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    5 Strange Theories About The Stonehenge

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    lebene santiago
    Stonehenge is an ancient stone circle in England that was built between 3100 BC and 1600 BC, but its purpose remains a mystery since those who constructed it left no records. Some theories about why it was built include that it was a burial ground for elites, a place for healing rituals, an astronomical observatory aligned with solstices, or a community project that unified Neolithic peoples. Archaeologists have recently found cremated human remains and artifacts suggesting some burials at Stonehenge were of religious or political elites.

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    5 Strange Theories About The Stonehenge

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    lebene santiago
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    Stonehenge is an ancient stone circle in England that was built between 3100 BC and 1600 BC, but its purpose remains a mystery since those who constructed it left no records. Some theories about why it was built include that it was a burial ground for elites, a place for healing rituals, an astronomical observatory aligned with solstices, or a community project that unified Neolithic peoples. Archaeologists have recently found cremated human remains and artifacts suggesting some burials at Stonehenge were of religious or political elites.

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    5 Strange Theories About the Stonehenge

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    Stonehenge is an ancient stone circle in England that was built between 3100 BC and 1600 BC, but its purpose remains a mystery since those who constructed it left no records. Some theories about why it was built include that it was a burial ground for elites, a place for healing rituals, an astronomical observatory aligned with solstices, or a community project that unified Neolithic peoples. Archaeologists have recently found cremated human remains and artifacts suggesting some burials at Stonehenge were of religious or political elites.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    55 views2 pages

    5 Strange Theories About The Stonehenge

    Uploaded by

    lebene santiago
    Stonehenge is an ancient stone circle in England that was built between 3100 BC and 1600 BC, but its purpose remains a mystery since those who constructed it left no records. Some theories about why it was built include that it was a burial ground for elites, a place for healing rituals, an astronomical observatory aligned with solstices, or a community project that unified Neolithic peoples. Archaeologists have recently found cremated human remains and artifacts suggesting some burials at Stonehenge were of religious or political elites.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    5 strange theories about the Stonehenge

    Thousands of years ago, an ancient civilization raised a circle of huge, roughly


    rectangular stones in a field in what is now Wiltshire, England. Stonehenge, as it would
    come to be called, has been a mystery ever since.

    Building began on the site around 3100 B.C. and continued in phases up until about
    1600 B.C. The people who constructed the site left no written records and few clues as
    to why they bothered to schlep the stones to this spot.

    Wild theories about Stonehenge have persisted since the Middle Ages, with 12th-century
    myths crediting the wizard Merlin with constructing the site. More recently, UFO
    believers have spun theories about ancient aliens and spacecraft landing pads.
    But Stonehenge has inspired a fair number of scientifically reasonable theories as well.
    Here are five major (and not necessarily mutually exclusive) reasons Stonehenge might
    exist.

    1. A place for burial


    Stonehenge may have originally been a cemetery for the elite, according to a new
    study. Bone fragments were first exhumed from the Stonehenge site more than a
    century ago, but archaeologists at the time thought the remains were unimportant and
    reburied them. Now, British researchers have re-exhumed more than 50,000 cremated
    bone fragments from where they were discarded, representing 63 separate individuals,
    from Stonehenge. Their analysis, presented on a BBC 4 documentary on March 10,
    reveals that the people buried at the site were men and women in equal proportions,
    with some children as well.

    The burials occurred in about 3000 B.C., according to study researcher Mike Parker
    Pearson of the University College London Institute of Archaeology, and the very first
    stones were brought from Wales at that time to mark the graves. The archaeologists
    also found a mace head and a bowl possibly used to burn incense, suggesting the
    people buried in the graves may have been religious or political elite, according to The
    Guardian newspaper. 

    2. A place for healing


    Another theory suggests that Stone Age people saw Stonehenge as a place with
    healing properties. In 2008, archaeologists Geoggrey Wainwright and Timothy Darvill
    reported that a large number of skeletons recovered from around Stonehenge showed
    signs of illness or injury. The archaeologists also reported discovering fragments of the
    Stonehenge bluestones — the first stones erected at the site — that had been chipped
    away by ancient people, perhaps to use as talismans for protective or healing
    purposes. 

    3. A soundscape
    Or perhaps Stonehenge's circular construction was created to mimic a sound illusion.
    That's the theory of Steven Waller, a researcher in archaeoacoustics. Waller says that if
    two pipers were to play their instruments in a field, a listener would notice a strange
    effect. In certain spots, the sound waves from the dual pipes would cancel each other
    out, creating quiet spots.
    The stones of Stonehenge create a similar effect, except with stones, rather than
    competing sound waves, blocking sound, Waller reported in 2012 at the annual meeting
    of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Legends associated with
    Stonehenge also reference pipers, Waller said, and prehistoric circles are traditionally
    known as "piper stones."

    Waller's theory is speculative, but other researchers have confirmed that Stonehenge had
    amazing acoustics. A study released in May 2012 found that the circle would have caused
    sound reverberations similar to those in a modern-day cathedral or concert hall.

    4. A celestial observatory
    No matter why it was built, Stonehenge may have been constructed with the sun in
    mind. One avenue connecting the monument with the nearby River Aven aligns with the
    sun on the winter solstice; archaeological evidence reveals that pigs were slaughtered
    at Stonehenge in December and January, suggesting possible celebrations or rituals at
    the monument around the winter solstice. The site also faces the summer solstice
    sunrise, and both summer and winter solstices are still celebrated there today.

    5. A team-building exercise
    Or perhaps Stonehenge was something like an ancient team-building exercise.
    According to the University College London's Pearson, the beginning of the site's
    construction coincides with a time of increased unity among the Neolithic people of
    Britain. Perhaps inspired by the natural flow of the landscape, which seems to connect
    summer solstice sunrise and winter solstice sunset, these ancient people may have
    banded together to build the monument, Pearson suggested in June 2012.
    "Stonehenge itself was a massive undertaking, requiring the labor of thousands to move
    stones from as far away as west Wales, shaping them and erecting them," he said in a
    statement. "Just the work itself, requiring everything literally to pull together, would have
    been an act of unification."

    Source:

    5 Strange Theories About Stonehenge | Live Science

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