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In the course of its existence, Stonehenge has been demolished and rebuilt several times between about 3100 and 1100 BC. The once-complete Stonehenge was comprised of a fully lintelled stone circle, enclosing an inner horseshoe arrangement of stones, open on the north-east side. An earth bank and ditch surrounded the circle.
Theories about who built Stonehenge have included the Druids, Greeks, Phoenicians, and Atlanteans. Speculation on the reason it was built range from human sacrifice to astronomy.
Three very distinct phases make up Stonehenges development.
- Up to around 4000 BC, the prehistoric people of southern Britain lived in scattered groups, surviving on hunted game and fish and eating wild plants. They lived in skin tents, neither growing their own crops nor keeping animals. Their tools were made out of flint, bone or deer antler. There was little open grassland and the landscape was rough and woody, making living conditions very difficult. By 4000 BC, groups throughout Britain and Ireland practised primitive farming methods and kept animals, some slaughtered for food and leather clothing, and others herded. Raw materials, such as grain, exchanged hands and when the land was exhausted new crops were sown on cleared land. Their "important" dead were entombed in communal narrow mounds called "long barrows". By late Neolithic times, around 3000 BC, populations had expanded vastly and much of the forest had been replaced by open grassland and scrub. About this time, the first structures of Stonehenge were built. Initially, it was a large earthwork "henge"; a place of Neolithic worship and burial. The original entrance to Stonehenge was from "the Avenue"; a processional walkway in alignment with the midsummer sunrise in the north-east.
Soon after 2500 BC, our ancestors began working with metals and laid the foundations of the British bronze industry. Around 2100 BC, Stonehenge, by this time abandoned, was rebuilt using "bluestones" from the Preseli Mountains in Wales. It was customary for the people to bury their dead, singly, under a circular mound or "round barrow". A beaker or drinking-vessel, and sometimes a weapon of bronze, copper or flint, a symbol of rank and authority, was placed in the barrow with them. Women were buried with bead necklaces and other ornaments.
By about 2000 BC, this type of burial was practised universally, and nowhere is the evidence more abundant than in the landscape surrounding Stonehenge. Overseas trading of bronze tools and gold ornaments flourished in this era. The leading families were buried in clusters around the circle, and excavations of some barrows have uncovered objects imported from Brittany, Holland and central Europe. It was these wealthy, powerful families of Salisbury Plain who commanded that Stonehenge be rebuilt again around this period. The "temple" was built using "sarsens"; much larger stones quarried from the Marlborough Downs. The bluestones were arranged within the circle. The ruins of this third stage are what we see today.
It is evident that after 1500 BC, and for reasons unknown, this rich community lost its importance and went into a rapid decline. After this period, just a few more round barrows, but no more new monuments, were built. However, the Avenue was extended around 1100 BC. The barrow lying closest to the stone circle, perhaps that of the richest and most influential person of the time, was excavated just 180 years ago. Inside, bones were discovered along with gilded objects including a golden breast plate. Prehistoric carvings can be found on four of the sarsen uprights. These are thought to represent the figure of a mother-goddess, full-size bronze axe-heads of the Early Bronze Age and a bronze dagger.
Stonehenge is one of the wonders of the world and has today experienced a longer period of continuous use than most other prehistoric monuments. In short, the Druids used this prolific monument, but well after it had already been in existance.
Glastonbury
Some folkloric traditions and mythographic examinations suggest that Glastonbury Tor is the mythic Isle of Avalon. If, for example, the nearby river were to flood, the Tor would be an island. A certain thorn tree is said to be the descendant of the staff of Joseph of Arimathea, which was changed into a thorn tree when he set it there (the Thorn is sacred to faeries!), when he brough the Grail to Britain. Avalon means "Isle of Apples", and apple orchards do grow there. Some archaeologists believe that, if one accounts for centuries of erosion, the sides of the Tor are terraced into the shape of a Cretan Maze pattern. Whether or not the region is Druidic, anyone who has meditated by the nearby Chalice Well knows it is a holy place. |
