52 Fun Facts about Stonehenge England – History | Face | UK

1. Location: Wiltshire, England
2. Country: England, United Kingdom
3. Landmark type: monument
4. Materials: Sarsen, Bluestone
5. Owner: The Crown
6. Height: 4.1 metres high (13ft) per stone
7. Founded: The Bronze Age (circa 3,500 BC)
8. Management: English Heritage
9. Status: UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 1986)
10. Official Name: Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites
11. The Monument and Surrounding Area Became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986
12. It’s Estimated That There Were Around 4,000 Stone Circles in The British Isles and Brittany at One Time
13. Stonehenge was a 1,500 Year Building Project
14. Stonehenge is the Subject of a Song within the Comedy Movie: This Is Spinal Tap
15. People Wrongly Used to Believe That Stonehenge was Built by Druids
16. Stonehenge Might Have Marked the Unification of Britain
17. There are Numerous Stonehenge Replicas Around the World
18. Stonehenge Draws More Than 1.5 Million Visitors Each Year
19. The Original Monument Served as a Burial Site
20. Some of the Stones Used to Build the Monument Were Transported More Than 150 Miles

Archaeologists consider it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding round earth financial institution and ditch, which represent the earliest part of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon courting means that the first bluestones have been raised between 2400 and 2200 BC, though they could have been on the site as early as 3000 BC.

1. Stonehenge History

Stonehenge was inbuilt six levels between 3000 and 1520 BCE, throughout the transition from the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age) to the Bronze Age, fun facts about Stonehenge.

As a prehistoric stone circle, it’s distinctive due to its artificially formed sarsen stones (blocks of Cenozoic silcrete), organized in post-and-lintel formation, and due to the distant origin of its smaller bluestones (igneous and different rocks) from 100–150 miles (160–240 km) away, in South Wales, Stonehenge facts.

The name of the monument in all probability derives from the Saxon stan-hengen, which means “stone hanging” or “gallows.”, fun facts about Stonehenge.

Along with more than 350 close by monuments and henges (historic earthworks consisting of around bank and ditch), together with the kindred temple complicated at Avebury, Stonehenge has designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1986.

2. Stonehenge Function and development

Stonehenge was produced by a tradition that left no written information. Many features of Stonehenge, corresponding to the way it was constructed and for what functions it was used, stay subject to debate.

A lot of myths encompass the stones. The site, particularly the great trilithon, the encircling horseshoe association of the 5 central trilithons, the heel stone, and the embanked avenue, are aligned to the sundown of the winter solstice and the opposing dawn of the summer solstice.

A natural landform on the monument’s location adopted this line and should have impressed its development, fun facts about Stonehenge.

The excavated stays of culled animal bones recommend that people might have gathered on the site for the winter relatively than the summer. Further astronomical associations, and the exact astronomical significance of the location for its people, are a matter of hypothesis and debate.

3. Stonehenge Location

The well-known monument is situated on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. It’s Eight miles away from Salisbury and is located simply off the Amesbury Bypass (A303) on the left facet of the highway going in direction of Andover.

4. Speculation and excavation

Stonehenge has long been the subject of historic hypothesis, and concepts in regards to the means and significance of the construction continued to develop within the 21st century.

English antiquarian John Aubrey within the 17th century and his compatriot archaeologist William Stukeley within the 18th century each believed the construction to be a Druid temple.

This thought has been rejected by more-recent students, nonetheless, as Stonehenge is now understood to have predated by some 2,000 years the Druids recorded by Julius Caesar.

The Stonehenge that’s seen immediately is incomplete, a lot of its authentic sarsens and bluestones having been damaged up and brought away, in all probability throughout Britain’s Roman and medieval durations, Stonehenge facts.

The ground throughout the monument additionally has been severely disturbed, not solely by the removing of the stones but in addition by digging—too numerous levels and ends—because the 16th century, when historian and antiquarian William Camden famous that “ashes and pieces of burnt bone” have been discovered.

A big, deep gap was dug throughout the stone circle in 1620 by George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, who was in search of treasure. A century later William Stukeley surveyed Stonehenge and its surrounding monuments, but it surely was not till 1874–77 that Flinders Petrie made the first correct plan of the stones.

In 1877 Charles Darwin dug two holes in Stonehenge to research the earth-moving capabilities of earthworms. The first correct archaeological excavation was performed in 1901 by William Gowland.

5. Presence of Roman Artifacts

Various Roman artifacts together with pottery, stone and metal objects, and cash, have been discovered throughout the many excavations at Stonehenge.

6. Stonehenge Timeline

How old is Stonehenge? Work started on the stone circle around 5,000 years ago throughout the New Stone Age, but it surely took over a thousand years to construct over 4 levels. Archaeologists perceive that the ultimate modifications have been made round 1,500BC, within the early Bronze Age.

The prehistoric monument went by means of numerous transformations beginning over 5,000 years ago and didn’t start as a circle of stones. It was initially a simple earthwork enclosure the place prehistoric people buried their lifeless.

The round earth financial institution and ditch that surrounds the stones, will be dated back to around 3,100 BC, whereas the inside stone circle of the monument, was erected within the late Neolithic interval, around 2,500 BC, fun facts about Stonehenge.

Over the next few hundred years, the stones have been re-arranged and new ones added, with the formation as we all know it immediately, being finalized between 1,930 and 1,600 BC.

Stonehenge was constructed inside a space that was already particular to Mesolithic and Neolithic people. About 8000–7000 BCE, early Mesolithic hunter-gatherers dug pits and erected pine posts inside 650 feet (200 meters) of Stonehenge’s future location, Stonehenge facts.

It was uncommon for prehistoric hunter-gatherers to construct monuments, and there are not any comparable constructions from this period in northwestern Europe.

Within a 3-mile (5-km) radius of Stonehenge, there stay from the Neolithic Period at the very least 17 long barrows (burial mounds) and two cursus monuments (long enclosures), all courting to the 4th-millennium BCE.

Between 2200 and 1700 BCE, throughout the Bronze Age, the Stonehenge-Durrington stretch of the River Avon was on the center of a focus of more than 1,000 round barrows on this part of Salisbury Plain.

7. First stage of Stonehenge: 3000–2935 BCE

The oldest part of the Stonehenge monument was constructed throughout the interval from 3000 to 2935 BCE. It consists of a round enclosure that’s more than 330 feet (100 meters) in diameter, enclosing 56 pits referred to as the Aubrey Holes, named after John Aubrey, who recognized them in 1666.

The ditch of the enclosure is flanked on the within by a high financial institution and on the skin by a low financial institution, or counterscarp.

The diameters of the outer financial institution, the ditch, the inside financial institution, and the circle of Aubrey Holes are equal to 270, 300, 330, and 360 long feet (a long foot is a historic unit of measurement equal to 1.056 statute feet or 0.32187 meters), respectively.

Deposits within the backside of the ditch included antler picks, which have been used to dig the ditch itself, in addition to bones of cattle and deer that have been already centuries-old after they have been positioned there.

The round enclosure had two entrances: the primary entry on the northeast and a narrower entrance on the south, fun facts about Stonehenge.

8. Second stage of Stonehenge: 2640–2480 BCE

Except for human burials, there isn’t any proof of exercise between Stonehenge’s first and second levels of development.

About 2500 BCE the sarsen stones have been introduced from the Avebury space of the Marlborough Downs, about 20 miles (32 km) to the north. Outside the northeastern entrance of Stonehenge, they have been dressed easy by pounding with sarsen hammers.

They have been then organized contained in the circle in a horseshoe-shaped setting of 5 tall trilithons (paired uprights with a lintel)—the central and largest of which is named the large trilithon—surrounded by 30 uprights linked by curved lintels to kind a circle.

The stones seem to have been laid out systematically in models and subunits of the long foot; the circumference of the sarsen circle is 300 long feet.

The lintels, weighing some 7 tons every, are held on top of the uprights by mortise-and-tenon (dovetail) joints, and the ends of the curved lintels of the sarsen circle match along with tongue-and-groove joints.

All the joints have been created utilizing hammer stones, presumably in imitation of the woodwork. Most of the sarsen uprights weigh about 25 tons and are about 18 feet (5.5 meters) high.

The uprights of the large trilithon, nonetheless, have been 29 feet (9 meters) and 32 feet (10 meters) high, weighing more than 45 tons.

9. Third stage of Stonehenge: 2470–2280 BCE

Radiocarbon courting signifies that the facet ditches and banks of a ceremonial avenue virtually 2 miles (3 km) long have been dug from Stonehenge to the River Avon at a while within the interval between 2470 and 2280 BCE.

It is possible that the avenue traces the trail of the bluestones that have been moved from the Aubrey Holes and Bluestonehenge to the Q and R holes throughout Stonehenge’s second stage of development. The avenue varies in width from about 60 to 115 feet (18 to 35 meters) and terminates at a small henge on the riverside.

This henge, measuring 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter, was constructed after the bluestones at its center have been eliminated. About the first 1,600 feet (500 meters) of the avenue from Stonehenge are aligned towards the summer solstice dawn and the winter solstice sundown.

Excavations in 2008 revealed that this stretch of the avenue’s banks was constructed upon preexisting natural chalk ridges coincidentally sharing this similar solstitial alignment.

At Durrington Walls, an analogous avenue about 560 feet (170 meters) long and 100 feet (30 meters) extensive had been constructed about 2500 BCE between the Southern Circle and the River Avon and remained in use for a number of centuries.

The Durrington avenue was aligned towards the summer solstice sundown, whereas the Southern Circle confronted the winter solstice dawn, fun facts about Stonehenge.

This solstitial alignment raises the likelihood that Stonehenge and Durrington have been constructed as complementary halves of a single complicated, articulated by the River Avon.

10. Fourth, fifth, and sixth levels of Stonehenge: 2280–1520 BCE

The fourth stage of Stonehenge’s development occurred between 2280 and 2030 BCE. About 2200 BCE the bluestones have been rearranged to kind a circle and an inside oval.

Atkinson thought that this inside oval was subsequently modified in prehistory to kind a horseshoe, however, this transformation might have been the results of Roman removing of the stones or of later stone-robbing.

At some level throughout Stonehenge’s fifth stage, between 2030 and 1750 BCE, a hoop of pits often called the Z Holes was dug exterior the sarsen circle.

The second ring of pits, referred to as the Y Holes, was dug throughout the monument’s sixth and closing stage of development, between 1640 and 1520 BCE.

As with all radiocarbon courting, the exact dates of such occasions can solely be estimated inside many many years, if not centuries.

11. A 1500 years of development

While many questions on the who, how, and why of Stonehenge’s development linger, students have a good thought of when the huge monument was constructed.

The oldest components date back to around 3000 BCE when a ditch 6 feet deep was dug in a subject to kind a round enclosure, Stonehenge facts.

The signature stones began showing around 2500 BCE, and the erection and rearranging of bluestones and digging of extra holes might have continued till around 1500 BCE.

Historian and explorer Henry of Huntingdon made what’s believed to be the first written point out of Stonehenge within the following passage, which dates to 1130 CE:

“Stanenges, where stones of wonderful sizes have been erected after the manner of doorways, so that doorway appears to have been raised upon the doorway, and no one can conceive of how such great stones have been so raised aloft, or why they were built there.”

12. Deer Antlers and Bovine Bones

Stonehenge dates back to around 5,000 years ago. It started as an earthwork — a financial institution and ditch referred to as a henge. Archeologists assume the ditch was dug from instruments manufactured from red deer antlers; the chalk beneath was seemingly eliminated with shovels manufactured from cattle shoulder blades.

13. It Can Be Kind of a Circus

Those who’ve by no means visited Stonehenge might think about it as a sacred site secluded in the idyllic natural environment, however, in reality, there is the main freeway lower than 100 yards from the stones.

In addition, the location is surrounded by what Brittania.com calls “a commercial circus,” full of parking heaps, present outlets, and a restaurant, fun facts about Stonehenge.

14. Discovery of Charles Darwin

In the 1880s, Charles Darwin was finishing up among the first scientifically recorded excavations on the site, and upon noticing that the monument was sinking, he concluded that earthworms have been largely guilty for the stones sinking by means of the soil.

15. An entire cycle of 56 pits

Inside the enclosure sits a circle of 56 pits, often called the Aubrey Holes (named after John Aubrey, who found them in 1666). Its actual goal stays unknown, although some consider the pits as soon as held stones or posts.

After spending years debating whether or not Stonehenge was ever a whole circle, archaeologists obtained assistance fixing the thriller from an unlikely source: A 2014 drought.

When conservators didn’t have a long sufficient hose to water all the grass around Stonehenge throughout a drought, they started noticing odd, patchy marks within the turf.

The areas pointed on the place of stones that had beforehand been present or had been buried over the centuries and appeared to settle the query of whether or not Stonehenge had as soon as been a circle.

The earliest recognized portray of Stonehenge, drawn on-site with watercolors by Lucas de Heere, between 1573-1575.

16. Imported Bluestones

The first part, the inside circle, is comprised of about 80 bluestones that weigh a whopping Four tons every.

The stones have been quarried within the Prescelly Mountains at a site often called Carn Menyn in Wales, fun facts about Stonehenge.

Remarkably, the quarry is situated more than 150 miles from the location. Modern theories recommend the stones made the journey courtesy of rollers, sleds, rafts, and barges.

17. The Lintels Were Tricky Too

To safe the upright stones with the horizontal lintels, Stonehenge’s builders made mortise holes and protruding tenons to make sure stability. The lintels have been then matching collectively utilizing tongue-and-groove joints, Stonehenge facts.

18. A pitiful state

By the beginning of the 20th century, there had been over 10 recorded excavations which had resulted in a number of of the sarsens to lean, and the location changing into a ‘sorry state’, in keeping with English Heritage.

As an end result, the Society of Antiquaries lobbies the location’s owner, Sir Edmond Antrobus, and provided to assist with conservation.

19. Types of stone ar Stonehenge

There are two several types of stones used at Stonehenge: the sarsen stones are the bigger, outer stones, and the bluestones make up the smaller inside stones. Sarsen stones are a sort of sandstone discovered naturally within the surrounding space, about 20 miles from the location. The bluestones, nonetheless, originate from the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales. over 140 miles away.

20. Transportation of stones

One of the most important mysteries about Stonehenge is how the large rocks arrived on the site from a great distance away. A common saddens tone weighs 25 tonnes whereas the bluestones weigh between 2-5 tonnes every.

There are quite a few theories on how these stones arrived at Stonehenge, together with the concept that the bluestones have been introduced over by glaciers. The almost certainly idea is that they have been transported by people utilizing a network of waterways and hauling them overland.

When it was time to purchase development provides, Stonehenge’s Neolithic builders didn’t purchase native. Some of the monument’s smaller bluestones—which might nonetheless weigh as much as 4 tons—have been geologically linked to the Preseli Mountains in Wales.

While not everybody agrees, most modern students assume that these large stones needed to be moved 150 miles to turn into a part of Stonehenge.

The strategies by means of which these stones made the journey is certainly one of Stonehenge’s great mysteries, with theories together with every part from rafts to groups of oxen.

21. Stones Weighed More Than Three Adult Elephants

The large stones that kind the well-known outer circle is manufactured from sarsen, a sort of sandstone. Most specialists consider these stones, weighing a median of 25 tons, have been transported about 20 miles from the Marlborough Downs, fun facts about Stonehenge.

The largest stone, the Heel Stone, weighs about 30 tons. While a lot of the route was (comparatively) simple, modern work research estimate no fewer than 600 people would have been required to get every stone previous Redhorn Hill, the steepest part of the journey.

22. Unique Architecture

It took sheer ingenuity to get the stones to face upright. The builders finally went with a method more intently related to woodwork than masonry, Stonehenge facts. They created mortice holes and protruding tenons to fit the stones collectively, utilizing tongue and groove joints.

When the opening was dug for the stones, timber poles have been located on the back of the opening as a brace help. The stone was then moved into place and hauled upwards with ropes whereas rubble was packed into the opening to save the stone in place.

23. Later set of stays

For most of modern history, all the human stays found at Stonehenge had been in ashen kind. In 1923, nonetheless, archaeologists found a decapitated Anglo-Saxon man from the seventh century CE.

The man’s beheading suggests he was an executed legal, however, his burial at Stonehenge might point out that he had beforehand been ready of energy, presumably even a royal one, fun facts about Stonehenge.

24. What is the thriller of Stonehenge?

A brand new BBC report revealed in June 2020 revealed the origin of the large sarsen stones by the assistance of a lacking piece of the location which was lastly returned after 60 years.

Archaeologists pinpointed the source of the 15 monumental stones, every weighing over 20 tonnes, to an area 15 miles north of the location, close to Marlborough Downs. The smaller bluestones have already been traced to the Preseli Hills in Wales, however, the bigger sarsens had been not possible to determine till now.

25. A burial ground at Stonehenge?

In 2013 the cremated stays of 50,000 bones have been excavated on the site, belonging to 63 males, ladies, and youngsters. These bones date back to three,000-2,5000 BC. This means that Stonehenge might have been a burial ground originally of its history.

The grounds of Salisbury Plain, the place Stonehenge is situated, is a chalk plateau stretching over 300 sq. miles. Though Stonehenge might have been a burial site, it’s not the first sacred monument within the space.

Three giant timber posts erected on site date back over 10,000 years, which means that Salisbury Plain was already a sacred space long before Stonehenge.

26. A Piece of Stonehenge Went Missing for 60 Years

After cracks have been present in one of many sarsen stones throughout excavations in 1958, employees drilled cylindrical cores from the stone before inserting metal rods to save it, fun facts about Stonehenge.

The three core samples appeared to fade afterward, however as CNN stories, certainly one of them reappeared six many years later. It seems one of many employees had saved the 108-centimeter-long core, displaying it on a wall in his workplace.

He returned it to English Heritage in May 2019, on the eve of his 90th birthday, and researchers say finding out this core might reveal new insights in regards to the origins of the sarsen stones.

27. Stonehenge is linked with Astronomy

Stonehenge has a long and engaging relationship with astronomy, in keeping with the 2010 English Heritage stories. This is very because of the reality the monument is aligned within the path of the dawn of the summer solstice and the sundown of the winter solstice, Stonehenge facts.

This was first found in 1720 by the pioneering British archaeologist William Stukeley. Since then, many renowned astrologers have studied Stonehenge, looking for connections between its development and the celebs.

28. Stonehenge had therapeutic powers

The monument’s stones uncommon therapeutic and acoustic properties. When caught, they vibrate and produce a loud clanging sound. This might clarify why they have been transported over such a long distance.

Vibrational frequencies are sometimes praised for therapeutic properties, and in lots of historic cultures, such rocks are believed to include the ability to heal. In reality, Maenclochog means “ringing rock”.

29. It Makes a Lot of Cameos

Stonehenge has to turn into such a recognizable image that it has made cameo appearances in lots of cultural options. It was within the Beatles’ movie “Help!,” for instance, in addition to Roman Polanski’s “Tess” and the traditional mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap.”

It has proven up in books, pc video games and tv reveals. And let’s not neglect “National Lampoon’s European Vacation,” through which Clark Griswold bumps into one of many stones and knocks all of them down, one after the other, like a large stack of dominoes. The Neolithic builders wouldn’t be happy.

30. No written information

This is the primary motive why there may be a lot of thrillers and so many unanswered questions surrounding the location, fun facts about Stonehenge.

31. Stonehenge is linked to an Arthurian legend

According to legend, the wizard Merlin eliminated Stonehenge from Ireland, the place it had been constructed by historic giants, and rebuilt it on Salisbury Plain as a memorial to three,000 noblemen slain in battle with the Saxons, Stonehenge facts.

32. Visitors

The historic myths and protracted questions surrounding Stonehenge make the location extremely fashionable and some of the well-known UNESCO World Heritage Sites on the planet, fun facts about Stonehenge.

It wasn’t till 1977 that the mounting of Stonehenge’s rock constructions turned explicitly prohibited. The decree adopted vital erosion of the stones from their human interactions. That might sound wild, however, issues have been even crazier till the early 20th century—vacationers got chisels to facilitate souvenir-taking!

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