Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries

high, 6.8 feet wide, and weighing around 25 tons, were arranged in a 108 foot diameter circle with lintels (horizontal stones) spanning the tops. Within this circle a horseshoe-shaped setting of five trilithons (two large stones set upright to support a third on their top), of dressed sarsen stone, was added, its open end facing northeast. The enormous stones, which made up the central horseshoe arrangement of 10 uprights and five lintels, weighed up to 50 tons each. Later in this period, between 2280 to 1930 B.C., the bluestones were re-erected and arranged at least three times, finally forming an inner circle and horseshoe between the Sarsen Circle and the Trilithons, mirroring the two arrangements of sarsen stones. It is thought that more bluestones were transported from Wales to the site at this time. Between 2000 and 1600 B.C. a double ring of pits, known as the Y and Z holes, were dug outside the outermost sarsen circle, possibly to take another setting of stones. However, for whatever reason, no stones were added and the pits were allowed to silt up naturally. After 1600 B.C. there was no further construction at Stonehenge, and the monument appears to have been abandoned. Nevertheless, the site was still occasionally visited, as is evidenced by finds of Iron Age pottery, Roman coins, and the burial of a decapitated Saxon man dated to the seventh century A.D.
There has been considerable speculation as to how Stonehenge was built. An experiment in the 1990s showed that a team of 200 people, using a wooden sledge on laid timber rails covered with grease, could have transported all 80 sarsens from the Marlborough Downs to Stonehenge in two years, or longer if the work was seasonal. The experiment illustrated that the maneuvering of the stones into position could have been accomplished using timber A-frames to raise the stones, which could then have been hauled upright by teams of people using ropes. The lintels may have been raised up gradually on timber platforms and levered into position when the primitive scaffolding reached the top of the upright stones. A fascinating aspect of the construction of Stonehenge is that the stones were worked using carpentry techniques. After being hammered to size using stone balls known as mauls, examples of which have been found at the site, the stones were fashioned with
mortise and tenon joints so that the lintels could rest securely on top of the uprights. The lintels themselves were joined together using another woodworking method known as the tonguein-groove joint.
Much more interesting than how Stonehenge was built is why it was built. Unfortunately, for such an important structure the archaeological finds from Stonehenge have been relatively meager. This is partly due to the fact that until the last couple of decades research at the site had been, on the whole, poorly performed and insufficiently documented. Skeletons were lost or seriously damaged, artifacts misplaced, and excavation notes destroyed. Despite these losses, the evidence from surviving burials discovered at or near the site gives a fascinating insight into the lives of Early Bronze Age peoples in the area.
The main burials at Stonehenge are all broadly contemporary with each other, dating from 2400 B.c.-2150 B.C. (the Early Bronze Age period). Examination of a skeleton buried in the outer ditch of the monument revealed that the man had been shot at close range by up to six arrows, probably by two people, one shooting from the left, the other from the right. Was this an execution or some form of human sacrifice? Another astonishing burial was found in 2002 at Amesbury, 2.8 miles southeast of Stonehenge, and has become known as either the Amesbury Archer or the King of Stonehenge. The rich goods found with this burial indicate a high-status individual, and include five Beaker pots, 16 beautifully worked flint arrowheads, several boar tusks, two sandstone wristguards (to protect the wrists from the bow string of a bow and arrow), a pair of gold hair ornaments, three tiny copper knives, and a flint-knapping kit and metalworking tools. Not only are the gold objects the oldest ever found in Britain, but this person may have been one of the earliest metalwokers in the islands. Tests on the skeleton show that the Archer was a strongly built man aged between 35 and 45, though he had an abscess on his jaw and had suffered an accident, which had torn his left knee cap off. But the most surprising element of the burial was yet to come.
© Wessex Archaeology
Flint arrowheads found with the buried Archer.
Research using oxygen isotope analysis on the Archer's tooth enamel found that he had grown up in the Alps region, in either Switzerland, Austria, or Germany. Analysis of the copper knives showed that they had come from Spain and France. This is incredible evidence for contact between cultures in Europe 4,200 years ago. Could the unusually rich burial of the King of Stonehenge, obviously an important person of high rank, mean that he played an important part in the construction of the first stone-built monument on the site? A second male
burial, dating from the same period as the Archer, was located near to his grave. This skeleton, which bone analysis has shown may be the Archer's son, had been buried with a pair of gold hair ornaments in the same style as the Archer's, though for some reason these had been left inside the man's jaw. Oxygen isotope analysis revealed that this man had grown up in the area around Salisbury Plain, though his late teens may have been spent in the Midlands or northeast Scotland.
The Boscombe Bowmen are a group of Early Bronze Age burials, found in a single grave at Boscombe Down, close to Stonehenge. Known as bowmen due to the amount of flint arrowheads found in their grave, the burial consists of seven individuals: three children, a teenager, and three men, all apparently related to each other. Finds from the grave are similar in character to that of