STONE HENGE OF BRITAIN

 

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury. It consists of a ring of standing stones, with each standing stone around 13 feet (4.0 m) high, seven feet (2.1 m) wide and weighing around 25 tons. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds.

• History of Stonehenge

Stonehenge is perhaps the world’s most famous prehistoric monument. It was built in several stages: the first monument was an early henge monument, built about 5,000 years ago, and the unique stone circle was erected in the late Neolithic period about 2500 BC. In the early Bronze Age many burial mounds were built nearby.
Today, together with Avebury, Stonehenge forms the heart of a World Heritage Site, with a unique concentration of prehistoric monuments.

•  Stonehenge is a unique prehistoric monument, lying at the centre of an outstandingly rich archaeological landscape. An extraordinary source for the study of prehistory, it holds a pivotal place in the development of archaeology. Many different theories have been put forward about who built it, when, and why.

• In 2016 Stonehenge celebrated its 30th year as a World Heritage site – in 1986, together with Avebury, it was one of the very first sites in the UK to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

• Stonehenge is the most architecturally sophisticated and only surviving lintelled stone circle in the world.
• The earliest stage of the monument is one of the largest cremations cemeteries known in Neolithic Britain.
• The stones were brought from very long distances – the bluestones from the Preseli Hills, over 150 miles away, and the sarsens probably from the Marlborough Downs, 19 miles to the north.
• The stones were dressed using sophisticated techniques and erected using precisely interlocking joints, unseen at any other prehistoric monument.
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•  Stonehenge does not stand in isolation, but forms part of a remarkable ancient landscape of early Neolithic, late Neolithic and early Bronze Age monuments.
  • Containing more than 350 burial mounds and major prehistoric monuments such as the Stonehenge Avenue, the Cursus, Woodhenge and Durrington Walls, this landscape is a vast source of information about the ceremonial and funerary practices of Neolithic and Bronze Age people.