Stone henge

WHY STONE HENGE BUILT?

    One of the great trilithon stones has numerous axes carved into it; another has a Mother-Goddess type of image carved in relief; and a third bears a splendid carved image of a distinguished human head facing west.

STONE HENGE

WHERE IS STONEHENGE?

  Stonehenge is in Wessex- part of central-southern England on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire .

WHAT  WAS  STONEHENGE  USED FOR,  AND WHY?

 These are the most testing questions.  Before outlining the most plausible answers in accordance with the facts of the latest archaeological and scientific scholarly research,  a summary of  the chief features of the monument are introduced.

WHEN AND HOW DID STONEHENGE BEGIN?

 For some 400 years beginning about 2950 BCE  the site was little more than a simple circular earthwork, inside of which was a space about 85 metres or some 90 yards in diameter but at the centre of which there appears to have been a simple wooden structure or  timber circle.  A ring of 56 pits lies close to the circumference of this open space, and according to the argument presented by Cleal, Walker and Montague (1995)  every pit formerly held a  timber post, thus forming a large-diameter timber circle.  The holes left after the decay of the ring of posts are called Aubrey Holes.  The Neolithic people later filled these pits with chalk and re-used them for ritual deposits.    The major causeway opening to the north-east embraces the direction of the most northerly risings of  both moon and sun.    Not until about 2550 BCE did construction of a ring of stones commence.  There being no natural stone on this part of the chalk plain, the stones had to be imported.

The first choice of stones, called bluestones, came from South-West Wales, 200 km to the west.  Between 60 and 80 bluestones arrived, each weighing 3-4 tons, and there was one exceptional stone at 8 tons which was placed near the centre, on the summer solsticial axis, at the focus of the monument.

   The later sarsen stones, weighing between 6 and 60 tonnes each, were dragged about 32 km (20 miles) southwards from near Avebury.   Sarsens are the fractured remnants of ancient sandstone beds dating from the Eocene some 26 million years ago. The photograph, taken in the direction of midsummer sunrise, indicates the immensity of the sarsens of the outer ring.  The overhead lintel, which weighs about 6 tons, is supported by 25-ton megaliths.

GEOMETRY OF STONEHENGE

One of the most compelling parts of the evidence is the mathematics which were used in the building, reflected in the geometrical form of the stones; their height, width, shape, distance apart and orientation. The most remarkable feature is in that every part of the building has been correlated around the number three, the golden number which has been incorporated throughout the whole design.

There were thirty beams in all, but only ten reached the apex. Every third beam was 56ft long. The remaining beams were shorter, at 48ft long. These were supported by cross members at the top, just short of the apex itself. Connecting the beams were three rings of cross members. The first ring, which is the largest, can be measured as being at half the height of the building. The second ring of cross members is at two thirds the height of the building and the third is where the roof covering would end. This made an aperture, or window, at the apex, so that direct light could penetrate virtually the whole of the interior.

From the level of the lintels of the outer Sarsens, a further thirty beams formed a buttress, supporting the weight (and therefore the outward thrust on the stones) of the roof. At ground level, these formed the shape of a star. The distance between each point of the star equals the height of the building!

The height of the Sarsen Circle is exactly one third of the overall height of the building.

The distance from the Sarsen Circle to the stone footings of the buttresses is one third of the diameter of the Circle.

From the centre of Stonehenge, the distance to the Sarsen Circle is exactly the height of the building.