, who
claimed that it was brought by a tribe of giants from Africa to Ireland,
and from there flown by the wizard Merlin across the sea. Another
legend claims that the stones were stolen from an Irish woman by the
Devil, and re-erected on Salisbury Plain by Merlin for Ambrosius
Aurelianus, the King of Britons.
Didorus Siculus wrote in 50 BC - 'The moon when viewed from this island appears to be but a little distance
from the Earth. The account is given also that the god visits the island
every 19 yrs, the period in which the return of the stars to the same
place in the heavens is accomplished. There is also in the island both a
magnificent sacred fane of Apollo, and a notable temple' (14)
|
Astronomical significance of Stonehenge:
Apart from the inherent prejudice against the
Neolithic awareness of astronomy and geometry, there are several
stubborn and irrefutable facts about Stonehenge which suggest exactly
that...
The
Stonehenge latitude: Firstly, and perhaps most important, is
the location of the site itself, which happens to be on the
exact latitude so as to encompass several important astronomical
observations from the same location. Indeed, the earliest evidence of construction at
Stonehenge are the 'car-park post-holes', which are accurately aligned
east-west, and can therefore be considered likely astronomical in nature.
Stonehenge lies at the exact latitude at which the Sun and the Moon have
their maximum settings at 90° of each other
as illustrated by the station-stones.
There are only latitudes in the world it which, the full moon
passes directly overhead on its maximum Zeniths, these are at
Stonehenge and Almendres in Portugal
(The oldest circle in Western-Europe).
The Design of the Monument: In
addition to having a significant latitude, the layout of the site also
incorporates several other intrinsic astronomical orientations. In
particular, from the earliest phase of construction (c.
3,200-3,000 BC).
Prof. Hawkins (3), determined that the 56
'Aubrey holes' were placed so as to calculate both the 18.6 year
lunar cycle and eclipses.
The 'Station-stone' quadrangle, placed
into the circumference of the 'Aubrey-holes', can be used to measure the
extremes of both the lunar and solar cycles.
These two design features make it
possible to measure the 'Metonic cycle'.
As
well as this, the alignment formed by the
'Avenue', continues in both
directions to connect several prominent megalithic sites
along the azimuth of the summer solstice sunrise.
(More about Archaeo-Astronomy) |
Geometry and
Alignments:
The last phase of development (Phase III), at
Stonehenge shows a clear geometric foundation, with the 30 equally spaced upright sarsen-stones
set in a perfect circle.
According to Peter Le Mesurier , the Sarsen-ring (whose official inner
diameter is 97ft or 1162.8 primitive inches), has a circumference of
3652.4 primitive inches, which he suggested as indicating a knowledge of the Solar
year, it is also exactly one 'quarter-aroura', as
measured in ancient Egypt (1).
Stonehenge is geometrically aligned with several other
ancient sites.
The
'Sanctuary', near
Avebury
is on the same longitude of 1° 49' W and is exactly 1/4° North.
Stonehenge,
Avebury and
Glastonbury form a right angled triangle, of which
the Glastonbury-Avebury follows the azimuth of the sun on 'May-day'
while
the line
from Stonehenge to Avebury
continues north to
Arbor-low exactly 2° north.
Sir Norman Lockyer, the
Astronomer Royal, noticed that Stonehenge, Grovely Castle and Old Sarum
formed a near-perfect equilateral triangle, with each side 6 miles in
length. The Stonehenge-Old
Sarum alignment continues south past Salisbury cathedral (built 1220 AD), Clearbury ring and
Frankenbury (6). The Stonehenge-Grovely castle alignment
extends to the North-East beyond St Peters mound, Inkpen beacon,
and the Neolithic 'Winterbourne camp'. To the South-West the line continues past Grovely
Castle, Castle ditches and the 'Cerne-Abbas' giant to Puncknowle beacon on the South coast.
Stonehenge is also a part of the
proposed
Landscape 'Decagon'
discovered by John
Michell.
(More about
English Geodesy).
What's new at Stonehenge.
Article: 'Bluestonehenge': New henge-circle discovered near
Stonehenge (2009)
British archaeologists have found the remains of a
massive stone henge, or ceremonial circle, that was part of the
ancient and celebrated Stonehenge complex, a find that is shedding new
light on how the monument was built and its religious uses.
The new henge, called 'Bluestonehenge' because it was built
with blue Preseli dolerite mined more than 150 miles away in Wales,
was on the banks of the River Avon, where ancient pilgrims carrying
the ashes of their dead relatives began the journey from the river to
Stonehenge, nearly two miles away. Some are calling it the "little
sister" of Stonehenge.
The approximately 25 massive bluestones were erected in a circle about
5,000 years ago, and eventually were encircled by a ditch and an
earthen embankment. About 500 years later, however, the stones were
moved and incorporated into Stonehenge itself.
All that is left of the circle are the holes where the stones sat in
the ground and a few chips of dolerite.
The fact that the monument was found at the beginning of an avenue
leading to Stonehenge and near the river "not only solidifies the view
that Stonehenge covers the entire landscape, but also the sacred
importance of the river itself," said archaeologist Christine Hastorf
of UC Berkeley, who was not involved in the research.
"It means that there was a link between Stonehenge and the water, out
to the ocean," she said.
So far, they have found nine holes that they believe
were part of a 30-foot-wide circle of about 25 standing stones.
The holes are too wide and shallow for them to have contained wooden
posts. The holes are also too small to have held sarsen stones, the
larger limestone rocks that form part of Stonehenge and that were
mined at Marlborough Downs 25 miles to the north.
But the dimensions correlate precisely with those of bluestones in the
inner circle of Stonehenge.
The stone circle at 'Bluestonehenge' was eventually replaced by a
henge, a circular ditch nearly 74 feet across with an external bank.
Broken antler pickaxes in the ditch date its construction to about
2470 BC to 2280 BC. At least one entrance has been discovered, on the
east side, and it contained a specially placed deposit of antlers, an
antler pickaxe, cattle bones and stone and flint tools.
The team also found the riverside end of the avenue to Stonehenge. It
was marked by two parallel ditches about 54 feet apart. These
originally held posts, forming a small palisade on either side. The
avenue apparently terminated at or close to the outer bank of the
newly discovered henge.
Archaeologist Josh Pollard of Bristol University, a co-director of the
project, noted that the circle "should be considered an integral part
of Stonehenge rather than a separate monument, and it offers
tremendous insight into the history of its famous neighbour."
Previous research had shown that Stonehenge originally consisted of 56
bluestones set in a circle inside a ditch and bank. Sometime about
2500 BC, those stones were moved to their current location, leaving
behind the holes now known as Aubrey holes.
But there are 80 bluestones in Stonehenge and only 56 Aubrey holes,
Parker Pearson said.
"Where did the other 24 stones come from? I think we have solved that
problem. They uprooted the other circle and moved the stones. Why they
did it, we don't know."
But "what it tells us for sure is that the river is essential to
understanding Stonehenge," Parker Pearson added, because why else
would the ancient builders have erected a monument there?
Burning ceremonies appear to have been important rites at the site as
well. When the stones at Bluestonehenge were pulled out, a lot of
topsoil fell in, and that topsoil, the team found, is full of
charcoal.
"They were building a lot of fires there. That may have been where
they were cremating bodies" before burying them at Stonehenge, Parker
Pearson said.
But the work is not done. For example, Parker Pearson said the team
thinks it has located the quarry where the sarsen stones were
excavated and is now working to confirm the identification.
The discovery was announced by the National Geographic Society, which
funded much of the research.
(Link to full article)
|
Stonehenge dig:
BBC 'Timewatch' (2008)
Following the archaeological dig by BBC Timewatch at Stonehenge in 2008, a new theory emerged suggesting that the site may have once
acted as a prehistoric 'Lourdes'.
Prof's Darville
and Wainwright are convinced that the primary purpose of the
circle was akin to a "Neolithic Lourdes" - a place where people
went on a pilgrimage to get cured:
'A significant proportion of the newly
discovered Neolithic remains show clear signs of skeletal
trauma. Some had undergone operations to the skull, or had
walked with a limp, or had broken bones. Modern techniques have
established that many of these people had clearly travelled huge
distances to get to south-west England, suggesting they were
seeking supernatural help for their ills'.
'Darvill and Wainwright have also traced
the bluestones - to the exact spot they came from in the Preseli
hills, 250km away in the far west of Wales. Neolithic
inscriptions found at this location indicate the ancient people
there believed the stones to be magical and for the local waters
to have healing properties'.
Q. Has someone managed to decipher a
Neolithic language?
While this theory may well have substance, it
fails to take into acocunt the astronomical significance of the location
of Stonehenge, namely: There are only two latitudes in the
world at which you get the full moon on the Zenith, at Stonehenge
and
Almendres (Portugal),
in addition to which Stonehenge lies at the exact latitude at which the Sun and the
Moon have their maximum settings at 90 °
of each other.
Following the 2008 dig on the Aubrey Hole No 7,
it was announced that the compacted chalk showed signs of the hole
once having held a stone in it. The same compacted chalk marks
have been found in other Aubrey holes, which revives the old
theory that they were the original sitting places for the 56
Bluestones, which according to this report, would have been there
since Stonehenge I. c. 3,000 BC.
'Contrary to claims made in the recent BBC
Timewatch film, which promoted a theory of Stonehenge as a healing
centre built after the practice of cremation burial had ceased,
standing stones and burial of the dead may have been prominent
aspects of Stonehenge’s meaning and purpose for a millennium'.
(15)
(Link to article on BBC Website) |
Article: Arts and Humanities Research
Council. (2008) -
A new excavation of Stonehenge, funded by the
Arts and Humanities Research Council, has revealed that one of the Aubrey
holes probably held a standing stone.
'The excavation of Aubrey Hole 7 was directed
over one week in August 2008 by Mike Parker-Pearson, Mike Pitts and
Julian Richards for the Stonehenge Riverside Project... The pit had
already been excavated twice: when discovered in 1920, and again in
1935 when all the cremated human bone found earlier at Stonehenge was
reburied. Recovery of this bone for modern examination was the prime
goal of the new dig (the bone was in excellent condition, and study
will begin over the winter).
Another reason was to look at the Aubrey Hole
itself – the first to be seen open since 1950. It was believed that
these pits had been dug for oak poles, but Parker-Pearson had revived
an old interpretation that they had held bluestones: the evidence of
crushed and compacted chalk had been recorded in 1920 in three of the
pits. He says, “Aubrey Hole 7 had crushed chalk on its base indicative
of a standing stone. This had been missed by archaeologists twice
before: it seems likely that similar evidence still survives in other
Aubrey Holes. We propose that very early in Stonehenge’s history, 56
Welsh bluestones stood in a ring 285 feet 6 inches (87m) across”. He
concludes, “This has sweeping implications for our understanding of
Stonehenge.”
Professor Mike Parker-Pearson at the University
of Sheffield says, “If all 56 pits had held stones, this would have
been one of the first and largest stone circles in the country, made
of Welsh bluestones in 3,000 BC. A recent claim that these stones
arrived at Stonehenge in 2,300 BC would then relate to the time when
the bluestones were moved into the centre of the site 700 years later.
Stonehenge’s history as envisaged since the 1950s is overturned.”
The new evidence from Aubrey Hole
7 suggests megaliths were present throughout Stonehenge’s existence.
The first three radiocarbon dates for human cremation burials,
obtained in May from the only bones then available for study, range
between about 3,000 and 2,300 BC'.
(Link to full article)
|
Article: The 'Amesbury Archer' - King of
Stonehenge: (2002)
'The latest
tests on the Amesbury Archer, whose grave astonished
archaeologists last year with the richness of its contents, show
he was originally from the Alps region, probably Switzerland,
Austria or Germany. The tests also show that the gold hair
tresses found in the grave are the earliest gold objects found
in Britain.
The grave of
the Archer, who lived around 2,300BC, contained about 100 items,
more than ten times as many objects as any other burial site
from this time. When details were released, the media dubbed the
Archer “The King of Stonehenge”.
The grave was
found three miles from Stonehenge, near Amesbury in Wiltshire,
last May during an excavation by Wessex Archaeology, based
nearby at Salisbury, in advance of the building of a new housing
scheme and school.
The Archer was
obviously an important man, and because he lived at the same
time that the stones at Stonehenge were first being built,
archaeologists believe he may have been involved in its
creation.
Tests were
carried out on the Archer’s teeth and bones and on the objects
found in the grave, which included two gold hair tresses, three
copper knives, flint arrowheads, wrist-guards and pottery. They
show that he came from the Alps region, and that the copper
knives came from Spain and France. This is evidence of the wide
trade network that existed in the early Bronze Age. The gold
dated to as early as 2,470 BC, the earliest gold objects found in
Britain'.
(Link to full article) |
Gallery of Images
Early Image of Stonehenge from 1877.
1920's Reconstruction.
One of the 'faces' at Stonehenge.
(More about
Simulacrum)
(Other Megalithic complexes) (Other
Stone-circles)
(Other Prehistoric English sites)
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