What do people think stonehenge is

While many modern scholars now agree that Stonehenge was once a burial ground, they have yet to determine what other purposes it served and how a civilization without modern technology—or even the wheel—produced the mighty monument. Its construction is all the more baffling because, while the sandstone slabs of its outer ring hail from local quarries, scientists have traced the bluestones that make up its inner ring all the way to the Preseli Hills in Wales, some miles from where Stonehenge sits on Salisbury Plain.

Archaeologists believe England most iconic prehistoric ruin was built in several stages, with the earliest constructed 5, or more years ago. First, Neolithic Britons used primitive tools—possibly made from deer antlers—to dig a massive circular ditch and bank, or henge, on Salisbury Plain. Deep pits dating back to that era and located within the circle—known as Aubrey holes after John Aubrey, the 17th-century antiquarian who discovered them—may have once held a ring of timber posts, according to some scholars.

During the third phase of construction, which took place around B. Some 50 sarsen stones are now visible on the site, which may once have contained many more.

Radiocarbon dating suggests that work continued at Stonehenge until roughly B. The smaller bluestones, on the other hand, have been traced all the way to the Preseli Hills in Wales, some miles away from Stonehenge. How, then, did prehistoric builders without sophisticated tools or engineering haul these boulders, which weigh up to 4 tons, over such a great distance?

They then transferred the boulders onto rafts and floated them first along the Welsh coast and then up the River Avon toward Salisbury Plain; alternatively, they may have towed each stone with a fleet of vessels. More recent hypotheses have them transporting the bluestones with supersized wicker baskets or a combination of ball bearings, long grooved planks and teams of oxen.

As early as the s, geologists have been adding their voices to the debate over how Stonehenge came into being. Challenging the classic image of industrious Neolithic builders pushing, carting, rolling or hauling the craggy bluestones from faraway Wales, some scientists have suggested that glaciers, not humans, did most of the heavy lifting.

The globe is dotted with giant rocks known as glacial erratics that were carried over long distances by moving ice floes. Most archaeologists have remained cool toward the glacial theory, however, wondering how the forces of nature could possibly have delivered the exact number of stones needed to complete the circle. According to the 12th-century writer Geoffrey of Monmouth, whose tale of King Arthur and mythical account of English history were considered factual well into the Middle Ages , Stonehenge is the handiwork of the wizard Merlin.

In the mid-fifth century, the story goes, hundreds of British nobles were slaughtered by the Saxons and buried on Salisbury Plain. The soldiers successfully defeated the Irish but failed to move the stones, so Merlin used his sorcery to spirit them across the sea and arrange them above the mass grave.

In the 17th century, archaeologist John Aubrey made the claim that Stonehenge was the work of the Celtic high priests known as the Druids, a theory widely popularized by the antiquarian William Stukeley, who had unearthed primitive graves at the site. Even today, people who identify as modern Druids continue to gather at Stonehenge for the summer solstice.

However, in the midth century, radiocarbon dating demonstrated that Stonehenge stood more than 1, years before the Celts inhabited the region, eliminating the ancient Druids from the running. After 2, BC, the people who used Stonehenge stopped burying human remains in the stone circle itself and began burying them in ditches around the periphery, suggesting a shift in the cultural significance of Stonehenge.

From studying the remains of those buried at the site, we know that the bodies of the dead were transported from far and wide to be buried at Stonehenge; some appeared to have lived more than miles km away in Wales.

Carbon dating of the remains suggests they were cremated off-site, transported to Stonehenge and buried there around 4,, years ago. These burial mounds are unique for their dense, grouped distribution across the landscape, and are frequently within sight of the stone circle itself. Archaeologists also discovered evidence of a large settlement of houses nearby, suggesting that Stonehenge was at the centre of a large ancient ceremonial complex that ran along the River Avon.

Researchers have studied the standing bluestones at Stonehenge, and believe they were carefully placed in their surroundings based on early astronomical knowledge. The team of researchers studied Stonehenge, as well as several other stone formations across the UK, and came to the conclusion that Stonehenge was likely built to track the movement of the sun, moon and stars thousands of years ago. Their analysis, presented on a BBC 4 documentary on March 10, reveals that the people buried at the site were men and women in equal proportions, with some children as well.

The burials occurred in about B. The archaeologists also found a mace head and a bowl possibly used to burn incense, suggesting the people buried in the graves may have been religious or political elite, according to The Guardian newspaper.

Another theory suggests that Stone Age people saw Stonehenge as a place with healing properties. In , archaeologists Geoggrey Wainwright and Timothy Darvill reported that a large number of skeletons recovered from around Stonehenge showed signs of illness or injury. The archaeologists also reported discovering fragments of the Stonehenge bluestones — the first stones erected at the site — that had been chipped away by ancient people, perhaps to use as talismans for protective or healing purposes.

Or perhaps Stonehenge's circular construction was created to mimic a sound illusion. That's the theory of Steven Waller, a researcher in archaeoacoustics. Waller says that if two pipers were to play their instruments in a field, a listener would notice a strange effect.

In certain spots, the sound waves from the dual pipes would cancel each other out, creating quiet spots. The stones of Stonehenge create a similar effect, except with stones, rather than competing sound waves, blocking sound, Waller reported in at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Legends associated with Stonehenge also reference pipers, Waller said, and prehistoric circles are traditionally known as "piper stones.