Facts about Stonehenge
Stonehenge is therefore interpreted as functioning as an enclosed cremation cemetery at this time, the earliest known cremation cemetery in the British Isles.
Many archaeologists believe Stonehenge was an attempt to render in permanent stone the more common timber structures that dotted Salisbury Plain at the time, such as those that stood at Durrington Walls.
J. F. S. Stone (1958) felt that a Bluestone monument had earlier stood near the Stonehenge cursus and been moved to their current site from there.
Today's mythology around Stonehenge includes the recent history of the "Battle of the Beanfield" and the previous Free festivals.
Stonehenge is a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument located near Amesbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles (13 km) north of Salisbury.
Stonehenge is a place of pilgrimage for neo-druids and those following pagan or neo-pagan beliefs.
The axe motif is, however, common to the peoples of Brittany at the time, and it has been suggested at least two stages of Stonehenge were built under continental influence.
Much speculation has surrounded the engineering feats required to build Stonehenge.
The burial of a decapitated Saxon man has also been excavated from Stonehenge, dated to the seventh century.
All the stones were well-spaced uprights without any of the linking lintels inferred in Stonehenge 3 III.
The first recorded excavations at Stonehenge were carried out by William Cunnington and Richard Colt Hoare.
The significance of the "ownership" of Stonehenge in terms of the differing meanings and interpretations held by the many orthodox and unorthodox stakeholders in the site has been increasingly apparent in recent decades.
were found, it is unknown whether Stonehenge was in continuous use or exactly how it was used.
The two men excavated many portions of the features at Stonehenge and were the first to establish that it was a multi-phase site.
Stonehenge is only distantly related to the other stone circles in the British Isles, such as the Ring of Brodgar.
One current view is that glacier ice transported the stones as far as Somerset, and that they were collected from there by the builders of Stonehenge.
In 2001, as an exercise in experimental archaeology, an attempt was made to transport a large stone along a land and sea route from Wales to Stonehenge.
Stonehenge Aotearoa in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand is a modern adaptation aligned with the astronomy seen from the Antipodes, built by the Phoenix Astronomical Society from wood and sprayed concrete.
The earlier rituals were augmented by the Stonehenge free festival, held between 1972 and 1984, and loosely organized by the Politantric Circle.
In 2013, a comprehensive plan to build a visitor center and reroute traffic away from Stonehenge and so protect the area was put in place.
New Age and neo-pagan beliefs might see Stonehenge as a sacred place of worship which can conflict with its more mainstream role as an archaeological site, tourist attraction, or marketing tool.
Despite being contemporary with true Neolithic henges and stone circles, Stonehenge is in many ways atypical.
The Stonehenge complex was built in several construction phases spanning 2,000 years, although there is evidence for activity both before and afterward on the site.
Oval shaped settings of bluestones similar to those at Stonehenge 3IV are also known at the sites of Bedd Arthur in the Preseli Hills and at Skomer Island off the southwest coast of Pembrokeshire.
Features mentioned in the text are numbered and shown on the Plan of Stonehenge, right, which illustrates the site as of 2004.
In 1615, Inigo Jones argued that Stonehenge was a Roman temple, dedicated to Caelus, (a Latin name for the Greek sky-god Ouranos), and built following the Tuscan order.
Post-processualist archaeologists might consider that treating Stonehenge as a computer or observatory is to apply modern concepts from the contemporary technology-driven era back into the past.
The largest excavation at Stonehenge was undertaken by Lieutenant-Colonel William Hawley and Robert S. Newall after the site had come into state hands.
Estimates of the manpower needed to build Stonehenge put the total effort involved at millions of hours of work.
Stonehenge itself is owned and managed by English Heritage, whilst the surrounding downland is owned by the National Trust.
