PREPARED BY : MISHA SANGHVI (0943)GUIDED BY : MISS. ADITI JOSHI

STONE HENGE

HISTORY OF STONE HENGE: Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English

county of Wiltshire, about 2.0 miles (3.2 km) west of Amesbury

and 8 miles (13 km) north of Salisbury. One of the most famous

sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting

of large standing stones set within earthworks. It is at the centre

of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age

monuments in England, including several hundred Burial mounds.

Archaeologists believe the iconic stone monument was

constructed anywhere from 3000 BC to 2000 BC, as described in

the chronology below. Radiocarbon dating in 2008 suggested

that the first stones were erected in 2400–2200 BC,[whilst

another theory suggests that bluestones may have been erected

at the site as early as 3000 BC.

Mike Parker Pearson, leader of the Stonehenge Riverside

Project based at Durrington Walls, noted that Stonehenge

appears to have been associated with burial from the

earliest period of its existence:

Stonehenge was a place of burial from its beginning to its

zenith in the mid third millennium B.C. The cremation

burial dating to Stonehenge's sarsen stones phase is likely

just one of many from this later period of the monument's

use and demonstrates that it was still very much a domain

of the dead.

PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION :

FIRST STAGE : The first Stonehenge was a large earthwork probably built around

3100 BC.

They formed a circle. Archaeologists found cremated human bones,

but they were probably from part of a religious ceremony.

After that, the monument didn’t change until 1000 years later.

SECOND STAGE : It started around 2150 BC. About 82 bluestones from the Preseli

mountains in south-west Wales were brought to the site. This

journey was nearly 240 miles.

Once there, the stones were set up in the centre to make an

incomplete double circle.

THIRD STAGE : It started in 2000 BC. The Sarsen stones that they used

were probably brought from the Marlborough Downs area

near Avebury, about 25 miles north of Stonehenge.

These were placed in an outer circle. Inside the circle,

there were also five trilithons, that still remain today.

FINAL STAGE : After 1500 BC the bluestones were moved into the

horseshoe and circle that we see today.

Most of the bluestones have been removed or broken.

POSSIBLE THEORIES ABOUT STONE HENGE :

Stonehenge was an astronomical observatory :

They could predict eclipses, lunar phases and seasons.

Nevertheless, it was possible that it was not the original

function because it took more than 1000 years to finish it.

Stonehenge was a cemetery :

Scientists found human bones buried there.

Stonehenge was a religious temple

People went there because the Druids could give them

magic power and cure their illnesses.

INCREDIBLE THEORIES :

Stonehenge was built by Apollo’s followers who lived in the

north of Europe and were documented in Greek mythology.

Stonehenge was a place where UFOs landed.

Stonehenge was created in the first years of the XX

century to attract tourists.

Stonehenge was built by the wizard Merlin. He made it

himself by raising the stones with his magical power.

STONEHENGE 3 I (CA. 2600 BC)

Stonehenge from the heelstone in 2007 with the 'Slaughter Stone' in the foreground.

Stonehenge at sunset in 2004

Stonehenge in the late afternoon in 2008.

Plan of the central stone structure today. After Johnson 2008

Fisheye image of Stonehenge

showing the circular layout

Graffiti on the sarsen stones.

Below are ancient carvings of a dagger and

an axe

STONEHENGE 3 I (CA. 2600 BC)

Archaeological excavation has indicated that around 2600 BC, the

builders abandoned timber in favour of stone and dug two

concentric arrays of holes (the Q and R Holes) in the centre of the

site. These stone sockets are only partly known (hence on present

evidence are sometimes described as forming ‘crescents’);

however, they could be the remains of a double ring. Again, there is

little firm dating evidence for this phase. The holes held up to 80

standing stones (shown blue on the plan), only 43 of which can be

traced today. The bluestones (some of which are made of dolerite,

an igneous rock), were thought for much of the 20th century to

have been transported by humans from the Preseli Hills, 150 miles

(240 km) away in modern-day Pembrokeshire in Wales.

Another theory that has recently gained support is that they were

brought much nearer to the site as glacial erratics by the Irish Sea

Glacier.Other standing stones may well have been small sarsens, used

later as lintels. The stones, which weighed about four tons, consisted

mostly of spotted Ordovician dolerite but included examples of

rhyolite, tuff and volcanic and calcareous ash; in total around 20

different rock types are represented. Each monolith measures around

2 metres (6.6 ft) in height, between 1 m and 1.5 m (3.3–4.9 ft) wide

and around 0.8 metres (2.6 ft) thick. What was to become known as

the Altar Stone (1), is almost certainly derived from either

Carmarthenshire or the Brecon Beacons and may have stood as a

single large monolith.