I have always been fascinated by the architecture of the massive rock formations or megalith construction during the Neolithic period. Stonehenge is the most well-known of these constructions, and it is an impressive piece that represents a culture that was thriving and very socially dependent and a corporative society. Avebury is another famous example of megalith structures. Stonehenge and Avebury bear a striking resemblance to one another in the way it was constructed and designed. The United Nations have a Statement of Significance for both of the Parks that these amazing structures stand:
“Stonehenge is one of the most impressive prehistoric megalithic monuments in the world on account of the sheer size of its megaliths, the sophistication of its concentric plan and architectural design, the shaping of the stones, uniquely using both Wiltshire Sarsen sandstone and Pembroke Bluestone, and the precision with which it was built.
At Avebury, the massive Henge, containing the largest prehistoric stone circle in the world, and Silbury Hill, the largest prehistoric mound in Europe, demonstrate the outstanding engineering skills which were used to create masterpieces of earthen and megalithic architecture.”
There has been much debate and exploration of these megalith formations and creations, but based on many findings throughout Western Europe, it is believed to be the center villages of religious and funeral rights. A hub of social and cultural interaction. For example it is believed that the trilithon design, two stones with one on top was possibly a symbol of the path after life and death being a gate way. The stone circles where created using sandstone and blue stone, both of which had to be brought from distances to the sight o...
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...onehenge and Avebury you have art, depictions of life during the end of the Neolithic and beginning of the Bronze Age. Through laser scanning it was discovered that thousands of pictures carved, painted and drawn exists on the stones, they have just been worn away with time. So you had more solid representation of life being presented in architecture and art, pottery instead of baskets, stone buildings and sculptures, permanent housing and burial sites much larger and expansive then any we had seen yet. You see the possibilities of healing centers and organized religion. You see the tracking of the sun in a lot of stone monuments, referring to life span or harvest, but showing a connection of life and the certainty of death. The art represented here is so very fitting, stone and earth, representing a strong and determined culture that thrived in harsh conditions.
...ncyclopedia of Archaeology, Ed. Deborah M. Pearsall. Vol. 3. Oxford, United Kingdom: Academic Press, 2008. p1896-1905. New Britain: Elsevier, Inc.
Stonehenge: a Human Vulva or Temple, or something else…? The content of this project is based on the largest and most complete megalithic structure in Europe, The Stonehenge. It resides in center of the southern England; on the wide spread Salisbury Plains. It is said to be old approximately four thousand years, and it is even considered older than the Great Pyramids of Egypt.
in the uneducated minds of popular culture from tie seventeenth century to the present. It
Stonehenge is located on Salisbury Plain in Southern England. Although it is not the largest henge (circle of stones) of the Neolithic Period, it is a remarkable site because it is one of the most complicated megalithic sites. Stonehenge was repeatedly reworked from 3100 to 1500 B.C.E. (Encyclopedia Brittanica 287). Each new major building phase added new elements to the site. The present-day arrangement at Stonehenge is the result of the last building phase which ended nearly 3,500 years ago.
The significance of monumental architecture lies not only in the function it is built to serve but also in the cultural values it represents. Monumental architecture is aesthetic as well as functional, and in its aesthetic aspects it is a form of cultural expression. In Bronze Age Mediterranean civilizations, the development of monumental architecture was influenced primarily by the political structure of the state. Perhaps the most disparate forms of monumental architecture in this region were developed in Pharaonic Egypt and Minoan Crete, reflecting the differences in their political systems. The socio-political structure of these two cultures can be sharply contrasted through an examination of a predominant type of monumental architecture found in each region.
There are few ancient structures in the world that captivate the imagination and the critical mind of both the scholarly and ordinary individual as Stonehenge. This intriguingly mysterious Neolithic monument is located near Amesbury in Wiltshire, England and draws thousands of spectators to its arena each year.
Stonehenge is located in Southern England on what is known as the Salisbury Plain. The structure looks different than it once did, however. Today, Stonehenge suffers the effects of time and pernicious acts by people. Originally, in the years after completion, the structure was made up of “several concentric circles of megaliths, very large stones.” (5) Stonehenge consists a circular layout of approximately one hundred megaliths. On the tops of them another flat stone was placed to make a continuous ring of horizontal stones. These structures are known as trilithons.
Clarke, D., & Maguire, P. (200). Skara Brae: Northern Europe's best preserved neolithic village ; (p. 14). Edinburgh: Historic Scotland.
The Parthenon is an amazing Greek temple that was built 2,500 years ago. Even the architects of today have numerous questions about how it was constructed and how it has held up through its eventful past. The Parthenon's detailed appearance is not its only meaningful quality. The Parthenon was constructed as a temple to the goddess, Athena, and as an icon of the Greek people themselves. The Parthenon represents the Greek ideals of humanism, idealism, and rationalism.
Behind every great structure in the world, there are the people who made them, and who took the time and effort to design them. Those who made Stonehenge succeeded in creating an incredibly complex and mysterious structure that lived on long after its creators were dead. The many aspects of Stonehenge and the processes by which it was built reveal much about the intelligence and sophistication of the civilizations that designed and built the monument, despite the fact that it is difficult to find out who exactly these people were. They have left very little evidence behind with which we could get a better idea of their everyday lives, their culture, their surroundings, and their affairs with other peoples. The technology and wisdom that are inevitably required in constructing such a monument show that these prehistoric peoples had had more expertise than expected.
Stonehenge was built in several different phases beginning with the large white circle, 330 feet in diameter, surrounded by an eight foot-high embankment and a ring of fifty-six pits now referred to as the Aubrey Holes.(Stokstad, p.53; Hoyle) In a subsequent building phase, thirty huge pillars of stone were erected and capped by stone lintels in the central Sarsen Circle, which is 106 feet in diameter.(Stokstad, p.54) This circle is so named because the stone of which the pillars and lintels were made was sarsen. Within the Sarsen Circle were an incomplete ring and a horsesho...
Scarre, Christopher. The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World: The Great Monuments and How They Were Built. London: Thames & Hudson, 1999. Print.
All these, as well as gardens, are beautiful though some are in ruins or surrounded by ancient ruins like the Roman forum. Some of these ruins are noticed worldwide while been sustained there for thousands of years. Besides the ruins,
In addition to the conflict presented between the different theories pertaining Stonehenge’s envisioned purpose, there has been heated debate concerning the enigma of how the monument came to be. Scientists have rendered the mystery of its construction “inexplicable”, only being able to conclude how the monument may have been built throughout an extensive period of time. As aforementioned, each sarsen stone used in Stonehenge weighs approximately 50,000 pounds, and the bluestones are each about 6,000 pounds. Most modern scholars still find truth in the theory that humans constructed Stonehenge as a ceremonial temple- but the issue remains unresolved as to how humans may have transported the heavy stones.
There are several theories as to what Stonehenge was. These ideas range from a calendar to an astronomical observatory to sacred grounds. These inferences are based upon the shape and positions of the stones that make up the monument. Stonehenge is made up of megaliths, or giant rocks. There are two kinds of these rocks at the structure, bluestones, which are about 8,000 pounds each, and sarsen stones, which can weigh up to 100,000 pounds each (Rattini, 2008). These rocks make up a henge, a group of circular ritual structures unique to the Late Neolithic era in Britain (Pitts, 2008). The first ring is a sarsen stone circle, the next ring a smaller circle of blue stones, then an even sm...