Archaeologists believe it was built anywhere from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. Radiocarbon dating in 2008 suggested that the first stones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC, whilst another theory suggests that bluestones may have been raised at the site as early as 3000 BC.
The surrounding circular earth bank ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. The site and its surroundings were added to
UNESCO´s list of
World Heritage Sites in 1986 in a co-listing with
Avebury Henge. It is a national legally protected
Scheduled Ancient Monument. Stonehenge is owned by
The Crown and managed by English Heritage, while the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.
It has been called an astronomical observatory for marking significant events on the prehistoric calendar. Others claim that it was sacred site for the burial of high-ranking citizens from the societies of long ago. While we can´t say with any degree of cerainty what it was for, we can say that it wasn´t constructed for any casual purpose. Only something very important to the ancients would have been worth the effort and investment that it took to construct Stonehenge.
The Stones we see today represent Stonehenge in ruin. Many of the original stones have fallen or been removed by previous generations for home construction or road repair. There has been serious damage to some of the smaller bluestones resulting from close visitor contact(prohibited since 1978) and the prehistoric carvings on the larger sarsen stones show signs of significant wear.
The construction of Stonehenge was an impressive engineering fear, requiring commitment, time and vast amounts of manual labor. In its first phase, Stonehenge was a large earthwork; a bank and ditch arrangement called a henge, constructed approximately 5000 years ago. It is believed that the ditch was dug with tools made from the antlers of red deer and, possibly wood. The underlying chalk was loosened with picks and shoveled with the shoulderblades of cattle. It was then loaded into baskets and carried away. Modern experiments have shown that these tools were more than equal to the great task of earth digging and moving.
About 2000 BC, the first stone circle (which is now the inner circle), comprised of small bluestones, was set up, but abandoned before completion. The stones used in that first circle are believed to be from the Prescelly Mountains, located roughly 240 miles away, at the southwestern tip of wales. The bluestones weigh up to 4 tons each and about 80 stones were used, in all. Given the distance they had to travel, this presented quite a transportation problem.
Modern theories speculate that the stones were dragged by roller and sledge from the inland mountains to the headwaters of
Milford Haven. There they were loaded onto rafts, barges or boats and sailed along the south coast of Wales, then up the Rivers Avon and Frome to a point near present-day Frome in Somerset. From this point, so the theory goes, the stones were hayed overland, again, to a place near Warminster in Wilrshire, approximately 6 miles away. From there, it´s back into the pool for a slow float down the River Wylye to Salisbury, then up the Salisbury Avon to West Amesbury, leaving only a short 2 mile drag from West Amesbury to the Stonehenge site.
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| Stonehenge explained diagram |
Who built Stonehenge?
The question of who built Stonehenge is largely unanswered, even today. The monument´s construction has been attibuted to many ancient peoples throughout the years, but the most captivating and enduring attribution has been to the
Druids. This erroneous connection was first made around 3 centuries ago by the antiquary,
John Aubrey.
Julius Caesar and other Roman writers told of a Celtic priesthood who flourished around the time of their first conquest(55 BC). By this time, though, the stones had been standing for 2000 years, and were, perhaps, already in a ruined condition. Besides, the Druids worshipped in forest temples and had no need for stone structures.
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| Full Moon in Stonehenge |
The best guess seems to be that the Stonehenge site was begun by the people of the late Neolithic period (around 3000 BC) and carried forward by people from a new economy which was arising at this time. These a "new" people, called Beaker Folk because of their use of pottery drinking vessels, began to use metal implements and to live in a more communal fashion than their ancestors. Some think that they may have been immigrants from the continent, but that contention is not supported by archaeological evidence. It is likely that they were indigenous people doing the same old things in new ways.
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