Stonehenge

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If you want to look at this mysterious stone circle, you have to walk (or drive if you are able to) from Amesbury westwards about 2 miles. Stonehenge consists of two circles of standing stones set within earthworks. Although the structure seems to look very simple, it leaves a lot of questions concerning the prehistoric monument.

Historians and archaeologists found out with some complicated age detemination methods that Stonehenge must have been erected between 3000 to 2000 BC, but some theories suggest that the actual date of bluestones raising may be earlier than 3000 BC. This is the only historical fact that can be somehow calculated or logically found out. The way Stonehenge was built, the purposes it was used for – everything of it remains in different extents unknown, and everything historians speculate about is just theories and hypotheses, having some evidences but not these which could prove all the things.

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First theories were born under the influence of supernatural folktales, mostly about the legendary wizard Merlin who could have transported the stones from Irish Mount Killaraus. Some historians of that times held the Devil responsible for the appearance of the henge. There were some more beliefs like the place was a former Roman temple, built following the Tuscan order, or it is a product of the tribe of Danes.

The first effort to understand the monument academically, made by John Aubrey in 17^th century, stated that Stonehenge was the work of druids. Bronze object found nearby made it able to attribute the henge to the Bronze age. In a hundred years it was interpreted as a place of pagan ritual by John wood; the supposition found no backing amongst the contemporary historians because druids were biblical partiarchs, not pagans.

At the beginning of the 20^th century one more supposition appeared: Joseph Lockyer pointed out the practical value of the monument, because it could have been used in astronomical observations as the only way to establish precise calendar dates at that times. The new method of radiocarbon dating was presented to the world in 1949, and it make a great progress in research of the history of Stonehenge. The method indicates the period of construction from approximately 3100 BC till 1600 BC. However, points of view concerning the way the monument was used keep being insufficiently proved nowadays.

Stonehenge Rediscovered is a documentary about Stonehenge. The facts it talks about are scientifically affirmed, so there is no conspiracy in the film. The authors are Barry Cuncliffe of the university of Oxford and Social anthropologist Lionel Sims.