The Three Ages of Stonehenge

Reading the Rings

Standing solemn and mysterious in the rolling Wiltshire countryside in south-west England, Stonehenge has to be one of the most powerful and intriguing ancient sites in Britain. So much so, that writers from Sir Philip Sydney to Thomas Hardy have drawn on it in their work, and as many as 900,000 people come every year to marvel at this ancient feat of engineering about which so much is still unexplained.

Spanning a period equivalent to the time between the fall of the Roman Empire and today, the construction of Stonehenge began during the Middle Neolithic Age in around 2,900 BC – 200 years before the first pyramid would appear in Egypt. The Neolithic Age was characterised by the arrival of farming in Britain from mainland Europe, a change which prompted a shift away from the hunter-gatherer way of life towards more settled living.

The First Structures

Although most visitors to Stonehenge think of it as being a stone structure, stones weren’t brought onto the site until at least 300 years after work started there. The first stage in the construction process focused instead on the formation of the ‘henge’ itself, a circular earthwork bounded by a ditch and bank with a single entrance in the north-eastern section. In contrast to other known henges, the ditch at Stonehenge was dug on the outside of the boundary bank, using deer antlers to shift the earth.

Visitors to Stonehenge these days are unlikely to be able to make out much of the henge itself as 5,000 years of erosion and soil shift have taken their toll, however, it is still possible to trace the outline of the ditch and the Avenue, which was added later, on snowy days.

The first structures to appear on the site were wooden posts, which are thought to have been present in the henge between 2,900 and 2,400BC. Excavation has revealed a number of post holes in a somewhat chaotic arrangement concentrated on the centre of the circle and the entrance; however it is entirely possible that the different postholes were used at different times as new generations of builders came to improve on, adapt, or reverse the work that had gone before.

Imported Goods

One example of this frenetic making, unmaking and remaking can be seen in the deployment of the first stones to appear at Stonehenge. Dragged all the way from West Wales, for reasons still unknown, bluestones were arranged two or three deep in a horseshoe shape with an altar stone and four station stones at intervals near the bank. Despite the effort that this must have taken, the bluestones were only left in position for 200 years before being removed to make way for the start of the sarsen stone construction work in 2,400BC.

The construction of the great raised sarsen stone circle on the Salisbury Plain has to be one of the longest building projects known to man. It lasted from the end of the Neolithic Age, through the Bronze Age (the period in which the first metal tools were brought into general use, trade routes opened up and Britain began exporting bronze tools and gold ornaments to mainland Europe) until near the start of the Iron Age (in which iron became more commonly used and bronze was regarded as a status metal).

At its most complete, the structure comprised the inner circle of trilithons, some of which still stands, along with an outer circle, the heel stone which can still be seen near to the A303, and a forest of bluestones, which were brought back into the henge between 2,200 and 1,800 BC, between the inner and outer circles. Impressive though it was, it seems likely that at some point at least two further concentric circles were intended for the site, as holes dug around the outer circle suggest. The project was never attempted, however, and from its completion in around 1,400 BC, the structure stood intact for some 500 years, before time, vandals and the elements began to diminish it, leaving us with the remains we know today.

The Evolving Meaning of the Stones

Speculation about the purpose and meaning of Stonehenge has thrown up many possibilities but no firm answers. Indeed, given the length of time taken to build it – the stone construction alone spanned 70 generations – it’s likely that those working on it may have had several different uses in mind for it. As with other henges around Britain, some alignment has been noted with the rising and setting of the midsummer sun. Added to this, the latitude of the site means that the extreme northern and southern risings and settings of the sun are at right angles to each other, a remarkable feature which has led some commentators to claim that the structure must have been used as a way of measuring astronomical changes.

Others have looked to the ritualistic significance of the surrounding landscape for answers. Flecked with barrows (prehistoric tombs), megaliths (standing stones) and even other henges, the Salisbury Plain was a significant prehistoric burial site for over 1,000 years. Could Stonehenge be merely a piece in a bigger jigsaw?

For the Romans, Stonehenge was associated with the Druids, whom they drove out in the Druid purges of AD 63. This connection has led modern-day Druids and members of other pagan religions to claim spiritual significance for the site. Some are still permitted to perform rituals there at key times of the year. However, given that modern-day Druidism was only revived in the eighteenth century, it would be difficult to claim much similarity between the practices of twenty-first century Druids and prehistoric religious ceremonies that may have taken place at Stonehenge.

Whatever it may have been, however, today Stonehenge is, first and foremost, a tourist attraction and a World Heritage Site. Direct access to the stones was stopped in 1978, however it is still possible to get relatively close to them via a roped off walkway, the course of which is varied to try to minimise erosion damage. The site is under review at the moment. There were plans to improve the setting of the henge by building a tunnel for the A303 road, which runs close by, however, the cost proved prohibitive. Still, the government has pledged to fund a new visitor centre to replace the awful 1968 building which currently blights the landscape in time for the 2012 Olympics.

And a good thing too: with visitor numbers to Stonehenge growing year on year, and pressure on the site only likely to increase, it’s clear that we are in need of some visionary action if this great monument to imagination, endeavour and survival is to make it through another 5,000 years.    

Written by Ann Morgan. Images by Rebecca Thompson. All rights reserved.

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