Stonehenge Remains One of Our Greatest Mysteries

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Stonehenge, a prehistoric stone circle, remains one of the world’s utmost mysterious and archaic structures. Built over 4,000 years ago in Salisbury Plain, scientists and theorists alike are still in the dark as to why Stonehenge was built. Popular belief is that it was used for religious purposes and that it was constructed by the Druids or even the Romans, but the theory was disproved when it was confirmed that the beginning of Stonehenge construction started at least 2000 years before the Celts came. I, on the other hand, believe that Stonehenge operated for scientific or astronomical reasons such as being used as an astronomical calendar and two centuries after being built it was utilized for its healing abilities.

Over the course of several hundred years there have been numerous theories as to why Stonehenge was built, but in 1963 an American astronomer Gerald Hawkins said that “Stonehenge had been constructed as a “computer” to predict lunar and solar eclipses…” (Hawkins). Hawkins found 165 separate points on the structure that linked it to astrological events like eclipses, the rising of the sun, etc. When the summer solstice would happen two nearby stones, The Slaughter and Heel Stones, would both align with the sun and the suns rays went directly into the center of the structure. Since the rocks seem to align with the sun it is safe to say that the ancient builders used it to see and view and keep track of the incoming winter or summer solstice. There is also proof at a nearby settlement that thousands of people traveled to Stonehenge to celebrate and have feasts in honor of the summer/winter solstice. Parker Pearson and his team found the teeth of pigs and cattle at the “builder’s camp” that were slaughtered around ...

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...images to Stonehenge in search of healing. Amesbury Archer’s bones were discovered less than 20 feet from the monument and they told the tale of a sick and injured man. Archer traveled from as far away as the Swiss Alps to Stonehenge to heal his infected kneecap and his abscessed tooth decay that destroyed his jawbone. Darvill and Wainwright say that Archer would have been desperate for relief. Another traveler was discovered just 10 feet away from Archer; this is one being 20 to 25 years old had the same bone abnormalities so they were most likely related. Through the testing of radiocarbon dating Darvill and Wainwright were able to prove that the first bluestones were placed in the inner circle between 2400 BCE and 2200 BCE and that matches up with age Amesbury Archer’s bones which would lend evidence to the theory that Archer came to Stonehenge for healing.

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