When people see the great monument that is Stonehenge today, some
do not think much of it. It is a pile of stones which happened to be placed in a circular form….so what? But what they do not realize is the magic behind it. People died in the creation of Stonehenge. People worked hard and bled for it. But why? What was the point in going through all that trouble for a stone circle? There are three main theories. One that Professor Timothy Darvill from Bournemouth University, and Professor Geoffrey Wainwright, who was a professor of archaeology in India, created was that Stonehenge was used as a center for healing. The second one proposed by Gerald Hawkins, an astronomer and professor from Boston University, states that it was used as an observatory. The third theory, devised by archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson, is that Stonehenge was one half of a religious site. When researched it becomes clear that all of the proof the experts have gathered could combine into one theory. What if Stonehenge was a vast religious center with multiple buildings used for different reasons? This would make sense as around the stone monument archaeologists have found various other circles that could very well be connected to Stonehenge. Therefore, it is very possible that Stonehenge was a religious center used for a variety of purposes.
The theory that Stonehenge was used as a center for healing or a pre-historic Lourdes came from two archaeologists named Timothy Darvill and Geoffrey Wainwright. They based this on bones that have been dug up, radiocarbon dated, and had of medical conditions or broken bones. They have also found a boy’s skeleton that was found with an amber necklace on. The amber on the necklace was not from the area so it caus...
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... years. Therefore, it still could have been used as an observatory or a healing center. All of these facts can be intertwined in the one big theory each of these components is a part of a religious complex. Parker Pearson even said not to rule the other theories out . Stonehenge was used as a burial ground for a huge portion of the time it took to finish the monument and after, but the other theories have truth to them as well.
Works Cited
Jill Stefko. “Stonehenge: Prehistoric Mediterranean Boy's Skeleton Unearthed.” www.suite101.com. 1 October, 2010
“Dig hints at Stonehenge’s healing role” www.msn.com. 22 September, 2008
“Archaeoastronomy at Stonehenge” www.britannia.com
“Stonehenge Used as Burial Site for Centuries, Study Finds.” www.pbs.com. 30 May, 2008
Aronson, Marc. If Stones Could Speak. Washington D.C: National Geographic. 2010
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
Krystek, Lee. "Hagia Sophia." The Museum of Unnatural Mystery. N.p., 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
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.
Over the last millennium, a striking Cathedral devoted to St. Paul has been a precious jewel for the city of London. It sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London. The present St Paul 's Cathedral, London, is an Anglican cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of London and the mother church of the Diocese of London. Regularly as the Cathedral is at the centre of many nation-wide events, innovations have been examined, and drastic new thoughts have found expression under the iconic dome. Bearing in mind all those occasions, it is certain that they would have left behind some physical evidence as well as reverberations in the imperceptible retention of the Cathedral itself.
Powell, Eric A. "Solstice at the Stones." Archaeology 56.5 (2003): 36-41. JSTOR. Web. 22 Oct. 2013. .
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.
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.
The philosophical ideas of Plato that relate to the Parthenon include whether the structure is an element of the Visible World or the Intelligible World. In my opinion, Plato would view the Parthenon as an object in the Visible World. The Parthenon is a one of a kind monument that is tangible and exists in our real world. The Parthenon is an architectural project and deals with forms of science and mathematics. Plato's view of science and mathematics are categorized as forms in the Intelligible World, which are intangible. Through analysis of illusory tactics, the Tripartite Soul, the simile of the line, and the artistic qualities of architecture, Plato's, as well as my view of the Parthenon will become evident.
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...
The Parthenon was built during the Golden age in Athens, Greece. The Parthenon is made of mainly columns; there is a 9:4 ratio. It was almost destroyed in war; the ruins that remained were dedicated to Athena. The purpose of the Parthenon was to house the statue of Athena, made of ivory and gold, and also Athena’s treasure. The ratios and the equations used to make the Parthenon were used as a sign of the harmony in the natural world around us. The mathematical harmony in the world shows how we can work with the world rather than destroy to make it what we want. The Parthenon also has no straight lines. The columns of the Parthenon are angled going up getting smaller the higher they get. This was done so that you could get the best lighting
There are some, however, who have speculated as to what the giant stone structure could have been constructed for. Theories such as observatory, burial grounds, temple, and others are much debated among those who care to look into these matters. Among those who do not care to question its existence, Stonehenge is just a large pile of huge stones that happen to make a circle. No matter which side a person might take, there is no definite way to prove what Stonehenge was used for. There is no way to know because there are no written records of the construction of Stonehenge, there are not even depictive carvings on the stones themselves that suggest a purpose to the massive
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...