Stonehenge

         Stonehenge was built around 3100 B. C. by an unknown civilization.  It is the most famous henge (a circular banked enclosure with an internal disk).  It has 5 stages of construction:
3100 B. C.: The first stage was simply a circular bank and ditch enclosure made out of Seaford Chalk, 360 ft. (110 m.) in diameter.  There were two entrances, a large one to the northeast and a smaller one to the south.  The builders placed the bones of deer and oxen at the bottom of the ditch with some flint tools.  The bones were older than the tools used to build the ditch and had been looked after for a time before they were buried.  The ditch, although it was continuous, was dug in sections, and the chalk dug from the disk was used to form the bank.  In the outer edge of the enclosed area, a circle of 56 pits, 31/3 ft. (1 m.) in diameter and known as the Aubrey holes after the man who identified them, John Aubrey, was dug.  The pits may have contained tim bers to form a wooden version of the future Stonehenge, but there is no evidence of wood.
3000 B. C.: The second stage was a timber structure, the only remaining evi­dence of which is the number of post holes from this period.  More timbers were placed at the entrances.  They were only 16 in. (4 dm.)  in diameter.  The bank was shortened and the Aubrey holes began to be used for cremation burials.  More crema tion burials were placed in the ditch and it is evident that Stonehenge had become the first known cremation cemetery in the British Isles.  Fragments of unburned bone and late Neolithic grooved ware pottery have been found as well.
2600 B. C.: Around this time, stone began to be used instead of timber, and two concentric circles of holes (the Q and R Holes) were dug in the center of the site.  They held up80 standing stones, fo which 43 are left. There is some debate over how the bluestones reached Stonehenge: although it was once thought that they were carried the 160 mi. (250 km.) from the Preseli Hills, a new theory is that they were carried by a glacier. Other stones may have been sarsens used later for lintels. The stones, weighing about 4 tons, consisted mostly of Ordovician dolerite, and included rhyolite, tuff, and volcanic/calcareous ash(1). About 20 different types of rocks are present. Each stone is around 62/3 ft. (2 m.) high, 31/3 - 411/12 ft. (1 - 11/2 m.) wide, and 22/3 ft. (8 dm.) thick. The Altar Stone is from either Carmarthenshire or the Brethon Beacons. The northeast entrance was widened, resulting in it precisely matching the direction of the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset of the time, whether on purpose or by in tent. The Heelstone could have been erected during this time, although it could have been built from this time on. It originally was paired up with a since-vanished stone. Two or three portal stones were erected at the northeast entrance, the only remaining one being the Slaughter Stone, so-called because its red color led people to believe that it was used for sacrifices before it was found to be stained red due to the large amount of iron in it, which had rusted. Stonehenge seems to have rivaled Avesbury at the end of this period. However, this phase of Stonehenge was abandoned, unfinished, the small stones removed and the Q and R holes backfilled.
2600 B. C. - 2400 B. C. At this time, around 30 sarsens, from either Marlbor­ough Downs or the nearby chalk downs, were brought to Stonehenge. They were made with mortise and tenon joints(2) and erected as a 110 ft. (33 m.) , with 30 lintel stones on top. The lintels were attached to each other with a tongue and groove joint.(3) Each stone was 13 ft. (4.1 m.) high, 6 ft. 11 in. (2.1 m.) wide, 3 ft. 7 in. (1.1 m.), and weighed approximately 25 tons. The average distance between them is 3 1/4 ft. (1 m.). The lintels are 10 ft. (3.2 m.) long, 3 1/4 ft. (1 m.) wide, and 2 ft 7 in. (8 dm.) thick. They were 16 ft. (4.9 m.) above the ground. The upright stones widen slightly at the top, and the lintels curve slightly, showing that the design of the earlier monument was held in mind. The inward sides of the stones are more finely worked than the out sides. Although 74 stones were needed, it seems that either they were stolen or de­stroyed, or the ring was never completed. There was originally a northeast facing horseshoe, 45 ft. (13.7 m.) across, made of five trilithons(4) of dressed sarsens. They are up to 50 tons each and were arranged symmetrically, starting from 20 ft. (6 m.) high at either side, and ending with 24 ft. (7.3 m.) high at the center. Only one upright from the middle trilithon is still standing; 22 ft. (6.7 m.) is above ground, and 2 ft. (0.6 m.) is underground. A dagger and 14 axe-heads may have been carved on one of the sarsens. More axe-heads have been found on 3 other sarsens. They appear to be late Bronze Age weapons.
2280 - 1930 B. C. There was much less construction during this period. The bluestones were placed in a circle between the sarsens and in an oval in the center of Stonehenge. Some archaeologists claim that some of the bluestones were brought from Wales at this time. The bluestone circle was soon after turned into a horseshoe.
          There are many theories and myths about the function of Stonehenge. It may have been an observatory or a religious site. Folklore attributes Stonehenge to either the Devil or Merlin. In one legend, the Devil bought the stones from an Irish woman and took them to Salisbury Plain, dropping one in the River Avon. He threw one at a passing friar, and it hit him on the heel and stuck in the ground, creating the Heel Stone. The fate of the fri ar involved is unknown. The other legend states that after Hengist and Horst slew 3,000 nobles, he wished for a monument to them in their burial place. He ordered that a stone circle in Ireland, known as the Giants' Dance, be brought to Salisbury. His men toiled, but could not move the circle. Merlin, after laughing at them, magically flew them over to Salisbury. Aurelius and Uther Pendragon were later buried there as well. This myth may have derived from unrecorded burials found during the Middle Ages. The truth of it is uncertain; however, there are two major theories. A recent study, headed by Mike Parker Pearson, has suggested that Stonehenge was a cemetery. Radiocarbon dating shows that up to 240 people were buried there from c. 3000 B. C. - c. 2500 B. C. Pearson has suggested that Stonehenge was the "domain of the dead" and Durrington Walls were the domain of the living. Geoffrey Wainwright and Timothy Darvill have argued that it was a place of healing and possibly ancestor worship.

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