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Stonehenge
On
Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, stands one of prehistory's most
baffling monuments - Stonehenge. While the origins and meaning of this
complex of stones has eluded scholars for 5 centuries, archaeologists
now believe it evolved in 3 main phases between about 3500 and 1100 b.c.
The first Stonehenge, which was a circular ditch-and-bank enclosure, was
probably used as a cemetery. It had an outer ring of 56 small burial
pits. Called the Aubrey Holes, they are named after the 17th Century
antiquarian John Aubrey, who first recorded them. North-East of the
entrance to the earthworks stood the huge seven metre high Heel Stone. A
second stage of building added an earthen avenue between the Heel Stone
and the entrance. Eighty huge blocks of Bluestone, probably brought from
the Preseli Hills in south Wales, 320 kilometers away, were erected in
two circles on the site. In the final building stage, the bluestones
were rearranged and replaced by a circle of 30 structures known as the
trilithons, consisting of two upright stones supporting a horizontal
stone. Within this circle, five freestanding trilithons were erected in
a horseshoe shaped arrangement.
The
planning, skill, time and labor involved in creating Stonehenge clearly
indicate its importance to its builders. But what could its purpose have
been? Since the eighteenth century, scholars have noted the alignments
of the stones to sections of the sun, moon cycles, indicating that
astronomy may have been practiced at the site. By the early 1900's,
British astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer, had suggested that the monument's
axis was aligned towards the sunrise on midsummer's day. More recently,
CA Newham, a British layman, produced calculations of complex
astronomical lines linked to different parts of Stonehenge. In the
1960's, Gerald Hawkins, a British astronomer working in America, found
that both the stones and the Aubrey Holes were aligned with major solar
and lunar events. Hawkins concluded that the site had been not only an
observatory, but also a type of primitive computer, which was used to
predict eclipses. Archaeologists remained skeptical, but in 1967,
Alexander Thom, a Scottish professor of engineering at Oxford, also
suggested that Stonehenge was an observatory for the study of Moon
cycles.
While
scientific study of the site still continues, Stonehenge remains
shrouded in folklore. According to local legend, the gigantic bluestones
were magical healing stones that had been brought from Ireland through
the magical arts of Merlin, the wizard or King Arthur's court. The great
Heel Stone is associated with a legend in which the devil is said to
have once found a monk hiding among the stones. Before the unfortunate
man was able to escape, the devil threw a huge boulder, which pinned him
by the heel. The ruins of Stonehenge have long been popularly linked
with the ancient Celtic priesthood of Druids, although experts have
ruled out any connection. Modern Druids, unrelated to the original
Celts, used to gather at Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice
each June until 1985. In that year, authorities banned the festival for
fear of damage being done to these magnificent stone, whose secrets have
yet to be fully revealed.
From
the book "The Almanac of the Uncanny" |
