Stonehenge

Stonehenge has intrigued archaeologists for centuries and remains one of the most important archaeological sites in the world. But what do we really know about Stonehenge and how many other similar stone circles are there ?"Stonehenge.

It should be safe to say that when we think about what that word stands for, it conjures up images most of us have seen. Huge stones, megaliths - aligned in a circle, just massive. A prehistoric landmark, a mystery, that has eluded us allfor centuries. "

View: Full Article | Source: Third Eye Concept

For a set of craggy rocks in an English field, Stonehenge's ability to capture the imagination is impressive. The ancient monument — composed of massive stones arranged into concentric circles by unknown builders — is referenced almost as far back the Norman Conquest, when an English historian remarked in 1130 A.D. that "no one can conceive how such great stones have been so raised aloft, or why they were built here."That certainly hasn't kept many from trying. It seems like everyone has a theory for why the ruins were constructed. Some are more plausible than others.With March 20 marking the vernal equinox (one of two days during the year where day and night arethe same length) attention turns again to one of the more persistent theories for Stonehenge's origin.

In a 1965 book, "Stonehenge Decoded," astronomer Gerald Hawkins offered the then-most comprehensive hypothesis to date of Stonehenge's purpose. Hawkins saw the cluster of stones, constructed in phases from around 3100 B.C. through 1600 B.C., as an ancient astronomical calendar. In his analysis, he identified 165 separate points on the monument, and linked them to astrological phenomenon like the two solstices and equinoxes and lunar and solar eclipses. It's a difficult theory to disprove completely and some evidence is persuasive — at dawn on the summer solstice, for example, the center of the Stonehenge ring, two nearby stones (The Slaughter and Heel Stones) and the sun all seem to align. Still, critics of Hawkins' theory say he gives theancient builders too much credit, arguing they wouldn't have had the sophistication or precision necessary to predict all the astrological events Hawkins' ascribes to his Stonehenge calendar. And plus this is England after all — wet, overcast England. The climate may have prevented the ancient people of Stonehenge from even seeing the sky with regularity. Still, Hawkins' theory is one of the more legitimate attempts at a Stonehenge explanation. In the 12th Century, the legend of King Arthur wasn't completely regarded as fiction. In his account of Stonehenge, historian Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote that troops tried to move the stones from Ireland to England in order to provide a monument for their war dead. When they couldn't, they enlisted the help of the wizard Merlin to transport the massive stones — some weighing as much as 50 tons — back to Britainbefore ar......

The monument has baffled archaeologists who have argued for decades over the stone circle's 5,000-year history but academic Rupert Till believes he has solved the riddle by suggesting it may have been used for ancient raves. Mr Till, an expert in acoustics and music technology at Huddersfield University, West Yorks., believes the standing stones had the ideal acoustics to amplify a "repetitive trance rhythm".The original Stonehenge probably had a "very pleasant, almost concert-like acoustic" that our ancestors slowly perfected over many generations Because Stonehenge itself is partially collapsed, Dr Till, from York, North Yorks., used acomputer model to conduct experiments in sound.The most exciting discoveries came when he and colleague Dr Bruno Fazenda visited a full-size concrete replica of Stonehenge, with all the original stones intact, which was built as a war memorial by American road builder Sam Hill at Maryhill in Washington state. Although the replica has not previously gained any attention from archaeologists studying the original site, it was ideal for Dr Till's work. He said: "We were able to get some interesting results when we visited the replica by using computer-based acoustic analysis software, a 3D soundfield microphone, a dodecahedronic speaker, and a huge bass speaker from a PA company. "By comparing results from paper calculations, computer simulations based on digital models, and results from the concrete Stonehenge copy, we were able to come upwith some of these theories about the uses of Stonehenge. "We have also been able to reproduce the sound of someone speaking or clapping in Stonehenge 5,000 years ago. "The most interesting thing is we managed to get the whole space (at Maryhill) to resonate, almost like a wine glass will ring if you run a finger round it. "While that was happening a simple drum beat sounded incredibly dramatic.

The space had real character; it felt that we had gone somewhere special."

Copyright: Telegraph

A handful of scraps of charred wood and a little pile of stone chips - finds from the first excavation at Stonehenge in more than 40 years - have added thousands of years to the history of one of the world's most famous prehistoric monuments.There was no gold or bronze, but to the archaeologists who led the excavation, Professors Tim Darvill and Geoffrey Wainwright, the unlovely heap of finds is real treasure. They are convinced the stone chips are evidence of belief in the healing power of the "bluestones" brought 150 miles from south Wales, which endured long after the monument was thought to have been abandoned.The magicalbluestone, spotted dolerite which when newly quarried is a dark blue speckled with brilliant white stars of quartz, made Stonehenge into the Lourdes of prehistoric Europe, they believe, or as Darvill put it yesterday, "the accident and emergency unit of southern England". The charcoal fragments also add haunting new evidence to the Stonehenge story. Darvill and Wainwright revealed yesterday, at the Society of Antiquaries in London, that the earliest has been dated to 7,000BC, and the most recent to medieval times, suggesting that the site was already important 4,000 years before the oldest stone circle, and continued to draw visitors for centuries after it was believed to have been abandoned. Although they concede Stonehenge was probably "multifunctional", possibly also serving as a giant calendarmarking the solstices, as well as a site of ancestor worship, they are convinced its true importance came from the modest bluestones, the size of a man or smaller, dwarfed by the awesome sarsens. Two of the original bluestones were broken, many chipped into fragments, and some survive only as stumps underground after being broken up to serve as healing talismans. Organic remains, including a few specks of grain and seed, have allowed secure dating for the first time of the bluestone circle: around 2,300BC, three centuries later than previously thought. The stones were repeatedly moved and rearranged, and the enormous sarsen trilithons added, before the final outer circle of sarsen uprights and lintels was created around 1,900BC, creating the world-famous profile of the monument. Although the double-decker busheight s.......