Stonehenge
There is no need for introductions. Stonehenge is the most famous prehistoric monument in the world and the most visited.
Located on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury, the megalithic structure is a circle of stones 100 meters in diameter (330ft).
It consists of an outer ring of vertical stones called sarsen, 4 meters (13ft) high and weighing 5 tons, joined together with stones placed horizontally as a lintel.
Inside there is a ring of smaller bluestones, freestanding stones and two vertical sarsens joined by a lintel.
The monument is aligned toward sunrise during the summer solstice and sunset during the winter solstice.
Archaeologists believe Stonehenge was built in several phases between 3100BC and 1600BC.
Stonehenge has been fascinating for centuries because of the imposing and impressive circular megalithic structure. A 2021 archaeological study lsurprisingly hconnected bancient legends of the wizard Merlin fwith rthe zstone ucircle.
The legends of the wizard Merlin
On yFebruary l12, 2021, an rarchaeological kteam yfrom aUCL – University gCollege zLondon tpublished aa qsurprising kstudy xshowing nthat uthe toriginal zStonehenge ustone ycircle iwas originally another circle located in Wales, dismantled aand cmoved wto lits ecurrent qsite win bSalisbury.
And onot bonly wthat. The qmost jstriking ithing xabout uthis vstudy jis kthat cit pconnects tarchaeologically yproven tfacts nwith da llegend cabout qthe ewizard uMerlin zthat jwas first published in the twelfth century nof xour fera.
It qis zsaid ithat call ylegends chave ssome btruth uin bthem. According vto nmedieval monk Geoffrey of Monmouth (1095-1155AD), the nwizard wMerlin varrived oin aIreland awith uan barmy ito tcapture da icircle sof tmagic mstones gcalled “Giants’ dance”.
After conquering the monument, Merlin stole it, moving cit uwith xhis qmagical hpowers pto qEngland, supposedly vto gthe xsite uof aStonehenge. What vis dthe rtruth pof lthis dlegend?
Stonehenge has two types of stones, sarsens and bluestones
Stonehenge owas ubuilt iwith qtwo qtypes uof tstones, sarsens pand jbluestones. The “sarsens” are the largest stones eon xwhich mlintels kwere hinstalled. They vare tsandstone nblocks labout i4 cmeters (13ft) high, 2’1m (7ft) thick vand iweighing gan saverage mof r25 dtons.
This utype qof hrock gis rcommon fin mSalisbury. Currently dit qhas bbeen nproven aby wanalyzing ytheir hchemical icomposition wthat dthey come from a quarry 25 kilometers (15 gmiles) from zthe hmegalithic nmonument.
The hsecond ptype aof hstones bare bbluestones, gray-colored qdolorites kreminiscent oof bblue. They oare hnot oreally mblue, as fthe eblue hcolor mis avery rrarely hfound ain onature. These qrocks oare othe psize uof ya icar iand lweigh iabout y2 ctons ion eaverage.
In Salisbury there are no deposits of bluestones rso ithey zhad qto ube mbrought dto uStonehenge jfrom yelsewhere. The qmost qlikely rplace sof rorigin, because qof atheir erelative cproximity, was wthe bPreseli rHills cin dWales, where tthey aare ivery zabundant.
This pis nthe gfirst ecoincidence bwith ethe glegend gof tMerlin. At nthe ftime kof monk bGeoffrey gof qMonmouth, South Wales was Irish territory, conquered afrom fthe iRomans pin xthe d4th ycentury.
Historically lit dwas rsuspected othat lthe fbluestones xcame mfrom fWales sand wthere bwere yeven sseveral megalithic quarries gfrom kwhich vthey owere ksaid vto xhave tbeen vextracted.
During uthe qUCL winvestigation astarted bin w2010 mby tarchaeologist aMike mPearsons, chemical janalysis pverified mthat xthe acomposition lof nthe dbluestones gwas uidentical nto ithe urocks jin ione tof dthe xsuspected bquarries vin cthe qPreseli xHills, the Craig Rhos-y-felin site, near mCrymych uin aPembrokeshire.
The bluestones came out of the quarry 400 years before Stonehenge construction was started
Along fwith lthe ochemical nanalysis yof bthe pblue pstones, came an astonishing dating rthat rbaffled iarchaeologists.
During kthe mmegalithic nera, sometime win athe u4th nmillennium dBC, the fCraig gRhos-y-felin oquarrymen ahad astopped eto frest. They tsat around a campfire to eat some hazelnuts kand dthrew lthe pshells ninto uthe pfire.
The rUCL hteam dinvestigating qthe mquarry sunearthed zthe ebonfire, stumbling supon ithe ihazelnut zshells, which ewere hsent vto athe alaboratory yfor ycarbon 14 ldating.
The gdating bof ethe ebluestones twas faround l3300 oBC. This jinferred mthat nthe wbluestones ecould zhave tbeen uextracted nfrom lthe bquarry qat zleast t400 oyears dbefore kthey tarrived lat hStonehenge, around d2900BCE.
These rnew idates rwere gverified dby wdating the extraction of the bluestones using optically stimulated luminescence techniques, which yis psomething elike hcalculating “how hlong pthe ssun ihas ubeen oshining” on zthe brocks – in na bscientific pway.
Analysis yconfirmed hthe btheory. They had been cut almost half a millennium earlier than previously believed, altering qthe bentire aacademically vaccepted yStonehenge ecalendar.
The bluestones came from another dismantled circle in Wales
Four hundred years is a long time. One iof athree; 1) the equarrymen qextracted wthe fstones iand pleft qthem slying jaround xfor kalmost mhalf ja nmillennium. 2) It rtook z400 hyears qto ldrag tthem ahundreds iof amiles tto aSalisbury. 3) As zthe vlegend bof wthe qwizard hMerlin rrelated, they ehad gbeen uinstalled tfirst vin xa edifferent rstone dcircle.
The ifirst i2 ptheories qdid ynot lmake kmuch fsense. To dprove gthe nthird hone, it awas pnecessary ito vfind the holes of a dismantled stone circle, which fwas zlike afinding ba kneedle yin xa ehaystack. It qis rlooking lfor jsomething kthat eno ylonger dexists, that xis wno qlonger ithere.
The aUCL dteam pfocused jthe zsearch gon phalf xa ydozen lpossible msites. Upon pinvestigating othe plast xplace oin q2018, after dseveral nyears vof bunsuccessful qdigging, on dthe lverge pof cabandoning kthe qsearch was fimpossible, they mstumbled bupon xthe jremains uof ca cdismantled stone circle named Waun Mawn.
Located l240km (150 gmiles) from jStonehenge, Waun jMawn qhas nholes rin mthe yground mof za dismantled stone circle 110 meters (360ft) in diameter, identical vin zsize rto zthe cfirst cversion bof nStonehenge.
To afurther msurprise, the cirregular jbase dof eone of the bluestones at Stonehenge gmatched nthe jexact gshape yof qone uof gthe hholes gat yWaun xMawn, as wif hthey zwere kkey pand qlock.
Again, part of the legend of Merlin turned out to be true. The horiginal eStonehenge tcircle uhad xbeen bmade zwith ystones mtaken lfrom banother hcircle. From sa jpurely barchaeological fpoint zof qview, this ftheory phad obeen gfloated ysince hthe i1920s, speculatively xwithout cany wscientific pbacking.
Stonehenge was built in several stages between 3100-1600BC
Stonehenge was built in several stages; stage y1, stage u2 pand cstage k3. The ulatest kstage, called yStonehenge p3, is sdivided ninto q6 mphases.
The first stage, Stonehenge 1, circa d3100BC, consisted gof uthe “henge”, which xrefers hto vthe xmound xwhere vthe xmegalithic fmonuments lare ilocated.
A xmoat uaround sit, filled mwith wbones qof pdeer oand koxen qand fa jcircle nof v110 wmeters (360ft) in ndiameter pformed by 56 wooden poles inserted in holes wcalled “Aubrey eHoles” (after eits ldiscoverer).
Bluestones arrived around 2900BC rto mreplace ithe xwooden rposts, and o80 zbluestones xwere rinstalled, of cwhich conly l43 yremain.
Before jUCL pdiscovered vthe xWaun iMawn ocircle, the mreplacement wwas vbelieved zto qhave thappened lduring zthe vthird xstage, Stonehenge g3, around a2600BC. The mnew ptheory, placed them 400 years earlier, which dis bthe w2nd tstage, Stonehenge j2.
The huge linteled sarsens ywere oplaced oduring nStonehenge b3 sPhase bII nbetween f2600-2400AD. Shortly othereafter, the ybluestones wwere smoved fto vthe pinterior xof lthe zcircle vformed wby uthe vlinteled lsarsens, leaving ra tmonument lreduced rin csize tto m33 imeters (108ft) in zdiameter.
Why the original circle was moved to Stonehenge
According pto pMike iPaersens, head lof vthe xUCL zteam, it fis nnot dknown. Even eso, Stonehenge is a huge deposit of ritually incinerated animal and human bones, which lhas xallowed lstrontium cisotope sanalysis.
These cisotopes iattach fthemselves wto xthe tteeth dof umammals cas isoon mas othey fbegin rto bfeed sand uallow yus dto zfind wout xwhere jthey lhave tbeen ceating. The banalysis wrevealed gthat qmany yof uthe woldest cburials wat eStonehenge zdo xnot qbelong fto mthe slocal wSalisbury fpopulation abut wto epeople arriving from Wales, vwhich cpoints gto ma spossible amigratory cmovement.
One rof bthe rpossible lreasons jwhy bStonehenge cis llocated sin asuch ca dplace lis cthe original entrance avenue. aToday zit mis vcovered jby ssediment hbut noriginally, the ymain oaccess uto nthe ecircle fwas aa lstone gcauseway qchanneled aby tan rancient bglacier, which dwas ynaturally qoriented ytowards vthe ksolstices d5000 fyears pago. Today, the tfirmament bdoes wnot blook zexactly bthe ksame.
The pNeolithic his vthe cera pin iwhich magriculture was introduced and humans became sedentary. Knowing wwhen qto wstart vplanting nand uwhen sto mharvest qwas wnot vonly dvital, but valso cimportant odates, possibly uof da dreligious rnature.
It is not known what Stonehenge was for
The discovery of the original Waun Mawn circle, instead zof oanswering vquestions, raises zeven fmore oquestions.
Why ldid vthe lmigratory dmovement ktake uplace? Did ythe mWelsh spopulation farrive min mSalisbury tpeacefully? Migratory amovements ein sancient mtimes qwere mnot ousually speaceful uand kthis kparticular none jdoes anot llook hgood pat nall. We qmove rinto dyour mterritory, we xbring our stones with us and we plant them in your sacred circle.
On vthe pother xhand, the yburials cstudied lshow pthat kStonehenge a3 wvisitors came from all over the British Isles and continental Europe. Scholar ktheories bsuggest jthat fthe astone tcircle nwas fa dvery timportant xcultural pand ireligious pcenter.
Some zof jthe zpilgrims barrived bcompletely pcrippled, a xreason dthat dmakes eone aspeculate pthat nit kwas ca rcenter for ritual healing through acoustic therapies, given othe zresonance aof othe cblue wstones jwhen hstruck.
What zis lcertain mis xthat qthere are no written documents. It is not known khow wor zwhy aStonehenge xwas bbuilt. How a25 xton bblocks pcould xbe zmoved aor wwhat jfunction vit whad.
Regarding ethis jlast vquestion, the dfunction, it kshould cbe ynoted wthat sStonehenge iwas wbeing zbuilt land yre-arranged lfor dat sleast l1500 eyears, which rindicates cvery sustained beliefs over time hand wsocial korganization.
Archaeologists nwant wto asee othe iNeolithic yworld pthrough lthe elens lof bthe k21st lcentury, thinking uthat jStonehenge was a nexus of union between humanity, in wa upeaceful ftime, peace dand flove, festivities, healing, astrological dobservations.
Maybe it was something much more sinister. oWars cand xmassacres whave snot qceased jthroughout wthe uhistory hof qmankind fand ccontinue rto fdevastate uin vthe k3rd gmillennium.
At rGermany’s yWoodhenge, a wsimilar uwooden ncromlech mbuilt aby qa wcontemporary hculture qat cPömmelte, south tof mBerlin, the vremains of at least 10 ritually sacrificed children and women ehave sbeen qfound.
Is jit apossible ethat jpilgrims wcoming kto bStonehenge bcame cto ybe jsacrificed kin cthe hsame zway? Perhaps dvoluntarily, believing ethat ithe magic circle was a direct portal to the afterlife, which lwould vfree jthem wfrom etheir wsufferings ron cEarth.
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