STONEHENGE IN ENGLAND

STONEHENGE IS IN ENGLAND AND WEST OF AMESTBURY AND NORTH OF SALISBURG.  IT IS ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS SITES IN THE WORLD.  IT IS A CIRCLE OF LARGE RECTANGULAR STONES IN A COMPLEX OF NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGE MONUMENTS AND BURIAL MOUNDS.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS THINK IT WAS BUILT FROM 3000 -2000 B.C.  IN 2008 RADIOCARBON DATES THE SITE APPROXIMATELY 2400 B.C.

THERE IS AN EARTH BANK AND DITCH CHICH CONSTITUTES AN EARLY PHASE OF 3100 B.C.  IN 1986  THE SITE WAS PLACED ON UNESCO'S WORLD HERITAGE SITE.  IT IS MANAGED BY ENGLISH HERITAGE AND IS OWNED BY THE NATIONAL TRUST.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS FOUND THAT IT MAY HAVVE BENN A BURIAL GROUNDTHERE IN 2008.  THEY DATED CREMATED BONES AS EARLY AS 3000 B.C.  THE SITE IS OF RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE IN NEO DRDRUIDY.STONE HENGE COMES FROM THE OLD ENGLISH WORD 'STAN' OR STONE AND 'HENGE' MEANING HINGE.  SOME STONES HINGE ON THE UPRIGHT STONES.  ARCHAEOLOGIST DEFINE STONE  AS EARTHWORKS CONSISTING OF A CIRCULAR BANKED ENCLOSURE WITH AN INTERNAL DITCH  STONEHENGE HAS LINTELS HELD IN PLACE WITH MORTISE AND TENDON JOINTS.

STONEHENGE WAS A PLACE OF BURIAL  AND CREMATION.THERE IS EVIDENCE THAT THERE WAS LARGE SCALE MONUMENT THAT EXTENDS THE LANDSCAPE'S TIME TO 6500 YEASRS.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE FOUND 4 - 5 MESOLITHIC OR PRE AGRICULTURE POSTHOLES DATING TO 8000 B.C. IT IS BENEATH THE MODERN TOURIST PARK.  THEY HELD PINE POSTS IN SITU.THREE OF THE POSTS HAVE HAD RITUAL SIGNIFICANCE.  THE SALISBURY PLAN WAS STILL WOODED AND 4000 YEARS LATER PEOPLE BUILT A CASEWAY OF ENCLOSURE OF LING TOMS.  BY A 3500 B.C. ANOTHER CURCUS NORTH OF STONEHENGE WAS BUILT AND THEY BEGAN TO CLEAR TREES DEVELOP AN AREA FOR FARMING.

DURING 3100 B.C THEY BUILT A BANK AND DITCH ENCLOSURE IN THE GRASSLAND.  THE BUILDERS PLACED THE BONES OF DEER AND OXEN AND WORKED FLINT TOOLS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE DITCH.  THE BONES WERE OLDER THAN THE ANTLERS USED TO DIG THE DITCH.  THE DITCH WAS A CIRCLE AND THEY FOUND CHALK THAT WAS FOUND ALONG THE BANK.  THE FIRST STAGE DATES TO ABOUT 3100 B.C.  WITHIN THE OUTER EDGE OF OF THE ENCLOSED AREA IS A CIRCLE OF 56 PITS.    
THE FIRST STAGE DATES TO ABOUT 3100 B.C.  WITHIN THE OUTER EDGE  OF THE ENCLOSED AREA IS A CIRCLE OF 56 PITS.  EACH PIT MAY HAVE HELD A TIMBER, BUT THEY HAVE NO EVIDENCE.

IN 2013 ARCHAEOLOGISTS EXCAVATE 50,000 CREMATED BONES OF 63 FOLKS BURIED HERE.  THEY WERE ORIGINALLY BURIED IN THE AUBREY HOLES AND REMOVED DURING A PREVIOUS EXCAVATION IN 1920.

WILLIAM HAWLEY IN 1920 WERE NOT CONSIDERED IMPORTANT.  THE BONES W3ERE PLACED BACK IN ONE HOLE IN 1935.  ALL FOLKS WHO WERE CREMATED MEN AND WOMEN  WITH A FEW CHILDREN.  THE TEAM DETERMINED THAT THE FIRST BLUESTONE FROM WALES WERE USED AS GRAVE MARKERS.

ANALYSIS OF ANIMAL TEETH FOUND AT DURINGTON WALES, A BUILDER'S CAMP, DETERMINED THAT 4000 FOLKS GATHERED FOR MID WINTER AND SUMMER FESTIVALS.  THESE REMAINS SHOWED SOME ANIMALS WERE EATEN  AFTER  9 TO 15 MO OF AGE.

EVIDENCE OF STONEHENGE 2 SHOWS THAT THERE WAS NOT MUCH EVIDENCE.  THIS PHASE IS A 3000 B.C.  DURING THIS TIME STONEHENGE WAS AN ENCLOSED CREMATION CEMETERY - THE EARLIEST IN THE BRITISH ISLES .  FRAGMENTS OF UNBURNT HUMAN BONES HAVE BEEN FOUND THERE.   THEY HAD NEOLITHIC POTTERY OR GROOVED WARE FROM THIS PHASE. 

THERE WERE VARIOUS PHASES AND THEY USED STONE INSTEAD OF TIMBERS AND VICE VERSA.  AT THIS PHASE THEY HAD 80 STIONES THAT WERE BELIEVED TO BE MOVED FROM 150 MILES AWAY.  POSSIBLY AND SOME WERE IGNEOUS AND SOME WERE DOLORITE.  THEY WERE BELIEVED TO BE MOVED HERE FROM 150 MILES AWAY.  POSSIBLY ANOTHER THEORY SUGGESTS THEY WERE BROUGHT CLOSER BY THE SALISH SEA GLACIER.  EACH STONE WEIGHS  ABOUT 4 TONS AND IS 6 ' HIGH AND IS 3 ' WIDE AND 3' THICK!  THERE ARE 4 STATION STONES,2 THAT STAND ATOP MOUNDS WITHOUT BURIALS.

DURING STONEHENGE 3, 3 ENORMOUS STONES WERE BROUGHT HERE.  THEY MAY HAVE COME FROM AN AREA 25 MILES AWAY TO THE NORTH.  THEY WERE FASHIONED WITH MORTIS AND TENDON JOINTS BEFORE 30 WERE ERECTEDHERE IN THE CIRCLE OF STONES.  EACH STONE WAS 13' HIGH, 6' WIDE AND THEY WEIGHED 25 TONS.  THE INWARD SIDE OF THEIR SUNFACES WERE SMOOTHER AND MORE FINELY WORKED THAN THE OUTSIDE.  THEY CARVED IMAGES OF DAGGER AND 14 AXEHEADS HAVE BEEN CAQRVED IN STONE.  THEY LOOK LIKE BRONZE AGE WEAPONSAS THEY HAD LAZER SCANNING TO DATE THEM.

THE LAST KNOWN CONSTRUCTION AT STONEHENGE ARE BUILT AT 1600 B.C.   THIS CULTURE LEFT NO WRITTEN RECORDS.  MANY ASPECTS OF THE SITE MAY HAVE BEEN USED AS AN ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY.  ONE PROFESSOR IN LONDON THOUGHT IT WAS A PLACE OF HEALING.  THE SITE WAS MULTI-FUNCTIONAL.  POSSIBLY THEY CELEBRATED  HERE.  IT MIGHT HAVE ALLOWED PREDICTION OF ECLIPSE, SOLSTICE, EQUINOX AND CELESTIAL EVENTS POSSIBLY PEOPLE FROM THE BRITISH ISLE WERE UNIFIED BY INTEREGIONAL COOPERATION. 

THERE IS A HEADSTONE AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE STONEHENGE.  IT STANDS 18 FEET ABOVE GROUND.   AT SUMMER  SOLSTICE IF ONE IS IN THE STONE CIRCLE THE SUN RISES ABOVE THE HEEL STONE.  ENGLAND FOLKS AND GOVERNMENT HAVE DECIDED NOT TO DEVELOP AROUND  THE STONEHEDGE SITE.

TODAY THE STONES ARE ROPED SO NO ONE CAN
CLIMB ON THE STONES.  SOME RESTORATION HAS INCLUDED PLACING SOME STONES INTO CONCRETE.

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