Stonehenge

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Stonehenge

• Hort 4000
• Mary Laine

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What is Stonehenge?

• Derived from words that mean hanging stones,
  circle of stones, or stone hinges
• 162 stones originally and about half remain today
• Southern England, eight miles north of Salisbury
  and 30 miles north of the English Channel
• Nearby hillsides are covered with hundreds of
  burial pits known as barrows
• 80 of the barrows face east towards where the
  sun rises on the horizon

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• There are at least 900 circles in Wales,
  Scotland, England, and Ireland.
• Most are made of stone, but wood was also used.
• Soil was also piled up to create banks, ditches,
  and circles.
• Many of these structures are of archaeological
  interest and are found throughout the countries.

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The builders

• Prehistoric people
• Carbon dating shows that it was built in five
  phases from 3500 1520 BC
• Class Question
• How old do you think the people were that built
  Stonehenge?

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Answer

• 40 of the people who lived then probably died
  before the age of 20
• A 30 year old person was considered old
• Therefore, it is most likely that Stonehenge was
  built by teenagers.

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Stone

• Two types of stone
• Neither is native to the area
• Bluestone 8 ft. tall, 4 tons
• Vertical sarsens, 7 ft wide, 3 4 ft thick, 18
  ft long, buried 5 ft into the soil
• Lintels are the horizontal sarsens. 10.5 ft long,
  3.5 ft wide, 2.5 ft thick

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Class Question

• How much do you think the vertical sarsens
  weigh??

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• Answer
• 26 45 tons each

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Origin of the stones

• Great debate. Were they moved to the area or
  left by a glacier??
• Half of the stones were probably moved 200 miles
  by water and land from Wales
• Half of the stones were probably from 24 miles
  away
• A phenomenal feat to move them!!

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How were the stones moved?

• Great debate by historians and archeologists
• Primitive tools made from deer antlers or stones
  were used to pry the stone out of the ground
• Long poles were used as levers to lift the stone
  onto a sledge
• Ropes of hide were used to drag the stones

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Question

• How many people do you think it took to move a
  sarsen?
• How long do you think it took to move all of the
  sarsens?

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Answer

• 1000 men to haul one 45 ton sarsen
• 10 years to move all of the sarsens

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How were they shaped?

• Stone axes
• Stone and wood wedges, flames and cold water to
  crack the stone
• Estimated that 50 stonemasons working 10 hour
  days, 7 days a week would have pounded away 2
  inches on all of the stones in 2 years and 9
  months
• Persistence and determination!

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How were they put in place? A simplistic view

• Stones were sunk 3 to 5 feet into the ground.
• One side of the hole was a wooden ramp. Wooden
  stakes were used to reinforce the other sides of
  the hole.
• 140 200 workers would pull the stone upright
  perhaps using a pulley.
• The hole was filled with rocks and boulders
  packed tightly together.
• Mortise, tenons, and toggle joints were used to
  hold the lintels and sarsens together.

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Why??
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Theories-why was it built?

• Predict astronomical events.
• 30 sarsens in the circle could symbolize the days
  of the month
• 19 bluestones in the horseshoe could be the 19
  year cycle of the moon
• Aligned with the midsummer sunrise and midwinter
  sunset
• Sacred site

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Who built it??

• Merlin, the magician in King Arthurs time moved
  the stones to honor soldiers
• Built by Roman invaders
• Druids
• No one really knows the answer.

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Vandalism through the ages

• Romans ruined part of it when they were
  destroying pagan sites
• Stones were removed for bridges, houses, other
  building
• Continual touching has altered the faces of the
  stone
• Visitors chiseled away samples for souvenirs

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Today it is a tourist trap

• A large parking lot
• 1 million visitors per year
• Visitors center with a cafeteria, gift shop
• Area is roped off so you cannot walk among the
  stones
• Class Question
• What of the visitors are Americans?

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• Answer
• 50

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References

• Burl, Aubrey. Great Stone Circles. New Haven
  Yale University Press, 1998.
• Mass, Wendy. Stonehenge. San Diego Lucent Books,
  Inc. 1998.
• http//www.alaska.net/acc/tour2001/920Stonehenge
  201.JPG
• www.theicemage.com/maps/ stonehenge.jpg
• www.pandore.net/magies/ legende/Stonehenge.jpg