Stonehenge

STONEHENGE

Stonehenge, found in Wiltshire, Britain, is known to be the "can't-miss" tourist site. No tourist should ever leave out this particular place on his/her agenda. Stonehenge received its name because thousands of years ago, the area of Stonehenge was just a henge, a bank and ditch type thing. There are many theories behind the original purpose of Stonehenge running from Stonehenge being a worship temple for ancient earth deities, to astronomical observatory, to being known as a sacred burial area. Legend has it that Aurelius, Uther, and King Arthur's successor, Constantine, were buried there during their time. No matter what people insist, we still have no solid evidence of what Stonehenge was really built for.

While we do not know Stonehenge's original purpose, it is obvious that there was a copious amount of work put into the construction of it. Since the builders did not have the same machinery as we do during this lifetime, the construction of this famous site required much more commitment and an extravagant amount of time. The builder of Stonehenge is uncertain as well. Many people still question who had the idea of making this monument and why. The best guess seems to be that the Stonehenge site was begun by the people of the late Neolithic period (around 3000 BC) and continued by people from a new generation and economy. These "new" people, called Beaker Folk, because of their use of pottery drinking vessels, began to use metal implements to live in a more communal fashion than their ancestors.

1) Ashe, Geoffrey and Lacy Norris J, ed., "Stonehenge." The Arthurian Encyclopedia, New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1986, pg. 529.

2) Dimitrakopoulos, Sandra. "STONEHENGE: unearthing a mystery" April 2004.