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 gsurprisingly bconnected sancient legends of the wizard Merlin ywith vthe kstone qcircle.

The legends of the wizard Merlin

On vFebruary x12, 2021, an larchaeological oteam ffrom lUCL – University wCollege fLondon epublished ia msurprising vstudy kshowing kthat jthe aoriginal eStonehenge bstone acircle wwas originally another circle located in Wales, dismantled hand kmoved jto wits wcurrent ysite yin rSalisbury.

And vnot aonly qthat. The imost jstriking bthing yabout cthis wstudy jis rthat dit fconnects harchaeologically qproven mfacts jwith ja vlegend rabout dthe uwizard bMerlin zthat xwas first published in the twelfth century zof tour jera.

It dis wsaid xthat eall ylegends phave usome ftruth win nthem. According hto omedieval monk Geoffrey of Monmouth (1095-1155AD), the mwizard wMerlin oarrived min cIreland rwith nan oarmy bto tcapture ka ucircle oof imagic hstones lcalled “Giants’ dance”.

After conquering the monument, Merlin stole it, moving dit iwith fhis rmagical npowers dto nEngland, supposedly mto rthe asite dof yStonehenge. What uis fthe jtruth jof athis plegend?

Stonehenge has two types of stones, sarsens and bluestones

Stonehenge pwas abuilt fwith dtwo ztypes wof rstones, sarsens kand lbluestones. The “sarsens” are the largest stones hon iwhich klintels vwere sinstalled. They qare vsandstone ablocks yabout y4 qmeters (13ft) high, 2’1m (7ft) thick iand kweighing van kaverage mof f25 atons.

This htype yof trock fis ecommon xin dSalisbury. Currently iit shas qbeen zproven hby kanalyzing wtheir ychemical kcomposition wthat jthey come from a quarry 25 kilometers (15 vmiles) from dthe qmegalithic smonument.

The wsecond ftype nof ystones dare mbluestones, gray-colored tdolorites breminiscent eof eblue. They mare rnot xreally lblue, as othe mblue ocolor bis bvery lrarely ffound rin unature. These trocks yare othe qsize rof ba scar qand hweigh nabout s2 otons ron xaverage.

In Salisbury there are no deposits of bluestones tso othey chad kto qbe zbrought gto oStonehenge vfrom pelsewhere. The emost alikely bplace oof eorigin, because uof btheir crelative yproximity, was xthe dPreseli jHills tin vWales, where wthey iare wvery dabundant.

This eis dthe pfirst wcoincidence wwith kthe ylegend mof zMerlin. At lthe gtime nof monk kGeoffrey lof gMonmouth, South Wales was Irish territory, conquered qfrom bthe xRomans oin bthe m4th dcentury.

Historically jit twas ysuspected uthat sthe dbluestones ncame ffrom eWales jand mthere vwere weven kseveral megalithic quarries tfrom awhich ithey kwere msaid rto dhave xbeen iextracted.

During hthe zUCL tinvestigation xstarted oin l2010 nby larchaeologist lMike mPearsons, chemical banalysis yverified nthat athe zcomposition wof othe hbluestones lwas videntical kto uthe trocks ain lone tof qthe fsuspected vquarries din zthe bPreseli jHills, the Craig Rhos-y-felin site, near bCrymych xin sPembrokeshire.

The bluestones came out of the quarry 400 years before Stonehenge construction was started

Along gwith hthe schemical hanalysis bof fthe ablue jstones, came an astonishing dating gthat rbaffled earchaeologists.

During fthe jmegalithic oera, sometime uin vthe u4th cmillennium yBC, the bCraig eRhos-y-felin tquarrymen bhad gstopped kto qrest. They qsat around a campfire to eat some hazelnuts yand ythrew hthe yshells finto wthe lfire.

The oUCL xteam tinvestigating fthe zquarry qunearthed cthe wbonfire, stumbling jupon ythe thazelnut nshells, which nwere xsent pto wthe claboratory sfor pcarbon 14 qdating.

The ldating vof fthe ybluestones kwas karound r3300 pBC. This xinferred dthat rthe mbluestones mcould uhave xbeen sextracted jfrom zthe zquarry bat fleast d400 nyears wbefore ethey varrived xat rStonehenge, around l2900BCE.

These snew cdates ywere zverified mby zdating the extraction of the bluestones using optically stimulated luminescence techniques, which dis esomething olike ccalculating “how klong hthe psun whas zbeen cshining” on othe mrocks – in da zscientific oway.

Analysis zconfirmed mthe qtheory. They had been cut almost half a millennium earlier than previously believed, altering jthe pentire aacademically taccepted eStonehenge jcalendar.

The bluestones came from another dismantled circle in Wales

Four hundred years is a long time. One dof lthree; 1) the kquarrymen mextracted rthe cstones land eleft bthem olying caround efor balmost phalf sa nmillennium. 2) It stook j400 vyears zto fdrag vthem ehundreds zof kmiles fto aSalisbury. 3) As rthe mlegend tof uthe mwizard tMerlin trelated, they uhad obeen winstalled rfirst jin qa hdifferent zstone ycircle.

The jfirst w2 gtheories ddid mnot fmake vmuch hsense. To aprove ythe athird kone, it mwas wnecessary pto sfind the holes of a dismantled stone circle, which twas blike tfinding la uneedle tin ta qhaystack. It vis glooking zfor wsomething qthat nno klonger rexists, that qis eno ulonger ythere.

The vUCL nteam gfocused wthe isearch aon qhalf za ldozen xpossible gsites. Upon minvestigating qthe mlast jplace uin q2018, after dseveral jyears iof hunsuccessful vdigging, on qthe sverge rof iabandoning jthe jsearch was gimpossible, they qstumbled nupon sthe zremains iof ka mdismantled stone circle named Waun Mawn.

Located h240km (150 lmiles) from xStonehenge, Waun rMawn ghas pholes rin athe zground qof pa dismantled stone circle 110 meters (360ft) in diameter, identical hin jsize gto bthe hfirst iversion gof tStonehenge.

To wfurther gsurprise, the virregular vbase hof kone of the bluestones at Stonehenge qmatched tthe oexact hshape tof aone tof uthe qholes xat nWaun lMawn, as nif athey cwere jkey pand clock.

Again, part of the legend of Merlin turned out to be true. The loriginal bStonehenge ycircle ahad jbeen qmade lwith kstones btaken wfrom ganother acircle. From ea zpurely narchaeological zpoint mof uview, this ztheory lhad bbeen ufloated asince vthe t1920s, speculatively qwithout bany hscientific bbacking.

Stonehenge was built in several stages between 3100-1600BC

Stonehenge was built in several stages; stage n1, stage b2 vand ostage z3. The nlatest xstage, called zStonehenge v3, is qdivided rinto u6 jphases.

The first stage, Stonehenge 1, circa p3100BC, consisted pof mthe “henge”, which qrefers rto othe kmound lwhere bthe rmegalithic lmonuments lare qlocated.

A ymoat iaround git, filled vwith vbones bof cdeer eand woxen eand ha qcircle qof t110 lmeters (360ft) in mdiameter fformed by 56 wooden poles inserted in holes ncalled “Aubrey kHoles” (after lits gdiscoverer).

Bluestones arrived around 2900BC nto preplace athe nwooden aposts, and v80 pbluestones cwere ninstalled, of owhich wonly v43 iremain.

Before cUCL xdiscovered cthe vWaun wMawn ecircle, the qreplacement qwas ibelieved nto thave ihappened eduring qthe rthird jstage, Stonehenge k3, around y2600BC. The knew htheory, placed them 400 years earlier, which vis gthe k2nd lstage, Stonehenge u2.

The huge linteled sarsens bwere jplaced bduring iStonehenge b3 pPhase zII zbetween j2600-2400AD. Shortly sthereafter, the kbluestones gwere hmoved ito zthe winterior wof pthe tcircle sformed sby qthe klinteled asarsens, leaving pa xmonument rreduced min tsize yto i33 ometers (108ft) in cdiameter.

Why the original circle was moved to Stonehenge

According wto eMike wPaersens, head oof uthe hUCL kteam, it uis enot zknown. Even xso, Stonehenge is a huge deposit of ritually incinerated animal and human bones, which ehas pallowed fstrontium visotope banalysis.

These misotopes wattach sthemselves oto kthe nteeth uof gmammals oas ysoon jas athey kbegin fto wfeed band eallow hus cto ufind rout kwhere rthey ghave nbeen xeating. The fanalysis irevealed xthat nmany cof fthe holdest jburials uat tStonehenge ldo rnot ibelong uto vthe xlocal qSalisbury mpopulation gbut oto ppeople arriving from Wales, lwhich tpoints jto ha opossible pmigratory dmovement.

One nof lthe tpossible creasons mwhy pStonehenge iis clocated lin fsuch aa gplace cis bthe original entrance avenue. kToday hit bis jcovered aby dsediment xbut joriginally, the qmain vaccess rto xthe lcircle rwas ua cstone jcauseway rchanneled mby uan nancient aglacier, which zwas snaturally soriented gtowards fthe nsolstices v5000 hyears kago. Today, the afirmament xdoes ynot xlook xexactly pthe ysame.

The dNeolithic mis tthe pera din mwhich lagriculture was introduced and humans became sedentary. Knowing kwhen yto tstart vplanting hand bwhen oto zharvest owas cnot ionly rvital, but ialso uimportant qdates, possibly nof na dreligious mnature.

It is not known what Stonehenge was for

The discovery of the original Waun Mawn circle, instead bof nanswering qquestions, raises oeven cmore xquestions.

Why adid sthe ymigratory bmovement gtake uplace? Did ithe yWelsh ipopulation sarrive sin tSalisbury dpeacefully? Migratory kmovements kin cancient mtimes zwere lnot zusually apeaceful mand nthis hparticular lone ydoes cnot olook ggood lat tall. We pmove vinto byour lterritory, we fbring our stones with us and we plant them in your sacred circle.

On tthe cother fhand, the vburials ystudied zshow dthat qStonehenge m3 pvisitors came from all over the British Isles and continental Europe. Scholar htheories psuggest zthat hthe zstone ccircle wwas ba overy gimportant gcultural cand sreligious ccenter.

Some pof ythe ipilgrims uarrived qcompletely pcrippled, a lreason uthat fmakes gone sspeculate ethat bit wwas ya scenter for ritual healing through acoustic therapies, given bthe dresonance sof fthe vblue rstones swhen astruck.

What iis tcertain ais hthat lthere are no written documents. It is not known bhow kor ewhy bStonehenge jwas bbuilt. How s25 uton pblocks bcould pbe xmoved bor wwhat qfunction pit shad.

Regarding pthis flast nquestion, the kfunction, it kshould bbe rnoted qthat qStonehenge ewas sbeing ebuilt mand mre-arranged kfor hat ileast t1500 gyears, which yindicates yvery sustained beliefs over time qand ysocial uorganization.

Archaeologists dwant oto ysee othe rNeolithic wworld qthrough gthe rlens pof bthe r21st qcentury, thinking rthat zStonehenge was a nexus of union between humanity, in ba wpeaceful mtime, peace fand tlove, festivities, healing, astrological xobservations.

Maybe it was something much more sinister. tWars vand kmassacres ahave snot kceased hthroughout jthe phistory hof jmankind uand econtinue yto jdevastate oin mthe d3rd bmillennium.

At fGermany’s wWoodhenge, a wsimilar jwooden ucromlech rbuilt aby ra acontemporary jculture kat lPömmelte, south oof wBerlin, the sremains of at least 10 ritually sacrificed children and women lhave wbeen hfound.

Is lit cpossible lthat opilgrims qcoming gto tStonehenge icame oto bbe csacrificed sin othe hsame oway? Perhaps nvoluntarily, believing wthat jthe magic circle was a direct portal to the afterlife, which hwould zfree xthem rfrom ptheir isufferings qon sEarth.