Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a prehistoric megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, about two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury. Its outer ring is made of tall, upright sarsen standing stones. Each stone is about 13 feet (4.0 m) high and seven feet (2.1 m) wide. Flat stones called lintels sit on top. They are held in place with mortise and tenon joints, which is special for monuments of its time.

Inside the outer ring is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these stand free-standing trilithons. Each trilithon is two large upright sarsens with a single lintel on top. The monument is now in ruins. It is lined up with the sunrise on the summer solstice and the sunset on the winter solstice. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of a area with many Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred tumuli (burial mounds).

Stonehenge was built in several phases, starting about 3100 BC and continuing until about 1600 BC. The famous circle of large sarsen stones was put in place between 2600 BC and 2400 BC. The circular earth bank and ditch around it are the earliest part, dating to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the bluestones were moved to their current positions between 2400 and 2200 BC, although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC.

Stonehenge is one of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom and is seen as a British cultural icon. It has been a legally protected scheduled monument since the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882 was passed. The site and its surroundings were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown Estate and looked after by English Heritage, while the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.

Stonehenge may have been a burial ground from its earliest days. Human bones have been found in deposits dating from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug. Burials continued for at least another 500 years.

For other uses, see Stonehenge (disambiguation).

Etymology

The Oxford English Dictionary mentions a 10th-century word list by Ælfric. In it, "henge-cliff" means a steep cliff or a stone. So the name "stanenges" or "Stanheng," which 11th-century writers recorded "not far from Salisbury," meant "stones held up in the air." In 1740, William Stukeley wrote that he thought Stonehenge meant "hanging stones" in Saxon.

Christopher Chippindale explains that the name comes from two Old English words. "Stān" means stone, and "hencg" means hinge. The name fits because the lintels, the stones laid across the top, seem to hinge on the upright stones. He also mentions other possible origins, such as "hen(c)en," which means to hang or gallows. The "henge" part of the name gave its name to a group of monuments called henges. Archaeologists describe henges as circular earthworks with a banked enclosure and an internal ditch. This is an older term that comes from antiquarian use.

Early history

Mike Parker Pearson ([/w/0]), who led the Stonehenge Riverside Project based around Durrington Walls, noted that Stonehenge seems to have been a place of burial from the start. The monument was built in several stages over at least 1500 years. People may have been active on and around the site for about 6500 years. Around 8000 BC, people set up large wooden posts there, and a settlement that may have existed at the same time was found at Blick Mead. Around 3100 BC, the first monument was built as a circular bank and ditch made of chalk. It also had a ring of pits called the Aubrey holes, named after John Aubrey. In 2013, a team led by Parker Pearson studied the remains of many people. Radiocarbon dating showed that the site was about 500 years older than people had thought, around 3000 BC.

Around 2600 BC, the builders switched from wood to stone. They brought the bluestones from the Preseli Hills in Wales. Later, 30 huge sarsen stones were brought from West Woods in Wiltshire and set up in a circle. Stones were placed across the top to form a ring. Inside stood five trilithons. The Altar Stone and the Heel Stone also date from this time. The bluestones were later set up again. The last known construction, the Y and Z Holes, was built around 1600 BC. People used the site during the Iron Age. They visited it during the Middle Ages and have studied it ever since.

Main article: Y and Z Holes

Function and construction

Main article: Theories about Stonehenge

See also: Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge

The people who built Stonehenge did not write anything down, so many things about it are still a mystery. This includes how it was built and what it was used for. Parts of the site line up with the sun at certain times of year. Simple tools such as shear legs have been shown to move stones of a similar size. One common idea is that builders rolled stones along tracks made of logs. In 1995, a team of more than 100 workers pulled a 40-ton slab 18 miles (29 km) from the Marlborough Downs near Stonehenge.

People have had many ideas about why the site was built. One idea is that it was an observatory, as Gerald Hawkins described in the 1960s. Another is that it was a place of healing, like Lourdes. This idea was suggested by Geoffrey Wainwright, president of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and Timothy Darvill of Bournemouth University.

Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University sees the site as part of a ritual landscape linked to Durrington Walls. Some people buried at the site grew up in other regions, such as the Amesbury Archer and the Boscombe Bowmen. In the twelfth century, Geoffrey of Monmouth was the first to suggest that the stones had healing powers. The bluestones appear to have come from the Preseli hills in Wales. The sarsens came from West Woods. Researchers found that the bluestones ring like bells. This quality is also found in rocks from the village of Maenclochog. Lithophonic rocks were once believed to have mystical powers.

Stonehenge-builders and DNA studies

See also: Neolithic Europe, Chalcolithic Europe, and Genetic history of Europe

Farming came to the British Isles. But between 3300 and 1500 BC, many people there stopped growing grain crops. Instead, many lived as pastoralists who followed a subsistence pattern. They gathered hazelnuts and raised pigs and cattle. Most of Stonehenge's major building phases happened during this time. There is unclear evidence of large-scale farming then. Similar links between non-grain farming and big monument building can be seen at Poverty Point and Sannai Maruyama.

Scientists studied DNA from Neolithic people in Britain. They found that the builders of Stonehenge I and II were closely related to early and middle Neolithic people in Iberia and Central Europe. These people had about 75% ancestry from Early European Farmers and about 25% from Western Hunter-Gatherers. The farmers reached Britain around 4,000 BC, mostly by a route through Iberia.

Stonehenge III was built between 2600 and 2400 BC. Around 2,500 BC, the Bell Beaker people migrated to Britain from mainland Europe. They lived side by side with the earlier people for about 500 years. The Bell Beaker people probably included the henge structures in their beliefs. Later, the population of Britain changed greatly. Most of Britain's earlier Neolithic gene pool was replaced when the Bell Beaker people arrived. They had about 50% Western Steppe Herders ancestry.

Roman era

In 1979, Richard J. C. Atkinson used new stratigraphical techniques to test an old idea. Some people had thought the Roman army tried to tear down the monument to stop druidic resistance. Atkinson said that the stone pieces he had once linked to the Roman period were actually made by the first builders, or came from digging in the Middle Bronze Age.

A dig in 2008, along with a review of older digs, suggested that Stonehenge was busy during the Roman era. People did not just visit now and then. Coins from the late fourth century, many pieces of Roman-era pottery, and animal bones from food animals buried in pits showed that the site was important for ceremonies. A square trench held a bluestone slab and a Roman coin. It was thought to be a grave.

Medieval period

In 1926, William Hawley dug up the skeleton of a man who was between 28 and 32 years old. It was found inside the stone circles, near Y-Hole 9 on the central line. Scientists used radiocarbon testing to date the find to between 600 and 690 AD. Archaeologist Mike Pitts thinks the man may have died in a sacrifice or as a punishment ordered by a court. He believes this shows that Stonehenge was still important during the Middle Ages.

Pitts also points to post holes near the grave. He thinks they may have held a gallows. This would connect to the older name of henge, which means hanging. Aubrey Burl disagrees. He believes the name comes from the shape of the trilithons, which look a bit like a structure for hanging several people at once.

Modern history

See also: Summer Solstice at Stonehenge

Many people have studied Stonehenge over the centuries. In 1740, the architect John Wood, the Elder made the earliest accurate plan of the stones. William Gowland led the first major repair in 1901. He straightened a stone that was in danger of falling. Later, Julian C. Richards studied the land around the site. The Stonehenge Riverside Project, led by Mike Parker Pearson, ran from 2003 to 2008. In 2020, a study led by David Nash of the University of Brighton found that the large sarsen stones closely matched stones at West Woods. West Woods is about 15 miles (25 km) north of Stonehenge. Research at Waun Mawn, a stone circle in the Preseli Hills, suggested that some stones may have been moved from there to Stonehenge.

Stonehenge had several owners after King Henry VIII took the land. In 1915, it was put up for sale. Cecil Chubb bought the site and gave it to the nation three years later. In 1927, people raised money to "save the skyline," and the land was later cared for by the National Trust. The Stonehenge Aerodrome, which stood near the stones, was removed by the mid-1930s. The stones were roped off in 1977 to protect them from damage, so visitors can no longer touch them. Because of traffic on nearby roads, plans for a Stonehenge road tunnel were approved in 2020. However, this approval was cancelled in March 2026. From 1905, groups of Neo-druids held ceremonies at the site. In 1985, the Battle of the Beanfield was a clash between police and New Age travellers.