Stonehenge

Ancient monument on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, the remains of four massive trilithons surrounded by concentric circles of megaliths, probably constructed since c 3200 BC. It was a major Neolithic and Early Bronze Age ritual monument, architecturally unique, surrounded by a whole complex of barrow cemeteries and ritual sites. It had many phases of reconstruction. Apart from a cursus, the oldest structure was a circular earthwork about 100 meters in diameter, consisting of a ditch with an inner bank broken by a single entrance. Just inside the bank was a ring of 56 Aubrey holes (pits), some of which contained cremations. There were further cremations in the ditch and on the inner plateau. The presence of grooved ware pottery, together with radiocarbon dates from a cremation suggest that Stonehenge I belongs to the end of the Neolithic. Phase II occurred in c 2200-2000 when two concentric rings of sockets were dug at the center of the site for the erection of 80 bluestones imported from the Preseli Hills of southwest Wales. To this period belongs the Avenue, two parallel banks and ditches which run from the entrance to the river Avon 3 km away. In Stonehenge's third phase, the bluestones were removed, and Sarsen stones, some weighing over 50 tons, were brought from the Downs 38 km away to the north. These blocks, unlike those of any other henge or megalithic tomb, were dressed to shape before erection, and were then set up as a circle of uprights with a continuous curving lintel, enclosing a U-shaped arrangement of five trilithons. This phase has been dated 2120 +/- 150 BC and its work was carried out by the bearers of the Wessex culture. At a later stage (phase IIIc) the bluestones were re-erected in their present positions, duplicating the sarsen structure. There is a radiocarbon date of 1540 +/- 105 BC for the early part of this final stage, and the whole of Stonehenge III probably falls within the Early Bronze Age. The final stage came in the Middle or Late Bronze Age when the Avenue was extended 2000 meters east. The function of the monument is usually held to be religious, though it had no connection with the Druids. Theories are that the northeast-southwest axis may suggest some form of sun cult, the stone settings may have been used for astronomical observations in connection with the calendar, and the Aubrey holes for calculating the occurrence of eclipses. It has also been interpreted as the temple of a sun or sky cult. Archaeologists have long been fascinated by this monument, with its evidence of massive manpower input (one calculation suggests 30 million man-hours would have been required for the phase IIIA structure), its architectural sophistication, and astronomical alignments.

Situated on Salisbury plain in Wiltshire, southern England, Stonehenge is Britain’s most remarkable stone circle and one of the most impressive megalithic monuments anywhere. Excavations have revealed three major building stages and some subsidiary substages. The first monument, Stonehenge I, was a henge monument, consisting of a bank and outer ditch, with a single entrance. Inside the bank was a ring of 56 pits, named the Aubrey holes after the antiquary John Aubrey who first recorded them; some of these pits contained cremations. Outside the monument, opposite the entrance, was a single standing stone, the Heel Stone. It is not known whether there was any structure or other feature in the centre of the monument at this time, as the area is obscured by later structures. Stonehenge I has dates in the range c2800-2300 bc. The monument of Stonehenge II involved the transportation of 82 bluestones from the Preseii mountains of south Wales (unless they had been transported to the area earlier) and their erection in a double circle in the centre of the henge. The entrance of the monument was realigned at this time and the Avenue was also constructed, consisting of two parallel earthworks running from the entrance of Stonehenge to the River Avon 3 km away; it may represent the last part of the route via which the bluestones arrived at This building phase is associated with Beaker pottery and is dated to the late 3rd millennium BC. Stonehenge III consists of three separate building phases in which the monument acquired its final form. Phase IIIA saw the dismantling of the bluestone monument and the transport and erection of the massive sarsen stones. These were brought frm the Marlborough Downs near Avebury some 30 km away. The enormous blocks, originally about 80 in number and weighing up to 50 tonnes, were carefully dressed to shape and then erected in a circle of uprights with a continuous curving lintel and, inside this circle, a horseshoe of five free-standing Tri-lithons. This phase also has a date in the late 3rd millennium bc. Phases IIIB and IIIC represent successive attempts to incorporate the bluestones into the monument. In IIIB an oval of bluestones was erected in the centre of the monument and the remaining stones were probably intended for a double circle outside the main sarsen monument (the Y and Z holes), but this plan was never completed. In phase IIIC, cl 550 bc, the bluestones were put in their final position: the previous oval was converted into a horseshoe of free-standing stones inside the horseshoe of sarsen trilithons and the remaining stones were placed in a circle inside the sarsen circle. This stage — and perhaps the whole of Stonehenge III — belongs in the period of the Wessex culture and many of the characteristic Wessex barrows occur in the region around It is reasonable to see the phase III monument as a major religious monument of this culture. The phase IIIC monument does not represent the end of building at Work in the 1970s showed that although no more construction work occurred in the monument itself, the Avenue was extended in the Late Bronze Age, indicating that it was still revered and probably in use. Archaeologists — and others — have long been fascinated by this monument, with its evidence of massive manpower input (one calculation suggests 30 million man-hours would have been required for the phase IIIA structure), its architectural sophistication (once ascribed to hypothetical Mycenaean architects) and astronomical alignments (see astronomy). Most authorities now see it as a purely local development, the culmination of a long tradition of similar structures — a temple dedicated perhaps to sky deities, but a monument to the achievements of a nonliterate and technologically simple society, probably organized as a chiefdom or as a group of chiefdoms, with a paramount chief or king as supreme authority.