Stonehenge.

Author: * Althildus Trinovantes - 2 Posts on this thread out of 14 Posts sitewide.
Date: Jul 12, 2008 - 12:29

Stonehenge, the first stage was around 3100BC, the second stage was the most dramatic, around 2150BC, 82 bluestone rocks were transported from the Preseli Hills, these column-like rocks weighed about 4 tonnes and were dragged on rollers to Stonehenge. The third stage saw the arrival of the sarson stones, these giant sandstones weighed about 50 tonnes, it would require 500 men pulling leather ropes and another 100 men to place the huge rollers underneath. They dragged these sandstones the twenty miles from Marlborough Downs to the site a Stonehenge, the utmost care and dedication by large numbers of people was required, these constructions created team work and pulled families, clans and communities closer together, this heavy and difficult work itself played a major part in the ceremonies of construction. As Stonehenge was used for 1,500 years, the motivation behind its construction must have been the strength of the family and clan traditions, clan members honoring their family histories and their place in the world. This communal prehistoric engineering project would have required specialist skills, handed down from generation to generation. So the Stone Age communities must have been egalitarian, with limited amount of ranking, ordinary people constructing something extraordinary. Grand-parents and great grand-parents being held in respect and affection by their living descendants, they were most probably given rich send-offs, which might have resembled a King's funeral to the outsider. Higher levels of social control and power politics did not exist. By 1600BC Stonehenge fizzled out with a whimper, as the all-enveloping ritual landscape had given way to a network of square fields as agriculture became King.