STONEHENGE

Stonehenge is probably the most important prehistoric monument in the whole of Britain
and has attracted visitors from earliest times. It stands as a timeless monument to the people who
built it.

Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about

8 miles (13 km) north of Salisbury is one of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world,
Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones.
Archaeologists believe that the standing stones were erected around 2200 BC and the
surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument,
have been dated to about 3100 BC. The modern interpretation of the monument is based chiefly
on excavations carried out since 1919 and especially since 1950.

Stonehenge was built during three distinct periods. The first Stonehenge (radiocarbon-
dated to 3100 BC), was a circular ditch with an internal bank. The circle, 320 feet in diameter, had
a single entrance, 56 mysterious holes around its perimeter, and a wooden sanctuary in the
middle. The circle was aligned with the midsummer sunrise, the midwinter sunset, and the most
southerly rising and northerly setting of the moon. The second and most dramatic stage of
Stonehenge started around 2150 BC and saw the replacement of the wooden sanctuary with two
circles of ‘bluestones’ (dolerite stone with a bluish tint), the widening of the entrance, the
construction of an entrance avenue marked by parallel ditches aligned to the midsummer sunrise,
and the erection, outside the circle, of the thirty-five ton ‘Heel Stone’. The eighty bluestones, some
weighing as much as four tons, were transported from the Prescelly Mountains in Wales. This
astonishing journey covers nearly 240 miles. Once at the site, these stones were set up in the
centre to form an incomplete double circle. (During the same period the original entrance of the
circular earthwork was widened and a pair of Heel Stones was erected. Also the nearer part of the
Avenue was built, aligned with the midsummer sunrise.)
The third stage of Stonehenge, about 2000 BC, saw the arrival of the Sarsen stones, which
were almost certainly brought from the Marlborough Downs near Avebury, in north Wiltshire,
about 25 miles north of Stonehenge. These stones, averaging eighteen feet in height and weighing
twenty-five tons, were transported from near the Avebury stone rings twenty miles to the north.
Sometime between 1500 and 1100 BC, approximately sixty of the bluestones were reset in a circle
immediately inside the Sarsen circle, and another nineteen were placed in a horseshoe pattern,
also inside the circle. It has been estimated that the three phases of the construction required
more than thirty million hours of labour. Recent studies indicate it unlikely that Stonehenge was
functioning much after 1100 BC.
Current theories regarding the purpose of Stonehenge suggest its simultaneous use for
astronomical observation and ritual function. By gathering data regarding the movement of
celestial bodies, the Stonehenge observations were used to indicate the appropriate days in the
annual ritual cycle. In this regard, it is important to mention that the structure was not used only
to determine the agricultural cycle, because in this region the summer solstice occurs well after
the growing season begins and the winter solstice well after the harvest is finished. Concerning its
architectural form and function, scholars have suggested that Stonehenge, especially in its middle
and later form, was intended to be a stone (and thereby imperishable) replica of the kind of
wooden sanctuary that was more locally common in Neolithic times. Its shape, which resembles
that of Neolithic ceremonial buildings, however, points more to its probable use as a shrine for
the living rather than for the dead. As a temple for the living, Stonehenge's capacity to determine
the dates of the solstices and equinoxes becomes all-important. Throughout the ancient world
people have regarded the sun and moon as sacred beings whose cyclical rhythms, with their
seasonal strengthening and weakening, had a positive, magical, and rewarding effect upon the life
of human beings. Stonehenge and the large number of other stone rings located throughout the
British Isles (and the world) are part solar/lunar/stellar observatory and part ritual structure.
Stonehenge is a remarkable survival from the time of the first British farmers - part of a
ceremonial landscape where they and their priests attempted to control nature through ritual.
 Thanks to archaeology we can now see more clearly into the world of these believers who
lived across northern Europe. But nowhere is this prehistoric cult of life, death and rebirth
manifested more impressively than at Stonehenge.

Myth
The story of Stonehenge wouldn't be complete without its legends. These mythical stories serve to
explain the meaning of the monument, and maybe even the dangers.

Evil powers have been associated with Stonehenge. One myth tells the story of the devil who buys
magical stones from an Irish woman. He transports them through the air to Salisbury Plain and
then dares the entire village to count the stones in a bizarre-type of riddle. The friar of the village
tells him there are too many to tell, which is based on another myth that says it is impossible to
count all the stones. The devil gets so angry that he throws one of the stones at him and it hits the
friar on his heel. Although the friar is unhurt, the stone is dented and has ever since been known
as the Heel Stone.

But the most popular myth stems from a story written in the 12th century by Geoffrey of
Monmouth. According to Monmouth, the king of the Britons, Aurelius, wanted to build a
monument over the site of several hundred graves believed to be slain Saxon soldiers. King
Ambrosius, or the father of King Arthur, asked Merlin the magician where such a monument
could be found. Merlin told him to look in a mountain of Ireland where a circle of massive stones
stood, named the Giant's Dance. These stones, believed to have the ability to heal, were so named
after a myth that they were brought from Africa long ago by giants. King Aurelius and his army
tried to dismantle the stones without success. Merlin once again came to help and used his own
gear of "engines and other contrivances" to take apart the monument for transport. He later
reconstructed the site on Salisbury Plain.

It is only one of probably many legends that reflect the inability to explain how the heavy stones
could have ever been transported by primitive humans.

Reference:
North, J, Stonehenge: Ritual Origins and Astronomy (HarperCollins, 1997)
Atkinson, R J C, Stonehenge (Penguin Books, 1956)
Bender, B, Stonehenge: Making Space (Berg Publishers, 1998)
Lacy, Norris J, ed., The Arthurian Encyclopaedia, ( Peter Bedrick Books, 1986 )
http://www.stonehenge.co.uk/
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMStonehenge.html
http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/england/stonehenge.html