Essay on Stonehenge

Located in Wiltshire England, Stonehenge is a World Heritage site consisting of 4,500 year-old stones with some reaching heights up to 4.5m (15ft). Ever since the Middle Ages, the site has been one of the greatest mysteries in Europe being subject to multiple speculations and theories.

The Stonehenge placement was in Salisbury Plain, not far from the town of Amesbury, Wiltshire. The work of art was made up of various things including earth, timber, and stone structures. This work of art was remodeled and revised over more than 1400 years. In order to build the master piece, it had to be done in phases. Phase I is where the beginning of the construction started. They made a large circle that was surrounded by ditch then following a bank going inwards to the 56 Aubrey holes that would hold wooden posts, Phase II, the Aubrey holes eventually didn’t hold post but they became filled, some with cremation deposits. Phase III, consisted of adding the stone structure which were called the Bluestones that were placed in Q and R holes, the Sarsen Circle was made with trilithons

Over a span of 2,000 years, monuments have been added to Stonehenge. While most are buried today, they are still visible and well preserved. Stonehenge’s features include the Aubrey Holes, 350 burial mounds, Cursus, Woodhenge, Durrington Walls Henge, Stonehenge Avenue, and West Amesbury Henge. The Aubrey Holes were the first monuments in Stonehenge, built around 3,000 BCE. The Aubrey Holes were 56 pits inside of a circular enclosure formed by a bank and a ditch. Its main purpose was to store cremated ashes of dead bodies. After the Aubrey Holes were made, bluestones and sarsens were dragged from long distances to construct the circular stone monument. The 350 burial mounds were long barrows meant to cremate and bury the dead. The Cursus, built from 3600 to 3400 BCE, were two long earthwork enclosures. Both Woodhenge and Durrington Walls Henge were timber circle monuments built in 2,300 and 2,500 BCE, respectively. Stonehenge Avenue was an ancient road that lead to Stonehenge monument and was built from 2,500 to 1,700 BCE. Finally, West Amesbury Henge was a stone circle monument built in 2,400

Stonehenge was built during three distinct periods. Each took centuries to built, its unknown why each stage ended abruptly

Fire was the best way to attack the early Motte and Bailey castles since they were made entirely of wood. The fire might be started by building a bonfire against the outer wooden fence (palisade) or, more usually, by archers shooting fire-arrows into the castle. As the fire spread through the castle those living inside would be forced to leave allowing the attackers to take them prisoner or kill them. This was one of the reasons why Motte and Bailey castles were soon replaced by Stone Keep castles. Fire has little effect on a stone castle.

How did stone age people accomplish these vast amount of work? During a excavation, the Pearson’s team found a pick made of antler of red deer. Stone age people used these antler picks to dug the ditches and pits of the Stonehenge. But, how do they move stone to where they need to be? Some stones weight up 45 tons. The method is still unknown. Many archeologists have their guesses such as roller made of tree trunks, timber tracks with grease. A new theory was suggested by the Andrew Young in his Ph.D. thesis that stone age people might know how to use a ball-rolling technology to move large stones. Once stones were move to the location, they were carved to desired shape by hammer stones, which was found near the Stonehenge. The construction of Stonehenge is liked the space progrom for modern time

Stonehenge history is one of the unsolved mystery by itself because the size of the stones. 3000 B.C. was a rough age that’s the people didn’t had the technology to carry these rocks. Researchers found that the gigantic stone used to build Stonehenge were brought from different area. The assumption is that the stones were carried and brought from somewhere else not close.

It is believed to have been built by people from all over Great Britain, based on archaeologists’ analysis of cows’ teeth found near Stonehenge. It is likely that these people travelled to the area specifically to work on the project (Feder 308). Construction on Stonehenge began about 5,000 years ago and was not completed until about 1,500 years later. Stonehenge was built in stages; the first step being to excavate a ditch (Feder 305). Once the ditch was perfectly circular, stones were carried in and arranged. To get some stones on top of others, it is believed a scaffolding and lever system was devised to raise the top stones high enough to be place over the others (Feder 306). The building of Stonehenge involved complicated planning and execution as far as designing it and engineering ways to move the large stones. This is evidence of social complexity because the people responsible were advanced enough to design and create this. Stonehenge also shows evidence of social complexity because elaborate burials suggest it was a place of ritual significance (Feder 308). The Amesbury Archer is the name given to the remains of a man found in what Feder describes as “the most impressive of the graves,” due to his adornment with “gold jewelry, copper knives, and flint tools” (Feder 308-309). Based on analysis of the Amesbury Archer man’s wounded leg and the isotopes in his teeth, archeologists believe Stonehenge may have been a

Since it is a prehistoric monument many scholars and researchers debate between each other wondering why it was built and who built it. They believe that is was built on sacred ground and the theories on why it was built are many. Some believe that the culture group who built the Stonehenge used it as part of their rituals. Others also say that the Stonehenge marks the unification of Britain which is when the people worked together across the land. Without the help of large machines and many tools the people who created the Stonehenge took many years to create this huge monument.It began to be built around 3000 B.C and continued to be remodeled for 1,500 years. The location of this rock structure is on a slight hill on Salisbury Plain, in a part of England called Wessex, about 80 miles west of London. The use of Stonehenge is uncertain but many ideas have come to the surface about it. They think it was built for a combination of ritual, including seasoned festivals linked to the observation to the sun and possibly the moon. Since it took about 1,200 to 1,500 years to build different parts of it, there was probably different uses for each time. The people who are believed to had built Stonehenge is a people called the Druids. Druids were native priests, poets, and seers of present day France. But even now there is little known about the Druids. The Stonehenge consisted of a serie of circles of rocks and it contained 162 stones. Today only 83 remain standing. The rocks usually ranged from weighing four tons to twenty six tons. The height of the major stones that were on the outside were up to thirty feet but there were even higher than that because eight feet of the stone was buried for support. The Stonehenge is a confusing, mysterious landmark that is hard even for scholars to

Astronomical observations would have indeed taken place, However rather than being for the sake of accumulating data regarding the movement of celestial bodies, like modern observations, it was solely for the purpose observations that were most likely intended to indicate the appropriate days of the yearly ritual cycle.Stonehenge was most likely primarily used as a ritual site, while its secondary purpose was an astronomical observation site in service to these rituals, rituals that were performed by account civilisations that act as a renewing and connecting process, thereby connecting the people to the land. (The Stonehenge: Stonehenge rituals) The set of ring and horseshoe shapes on the empty Salisbury Plain, are approximately 4,000 years

Stonehenge has always been questioned for what it is by people around the world for generations. What is it? what does it represent? Who built it? Was it aliens? Ok, maybe not the last question, but even today there are many different ideas for what it was used for. Just recently, at a site called Blick Mead, David Jacques, an archaeologist at the University of Buckingham, discovered a house that could be one of England’s earliest, dating back to 4,300 B.C.. The area of Blick Mead is about a mile from Stonehenge. Even though when this house was in use, Stonehenge was not even close to becoming erected, it still plays a role in Stonehenge. Stonehenge is the most iconic monument and is listed as one of the wonders of the world, but it is

No place has generated so much speculation and wild theories as the standing stones of Stonehenge. After traveling for miles through the rolling hills and plains of the English countryside the sight of this unusual structure made me gasp. A walk around it only provoked more strange feelings. There's a sense that this is something very important. For over 5000 years it has stood silent vigil over the

Stonehenge was build by 3 different tribes. Stonehenge was build 5,000 years ago when the 3 tribes created Stonehenge. We excavated bones from humans and animals. In between 3100 B.C and 1600 B.C the Stonehenge was growing up. I think the Stonehenge was build by the England group.

A lot of these stone circles no longer stand, like the ones at Carnac. Stone Henge, the most famous of the megaliths, is located in Wiltshire, England, and was built around 3000 – 2000 BC. The biggest stones at Stone Henge are the sarsen stones, averaging height about 30 feet and weight 25 tons. The sarsen stones make up the posts and lintels at the site, meaning that upright stones hold the flat stones on top of them. Smaller stones, known as bluestones, make up the inner circle of Stone Henge, usually weighing around 4 tons. Stone Henge's architecture lines up with astronomical events, like the Summer Solstice. On the Summer Solstice, the sun rises behind a marker stone, known as the Heel Stone. The sun's rays shine through the posts that align perfectly with the Heel Stone, creating a powerfully aligned image. A ditch surrounding the megalithic site contains human remains, some of which have been identified as humans from other places, not just people native to the area. There are remains of a metal worker that4 lived in Germany around 3000 BCE and a little boy from the Mediterranean that was buried around 5000 BCE. This suggests that people may have pilgrimaged here as a place for burial. It seems that the neolithic people that built Stone Henge had a vast knowledge of astronomy, architecture, and engineering. It is largely believed that this colossal site was primarily used for religious ceremonies that took taking place with astronomical

If the rocks were ever repainted in the past, it is unknown as the weather would have wiped off all remnants of other possible hues. The stone circles are built from two types of rock. The massive sarsens, a sandstone and smaller igneous rocks, known as the bluestones. The sarsen stones are from Marlborough, U.K., 30 kilometers north of Stonehenge while the bluestones are from the Preseli Hills in north Pembrokeshire, Wales. The stones helped to transform the layout of the monument so that it was aligned on the sunrise on the longest day of the year; and sunset on the shortest day.