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The stone age and early cultures
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The Stonehenge
What is Stonehenge?
Stonehenge is a prehistoric structure built in Wiltshire, England. The Stonehenge is the oldest and only remaining monument named in the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Stonehenge is a series of standing stones set in earthworks. Surrounding the Stonehenge are hundreds of burial mounds.
It is believed that the Stonehenge was created somewhere between 3,000 and 2,000 BC. This estimate is provided by radiocarbon dating performed by archeologists. As of 1882, the Stonehenge is has legally been protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Today, Stonehenge is formally owned by The Crown, while the surrounding area is a part of the National Trust.
Ideas about Stonehenge
Nobody is 100% sure the original purpose
of the Stonehenge. It is assumed that the Stonehenge was a burial ground or place of worship. Archeologists have found human remains that date back 3,000 BC and more remains that date back within 500 years of 3,000 BC. It is believed that before the large stones were erected, large wooden posts stood in their stead. The stones that were used to construct the Stonehenge weigh tons and it is assumed that the people in the area would have used a system of moving the stones on a row of poles, a popular method in Japan, China, and India. Relatively nothing is known about the society that built the Stonehenge, except that they most likely built the monument as some type of religious monument. This theory is attributed to the exhumation of both human and animal remains dating back to the time that the Stonehenge would have been constructed and within 500 years of its assumed completion. The animal remains were examined and provided evidence that the residents who lived during this time most likely gathered for mid-summer and winter festivities. This evidence correlates with the theory that the Stonehenge was intended as a religious monument. The Stonehenge could have also been a place of healing. This is evident from the large number of cremations and burials in the surrounding area that had some type of traumatic deformity. Another shroud of evidence pointing towards the Stonehenge as a healing place would be attributed to the exhumed remains coming from vastly different areas such as a teenager from the Mediterranean, or an older man from Germany. Another popular theory associates the Stonehenge with the Arthurian legend of King Arthur and the sorcerer Merlin. The legends depict the rocks as healing stones brought from Africa to Ireland by Giants. The king wanted to erect a monument that would honor fallen soldiers and Merlin advised the king to consider the healing stones. The legend also depicts that Constantine III and Uther Pendragon, the father of King Arthur are buried there. Stonehenge Legacy The Stonehenge is a mysterious monument. The creation of the Stonehenge belongs to a now nonexistent civilization with no written records. Some attribute the creation of the Stonehenge to extra-terrestrial lifeforms. Today millions of people travel to the Stonehenge to see the Wonder of the Ancient World.
Stonehenge is located on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. It is a megalithic monument built during the Neolithic Period, approximately between 2750 and 1500 B.C..(Stokstad, p.54-55) The builders of this magnificent monument remain unknown although it was once incorrectly thought to have been built by the Druids.(Balfour)
Stonehenge: a Human Vulva or Temple, or something else…? The content of this project is based on the largest and most complete megalithic structure in Europe, The Stonehenge. It resides in center of the southern England; on the wide spread Salisbury Plains. It is said to be old approximately four thousand years, and it is even considered older than the Great Pyramids of Egypt.
Stonehenge is located near Salisbury, England and according to an archaeologist who has investigated Stonehenge close up, Mike Parker Pearson (2010) “...the new date for the raising of the sarsens [the large stones]...[is] between 2600 and 2480 B.C….” (p. 47). It consists of the large sarsen stones which are the ones that are in pictures and on postcards. Then there are smaller bluestones that are mixed in with the sarsens, Y and Z holes that form full circles around the sarsen stones, and Aubrey holes which form a circle around the entire structure. There is a large stone outside and a ways away from the circle called the heel stone. There are two station stones that stand to the side of the of the circle and over the Aubrey holes. They form a perfect rectangle with two barrows, or burial mounds, that are there.
Stonehenge is located in Southern England on what is known as the Salisbury Plain. The structure looks different than it once did, however. Today, Stonehenge suffers the effects of time and pernicious acts by people. Originally, in the years after completion, the structure was made up of “several concentric circles of megaliths, very large stones.” (5) Stonehenge consists a circular layout of approximately one hundred megaliths. On the tops of them another flat stone was placed to make a continuous ring of horizontal stones. These structures are known as trilithons.
in the uneducated minds of popular culture from tie seventeenth century to the present. It
Unlike the La Jolla Project, Stonehenge was probably not an abstract sculptural installation made of polished granite blocks. Stonehenge was built starting in 3100 B.C.E.(Encyclopedia Brittanica 287). The builders used mostly sarsen, a gray sandstone. Bluestones, or blocks of bluish dolerite, were also used. The number of stones used is unknown because the present structure of Stonehenge is the product of at least four major building phases. The stones have endured many centuries of rough weather and erosion.
Recent research from the Stonehenge Riverside Project suggests that when Stonehenge was first assembled (c2500 BC), its main purpose was to serve as a burial ground. However, it seems clear that for those who came in possession of it later on, it would have been used as a statement of power – "These are my lands, this is my construction and is an example of my wealth in resources". (Riverside, P.4).
The first permanent stone fortifications was built in Jericho. They constructed the building using roughly shaped stones laid without mortar (Kleiner, 24). Once Jericho’s inhabitants left their site, a different group of people came to settle there. They used different techniques, “…established a farming community of rectangular mud-brick houses on stone foundations with plastered and painted floors and walls” (Kleiner, 25). The megalithic tomb in Ireland was built in the form of a passage grave. “At Newgrandge, the huge megaliths forming the vaulted passage and the dome are held in place by their own weight without mortar, each stone countering the thrust o neighboring stones. Decorating some of the megaliths are incised spirals and other motifs” (Kleiner, 27). The main chamber used early examples of corralled vaulting and in addition the Newgrandge tomb illuminates sunlight through the passage and the burial chamber during the winter solstice. Nearing the end of the fourth millennium BCE, Neolithic civilization had spread in every diffraction even to small remote areas. “…Hagar Quim is one of many constructed on Malta between 3200 and 2500 BCE” (Kleiner, 27).The builders of Malta constructed the temple by pilling cut stone blocks very carefully in stacked horizontal rows. “To construct the doorways at Hagar Qim, the builders employed the post-and-lintel system in which two upright stones
Natural stone arches are geological formations that occur when rock is exposed to substantial amounts of erosion , which over time forces the rock into the shape of an arch. Stone arches are among the most diverse of rock formations, not only because of the large area where they are known to be found, but also their complex ways of forming. Although many factors contribute to making natural stone arches so enthralling, one key role keeps and hones our constant attention: each and every stone arch every formed will fall. Despite the things we do know about stone arches, they are continuously changing and teaching us new things about them as well as the world around us.
The planning and assembling of Stonehenge took a very long time (about one thousand years, from 2800 BC to 1500 BC*), and not one but many different groups of people were involved in the process. How they came about plays an important role in understanding them. Some of the first men to come to England that are connected to the Stonehenge builders came when the ice blocking Britain and France melted around 10,000 BC (Souden, 104). After them, many more groups of people came from the mainland, and had great influence on those already living there.
The mysteries of Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plains of England have perplexed human-kind since the beginning of recorded history. Some of the stones weighing as much as 40 tons were said to be transferred from Wales, which was a distance of about 137 miles. With the use of radiocarbon analysis at the site of Stonehenge it has been determined that the monument was built between 3000 and 1500 BC. The original purpose of Stonehenge has been lost in the pages of time, and therefore has been a major topic of discussion for archaeologists. Since the mid 12th century archaeologist, geologists, historians, and even some authors have put forth their own opinion of when and why Stonehenge was built. Throughout this essay I shall analyse and interpret different theories on Stonehenge in an attempt to understand what we know so far. It is in the mid 1100’s that we come across our first theory on Stonehenge, given by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
The Parthenon is an amazing Greek temple that was built 2,500 years ago. Even the architects of today have numerous questions about how it was constructed and how it has held up through its eventful past. The Parthenon's detailed appearance is not its only meaningful quality. The Parthenon was constructed as a temple to the goddess, Athena, and as an icon of the Greek people themselves. The Parthenon represents the Greek ideals of humanism, idealism, and rationalism.
There are several theories as to what Stonehenge was. These ideas range from a calendar to an astronomical observatory to sacred grounds. These inferences are based upon the shape and positions of the stones that make up the monument. Stonehenge is made up of megaliths, or giant rocks. There are two kinds of these rocks at the structure, bluestones, which are about 8,000 pounds each, and sarsen stones, which can weigh up to 100,000 pounds each (Rattini, 2008). These rocks make up a henge, a group of circular ritual structures unique to the Late Neolithic era in Britain (Pitts, 2008). The first ring is a sarsen stone circle, the next ring a smaller circle of blue stones, then an even sm...
Geoffrey Chaucer is by far one of the most influential english writers to have ever graced our world’s presence, so influential in fact, that he is known as the Father of English Literature. He was the greatest English poet of the middle ages, bar none, that being said his place in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey is well deserved. Not only was he an accomplished writer and poet he was also competent in the fields of astronomy, alchemy, and philosophy. As if that wasn’t enough Chaucer was an accomplished diplomat, bureaucrat, and courtier. We have Chaucer to thank for english as we know it today as he was a crucial figure in developing middle english, the vernacular at the time.
Some of the most popular tourist attractions are Buckingham Palace, Madame Tussauds, The London Eye, Parliament a.k.a the Palace of Westminster, Stonehenge, and the Tower Bridge. The Tower Bridge is a bascule bridge which is a draw bridge and it got its name from the Tower of London. The Palace of Westminster is home to the meeting place of the House of Commons, and House of Lords. Stonehenge is located in Wiltshire, England and is home to a great design of amazing rocks. Buckingham Palace is the home of the monarchy, as of right now it is Queen Elizabeth 2nd. Madame Tussauds is the original wax museum, it was founded by Marie Tussaud and has many other museums around the world. The London Eye is a gigantic ferris wheel, it towers 443 feet and the views are amazing!