Stonehenge is definitely one of England's greatest icons.Its original purpose is still somewhat unclear, but some have speculated that it was a temple made for worship of ancient earth deities.
It has also been called an astronomical observatory for marking significant events on the ancient prehistoric calendar.
Others claim that it was a sacred site created by Merlin and King Arthur for the burial of high-ranking citizens from societies of long ago.
No matter what the claim has been for Stonehenge's original purpose,
the truth is that it has inspired countless generations of people to strive to learn and figure out the history of our past.
Stonehenge is somewhat a "gateway to the realms" providing insights into humanities past and showing that maybe we were not as "technically challenged" as some would like us to believe.
The earliest portion of Stonehenge dates to approximately 2950-2900 BC.
The dates for each "period" can be fixed to about a 100 years or so with radiocarbon dating,
but as to the exact building sequence within each period archaeologist cannot be certain.
4 comments:
I have always been fascinated by Stonehenge. I hope that in the not too distant future the science of Archseology will advance and grant us clearer incites to its purpose and the identity of the builders. Its appearence is stunning and romantic and we could speculate about it in countless pages of commentary and fancy. I love the graphic, very eye catching.
Those rocks are amazing.. how they got them there???
..i have collections of the stonehenge paintings, done by myself
One theory I read how the stones got their was Leather ropes, strapped around huge boulders which would have been used to drag the stones onto wooden rollers. Then the stones were dragged to their destination. It has been estimated that as much as 1.5 million man-hours would have been needed to construct the bank and ditch and to transport the sarsen stones. Once at their site, a small shallow hole was excavated in the chalk, where the stone was to stand. Stakes were set into the chalk, opposite the stone, so that when the stone was raised into position, it would stop the stone falling over. Other stakes would have been driven into the ground to help guide the stone into its correct upright position. Great care was taken to ensure that the centre of gravity was directly over the hole.
Wether this is true I'm not sure as there have been many theories as to how they moved such heavy stones.
Cool blog great topics. Whats interesting is that in England and in Western Europe there are severl stone cirles like this built around the same time. Who ever built this had a large influence at the time.
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