Stonehenge - Page Intro

Facts, figures and unanswered questions to ponder before accepting any of the following theories. Keep an open mind and realize that only theories exist.....so far.

"...Because Stonehenge is situated in an area rich in burial tombs, it may have had some relevance in burial rituals. Its shape, which resembles that of Neolithic ceremonial buildings, however, points more to its possible use as a shrine for the living rather than for the dead..."

"...The experts are now unanimous that the designers of Stonehenge exhibited a remarkable knowledge of astronomy. Nowhere is this more evident than in the rectangle formed by the four Station Stones, which marks an exact alignment to the eight key points of the 18.6-year cycle of the Moon. However, whilst such complex astronomical alignments are no longer disputed, their significance continues to be the source of much controversy..."

Two thousand years prior to the elucidation of the Pythagorean triangle theorems and at least 3000 years before the discovery, the concept and value of Pi, the British megalithic builders were incorporating these mathematical understandings into their stone rings...

"...The sun rises in different directions in different geographical latitudes. For the alignment to be correct, it must have been calculated precisely for Stonehenge's latitude of 51 11'. The alignment, therefore, must have been fundamental to the design and placement of Stonehenge..."

"...Dr Geoffrey Wainwright has published a thesis suggesting that 20-feet high wooden totem poles were erected and worshipped by our neolithic ancestors. However, can we really believe that a group of people just happened to select this unique lunar-aligned location for religious worship, or were these totem poles in fact astronomical markers, forerunners of what was to come just over 5,000 years later?..."

While most of the links below have graphics, sites with mostly or all graphic presentations are at the end of the page. Book Mark = Galleries

America's Stonehenge is one of the largest and possibly oldest megalithic (stone-constructed) sites in North America. Like Stonehenge in England, America's Stonehenge was built by ancient people well versed in astronomy and stone construction. It has been determined that the site is an accurate astronomically aligned calendar. It was and still can be used to determine specific solar and lunar events of the year.

How could Celtic writing, a style reminiscent of that from the first millennium B.C., be in America? Who were the authors of the many rock engravings? How could the carvers possibly have gotten to America a thousand years before the birth of Christ? Why had they come and what evidence is there to support such a far-fetched notion? And what of the large stone structures found across the American northeast, eerily similar to types found in Europe? -[By Paul Tudor Angel]-

September Special (Still available as of Nov. 7): For a limited time the $5.00 price has been waived and this product is 100% FREE. Get it while you can! Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader version 3.0 or greater, FREE.

"More than nine hundred stone rings exist in the British Isles, and scholars estimate that twice that number may originally have been built. (I refer to these megalithic structures as rings rather than circles since only 2 percent of the structures are in the shape of true circles; the other 98 percent are constructed in a variety of elliptical shapes. Stonehenge, however, is roughly circular.) It is nearly impossible to precisely date the stone rings because of the scarcity of datable remains associated with them, but it is known that they were constructed during the Neolithic period. In southern England the Neolithic period dates from the development of the first farming communities around 4000 BC..." -[SacredSites.com]-

"Stonehenge may be, in many peoples' minds, the most mysterious place in the world. This set of concentric rings and horseshoe shapes on the empty Salisbury Plain, is, at the age of 4,000 years, one of the oldest, and certainly best preserved, megalithic (that means large, often ancient, stone) structures on Earth. It is a fantastic construction with many of the larger stones involved weighing 25 tons and quarried from a location 18 miles away. The rings and horseshoes of Sarsen (a type of sandstone) also carry massive lintels connecting them so that when they were all in place there was a ring of stone in the sky as well as on the ground." -[Copyright Lee Krystek]-

"...the archaeological evidence at Stonehenge simply does not support an Arthurian date of construction. The archaeology points to a construction date between 5,000 and 3,000 years ago (more than likely, several construction dates over this time). Stonehenge is angled such that on the equinoxes and the solstices, the sun rising over the horizon appears to be perfectly placed between gaps in the megaliths. This is doubtless not an accident, and probably contributed to the stories of its mysterious origins." -[copyright Julie Raybon and Merrie Haskell]-

"Technically speaking, Stonehenge is a cluster of dolmens - dolmen being a Cornish word that means holestone, namely any large stone upended and fixed in a hole in the ground. There are dolmens of one sort or another all over southern England and much of Western Europe. For the most part these dolmens, wherever they occur, are oblong slabs of stone, one end of which is set in a hole. Occasionally, they are finished stones; more often, they remain in their natural state and were chosen for their shape and symmetry."

"On the central area of the site there are the stone settings, the sophisticated arrangements that set Stonehenge apart from any other prehistoric monument in Europe. In their construction two types of stone were used: sarsen and bluestone. The sarsens used in the central settings are much larger. The bluestone is a mixture of rocks found on the Preseli Mountains in SW Wales. The most widely accepted theory regards the arrival of the bluestones on Salisbury Plain as the result of human effort, with the route being partly overland and partly by water." -[ 1996-2001 Paola Arosio/Diego Meozzi]-

"Stonehenge began as a Neolithic monument, built and re-built in several stages over a very long period time, culminating in a final building stage in the early bronze age. The first Stonehenge, called Stonehenge I, was a circular monument; radio-carbon dating dates it to 2180 B.C. E. A low ditch and bank system with a single entry way and a wooden building in the middle completed the first building stage. The ditch and low ridge of the bank are still visible today; just inside of them are 56 aubrey holes, named after the 17 century gentleman scholar, John Aubrey, who first rediscovered them."

Very technical - following links will explain Radiocarbon dating, Liquid Scintillation Counting or Accelerator Mass Spectrometry and more.

"As part of the post-excavation process a major programme of radiocarbon dating was undertaken to provide a reliable set of dates for the Monument which archaeologists can be confident in using."

"To carry out this work the English Heritage Scientific Dating Service gathered and co-ordinated a multi-disciplinary team of experts, consisting of the archaeological team from Wessex Archaeology, the high-precision radiocarbon dating laboratory of the Queen's University of Belfast, and the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit."

This site is maintained in the international public interest by the Megalithic Society for the benefit of visitors, enthusiasts and scholars who require the most recent, reliable information on these major prehistoric sites. They have been prepared for the Society by Prof / Dr Terence Meaden.

Images & Galleries

Click on image to see an enlarged version. "Visitors see today the remains of the final stage of Stonehenge, a prehistoric temple used as a place of worship and burial. In its first stage it was a large earthwork--"henge"--a bank and ditch.." - For Gallery, scroll down)

Photographed by Isamu Noguchi, 1950s. Photo only, no links out. Choose "New Window" and close window after viewing.

     

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