The History of Stonehenge

Enigmatic and awe-inspiring, the ring of stones on Salisbury Plain has featured in novels, films and legends. It has always tantalised its investigators, posing more questions than answers. 'Henge' is the Anglo-Saxon word for hanging - literally the 'hanging stones' and though we may never solve the mystery of why it was built, we do know it was constructed in three distinct phases.

Phase 1
Around 3,100BC, there was a circle of timber posts surrounded by a ditch and a bank. It was dated from antlers and bones used to dig the ditch by hand. On the edge of the bank, there were 56 holes (known as Aubrey Holes after the 17th-century antiquarian who found them). The holes would have held wooden posts, but what were these posts for? Perhaps to hold up a roof of a building, or to mark out a ceremonial space.

Phase 2
Around 2,500 BC, the circle was rebuilt using bluestones from the Preselli mountains in Pembrokeshire. Each stone weighed about five tons and had to be dragged nearly 250 miles to the sea and then floated on rafts up the River Avon and overland to Salisbury Plain. Why was the site considered so important?

Phase 3
Around 2,300 BC, Stonehenge was rebuilt and made bigger and better than before. The existing bluestones were dug up and rearranged and new, even bigger stones were imported from Marlborough Downs. These giant Sarsen stones were heaved upright and linked on the top by lintels, with the heaviest weighing 45 tons. It consisted of about 60 stones and at its centre was the Altar Stone. This time, the alignment was towards the rising of the sun on midsummer's day. Possibly some kind of giant calculator for working out the calendar?

Legend and literature
In the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth relates how Merlin the magician moved stones from Ireland to Ambrius (thought to be Amesbury near Stonehenge) and so linked the circle with supernatural happenings. The Druids, the religious elite of Ancient Britain revived in the 18th century, have long connections with Stonehenge, but the stones predate them by about one thousand years. The imagery of Stonehenge is powerful: it was chosen by Turner for one of his best paintings and by Thomas Hardy as the setting for the dramatic closing scene of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, where the doomed lovers, on the run from the law, stumble across it in the dark.

World importance
Stonehenge has been designated a World Heritage site, not just because of the henge itself but because Salisbury Plain is littered with other amazing sites including the nearby woodhenge (c 2,300BC), and the Cursus (3,100 BC), so-called because it was thought to be an ancient chariot racing track.

Feature supplied by Heritage magazine. About Heritage Magazine.

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