The Creation of Stonehenge

The Construction of Stonehenge

When the first circle of Stonehenge began construction in 4000 B.C., the wheel was being discovered in Mesopotamia, cattle was just beginning to become domesticated, and stone tools were still being used (Gabriel). People were learning to form hierarchal societies, still a far cry from what has come of those early communities today. Stonehenge, which has seen many different forms in that circular patch of earth in the hills of England, has seen humanity rise and fall, through our most monumental achievements and the most harrowing defeats. The history of this area is enigmatic, the secrets quietly buried under the grass that hides the scars of 10 millennia worth of precious human history. Stonehenge remains a great attraction for all sorts of people because of the mystery of how and why this ancient monument has come to be.

The question is, how did this structure arrive at what it is right now? The Stonehenge we see today is thought to be vastly different than the one from the monument’s apex. What Stonehenge exists as today is a circle of simple gray stones, arranged chaotically, surrounded by a vast plain (Castleden 5). This seemingly illogical mess of stone blocks is just a ruin of its former glory, the last testament of millennia of ancient societies and their will to create a great monument indicative of their power and achievements. This structure is the puzzling remains of a beautiful and exotic stone edifice, built painfully block by giant block with stones from far, far away. As the erection of Stonehenge falls way before modern technology, like trains and cars, was even thought of, the feats of these ancient peoples never cease to amaze and tease the minds of scientists and tourists alike....

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...hed to make room for a new, more ambitious monument, made of the extremely heavy sarsen stone like the one used for the Heel Stone, which still stood then and stands today. At this point in time, around 2100 B.C., Stonehenge is thought to have become a mortuary house, where the people of Stonehenge laid their dead before burying them.

Works Cited

Alexander, Caroline. "If the Stones Could Speak." National Geographic Magazine. June 2008. Web.

Castleden, Rodney. The Making of Stonehenge. London: Routledge, 1993. Print.

Gabriel, Richard A., and Karen S. Metz. "Timeline -- B.C." 12,000 Year Timeline. Air University, 30 June 1992. Web.

Goerke-Shrode, Sabine. "The Four Phases Of Stonehenge." Calliope 9.1 (1998): 16. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.

North, John David. Stonehenge: A New Interpretation of Prehistoric Man and the Cosmos. New York: Free, 1996. Print.