Who Built Stonehenge, and Why?
Stonehenge is that huge circle of standing rocks out in the middle of a field in England, you know the one. It’s estimated that it was built around 5,000 years ago. How?? By whom?? And most importantly, why?
Stonehenge
The site of Stonehenge sits on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England and consists of an outer ring of vertical standing stones, each around 13 feet high and 7 feet wide, and an inner ring of smaller stones, and in the middle are six more freestanding stones. Some of the stones in the outer ring and the inner-most ring are connected by lintels (or stones laying horizontally across the top, connecting two stones). The stones in the outer ring each weigh about 25 tonnes. TONNES. There are two different types of stones used in the construction of Stonehenge; the outer ring and the inner-most ring are made up of sarsen stones (solidified sandstone blocks), with the middle ring being made of bluestone.
The entire monument is, of course, now in ruins but it is oriented with the sunrise of the Summer Solstice (this will be important later).
Archaeologists believe that the monument was constructed between 3,000 BC - 2,000 BC. They’ve been able to do carbon dating on this site which has shown that the earliest bluestones were raised between 2,400 and 2,200 BC but they may have been on the site as early as 3,000 BC.
Stonehenge is one of the most iconic and important cultural landmarks in England. It has been a protected monument since 1882 and was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1986.
All of this is very interesting but who went to the trouble of hauling these massive stones into this field and erecting and stacking them to create this monument, and why?
How was Stonehenge Created?
First, let’s talk about how people thought they got these stones to the site. Researchers think it’s most likely that the sarsens came from a quarry 25 miles south of Salisbury Plain. That’s a long way to transport things that weigh tens of tonnes. It’s thought that they transported these stones using sledges and ropes. As for the bluestones, however, they have been traced to the Preseli Hills in Wales, 200 miles away from Stonehenge. Some of these stones weighed as much as 4 tonnes, how did they transport them all this way?
A popular theory is that they used a series of sledges and tree trunks as rollers to bring the bluestones from Preseli Hills to the River Avon. There they transferred each stone to a raft and floated them along the river towards Salisbury Plain. Some other theories hypothesize that they transported the bluestones in giant wicker baskets, or used a combination of ball bearings, long grooved planks, and teams of oxen. Scientists have also said that maybe glaciers did most of the heavy lifting. Maybe, during one of the ice ages, these bluestones were picked up by moving glaciers and deposited close to Salisbury Plain and the builders of Stonehenge used them because they were already close by. However, other scientists are sceptical of this theory though because they would be surprised that a glacier would deliver the exact number of stones needed to complete the circle.
By Whom?
Now this brings us to who did all this work. According to the 12th-century writer Geoffery of Monmouth, Stonehenge was the work of Merlin the Wizard. Monmouth said that in the mid-fifth century, hundreds of British nobles were slaughtered and buried on Salisbury Plain. Wanting to erect a memorial there, the king sent soldiers, and Merlin, to go to Ireland and retrieve a stone circle called the Giants’ Ring, a magical circle of huge stones erected by ancient giants. Merlin used his powers to fly the stones across the sea and onto Salisbury Plain. While this is a great story, unfortunately, it predates the person that Merlin was based on by several thousand years. So the likelihood of it being true is low.
In the 17th century archaeologist, John Aubrey claimed that Stonehenge was instead created by the Celtic high priests, called Druids. This is a really popular theory and people who identify as modern-day druids still congregate on the site every Summer Solstice. But it was determined through radiocarbon that Stonehenge stood for more than 1,000 years before the Celts ever inhabited the region. That takes them out of the running as well.
Most scientists now agree on one modern theory. They think that three tribes contributed to the building of Stonehenge at three different times. In about 3,000 BC the first tribe to work on it were the Neolithic agrarians, also called Windmill Hill People. They built large circular hilltop furrows dug around a mound and had collective burials in stone-encased tombs. Most of their burial mounds face East-West and they had a strong reverence for circles and symmetry.
Next came the Bleaker People in around 2,000 BC. They were highly organized and industrious as a people. Scientists believe that they were also sun worshippers and it was them who aligned Stonehenge with certain important sun events such as the Summer and Winter solstices. The Bleaker people are likely responsible for the huge stones at Stonehenge.
First, they erected the bluestones, perfectly aligned with the Summer solstice sunrise. Then, with accelerating speed, they began to erect the sarsens into a continuous ring around the bluestones 90 feet in diameter. The first, and only, raised stone circle known.
Finally, the Wessex People are considered the third and final group to have worked on Stonehenge. They arrived around 1,500 BC at the height of the bronze age. They were a sophisticated society and were one of the most advanced societies outside the Mediterranean at this time. They are thought to be responsible for the bronze dagger carving on one of the sarsens.
Why??
Now that we know maybe who created Stonehenge and how, comes the biggest question of all. Why?
This is the murkiest question yet. Historians can really only agree that it was a place of extreme importance for about 1,000 years. Beyond that, all we really have are theories.
There is archaeological evidence to suggest that Stonehenge was used as a burial site, for at least part of its life. This would make sense based on the Windmill Hill People who first established the site and the fact that human bone deposits have been found during digs at the site.
Although this is widely agreed upon, most people also think that Stonehenge served other functions as well such as a religious site, a memorial, or a place to spiritually connect with ancestors.
In the 1960s astronomer, Gerald Hawkins suggested that Stonehenge may operate as a giant calendar with different points corresponding to different events such as solstices, equinoxes, and eclipses. This is a very popular theory but some argue that these ancient groups of people responsible for building Stonehenge lacked the knowledge to predict such events and build accordingly. That and England’s cloudy weather may have prevented them from seeing these astrological phenomena.
More recently a new theory is that Stonehenge was a place of healing. There are sings of illness and injury in the human remains that have been unearthed, leading archaeologists to speculate that it was where people went to feel better. Especially because bluestones were said to have curative powers.
Oh also, some people think aliens built it as a convenient landing site for their UFOs.
Today
Even though we don’t know for sure who built Stonehenge, how, and why it is still a place that inspires people and keeps them coming back. Over 1 million people visit each year to admire the work done over 5,000 years ago and I think that’s pretty cool in and of itself.
Works Cited
“Stonehenge”. History. 2020. https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/stonehenge
“Who Built Stonehenge?” AboutStonehenge.Info. 2023. https://www.aboutstonehenge.info/who-built-stonehenge/
“When Was Stonehenge Built?” Bradshaw Foundation. 2011. https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/stonehenge/stonehenge.php