After centuries of puzzling over the meaning of Stonehenge,
laser-equipped researchers have concluded that the prehistoric monument
was built to show off the solstices.
Apart from revealing 71 new images of Bronze Age axeheads, which
bring the number of this type of carvings known at Stonehenge to 115,
the English Heritage groundbreaking analysis showed that the stones were
shaped and crafted differently in various parts of the stone circle.
In particular, the stones first seen when approaching the monument
from the north-east were completely "pick dressed." Stonehenge workers
removed their brown and grey surface crust to show a bright, grey-white
surface that would glisten at sunset on the shortest day of the year and
in the dawn light on the longest day.
PHOTOS: Stonehenge Made to Glisten
According to the researchers, this provides an almost definitive
proof that it was the intent of Stonehenge's builders to align the
monument with the two solstices along a north-east/south-west axis.
Located in the county of Wiltshire, at the center of England's
densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments, Stonehenge has
been the subject of myth, legend and -- more recently -- scientific
research for more than eight centuries.
The mysterious circle of large standing stones has been interpreted
in the most disparate ways -- as a temple for sun worship, a temple of
the ancient druids, a healing center, a burial site and a huge calendar.
The new laser findings appear to be compatible with two main theories
taking shape in recent years to explain the monument's purpose.
According to archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson, head of the
Stonehenge Riverside Project, the iconic monument was built as a grand
act of union after a long period of conflict between east and west
Britain.
Another theory, posed by archaeologists Geoff Wainwright and Timothy
Darvill, says Stonehenge was a destination to which the sick traveled
from around Europe to be healed by its magical powers.
"The scanning work at Stonehenge is really important and has opened
our eyes to many new aspects of Neolithic technology," Darvill,
professor of archaeology in the School of Applied Sciences at
Bournemouth University, England, told Discovery News.
Darvill and Wainwright made one of the most significant findings in
2005, when they located the quarry where the bluestones, which form
Stonehenge's inner circle, were cut around 2500 B.C.
The archaeologists discovered a "small crag-edged promontory with a
stone bank across its neck" at one of the highest points of Carn Menyn, a
mountain in the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire, in southwest Wales.
ANALYSIS: Stonehenge Reveals New Clues of Ancient Worship
The site, which measures less than half a hectare, is characterized
by numerous prone pillar stones with clear signs of working. Darrvill
described it as "a veritable Aladdin's Cave of made-to-measure pillars
for aspiring circle builders."
The bluestones weighed about four tons and were between six and nine
feet in height and would have been transported 240 miles to the famous
site at Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.
According to Darvill, the color and the presence of distinctive white
spots made the Preseli Hills stones very pleasing aesthetically.
"Importantly, the methods of working the bluestones seems to be the
same as for the central Trilithons and serves to support the idea I put
forward some time ago that these two components of the monument were
contemporary and somehow linked," Darvill said.
According to the archaeologist, the huge stones were taken on such a
journey from their Welsh location because they were believed to harbor
great powers.
In 2008, Darvill and Wainwright excavated a small patch of earth at
Stonehenge. The dig unearthed about 100 pieces of organic material from
the original bluestone sockets and provided the most accurate dating for
their erection, pinpointing the bluestone construction to 2300 B.C. It
also produced a large number of bluestone chippings, as if people flaked
them off to create little amulet bits.
ANALYSIS: Stonehenge Built as Symbol of Unity
The presence of a large number of human remains in tombs near
Stonehenge showing physical injury and disease and analysis of teeth
reveal that around half of the corpses were not native to the Stonehenge
area and suggested Stonehenge served as a center for healing, said the
archaeologists.
Attracted by the powers of the bluestones, the sick and injured would have come to the site from far away.
"The new work indirectly supports the healing hypothesis as it shows the importance of the stones from Wales," Darvill said.
"It also shows that most of them have had bits chipped off them and
some have been reduced to stumps by removals exactly as we suggested was
the case," he added.
But according to Mike Parker Pearson, the enigmatic stone circle had
nothing to do with sickness and diseases. On the contrary, it was built
as a grand act of union after a long period of conflict between east and
west Britain.
"Stonehenge itself was a massive undertaking, requiring the labor of
thousands to move stones from as far away as west Wales, shaping them
and erecting them. Just the work itself, requiring everyone literally to
pull together, would have been an act of unification," Parker Pearson
said.
Because of Stonehenge's solstice-aligned avenue, prehistoric people
would have seen the spot as nothing less than the "center of the world."
According to Parker Pearson, the discovery of the winter sunset axis
at Stonehenge by the laser scan project supports his previous findings.
"Our study of seasonal culling of animals eaten at feasts at
Durrington Walls, from the time when the sarsens were put up around 2500
B.C., shows that they were killed at two times of the year, most in the
midwinter period and the rest in the summer," Parker Pearson said.
The midwinter solstice was the most important time for these
ceremonial gatherings, presumably the beginning and end of their year.
"We have isotope evidence for people bringing their animals from all
over Britain, tying in with the theme of unification. You could call it
the Neolithic version of Christmas and New Year," Parker Pearson said.
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