Stonehenge Essay -- essays research papers

There be few ancient structures in the world that captivate the imagination and the decisive mind of both the scholarly and ordinary individual as Stonehenge. This intriguingly underground Neolithic monument is located near Amesbury in Wiltshire, England and draws thousands of spectators to its bena severally year.The oldest part of Stonehenge, called Stonehenge I (constructed ca. 3100 BCE), consists of little more than a circular pat dug in the soil of the Salisbury plain, with the excess soil piled up to make an embankment approximately six feet tall. This area is approximately three cardinal thirty feet in diameter, and encompasses Stonehenge proper the familiar pots of massive infernal regions that once stood faithful as well as the large horseshoe arrangement of stand up stones near the pump of Stonehenge. (Trefil 48)The outer ring of Stonehenge proper, alike known as the sarsen circle, consists of several upright sarsen (gray sandstone) stones. According to the te xt of Art History, each stone in this circle weighs up to fifty tons and stands up to twenty feet tall, and was once capped by a continuous lintel. To accomplish this architectural structure, the builders used the technique of mortise-and-tendon joints to join and ensure the security of the lintel sections. With this technique, a projecting pin (tenon) located on a lintel fits tightly into a hole designed for it (mortise) on an upright stone. (Stokstad 59)Inside the sarsen circle was once a ring of bluestones. These special stones consisted of various grades of bluish dolerite, which (many individuals conclude) were exclusively found one hundred fifty miles away in the mountains of southerly Wales. The inner horseshoe arrangement of five paired lintel-topped uprights, or trilithons, dominates the center of Stonehenge. These sandstone trilithons range in height of up to twenty-four feet, weigh up to forty-five tons, and radiate the mysterious majesty of the megalithic structure. (S tokstad 59)Whatever the method by which the stones arrived on Salisbury Plain, they were apparently set up in about 2800-2700 BCE in either the unfinished circle or the uncomplete horseshoe open to the south-west. A century or so later, (ca. 2500 BCE) the broad sarsen circle was constructed, and the bluestones were dragged from their holes only to be returned some centuries later to form the i... ...few miles from Stonehenge where there was a convenient glacial deposit of the only stones used for Stonehenge. (Burl 22)However, the facet remains that the massive stones of Stonehenge were, indeed, transported hundreds of miles to Salisbury Plain. Assuming that the bluestones were brought from Wales by overtake and not transported by glaciers as Aubrey Burl has claimed (or moved by the magical hand of Merlin), various methods of moving them relying only on wood and rope contribute been suggested. During 2001, in an exercise of experimental archaeology, an attempt was made to tra nsport a large stone along a land and sea dispatch from Wales to Stonehenge. Volunteers successfully pulled the massive stone on a wooden ride over land, but it was ultimately lost in rough seas afterward being moved to a replica prehistoric boat for its journeying across the Bristol Channel. (Burl 21)As we have observed, legends about the origin and purpose of Stonehenge are many in number. It is quite possible that we may never larn the truth behind the mysterious circles of stones on Salisbury Plain, yet it is also true that the intrigue and fascination that accompanies the existence of Stonehenge will surely remain.