Stonehenge

Stonehenge

Stonehenge was a stone structure established a long time ago by civilizations before the Druid age. More than 4,000 years ago, the people of the Neolithic period supposedly decided to build a massive monument using earth, timber and eventually, stones.They placed it high on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England about 137 kilometres southwest of London. The purpose to build Stonehenge still remains a mystery. Stonehenge could have been a temple, an astronomical calendar, or a guide to the heavens. Stonehenge acts as a prehistoric timepiece, allowing us to speculate on what it would have been like during the Neolithic Period, and who could have built this megalithic wonder.

Over 25 generations, 3 phases of construction took place. Most of it was the result of human muscle and a system of ropes and wooden levers used to transport the massive stones. The builder of the monument is still unknown. In the seventeenth century,an English antiquarian, John Aubrey, implicated the Druids, a religious group known to worship at modern day Stonehenge. There may not be just one answer. In the book,"Beyond Stonehenge", author and modern-day astronomer Gerald Hawkins suggests that three groups of people took part in the construction. The first may have been the secondary Neolithic people, just after 3000 BC. The second phase would have been the "Beaker People", named after their beaker-shaped drinking cups. The last phase, mainly stonework, may have been carried out by Wessex people. Regardless of who built the stone monument, the design and construction involved thousands of hard workers who would have needed to believe in the project. "These people would need to have been supported and the whole venture would have needed t...

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Bibliography:

WorkCited

Aubrey, John. "Mystic Places." Education Planet Discovery Channel Canada 2000 n.pag.

On-line. Internet. Available WWW: http//www.exn.ca

Baul, Audbrey. "Mystic Places" Education Planet Discovery Channel Canada 2000 n.pag.

Online. Internet. Available WWW: http//www.education planet.com

Hawkins, Gerald. Beyond Stonehenge Harper & Row, N.Y. 1973

Lawson, Andrew. Encyclopedia Brittanica . Vol. 14 New York: Random House Pub., 1991 Witcombe, Christopher. "Sweet Briar College" Virginia 5 Dec. 1993 n.pag. On-line. Internet.

21 August 1993 Available WWW: http//www.witcombe.sbc.edu/