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Stonehenge

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Architecture of Stonehenge

The last feat of effort would have been the erection of the stones. It is believed that a foundation pit was dug in the chalky ground. Wooden stakes would have been pounded into the vertical side of the pit to stop the stone from digging into ground as it was being raised. The stone was moved forward with rollers toward a ramp, until the base of the rock was just sticking over the hole. The outer end was then levered up, allowing the base to dip into the hole until the stone was balanced on a 30 degree angle. It was then hauled up by gangs of about 100 men pulling on ropes. The lintels were raised to the top of the pillars by first being laid parallel to the base of the uprights. They were slowly lifted with the use of wooden levers and temporary timber platforms, which slowly raised the lintel to the top of the stones.

Stonehenge and its purpose remains an enigma even now, more than 4,000 years after it was first begun. It could have been a temple, an astronomical calendar, or guide to the heavens. Despite the fact that we don't know its purpose for certain, Stonehenge acts as a prehistoric timepiece, allowing us to theorize what it would have been like during the Neolithic Period, and who could have built this megalithic wonder. Construction took place in three phases, over 25 generations. Most of it was the result of human muscle and a system of ropes and wooden levers used to transport the massive stones. Primitive tools, such as red deer antlers, were used to dig up the chalky countryside of Salisbury Plain, which was then taken away on ox shoulder blades. No one can say for sure who built the monument. Seventeenth century, English antiquarian, John Aubrey, implicated the Druids, a religious sect known to worship at modern day Stonehenge. But this theory is now considered implausible. The modern Druid, possibly formed from a Celtic priesthood, is believed to have come along 2,000 years after the stone monument had been built and perhaps was in ruin.

The mystery of the bluestones

To drag the sarsen stones, weighing up to 45 tonnes, or the weight of six elephants, from Marlborough Downs, 30 kilometres to the south of Stonehenge, would have been quite a feat. The bluestones, in contrast, were about four tonnes but are believed to have come from much farther -- the Preseli Mountains nearly 385 kilometres away. Popular theory suggests the stones were rolled to the Welsh shore, carried on raft around the coast and into the River Avon, at Bristol. They would have then been transported through local rivers and then back to land, where they were once again rolled to Salisbury Plain. But transport may not have been that difficult. "Prior to the construction of Stonehenge, there were a whole series of massive timber monuments and probably the size of some of the timber monuments would have been very heavy as well," says Lawson. "The transportation of large objects had been practiced for thousands of years, so these people were probably fairly well-versed." And, they may not have had that far to go, according to others, such as preshistorian and stone circle expert Aubrey Burl. He agrees that the bluestones came from the same "magic" Preseli Mountains, but suggests glaciation brought the bluestones to the area surrounding Stonehenge during the last glacier period in history -- the Plyoscene, 650,000 years ago. Though he's convinced of this idea, Burl doesn't expect his theory to catch on anytime soon. "It takes 10 years to destroy a myth, and it will take another 10 years before people understand that what they're saying is a virtual impossibility," he says. Burl's theory is based on three key findings. First, he has found that of the other 1,300 stone circles in Britain, Ireland and Brittany, France, most are made of local stone carried no more than seven or eight kilometres. Second, the bluestones found on Stonehenge are a mix of good, bad and medium rock. Burl believes that if humans were to have carried these stones all the way from these mountains, they would have only taken the good stones. Lastly, Burl suggests that good bluestone was found in the vicinity of Stonehenge thousands of years before the monument was ever began -- suggesting the rock was already in the area. "All these things add up together to suggest it wasn't human beings but a glacier that brought them there."

The first phase is believed to have started around 3000 BCE. It involved the construction of 56 pits called "Aubrey Holes" named after the person who first discovered them, English antiquary John Aubrey. These holes may have been used to hold timber or wooden posts, which later fell out of disuse. They may have also contained the cremated remains of humans at one time. A ditch and bank, or the henge part of the monument, was also dug out in a circle just outside the holes. The "Avenue", a laneway that runs through a break in the henge, was created on the northeast corner of the circle and was later extended to the River Avon, two kilometres away. A "Slaughter stone," now fallen, was placed along the Avenue at the break in the henge inside the circle. A "Heel stone" was placed 27 metres outside the main monument along the Avenue. It weighs 35 tonnes and stands six metres tall. Four "Station Stones" were also erected in the shape of a rectangle within the henge. The events of the second phase of building, starting around 2800 BCE, are the most uncertain. Some propose it was a time when the monument held great timber posts, which were later taken down. There were other timber structures being built at the time, such as Stanton Drew, a similar circle structure constructed out of wooden pillars close to Stonehenge. But others suggest a double horseshoe of bluestones, the small stones in the monument, were erected and then taken down later. Phase three, starting around 2100 BCE, is a period during which most of the stones began to be introduced. A set of five sarsen stone, or sandstone, trilithons -- consisting of two pillars and a top lintel stone-- were erected in the shape of a horseshoe. The tallest trilithon towers above the rest of the stone monument at more than 7 feet tall including the top stone, or lintel. Thirty other upright sarsen stones were placed in a circle around the horseshoe. These stood four metres above ground, two metres wide and one metre thick. They were connected with lintels, stones laid across the upright rocks, that enclosed the horseshoe in a perfect circle.

Carvings of daggers found on the rock at Stonehenge show a French artistic style. But there may not be just one answer. In the book, Beyond Stonehenge, author and modern-day astronomer Gerald Hawkins suggests three groups of people took part in the construction. The first may have been the secondary Neolithic people, just after 3000 BCE. Next would have been the "Beaker People" named after their beaker-shaped drinking cups. The last phase, mainly stonework, may have been carried out by Wessex people. These people are known to have ties to Brittany, France, which is another culture implicated in the construction of Stonehenge by modern-day historian Aubrey Burl. Regardless of who built the stone monument, the design and construction involved thousands of people who would have needed to be believe in the project. According to Andrew Lawson, unit director of Wessex Archaeology Ltd., a company involved in fieldwork of the site, Stonehenge is less about who built it than who commanded it to be built. "These people would need to have been supported and the whole venture would have needed to have been thought worthwhile," says Lawson. "So, you either have somebody who is fairly dictatorial and is capable of coercing people into doing it or it's somebody of great influence who uses some other power of suggestion to control people." Lawson is partial to the second theory. Phases in Stonehenge construction. From henge to the introduction of the stones, construction of Stonehenge took close to 2,000 years. Although individual theories regarding the sequence of building vary, the monument was believed to have been built in three phases, where a circle of landscape and some holes slowly evolved into a number of stone arrangements that are part of an enigma still being decoded today.

But what is more interesting than how the lintels were raised is how they were made to fit to the upright sarsens. Mortice-and-tenon joints (still being used by carpenters today) were fitted by shaping one stone so that one part of the top of it protrudes out and fits into the hammered out slot in the other stone. "It is the sheer effort that is necessary to create the architectural sophistication of Stonehenge -- that is more fascinating than how the stones got up," says Lawson.

In the final section of the third phase, between 2000 and 1500 BCE, a horseshoe of blustones was added within the inner sarsen horseshoe. About 60 other bluestones were placed between the sarsen circle and sarsen horseshoe. The last addition to the site, from about 1550 BCE to 1100 BCE, were the "Z" and "Y" holes found in two concentric circles around the outside of the larger sarsen stone circle. These may have been made to fit more bluestones but now stand empty.