Secrets of Stonehenge: Architectural, Archeological, and Cultural Study Guide and Historical
Stonehenge is an iconic prehistoric monument dating back to the late Stone Age in Britain, preceding the construction of the Egyptian pyramids.
The monument is surrounded by a circular ditch and bank.
It features giant upright stones and horizontal slabs called lintels that crown the huge pillars. The tallest stones tower over 20 ft and weigh as much as 45 tons.
Physical composition:- Sarsens: The primary stones are giants made of sarsen, a local sandstone that is harder than granite.
Blue stones: Smaller stones nestled among the sarsens, which geologists have traced to Wales, at least 150 miles away from the site.
Engineering details:- Masons carved and fitted the stones as if they were working with wood.
Uprights were tapered and topped with knobs that fit into hollows on the bottom of the lintels.
The curved lintels were joined by tongue and groove, forming a nearly perfect circle.
The ring of lintels remained level to within inches despite the slight slope of the terrain.
The Stonehenge Riverside Project
The search for the origin and purpose of Stonehenge is led by Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project.
The project involves nearly 200 individuals, including scientists, students, and specialists ranging from astronomers to field surveyors.
Strategy: The project aims to reconstruct the ancient world by digging throughout the surrounding landscape, not just at the monument itself.
The goal is to understand the people who built the site and the society from which they emerged.
Chronology and Construction Stages of the Monument
Stonehenge was constructed in distinct stages beginning around 3000 BC.
Stage 1 (3000 BC): Prehistoric builders dug a circular ditch and bank into the underlying chalk. Inside the bank, they dug a ring of 56 pits known as the Aubrey holes (named after the 17th-century researcher who recorded them, though the transcript refers to them as Aubry holes). These pits likely held the blue stones brought from Wales.
Stage 2 (2500 BC): Approximately 500 years later, the massive sarsen stones were installed. The original blue stones were removed from the outer ring and rearranged within the sarsen structures.
Stage 3: Parallel banks were constructed to form a processional avenue that connected Stonehenge to the River Avon.
Bioarchaeological Analysis: The Dead of Stonehenge
Stonehenge served as a significant cremation cemetery, perhaps the largest in early prehistoric Europe.
Excavation History of the Bones:- In the 1920s (specifically 1921, 1922, and 1923), nearly 60 cremation burials were excavated, primarily from the Aubrey holes.
Because the remains were burnt bone fragments rather than intact skulls, they were deemed of little interest by contemporary museums.
In 1935, the bones were re-buried in Aubrey hole number 7.
Modern Recovery:- Mike Parker Pearson’s team recovered the remains from Aubrey hole 7, finding a "jumbled mass" of bone.
35 lbs of cremated bone were sent to the University of Sheffield for analysis.
Key Findings by Jackie McKinley and Christy Cox:- The collection represented at least 50 individuals.
The remains were not a normal domestic cross-section of society; they were predominantly healthy, robust adult males aged 25 to 40 years.
The findings suggest a select group, possibly an aristocratic or royal male-based lineage, was chosen for burial at the site.
Neolithic Society and Material Culture
The Neolithic (Late Stone Age) in Britain was a period of sophisticated development occurring as the Age of the Pharaohs began in Egypt.
Lifestyle:- People lived in small, scattered settlements, raising livestock (cattle and pigs) and crops like barley and wheat.
They were likely well-nourished and sophisticated, despite the absence of metal, writing, or wheels (which were present in the Near East at the time).
Tools:- The stone axe was the primary tool for clearing forests and shaping timber.
Antler picks (made from red deer antlers) were used to excavate ditches and pits. Workers would use them to lever chunks of chalk, which were then hauled away in baskets.
Over 50 hammerstones were discovered in a stone-dressing trench near Stonehenge, used for the fine-scale shaping of the sarsen stones.
Experimental Archaeology: Moving and Dressing the Stones
Quarrying: Sarsens likely originated 20 miles north of the site. Masons treated these massive rocks with the same precision used for making stone axes.
Proposed Transport Methods:- Rollers: Using tree trunks to roll stones.
Greased Tracks: Pulling wooden sleds with keels over greased timber tracks.
The Ball-Bearing Theory by Andrew Young:- Young proposed that carved stone balls of identical diameter (75 mm) were used as ball bearings in wooden rails to move heavy loads.
Experiment: A team tested this using a Douglas fur track and granite/wooden balls.
Results: The team successfully moved loads of 3.3 tons, 6 tons, and 13 tons. However, soft wood (Douglas fur) suffered from compression, increasing friction; Young suggested oak would have been more effective in antiquity.
While the experiment showed the system works, some archaeologists, like Mike Pitts, believe the theory is too complex for the uneven Neolithic landscape.
Astronomical Alignments and Solstice Significance
Dr. Clive Ruggles confirms that the monument's main axis is aligned with the solstices.
Summer Solstice: The axis points toward the sunrise on the longest day of the year (June 21).
Winter Solstice: The axis points toward the sunset on the shortest day of the year (mid-winter).
The alignment suggests a connection between the monument and the seasonal cycle, helping the builders stay "in harmony with the cosmos."
The Sacred Landscape: Durrington Walls and the River Avon
Parker Pearson’s theory, influenced by burial traditions in Madagascar (where stone is for the dead and wood for the living), suggests Stonehenge was the realm of the ancestors.
Durrington Walls (2 miles north) served as the realm of the living:- It contained a timber circle nearly identical in size to Stonehenge.
Excavations revealed a village with house floors measuring approximately 4 m x 4 m with chalk-plastered timber facades.
The site appears to be the largest village in Northern Europe around 2500 BC.
Connection: The two sites were linked by the River Avon and processional avenues.- Durrington Walls features an avenue 30 ft wide leading to the river.
Feasting evidence: Enormous piles of pig and cattle bone indicate huge seasonal gatherings.
Solstice Link: At the winter solstice sunrise, Durrington Walls' timber circle aligned with the sun; at sunset, Stonehenge framed the sun.
Geological Significance: The Natural Solstice Axis
Archaeologists discovered that the Stonehenge Avenue was built over natural geological features called periglacial stripes or grooves.
These grooves were formed by freezing and thawing of the ground during the last Ice Age.
Extraordinarily, these natural grooves were naturally aligned with the summer and winter solstice sun.
To Neolithic people, this coincidence would have marked the location as a sacred and powerful spot, explaining why Stonehenge was built on that specific patch of countryside.
Blue Stonehenge and the Dawn of the Bronze Age
Blue Stonehenge Discovery:- A second stone circle was discovered on the banks of the River Avon where the Stonehenge Avenue ends.
This monument consisted of a ditch and a ring of approximately 25 blue stones.
It was likely built around 3000 BC and dismantled around 2500 BC when the blue stones were moved to Stonehenge to be placed among the new sarsens.
Identity and Ancestry:- The blue stones likely represented the identity and ancestry of the builders, who moved the stones 150 miles from their ancestral homelands in Wales to claim their new territory.
The End of Stonehenge:- Stonehenge reached its peak around 2500 BC, but this was a "swan song" for the era.
The arrival of metals (copper, gold, and bronze) shifted society toward personal wealth and individual status.
The age of grand communal monuments was replaced by individual burial mounds, leading to the eventual abandonment of Stonehenge.