Credit: Flickr/etrusia_uk
Wainwright had cautioned me, and other media in attendance, that watching an archaeological dig was like watching paint dry. But while the work is indeed slow and methodical, it is also serene, even meditative. Wainwright, an avuncular figure with a white beard framing a smiling, ruddy face, joined Bournemouth University students operating a large, clattering sieve, picking out everything of interest: bones, ceramic shards and fragments of sarsen and bluestone.
Once the initial media conflagration had left, the inner circle became quite peaceful. For the first time, I began to get a sense of what made this place so special to people who came here thousands of years ago.
Some days a strong wind blew through the site, creating a small dust bowl. Other days brought rain, sleet and even snow. As material was excavated from the trench and sifted through the coarse sieve, it was ferried to the temporary building erected in the parking lot.
Here other students and Debbie Costen, Darvill's research assistant, put the material into a flotation tank, which caused any organic matter – such as carbonised plant remains that could be used for radiocarbon dating – to float to the surface. "They can bring the stuff off-site and give it to us, but it's just stones and soil unless it's documented," said Yvette Staelens, the field supervisor who was responsible for documenting the material and recording just where it came from in the dig.
By the end of the excavation, contours of postholes that once held timber poles and of bedrock-cut sockets for bluestones were visible. In addition, dozens of samples of organic material, including charred cereal grains and bone, had been collected and 14 of these were selected for radiocarbon dating.
Although it would not be possible to establish dates from the bluestone sockets themselves, their age could be inferred from the age of the recovered organic materials, which are older the deeper they are buried. Environmental archaeologist Mike Allen from Wessex Archaeology compared the positions and depths of the bluestone sockets with this chronology. Using these calculations, Darvill and Wainwright would later be able to estimate that the first bluestones had been placed between 2400 and 2200 BC – two or three centuries later than the previous estimate of 2600 BC.
That means the first bluestones were erected at Stonehenge around the time of the Amesbury Archer's pilgrimage, lending credence to the theory that he came there to be healed.
Among other finds, the soil yielded two Roman coins from the late fourth century. Similar coins have been found at Stonehenge, but these were retrieved from cut pits and a shaft, indicating that Romans were reshaping and altering the monument long after such activities were supposed to have ended.
"This is something that people haven't really recognised before," says Darvill. "The power of Stonehenge seems to have long outlasted its original purpose and these new finds provide a strong link to the world of late antiquity that probably provided the stories picked up by Geoffrey of Monmouth just a few centuries later."
As so often happens in archaeology, the new findings raise nearly as many questions as they answer. Charcoal recovered by Darvill and Wainwright – indicating the burning of pine timber in the vicinity – dates back to the eighth millennium BC. Could the area have been a ritual centre for hunter-gatherer communities some 6,000 years before the earthen henge was even dug? "The origins of Stonehenge probably lie back in the Mesolithic, and we need to reframe our questions for the next excavation to look back into that deeper time," Darvill says.
The new radiocarbon dating also raises questions about a theory advanced by archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield, who has long suggested that Stonehenge was a massive burial site in which the stones were symbols of the dead – the final stop of an elaborate funeral procession by Neolithic mourners from nearby settlements. The oldest human remains found by Parker Pearson's team date to around 3030 BC, about the time the henge was first built, but well before the arrival of the bluestones. That means, says Darvill, "the stones come after the burials and are not directly associated with them."
Of course it's entirely possible that Stonehenge was both a great cemetery and a place of healing, as Darvill and Wainwright willingly admit. "Initially it seems to have been a place for the dead with cremations and memorials," says Darvill, "but after about 2300 BC, the emphasis changes and it is a focus for the living, a place where specialist healers and the health care professionals of their age looked after the bodies and souls of the sick and infirm." English Heritage's Amanda Chadburn also finds the dual-use theory plausible. "It's such an important place that people want to be associated with it and buried in its vicinity," she says, "but it could also be such a magical place that it was used for healing, too."
Not everyone buys into the healing stone theory though. "I think the survey work [Darvill and Wainwright are] doing in the Preseli hills is great, and I'm very much looking forward to the full publication of what they've found there," says British Archaeology's Mike Pitts. "However, the idea that there is a prehistoric connection between the healing properties of bluestones and Stonehenge as a place of healing does nothing for me at all. As far as I'm concerned, it's a fairy story."
Pitts also wants to see more evidence that people suffering from injuries and illness visited Stonehenge. "There are actually very few – you can count them on one hand – human remains around and contemporary with Stonehenge that haven't been cremated so that you could see what injuries or illnesses they might have suffered from," he says. "For long periods in the Neolithic we have a dearth of human remains of any kind."
For his part, Wainwright believes that no theory will ever be fully accepted. "I think what most people like about Stonehenge is that nobody really knows why it was built, and I think that's probably always going to be the case," he says. "It's a bloody great mystery."
Dan Jones is a science writer based in Brighton, England. He writes for publications including Smithsonian Magazine, Nature and Prospect.
stonehenge
I have read many articles about this subject, just like this one 4 pages long of guessing only to read at the end no one knows for sure.
Stonehenge article
I liked the article and enjoy reading ideas about what may or may not have happened. As the authors say, it is a great mystery that will probably never be solved by mortals. That makes it even more interesting!
honestly,
Nobody knows for sure because it's the process of learning. Even if they actually "knew" what was there & why, it would be an opinnion based on the interpretation of evidence, the interpretation we have now is undoubtedly different than that of the site designers, because they interpreted the world only based on what they knew. We're actually learning from our ancestors. If we already knew what was there, no one would dig!
Stonehenge Astronomical Observatory
Stonehenge had a number of phases of construction and change, so it is likely that there were several different purposes, spread over many centuries.
At the sarsen phase, I have a theory that it was an astronomical observatory.
Watch "Stonehenge Astronomical Observatory" on YouTube.
Kind regards
Hugo Jenks
Stonehenge's many use's unproven
It seems unbelievable that professionals could come up with a theory of a "healing site" for these ancient stones,
As those men would have had more sense to carry small stones for healing rather than dragging huge monoliths hundreds of miles across the countryside, or instead to organise the population to visit the Preselli mountains to be healed. Professor Thom, in his "Stonehenge Decoded" postulated that Stonehenge's alignment to lunar, solar and stellar events is far more plausable, than using an entire population to move these stones for healing. So much for pseudo theories, and their authors.
Astronomical Observatory ?! NO!!!
The title of the book you quote says it all :Stonehenge "Decoded". Astral alignments are an easy out, as pretty much any two points on land can be made to align to something interesting in the heavens. Using your argument, why work so incredibly hard for decades, to simply plot the motions of stars, planets and the moon, when something much simpler can be constructed ? Why ensure the cap stones are carved perfectly to be both parallel to a flat horizon (even though they are placed on an uneven plain) if this were a pointer to the sky ? No,only religion or faith in healing/miracles as we call them would have enough 'force' to drive people to sacrifice so much time and effort to build this incredible monument.
Unravelling Stone Henge
It has been pointed out by many people, the astronomical alignments of Stone Henge. I think we would be foolish to deny that fact. A solid unmoving platform was essential for comparing variations in and the cycles of celestial bodies. Stonehenge was certainly this. Graduated markings on a number of perimeter stones along with 'sighting knobs' on some of the capping stones, clearly show that these stones were used for measuring.
The one place where accurate celestial observations is essential for survival, is at sea - that is to ensure a safe and accurate passage to one's destination - especially after a passage across an ocean ie; the Atlantic. This would have been the main driving force behind the erection of these stones. As Prof Barry Fell described in America BC, the culture of Eastern America was essentially the same as the culture of coastal Europe. There is a mini Stone Henge in Vermont, along with Dolmens, Menhirs and Menatols almost identical to ones in Ireland and Brittany (Armorica).
The widespread evidence of Ogham script in Eastern America - once thought to only be used by Irish monks appears to have a much deeper history, that almost certainly predates the Phoenician alphabet. The serpent mounds of Vermont and Delaware, similar to the one at Avebury, England (John Michell), also suggests a common link in culture. East/West facing Chambers (tabernacles) for viewing the summer and winter solstices were also common in Eastern America, often the walls were covered in Ogham writing, once again suggesting a connection to the ancient Indo/European Sun Worshipping culture.
The rings making up many Irish and Welsh petroglyphs are also believed to be maps of islands, the rings denote the number of days sail between islands such as the Azores. (Dr Reinoud M. de Jonge, Jay S Wakefield) This style of Petroglyph is also seen in America - especially amongst Anasazi petroglyphs.
When considering the extent and origin of this megalithic seafaring culture, we must also take into consideration what the DNA of these people is showing us. It shows that the people of Ireland, Wales, Brittany and the Basques show their mysterious absence from the rest of the European population between 13,000 and 6,000 years ago (Prof Jones). Could this suggest that the East coast of America was their interim home for this period? Anasazi and Welsh legends are surprisingly similar. Not only this, but the Native American chiefs of Dakota and Delaware teach; that the Age of the Red Heads ended 6,000 years ago. An uncanny correlation with the DNA evidence of their return to Europe.
I am not denying that Stone Henge was a spiritual place that may have been used for healing - or even for human sacrifice. I am sure that it was. The Wizards/Druids of that time were the scientists/shamans/and politicians all rolled into one package - often used for manipulating the masses through fear, magical healing or through the apparent control of the heavens (such as the prediction of eclipses).
Peter Marsh, www.polynesian-prehistory.com
healing at Stonehenge
August 2009 - I recently took an Evan Evan bus tour out of London. We stopped at Windsor Castle and Bath before arriving at Stonehenge late in the day - around 5 PM Mid way on the bus ride, my back started aching - a result of pulling an overstuffed suitcase from Florida, thru Atlanta, onto Cambridge, and return to London. I regretted I had no Aleve or aspirin with me. What the heck just an aching back. Joining the other tourists for our allotted hour at Stonehenge, I circled the henge taking pictures every so many yards, always waiting until the horizon was cleared of tourists, on the other side of the circle. I finished the circle just in time to board the bus. It was only on the ride back did I notice my aching back no longer ached. I had no knowledge of supposed healing properties of the monument. Hey, it worked for me.