Stonehenge

Stonehenge is one of the most recognized formations of megalithic architecture and has a long history of speculation as to its builders, age, function, and changes over time. Located on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, it is one of over nine hundred such circles of standing stones in Great Britain alone. Thousands more are evident in France (especially along the coast of Brittany), Spain, Denmark, Italy, and Malta.

Megalithic (mega = large, lithos = stone) architecture is generally characterized by three components: a tumulus; a large artificial mound or communal burial site; and a collection of large stones. It is one of the major characteristics of the western European Neolithic age and represents one of the earliest known stone architectures in the world. This architecture appeared from the fifth millennium B.C.E. as the agrarian way of life compelled a more sedentary existence. It can be termed simple when it involves a single standing stone, a menhir, placed in stark contrast with the surroundings; open but more complex [Page 2131]if many standing stones are arranged in a circle, semi-circle, or aligned in parallel rows; and closed when the stones are used to construct a burial chamber and covered with a tumulus.

A henge is an English term denoting a usually circular, prehistoric structure and earthworks, which can consist of a ditch, mound, wood, and a series of standing stones, of which Stonehenge provides one of the most striking examples.

Source: © iStockphoto/René Mansi.

The construction of Stonehenge has been divided into roughly three periods. The first division, using radiocarbon dating methods, is calculated at ca. 3000 BC and was composed of a circular enclosure surrounded by two banks of earthworks, with the outer bank 380 feet in diameter, 8 feet wide, and about 3 feet high, and with a ditch between. The ditch varied in width between 10 to 20 feet and 5 to 7 feet in depth. Artifacts taken from the ditch confirm the date of construction. The inner bank was composed of a local chalk work about 6 feet high and20 feet wide, with a diameter of 320 feet upon which were positioned a pair of portal stones. To the northeast was a 35-foot entrance or avenue with a standing stone set back a short distance. This naturally shaped standing or heel stone, weighing about 30 tons, is about 20 feet long by8 feet wide by 7 feet thick, with the lower 4 feet buried in the ground. It is inclined inward toward the circle at an angle of 30º from the perpendicular but is thought to have been erect originally. The stone is composed of sarsen, a very hard sandstone with a source at Marlborough Downs some 20 miles to the north. Stonehenge is composed of a variety of local materials and denotes a familiarity with the geological composition, texture, durability, and color.

Toward the end of this period, 56 Aubrey or X holes were dug inside the circle and varied from 2.5 to 6 feet in width and 2 to 4 feet in depth, spaced rather evenly in a 288-foot diameter circle. These holes were named after their 17th-century discoverer, John Aubrey, who described the filled-in circles that bordered the embankment. He speculated that Stonehenge served as a temple and that the avenue was oriented toward the point on the horizon where the sun would rise on the summer solstice. The heel stone added further weight to the directional hypothesis as it is placed in a direct line of sight for an observer standing exactly in the middle of the circle.

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