Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain, north of Salisbury, in southwestern England, that dates from the late Stone and early Bronze ages (about 3000-1000 bc). The monument, now in ruins, consists of a circular group of large upright stones surrounded by a circular earthwork. Stonehenge is the best preserved and most celebrated of the megalithic monuments of Europe. It is not known for certain what purpose Stonehenge served, but many scholars believe the monument was used as a ceremonial or religious center.
View Stonehenge. Video hosted on Guba Stonehenge is not a single structure, but a series of structures that were rebuilt, revised, and remodeled over a period of approximately 1,500 years. Little is known of Stonehenges architects. In the 17th century English antiquary John Aubrey proposed that Stonehenge was a temple built by Druids, a caste of Celtic priests encountered by the Romans as they conquered ancient Britain in the 1st century AD. Another early notion was that the Romans themselves constructed the monument. These theories were disproved in the 20th century, when archaeologists showed that work on Stonehenge began some 2,000 years before Celts, and later Romans, had arrived in the area. Today it is widely believed that Neolithic peoples of the British Isles began constructing the monument about 5,000 years ago.
Why Stonehenge was constructed remains unknown. Most scholars agree that it must have been a sacred and special place of religious rituals or ceremonies. Many have speculated that Stonehenge was built by Sun worshipers. The axis of Stonehenge, which divides the sarsen horseshoe and aligns with the monuments entrance, is oriented broadly toward the direction of the midsummer sunrise. In nearby Ireland the celebrated megalithic monument Newgrange, built approximately at the same time as Stonehenge, was oriented toward the midwinter sunrise.
In the early 1960s American astronomer Gerald S. Hawkins theorized that Stonehenge was an astronomical observatory and calendar of surprising complexity. Hawkins suggested that ancient peoples used the monument to anticipate a wide range of astronomical phenomena, including the summer and winter solstices and eclipses of both the Sun and the Moon. The astronomical interpretation of Stonehenge remains popular today, despite many uncertainties. Some scholars are doubtful that the peoples who constructed Stonehenge and other sites of the era possessed the mathematical sophistication necessary to predict many of the events that Hawkins theorized. They note that Stonehenges architects may have been aware of the subtle movements of the Sun, Moon, and other heavenly bodies without having an analytically advanced understanding of astronomy.
The true purpose of Stonehenge is an enduring mystery. Modern observers can only speculate about what it meant to its builders and what compelling impulse drove them to invest so much labor and care in creating it.
Excavations at Stonehenge since the 1950s suggest the monument was constructed in three main phases. The earliest phase of Stonehenge was completed by about 2900 bc. It consisted of a circular ditch 110 m (360 ft) in diameter and 1.5 m (5 ft) deep. Archaeologists believe deer antlers were used as picks to loosen the chalk bedrock. Excavated material was used to build a circular embankment along the inside rim of the ditch. Along the interior edge of the embankment the ancient architects dug 56 pits. These pits are named Aubrey Holes, after John Aubrey, who first observed them. The pits may once have held wooden posts.
In a second phase of construction, lasting from about 2900 to 2500 bc, several new timber structures arose at Stonehenge. Timber posts were erected in the flat ground at the center of the encircling ditch. Posts were also raised at a break in the ditch to the northeast, a place that served as an entrance to the site.
Stonehenge was radically and repeatedly transformed during a third phase of building, which lasted from about 2550 to 1600 bc. About 80 pillars of various types of igneous rock, called bluestones for their color, were erected near the center of the site in two concentric circles. The bluestones came from outcroppings in the Preseli Mountains of southwestern Wales, located roughly 220 km (137 mi) from Stonehenge. Transportation of the rock pillars, which weigh as much as 4 metric tons each, was a remarkable achievement and may have involved sea, river, and overland routes.
During this third phase of building, Stonehenge underwent a complicated sequence of remodeling. The double circle of bluestones was soon dismantled. Great blocks of a different kind of stone, a sandstone called sarsen, were brought from Marlborough Downs, located 40 km (25 mi) north of Stonehenge. Thirty of these new and much larger pillars of sarsen were erected in a circle with a diameter of about 33 m (108 ft). This structure is now known as the Sarsen Circle. Each pillar stood approximately 4 m (13 ft) above the ground. Mounted atop the 30 pillars was a continuous ring of sarsen crosspieces, called lintels. The lintels were matched together with tongue and groove joints and were attached to the pillars with mortise and tenon joints. With its engineering, design, and precise stonework, the Sarsen Circle is considered one of the most impressive features of Stonehenge. Of the 30 original sarsen pillars, 17 remain standing today along with six of the lintels.
Within the Sarsen Circle, a massive horseshoe-shaped structure was erected. The horseshoe, which opens to the northeast, toward the entrance to the structure, was constructed of five pairs of gigantic upright blocks of sarsen. Each block weighs 40 metric tons or more. A stone lintel on top of each pair makes each into a great archway called a trilithon (a word derived from Greek that means three stones). The trilithons increase in height toward the central and largest one, which measures 7 m (24 ft) above the ground. Three of the five original trilithons, complete with their lintels, remain standing today.
Several other features at the site are also associated with the third phase of construction. These include the Altar Stone, a block of greenish sandstone that sits at the base of the central trilithon near the center of the horseshoe. Once standing, the Altar Stone now lies flat against the earth, andlike the bluestonescame from southwestern Wales. Just inside the interior of the circular embankment, four stones, called station stones, were erected. Two of the stones are still standing. The station stones were situated approximately in line with the older Aubrey Holes. Imaginary lines connecting the stones opposite each other intersected at the very center of the monument. In addition, more sarsen stones were placed near the entrance to the monument. The two that survive are called the Slaughter Stone and the Heel Stone. The Heel Stone rises just outside the encircling ditch on the Avenue, a long earthwork structure that is marked by parallel banks. The Avenue is interpreted as a ceremonial approach to Stonehenge.
In later years, the bluestones were further rearranged. Eventually, some of the bluestones were used to erect a circle of pillars between the Sarsen Circle and the trilithon horseshoe, and a horseshoe of bluestone pillars was erected inside the trilithon horseshoe.
There are more than 1,000 stone circles in the British Isles, but Stonehenge is unique among them. No other circle has massive stones trimmed into neat shapes, like giant building bricks, or lintels perched atop them. The sophisticated engineering and joinery employed at Stonehenge suggest that it was built by people who were skilled in making great structures out of timber. Archaeologists now know that Stonehenge was just one of many prehistoric structures, collectively called henges, built of earth, river gravel, timber, or stone. Like the surviving stone circles, most were circular in shape.
View King of Stonehenge. Video hosted on Guba LONDON - INDIGO has launched a new one-hour investigative archaeology special entitled The King of Stonehenge, it was announced today by Nada Cirjanic, Head of Factual at INDIGO.
Produced for BBCs primetime "Meet the Ancestors" slot, The King Of Stonehenge sets out to establish the identity of a man, who was laid to rest over 4000 years ago in a Bronze Age burial site 3 miles from Stonehenge.
The discovery has attracted huge international interest because strong evidence suggests that the man, who was almost certainly alive when the stone circle was constructed, came from Europe. He is the first European settler ever firmly identified in the British Isles.
Archaeologists believe this to be one of the most important prehistoric findings of recent years as the grave contained an unprecedented number of precious artifacts including the earliest gold found in Britain; and rare copper which makes fascinating links to sources in France and Spain, previously unknown. A second grave also identified a younger man who is believed to be a son, born in Britain to this early settler.
The King of Stonehenge aired on BBC2 on 19 February 2003 at 9pm and gained a 10.5% share with over 2.7 million viewers.
Produced by Topical TV who had exclusive access to the site, the documentary includes footage of the dramatic discovery as it happened. High-end computer graphics and CGI illustration are used to enhance explanations and unique 3D computer scanning software is used to examine the artifacts.
INDIGO holds worldwide television and home video rights excluding the UK. tonehenge is one of the most famous and mysterious ruins in the world today. An ancient megalith, or stone monument, Stonehenge has fascinated scientists and lay persons for over eight hundred years. People created and perpetuated many myths and fables through the ages about this enigmatic structure. From hundreds of years of theories and research, scientists believe they have finally discovered the answers to many of Stonehenge's mysteries, such as how, why, and by whom it was built. Three separate cultures, the Windmill Hill, Beaker and Wessex peoples, are believed to have built Stonehenge for both astrological and ceremonial purposes over a period of more than five hundred years.
Consisting of 162 stones and is 35 paces across (National Geographic Society, 95), these stones are termed menhirs, or gigantic pillars protruding from the earth. Some are sandstone, and others are blue stone. The ruins of the magnificent circular stone structure stand inside a 320 foot (97 meter) henge, or bank and ditch arrangement. ("Stonehenge" Encyclopedia Americana, NPA). Scientists named the most recognizable structure, the outer ring of stones, the sarsen circle. Inside that circle is another circle, of bluestones, and then a sarsen horseshoe. The innermost structure is a horseshoe of bluestones. All of this is around the Altar Stone, a bluestone, towards the back of the bluestone horseshoe.
At the top of a gentle slope on the chalk downlands of Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge is eight miles north of the town of Salisbury in southern England (Stonehenge FAQ, 1). It is thirty miles from the English Channel and eighty miles from London (Roop, 14). Deep green grass surrounds Stonehenge, growing on pitted and uneven earth. At 330 feet above sea level (Stonehenge, 1), Stonehenge is settled in a rural area with a temperate climate. When one stands at the site of this cromlech, on a clear day, it is possible to see up to two miles in every direction. The Stonehenge of today is a mere shadow of the mighty structure that existed 3,500 years ago (Stonehenge, 5). Due to natural weathering and human destruction, only half of the original stones remain (Stonehenge, 3).
Beginning in approximately 3,000 BC, Stonehenge is thought to have been built in three stages (National Geographic Society, 98). Each stage took several centuries, and we may never know why each stage abruptly ended. All the three stages have names; Stonehenge I, Stonehenge II, and Stonehenge III are the labels archaeologists gave these periods of construction. Most modern scientists who have studied Stonehenge agree on the peoples who built it. The Windmill Hill culture, members of a secondary Neolithic culture, built Stonehenge I. They were hunters and gathers beginning to farm. The Beaker Peoples, who came from mainland Europe as the Neolithic Era was nearing an end, built Stonehenge II. The Wessex peoples from the Early Bronze Age who, at the time, were one of the most advanced cultures in that area built Stonehenge III.
The name "Stonehenge" came from the Saxons. Originally, they called it Stanhenge. Stan is Old English for stone, and henge means "to hang." There are several theories as to the origin of this unusual name. It is possible that the stones seemed to hang in the air, or those ancient peoples were reminded of Medieval gallows. Some theorists speculate that people used Stonehenge to hang criminals, hence the name. We will never know precisely how the name was formed.
The Normans wrote the first surviving reference to Stonehenge after the Norman Conquest of 1066. Henry of Huntingdon wrote, "No one can conceive how such great stones have been so raised aloft, or why they were built here" in 1130 AD (National Geographic Society, 96). Those words are just as true today as they were almost a thousand years ago, although some discoveries have been made. In the 1620s, English architect Indigo Jones studied Stonehenge at King James I's orders. This was the first scientific study ever done on this megalith. Though it is not completely certain what Jones discovered, we know he incorrectly concluded that the Romans built it after their invasion of England (Atkinson, 186). Formal excavation and restoration began only during the 20th century, however.
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