Secret history of Stonehenge revealed

David Keys sbado, 26 noviembre 2011

Extraordinary new discoveries are shedding new light on why Britains most famous ancient site, Stonehenge, was built and when.

Current research is now suggesting that Stonehenge may already have been an important sacred site at least 00 years be!ore the !irst Stone circle was erected " and that the sanctity o! its location may have determined the layout o! #ey aspects o! the surrounding sacred landscape$ %hat&s more, the new investigation " being carried out by archaeologists !rom the universities& o! 'irmingham, 'rad!ord and (ienna " massively increases the evidence lin#ing Stonehenge to pre)historic solar religious belie!s$ *t increases the li#elihood that the site was originally and primarily associated with sun worship +he investigations have also enabled archaeologists to putatively reconstruct the detailed route o! a possible religious procession or other ritual event which they suspect may have ta#en place annually to the north o! Stonehenge$ +hat putative pre)historic religious ,procession& -or, more speci!ically, the evidence suggesting its route. has implications !or understanding Stonehenge&s prehistoric religious !unction " and suggests that the signi!icance o! the site Stonehenge now occupies emerged earlier than has previously been appreciated$ +he crucial new archaeological evidence was discovered during on)going survey wor# around Stonehenge in which archaeologists have been ,/)raying& the ground, using ground)penetrating radar and other geophysical investigative techni0ues$ 1s the archaeological team !rom 'irmingham and (ienna were using these high)tech systems to map the interior o! a ma2or prehistoric enclosure -the so)called ,Cursus&. near Stonehenge, they discovered two great pits, one towards the enclosure&s eastern end, the other nearer its western end$ %hen they modelled the relationship between these newly)discovered Cursus pits and Stonehenge on their computer system, they realised that, viewed !rom the so)called ,3eel Stone& at Stonehenge, the pits were aligned with sunrise and sunset on the longest day o! the year " the summer solstice -midsummer&s day.$ +he chances o! those two alignments being purely coincidental are e/tremely low$ +he archaeologists then began to speculate as to what sort o! ritual or ceremonial activity might have been carried out at and between the two pits$ *n many areas o! the world, ancient religious and other ceremonies sometimes involved ceremonially processing round the perimeters o! monuments$ +he archaeologists there!ore thought it possible that the prehistoric celebrants at the Cursus might have perambulated between the two pits by processing around the perimeter o! the Cursus$

*nitially this was pure speculation " but then it was reali4ed that there was, potentially a way o! trying to test the idea$ 5n midsummer&s day there are in !act three #ey alignments " not 2ust sunrise and sunset, but also midday -the highest point the sun reaches in its annual cycle.$ 6or at noon the #ey alignment should be due south$ 5ne way to test the ,procession& theory -or at least its route. was !or the archaeologists to demonstrate that the midway point on that route had indeed a special relationship with Stonehenge -2ust as the two pits " the start and end point o! the route " had.$ +he ,eure#a moment& came when the computer calculations revealed that the midway point -the noon point. on the route aligned directly with the centre o! Stonehenge, which was precisely due south$ +his reali4ation that the sun hovering over the site o! Stonehenge at its highest point in the year appears to have been o! great importance to prehistoric people, is itsel! o! potential signi!icance$ 6or it suggests that the site&s association with the veneration o! the sun was perhaps even greater than previously reali4ed$ 'ut the discovery o! the Cursus pits, the discovery o! the solar alignments and o! the putative ,processional& route, reveals something else as well " something that could potentially turn the accepted chronology o! the Stonehenge landscape on its head$ 6or decades, modern archaeology has held that Stonehenge was a relative latecomer to the area " and that the other large monument in that landscape " the Cursus " pre)dated it by up to 00 years$ 3owever, the implication o! the new evidence is that, in a sense, the story may have been the other way round, i$e$ that the site o! Stonehenge was sacred be!ore the Cursus was built, says 'irmingham archaeologist, Dr$ 3enry Chapman, who has been modelling the alignments on the computeri4ed reconstructions o! the Stonehenge landscape +he argument !or this is simple, yet persuasive$ 'ecause the ,due south& noon alignment o! the ,procession& route&s mid)point could not occur i! the Cursus itsel! had di!!erent dimensions, the design o! that monument has to have been conceived speci!ically to attain that mid)point alignment with the centre o! Stonehenge$ %hat&s more, i! that is so, the Stonehenge 3eel Stone location had to have been o! ritual signi!icance be!ore the Cursus pits were dug -because their alignments are as perceived speci!ically !rom the 3eel Stone.$ +hose two !acts, when ta#en together, there!ore imply that the site, later occupied by the stones o! Stonehenge, was already sacred be!ore construction wor# began on the Cursus$ 7nless the midday alignment is a pure coincidence -which is unli#ely., it would imply that the Stonehenge site&s sacred status is at least 00 years older than previously thought " a !act which raises an intriguing possibility$ 6or 8 years ago, archaeologists !ound an 9000 'C :esolithic -,:iddle& Stone 1ge. ritual site in what is now Stonehenge&s car par#$ +he !ive thousand year gap between that :esolithic sacred site and Stonehenge itsel! meant that most archaeologists thought that ,sacred& continuity between the two was inherently unli#ely$ 'ut, with the new

discoveries, the time gap has potentially narrowed$ *ndeed, it&s not #nown !or how long the site o! Stonehenge was sacred prior to the construction o! the Cursus$ So, very long term traditions o! geographical sanctity in relation to 'ritain&s and the world&s best #nown ancient monument, may now need to be considered$ +he 7niversity o! 'irmingham Stonehenge area survey ) the largest o! its type ever carried out anywhere in the world " will ta#e a !urther two years to complete, says ;ro!essor (ince <a!!ney, the director the pro2ect$ (irtually every s0uare meter in a !ive s0uare mile area surrounding the world most !amous pre)historic monument will be e/amined geophysically to a depth o! up to two metres, he says$ *t&s anticipated that do4ens, potentially hundreds o! previously un#nown sites will be discovered as a result o! the operation$ +he ongoing discoveries in Stonehenge&s sacred prehistoric landscape " being made by 'irmingham&s archaeologists and colleagues !rom the 7niversity o! (ienna&s =udwig 'olt4mann *nstitute " are e/pected to trans!orm scholars& understanding o! the !amous monument&s origins, history and meaning$