The stonehenge
is situated on Salisbury Plain, near Amesbury in Wiltshire, England. It
is celebrated as the finest Bronze Age megalithic monument in Europe.
The
monument as we have it today was the last stage in a long and complex series
of stages as there were apparently four phases in the building of the stonehenge
dating from 1800 BC to 1400 BC.
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Some
say that it was built by the unknown people of ancient England who finished
building the Stonehenge 2000 years before the Druids came to the Salisbury
Plain. A more
believable source sates that it was undoubtedly built by people who had
widespread European trade connections who established their principle settlements
in the area between 1600 and 1500 BC.
The
monument itself consists of four concentric ranges of stones. The configuration
is quite complicated. The outermost range is a circle, 30 m in diameter,
of large sandstone rocks called sarsen stones. Within this circle is another
circle smaller blue stones which encloses a horseshoe like
shaped arrangement of five large sarsen stones. Within this circle is another
smaller horseshoe like arrangement which encloses the "Alter Stone." Near
the entrance lies the "Slaughter Stone." The
bluestone is a mixture of rocks found on the Prescelly Mountains
in SE Wales. The most widely accepted theory regards
the arrival of the bluestones on Salisbury Plain as the result of human
effort, with the route being partly overland and partly
by water. Most of the missing stones disappeared during the Middle Ages
onwards, as farmers and others used the monument as a quarry until it was
officially preserved.
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The function
or purpose of the Stonehenge has long been a matter of debate. Basically,
it is related to the circular stone or wooden temples that were constructed
in Britain during the Bronze Age. Nevertheless, it is structurally unique
among European prehistoric monuments. An American astronomer concluded
that the monument functioned as a means of predicting the positions of
the sun and moon relative to the earth, and thereby the seasons, and perhaps
also a simple calendar. There are some that relate it to the non-physical
world due to the appearance of "Crop Circles" in the same area. Another
theory is that the stones were used to hang criminals back in 3,000
BC because Stonehenge means "hanging stones."
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For more info,
check out these links:
http://www.stonepages.com/dmeozzi/England/England.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~shadowfax/sfstone.htm
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