What's the story behind Stonehenge?

Answer 1

I think it's basically an enormous solar calendar, the builders just wanted it to last a long time.

Answer 2

The writeup by Webster 1913 "An assemblage of upright stones with others placed horizontally on their tops, on Salisbury Plain, England, -- generally supposed to be the remains of an ancient Druidical temple."

However, In his book, The Druids: Celtic Priests of Nature, author Jean Markale writes, "...But the problem lies in the fact that Stonehenge isn't Celtic. It was constructed in the Megalithic era, around 2000 B.C., and then reworked twice - on separate occasions - during the Bronze Age. It often appears in Celtic tradition, however, if only through the legend that presents this monument as the magic work of Merlin, or in the Arthurian tales that place Arthur's last battle in this immediate vacinity. This incontestably raises the question of Celts and therefore the druids, incorporating into their culture a tradition that preceded their arrival. Moreover, the solar cult's period of triumph must be sought not within the Celtic Iron Age, but within the Nordic Bronze Age."(page 49)

Markale's main arguments are that Stonehenge was constructed long before the formation of the Celtic society in which the druids resided; and furthermore, that the structure was obviously used for solar worship, which peaked in the Nordic Bronze Age.

Jean Markale was unable to credit an individual group of people with the construction of Stonehenge, which further adds to its mystique.

Answer 3

First of all no druids & no aliens....
In about 10,000 BC hunter-gatherers placed 3 mighty totem poles in what is now the Stonehenge carpark, thereby sanctifying what may have been a clearing in the forest on salisbury plain. The poles may have also been aligned on maximum moonrise.
thousands of years later in approx 3000 BC neolithic farming communities came to the Plain and deforested it. They built a bank & ditch about 3 metres deep using nothing but antler picks. it was carved from chalk & would have glowed white. inside it they placed wooden posts and,at the centre,some kind of a wooden structure--possibly a mortuary hut where the dead would be exposed for defleshing prior to burial.
In time, the posts rotted away. The holes were then filled with human cremations, with accompanying bone pins,stone implements etc.About 200 people were buried in Stonehenge's Aubrey holes.
In about 2700 BC, the first stones arrived. These were the bluestones from Wales & they came from an outcrop at carn Menin over 200 miles away. They were arranged in the centre in a strange double crescent formation. the Heelstone at the henge entrance and the 4 station stones (which form a perfect rectangle)may have gone in at this time as well.
then,at some point, the bluestones were removed. About a hundred years passed. a new massive stone phase began. huge blocks were dragged from the Marlborough downs and the Stonehenge we know today began to take shape. Builders pounded the stones with mauls to give them their distinctive shapes,and the lintels were placed on top using wooden scaffolding and locked into position using mortice & tenon joints. this is what makes stonehenge utterly unique--there are a thousand stone circles in Britain & others in Europe,but only Stonehenge is lintelled.With its doors,it is on the verge of becoming a building. As the outer ring and inner horseshoe was completed,the bluestones were brought back an arranged in a horseshoe & circle,rising in height towards the West. The setting sun at midwinter seems the main focus of the circle's many solar & lunar alignments.
Around this time a young man was shot in the back with arrows and buried at the entrance of the monument, maybe as an offering to the ring. Another burial was discovered directly on the midsummer solstice line in the centre of the stone but it so disturbed archaeologists could tell us little of it. these kinds of burials have been found a more than a few henges.
Stonehenge continued in use till approx 1100 BC. hundreds of burials mounds appeared in the surrounding landscape,some rich with gold. At one point a series of new holes were dug,perhaps to hold more stones, but they were never used. the last phase was an extension to the earthen ceremonial avenue that led the worshippers across the plain to the stones.
The stonehenge builders lived about 2 miles away at a place called Durrington walls. Recent excavations have found their houses and the remains of 3/4 huge wooden buildings which are most likely temples. The people feasted at midwinter; huge quantities of pigbones have been found from these feasts. It is now though that Durrington and the wooden temples were for the rites of the living--Stonehenge was permanent, for the ancestors and gods who lived forever, standing alone in the land of the dead with the burial mounds around it.

Answer 4

A question that has plagued people for centuries. Some people think it is a pagan spot of worship. If you look at it from the sky though it follows a astronomical path. I think it was a beacon for alien life forms to land on earth. Some say it is a big lunar clock. The only ones who really know are the people who built it and used it. As far as I am concerned it is now a great tourist trap!

Answer 5

No one really knows, it is believed that it was there long before the druids started using it, but there is nothing left about it's creation.

It is too unique to be a natural formation, yet no one can say how it was built so far in the past.

Answer 6

Here's all you would ever want to know about Stonehenge:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge

Answer 7

It was used to keep up with winter solstice, used as a calendar, and to keep up with the movements of the stars (or so some of the more logical theories go.

Answer 8

My great-great-great-great.... grandfather was getting sunburnt all the time, so he invented a nifty little shelter. Soon, alot of people wanted one too, so he built alot in a circle so that they could all talk to each other while standing in the shade.

Answer 9

Paleolithic people moved big rocks to build a temple.

Answer 10

it's very simple. The aliens did it! Don't believe me? Prove otherwise...