Stonehenge. UK Mystery

2 Stonehenge On this day, I could admire the sunrise, flying on a jet plane towards the dawn at a speed of 950 kilometers per hour. Kennedy get to the aircraft "Trans-World

Excavations near the famous megalithic structure Stonehenge made it possible to find confirmation that the archaeological settlement in this place arose in the middle of the 8th millennium BC. Therefore, people lived here five thousand years earlier than was thought so far and, probably, could be the first builders of the prehistoric monument.

"Dolmens of the Caucasus. Journey to the origins"

In Amesbury and Wiltshire (Amesbury, Wiltshire), one and a half kilometers from Stonehenge, in the camp of Vespasian, a team of British archaeologists led by David Jacques from Open University (UK) made finds that allow us to conclude that people settled in these parts much earlier than 2500 BC. It was this date that was accepted by the scientific community.

Recall that sometimes the construction of Stonehenge was attributed not only to the legendary times of the Druids, but also dated its construction to the I-IV centuries after the birth of Christ, when England was part of the Roman Empire. The life physician of King Charles II proposed an even later date for the construction of this megalith. In correspondence with one connoisseur of antiquities, he expressed the idea of ​​building a monument in the 9th century, by the Scandinavians, who had conquered part of the island by that time.

With the invention of the radiocarbon method, according to the composition of the C14 isotope, in the 1950s, samples from Stonehenge were studied and it was established that the installation period of the first sarsens (about 2500 BC) and "blue stones" (2300 - 2000 BC. ). Triliths are the largest stones that have a blue tint, weighing 50 tons and 6-7 meters in height; triliths are surrounded by three dozen sarsen stones, weighing about 25 tons and a little over 4 meters. It was taken into account that over the centuries the layout of Stonehenge has changed many times.

After two years of studying Stonehenge, in 1996 the English Heritage Society announced that this megalithic structure was built around 2695 BC. It was believed that around this time, on the site of the future Stonehenge, earthen ramparts and ditches appeared, inside which a fence of "blue stones" was installed, including four stones on the cardinal points.

In 1999, while still a student, David Jacques was carefully examining the pictures of the Stonehenge area obtained during aerial photography and drew attention to the spring. A very attractive place for animals. Following wild animals come hunters, the future archaeologist reasoned. The source of fresh water closest to Stonehenge, which both people and animals could use all year round, prompted the idea to study this area more carefully. This marked the beginning of the discovery that led to such a sensational conclusion.

The radiocarbon method made it possible to date the material found during the last excavations. From which it follows that settlements periodically arose here over a long period from 7500 to 4700 BC. Moreover, people inhabited these lands every millennium, according to the Discovery News website.

Archaeologist Josh Pollard of the University of Southampton even had the audacity to claim in an interview with the BBC that archaeologists have discovered "a community of people who first erected the megalithic monument at Stonehenge." Scientists are inclined to believe that the first builders of Stonehenge could be people who settled in the camp of Vespasian. At least large wooden poles were erected by them between the 9th and 7th millennium BC.

Researchers reject the previous hypothesis, expressed in a BBC documentary, that Stonehenge, where people of the Mesolithic era originally lived, then left these lands, came from the Neolithic culture. Most likely, scientists insist, the connection between eras was never interrupted, and cultures interacted and mixed, exerting an enduring influence on each other.

By the 17th century, scholars needed more evidence to support Geoffrey of Monmouth's theory, beyond claims that he was using "a very ancient book in the Brythonic language." The first excavations at Stonehenge were carried out at the direction of King James I, who visited the monument in 1620. The Duke of Buckingham offered land owner Robert Newdyke a large sum for Stonehenge, but was rebuffed. However, Buckingham received permission to dig a hole in the center of the monument. No information about the result of the work has been preserved, and the founder of the systematic study of Stonehenge, John Aubrey, who asked local residents in 1666, found out that they only remember the discovery of "deer and cow horns, as well as charcoal." All the more annoying were hints at more important discoveries: "Something was found, but Mrs. Mary Trotman (one of the interviewees) forgot what it was."

The king asked his chief architect, Inigo Jones, to write a description of the remarkable monument. Based on his observations, Jones concluded that the builders of Stonehenge followed the Roman rules of architectural planning, but he died before he could publish the results of his reflections. Using the notes left by Jones after his death in 1652, his assistant and devoted student John Webb wrote a voluminous work entitled "Britain's Most Famous Ancient Landmark, Colloquially Called Stonehenge on the Salesbury Plain: A Reconstruction". For Jones and Webb, the architectural wisdom of the builders of Stonehenge was no different from the knowledge of Roman architects who built palaces and temples in Italy. The quality and scale of the construction ruled out participation in the construction of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, who were considered a "cruel and barbaric people" who could not even dress properly, not to mention the construction of "such wonderful monuments as Stonehenge." Stonehenge was built in the 1st-4th centuries AD. e., in an era of peace and abundance, when England was part of the possessions of the Roman Empire. Critics immediately questioned the evidence to support this theory. They pointed out that Roman proportions in terms of Stonehenge are applicable only if the horseshoe shape of the inner ring of sarsens is turned into a regular hexagon. Standing stones are not columns at all, let alone the "Tuscan order", since they lack both a base and a capital. Moreover, it was hard for scholarly contemporaries to believe that the Romans undertook such a major building project and did not provide the monument with many inscriptions carved into stone.

A few years later, Dr. Walter Charlton, personal physician to King Charles II, proposed a completely different date for Stonehenge after searching for similar structures in continental Europe. Charleston's correspondence with the Danish antiquities scholar Olaf Worm convinced him that Stonehenge was erected in the ninth century AD. when the Scandinavians conquered most of England. In his opinion, Stonehenge was the site of the coronation of Danish kings, and its layout corresponded to the shape of the crown. This was a valid interpretation, given that Charles II had only recently returned to the throne, but it was not supported by real evidence. The absence of any mention of Stonehenge in early medieval texts deprives this theory of credibility, while familiarity with the Scandinavian megalithic structures shows that they are significantly inferior in size to Stonehenge.

The first person to suggest that Stonehenge was built by the ancient Britons was John Aubrey in 1666. Aubrey personally drew up a plan of the site and drew attention to the ring of depressions located on the inside of the shaft and now known as "Aubrey holes". His approach was quite different from previous commentators - he did not look for evidence of a foreign origin of Stonehenge, but pointed out its connection with many other stone circles in Britain. Finding that neither the Romans, nor the Saxons, nor the Danes built such monuments, Aubrey concluded that they "are of domestic origin." According to Aubrey, Stonehenge was created by the Druids, known from descriptions from Roman sources.

William Stuckley popularized the prehistoric origin of Stonehenge in 1740 with his book Stonehenge: Temple of the British Druids. Unfortunately, his excavations in the center of the horseshoe-shaped structure did not confirm this assumption. The first find of chronologically definable objects in the vicinity of the monument - several Roman coins discarded by rabbits burrowing in the vicinity - caused him some concern, but he decided that the coins were left by visitors to Stonehenge. Stackley also opened an alley running from the northeast entrance.

During Stuckley's time, visiting Stonehenge began to become fashionable, with many visitors not only burning fires inside the circle of stones, but also trying to take some souvenir with them. Stuckley protested against the "outrageous custom of breaking off pieces of stone with heavy hammers." Sarsens mainly suffered from this vandalism, since the "blue stones" were much stronger. The ongoing looting of the monument led to predictable consequences: in January 1797, one of the trilithons collapsed to the ground.

This misfortune served as an impetus for further research. They were led by William Cunnington, who excavated about two hundred burial mounds around Stonehenge in the Salisbury Valley. In 1802 he explored the central site, but had little success, apart from scattered finds of prehistoric pottery.

“This summer I have been excavating in several places, both in the Area itself and in the vicinity of Stonehenge, trying not to get too close to the stones. In particular, in front of the Altar (fallen sarsen) I dug to a depth of five feet or more and found charcoal, animal bones, and earthenware shards. Among the latter were several pieces similar to the roughly worked urns sometimes found in burial mounds, as well as fragments of pottery from the Roman period.

The results of Cunnington's excavations were published by his wealthy patron, Sir Richard Colt Hoore, who left detailed accounts of the ancient people who left burial mounds on the Salisbury Plain. However, when it came to Stonehenge, he limited himself to expressing admiration and reverence: “How sublime! How wonderful! How incomprehensible!”

In the spring of 1810, Cunnington again excavated Stonehenge and found that the "Stone Block" (this gloomy name appeared due to a misinterpretation of the red stain formed by iron oxides on the surface of the stone as a result of weathering) originally occupied an upright position. It was Cunnington's swan song as he died towards the end of 1810. Field work in the Stonehenge area has practically ceased.

Archaeologists know
that this ancient monument was built in several stages - from 3000 BC. before 1600 BC But why? Disputes have been going on for a very long time, and scientists have not yet come to a consensus (BBC frame).

Professors Tim Darvill of Bournemouth University and Geoff Wainwright, President of the Society of Antiquaries of London, led an archaeological expedition that began excavating directly under Stonehenge for the first time in nearly 50 years ( stonehenge). Scientists intend to shed light on the purpose of building this mysterious structure.

The excavations are carried out at the expense and under the auspices of the BBC, and the broadcasting company has launched a special Timewatch project, within which it intends to regularly cover the progress of the work. And in the fall, the BBC is going to release a big documentary taken at the excavation site.

Darvill and Wainwright, renowned experts on Stonehenge, want to finally answer the question: "Why was it built?" Strictly speaking, different answers were given repeatedly over hundreds of years. Perhaps new finds in deep layers of soil directly in the structure itself will dot the i's.

Scientists are especially interested in the blue stones located in the central circle. It is they, and not giant sarsen blocks (sandstone), that make up the main “content” unusual place, two British professors believe.

Neolithic people dragged these boulders 250 kilometers from the Preseli Hills in Wales to Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. There must have been good reasons for such a difficult (for the Stone Age) transport operation.

Darvill (above), Wainwright and one of the new finds (BBC footage).

Darvill and Wainwright, analyzing both the structure itself and the numerous bones found at the site, hypothesized that Stonehenge was a place of "magical healing".

“There is an amazing and unnatural concentration of trauma in the skeletal remains that have been dug around Stonehenge,” says Darvill. “It was a place of pilgrimage for people seeking healing.”

Thus, a large structure was the last hope for a miracle for the sick and wounded. And here the British give an example of similar behavior of people in much later centuries. Wainwright called Stonehenge the Neolithic Lourdes. Recall that this city in the south of France is a famous center of Catholic pilgrimage.

In the view of the Neolithic builders, the blue stones had a healing power, which they "absorbed" from the traditional healing sources at the site of their original position.

Now scientists intend to extract organic material from the holes under the stones in order to clarify the time of their appearance in the composition of this complex. But it is already clear that a huge "fence" of 25-ton blocks of sandstone, delivered from a quarry "only" 20 kilometers from the construction site of Stonehenge, appeared much later than the "blue circle".

In the meantime, researchers have already found a fragment of pottery, Roman ceramics and ancient stone hammers in various layers under the structure.

Interestingly, the hypothesis of Darvill and Wainwright runs counter to another fresh version of the purpose of the amazing building (also put forward by the British). A version supported by numerous finds and logical constructions, which says that Stonehenge was "the abode of the dead."

Both of these hypotheses would be good to somehow connect with the known astronomical features of Stonehenge. Although in general terms it is clear: burials in the “city of the dead”, and pilgrimages to the “healing place”, and certain rituals assumed in various hypotheses could well be carried out on certain astronomical dates, such as the winter solstice.

Who built the megalithic monument? There are two versions here, supported by the finds of builders' teeth (1 and 2), however, they are not mutually exclusive.