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ENGLISH PASTORAL

SESSION THREE - THE DAWN OF EVERYTHING

PREHISTORY AND STONEHENGE

The enigma of Stonehenge
Stonehenge is one of the great enigmas of the offshore islands. It is an iconic image
but a largely unexplained one. Its dramatic design - unique 'trilithons', horizontal

lintels on pairs of huge upright stones, using mortice holes and protruding tenons -
poses many questions. Archaeologists have analysed the stone used, the stages of its
building – its frequent remodelling led to what we see today – and the burials and
other finds associated with it. But the question remains: what is it?

The word henge is misleading; it refers to the round ditch and bank, which is how it
started; the big stones or megaliths were added towards the end. By then, around

4,000 years ago, Stonehenge was made up of an outer circle of 30 standing stones
called ‘sarsens’, surrounding five huge stone arches in a horseshoe shape. There
were also two circles made of smaller ‘bluestones’ – one inside the outer circle and
one inside the horseshoe – as well as four ‘station stones’ positioned outside the
central monument. The entire site was surrounded by the original circular ditch and
bank, which also remains.

The mystery is compounded rather than resolved by other nearby prehistoric sites:

the huge lozenge-shaped megaliths at Avebury village. The huge West Kennet barrow
or burial mound. And Silbury Hill, a massive earth conical mound whose televised
excavation in 1968-9 revealed pretty much nothing. There’s also Woodhenge, a sort
of timber uprights version of Stonehenge.

The archaeologist agree that ritual of some kind is the key. Stone rows suggest

processions. Food-bones suggest religious feasting. Midsummer and midwinter solar
and lunar alignments suggest sun-worship, even astronomical interests. Burials and
barrows suggest ancestor worship. The whole makes up a complex and evocative
sacred landscape, supported by evidence that people travelled long distances to
come here.

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How were the big stones transported? Not, as Geoffrey of Monmouth, a 12 century
monk, said, magically transported from Ireland by Merlin. In fact the 20-ton sarsen
stones came from about 20 miles away, the bluestones from south Wales not Ireland,

and experimental archaeologists suggest they were moved by a combination of sea