Finally, Stonehenge Stone Circle itself!
There seems to have been a flourish of construction in this area at the end of the Mesolithic - but nobody quite knows why!
The construction of Stonehenge spanned more than 1,500 years.
The term henge, which gave its name to Stonehenge, refers to a large circular patch of earth, surrounded by a ditch and a mound.
Henges could be massive - Avebury, just down the road, measures 300m in diameter.
They could also be tiny - such as those surrounding small cremation stone or wood circles.
Fun fact : it's thought that henges were built with the ditch facing outwards and the mound facing inwards to shield the outside world from what lay within!
Around 8000 BC, a line of 4 timber posts was erected at Stonehenge.
By 4000 BC, the area had been deforested, and a massive causewayed enclosure and long barrow tombs were constructed.
Around 3500 BC, a large, flat rectangular area, 3km-long —known as the cursus—was dug out and delimited by long ditches.
Finally around 3000 BC, the henge itself was constructed and in 2600 BC, two small stone circles were added.
Stone circles are not unique to Stonehenge.
Indeed, they appeared in France around 5000 BC and reached Britain approximately 2000 years later.
Over 1,300 stone circles have been found in Britain.
But the scale and grandeur of Stonehenge are unique.
Stone circles were not intended to be inhabited but were used for ceremonial purposes.
The stones used in this first stone circle came from Wales, located 250 kilometers away!
The exact method of transportation remains uncertain, but it's believed they may have been dragged over a track of logs or hauled on sledges lubricated with animal fat.
People buried on the site are thought to have come from the same place in Wales as the stones.
Their identities remain a mystery.
The initial, smaller, Welsh stones were eventually replaced by the larger stones we see today.
These come from a quarry 25km away.
There are 30 altogether, each standing 4m high, connected to each other by lintel stones, secured with a system of tongues and grooves.
Each stone weighs up to 50 tons!
Two smaller bluestone circles were also added - one as an outer ring, one as an inner ring - as well as two concentric lines of pits on the outside.
Near the river is another much smaller stone circle, believed to have been used for cremating bodies before transporting them to the main stone circle.
In the same direction also stands a single standing stone, the Heel Stone - which perfectly aligns with Stonehenge during the Summer and Winter Solstices - and whose purpose is unknown.
Curious to learn more?
Follow up with the A.I :
.png)
.jpeg)