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Stonehenge
Wiltshire, England

[Monday - 05/10/99] Among the many legends connected with this, the best known of all megalithic sites, is one telling of its construction by Merlin. He was asked by Arthur's father, King Uther Pendragon, to construct a fitting memorial for his brother Ambrosius and the warlords of Britain felled by Saxon treachery in the massacre known as the Night of the Long Knives. Merlin journeyed to Ireland in search of the fabled Giant's Dance, a circle of huge stones which Geoffrey of Monmouth (1135) claimed were brought by a tribe of giants from Africa to Ireland. After a great battle, Merlin conveyed the stones by magic to the shore of the sea, then floated them on rafts across to Britain and set them up again on the plain near Salisbury. Another legend claims that the stones were stolen from an Irish woman by the Devil, and re-erected on Salisbury Plain by Merlin for Ambrosius Aurelianus, the King of Britons.

It has been suggested that this story may contain a distant memory of the method by which the ancient blue stones, quarried in the Preseli Mountains far to the north, were brought by sea to the mouth of the River Avon and then taken inland on huge wooden rollers to their present site. Despite numerous theories which claim Stonehenge to be anything from an ancient observatory to a Druid temple, little is know about the true origin and purpose of this mighty stone circle.

Stonehenge stands in isolation on the undulating chalk of Salisbury Plain, west of Amesbury. At first sight, this enigmatic site appears smaller than you'd first expect, but the tallest upright stone is 6.7m (22ft) high and another 2.4m (8ft) below ground. It is worth noting that the nearest source of stones of the size represented by the large sarsens(the heaviest of which weighs about 45 tons) at Stonehenge is on the Marlborough Downs, about 30km (18 miles) to the NE.

Moving inwards from the Heel Stone there is an earthwork enclosure that consists of a ditch and an interior bank, the height of which was calculated by Professor Atkinson as being about 1.8m (6ft). It is known that there were at least two entrances, the one now visible (facing NE) and one to the south. Lying within the entrance is an unworked and now recumbent sarsen stone, stained a rusty red caused by rainwater acting on iron, and known as the Slaughter Stone. Arranged around the inner edge of the earthwork bank were originally four small uprights: the Station Stones, of which two can still be seen. Immediately adjacent to the bank there is a ring of 56 pits, known as the Aubrey Holes, marked by circular concrete spots. The area between the inner edge of the bank and the outermost stone settings includes at least two further settings of pits: the Y and Z holes.

On the central area of the site there are the stone settings, the sophisticate 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 SE 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.

In its complete form the outermost stone setting consisted of a circle of 30 upright sarsens, of which 17 still stand, each weighing about 25 tons. The tops of these uprights were linked by a continuous ring of horizontal sarsen lintels, only a small part of which is now still in position. The stones in the sarsen circle are carefully shaped and the horizontal lintels are jointed together not only by means of simple mortice-and-tenon joints, but they are also locked using what is effectively a dovetail joint. The edges are smoothed into a gentle curve which follows the line of the entire circle.

The bluestone setting, concentric the outer sarsen circle, consisted originally of about 60 stones but many have fallen, dissolved or been crushed. Inside these two circles lies the sarsen horseshoe, consisted originally of five sarsen trilithons (a Greek word that means three stones), each comprising two uprights and a horizontal lintel. Although now fragmentary, the arrangement shows the careful grading of the five trilithons, the tallest of which is 6.7m (22ft) high above ground level. Enfolded within this massive horseshoe, lies a smaller horseshoe arrangement of upright bluestones.

Current archaeological research shows that this site was constructed and modified on various phases, spanning several centuries:
Pre-Stonehenge (9th-8th millennium BC): at least 4 mesolithic pits which originally contained big pine posts, in a line about 200m from the present henge site.
Stonehenge 1 (from 3100 BC): construction of the circular bank, the ditch and the 56 Aubrey Holes which probably originally contained timber posts.
Stonehenge 2 (from 2550 BC): pottery, animal bones and cremated human remains placed in ditch; cremations deposited in some of the partially filled Aubrey Holes; complex of posts in interior and in entrance causeway.
Stonehenge 3 (from 2100 BC): sequence of stone-related structures. It's not possible a close dating, but the sequence should has been as follows:
1) Bluestones from Wales erected in q and r holes and then dismantled.
2) Sarsen circle and trilithons erected, possibly also a bluestone setting which may have included trilithons, this latter then dismantled.
3) Bluestone circle and oval setting.
4) Arc of bluestones removed from oval to leave present horseshoe setting.
5) Y and Z holes dug, probably for stones which were never erected; during this phase the avenue has also been constructed.

Stonehenge is a World Heritage Site and it is owned by the English Heritage, who, along with the National Trust, is working towards removing the A344 road which runs by the site and improving the landscape around the stones. Their aim is to restore Stonehenge to its isolated dignity. As a matter of fact, as one of the most visited monument in England, the site is always overwhelmed with tourists which, even on the rainy morning we visited, were legion.


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Last modified on Wednesday, November 26, 2008
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