The monuments of prehistoric times (Stonehenge, Castlerigg, Avebury, Rollright Stones)

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Pskov State University

The monuments of prehistoric times (Stonehenge, Castlerigg, Avebury, Rollright Stones)

Pskov 2014

Content

Introduction

Stonehenge

Castlerigg

Avebury

Rollright Stones

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Nowadays scientists and even the ordinary people show the tendency of interest in history. More and more works are written on the different topics concerning the development of a mankind. And the prehistoric period is the most mysterious. From this period to our time preserved numerous buildings, statues and constructions. About some of them we know a lot, and about others we have only theories and guesses. Carnac Stones, The Unfinished Obelisk of Aswan, Antequera, Ggantija, Stone Spheres, Moai, Pyramids and etc, all these constructions keep the secrets of the past.

I was always interested in the monuments of prehistoric times. I have read a lot about them, and it seems to me, that I know nearly everything. But once, when I was surfing the Internet I noticed news about Stonehenge. It reads that some archaeologists have found under it some remains of buildings of the Bronze and Iron Ages. I was intrigued. I decided to read more about these findings. And during reading I have found out, that there are several such buildings in England. The most famous of them are: Stonehenge, Castlerigg, Avebury, Rollright Stones.

In my report I would like to examine the most famous monuments of prehistoric times in Great Britain, may be to find out some interesting facts and to learn more about them.

stonehenge monument avebury castlerigg

Stonehenge

First and the most famous monument is Stonehenge. It was begun by New Stone Age workmen in about 2000 B.C. and completed by Bronze Age people about 500 years later. Stonehenge is located in Wiltshire, England, about 2 miles (3 km) west of Amesbury and 8 miles (13 km) north of Salisbury.

Stonehenge was produced by a culture that left no written records. Many aspects of Stonehenge remain subject to debate. A number of myths surround the stones. It has been the subject of innumerable esoteric and mystical theories and cults. The most famous tale about Stonehenge was written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in 12^th century.

According to this tale an ancient British king Aurelius Ambrosius wished to build a memorial to some of his warriors killed in the battle. The wizard Merlin told him of a set of magic stones in Ireland called the Giant`s Dance. Aurelius sent army to Ireland led by his brother. It defeated the Irish and with the help of Merlin`s magic brought the stones to Salisbury Plain. Certainly the stones stand in the pattern which suggest magic. Indeed, the larger stones were called Sarsens - meaning Sarsens or foreigners - because our ancestors thought that a race of giants had put them up. An outer circle of sarsens, weighing 45 tones each and standing 30 feet high, surround an inner circle of bluestones, 5 feet high. Inside these two circles are two sets of stones arranged in horseshoe shapes, an outer one of big stones enclosing one of bluestones. The tops of the outer circle were connected by slightly curved stones. The inner circle was made up of Trilithons, that is, of three stones arranged from the gateways. Most strange is a circle of holes the Heelstone (Sunstone).[1]

The Heel Stone lies north east of the sarsen circle, beside the end portion of Stonehenge Avenue. It is a rough stone, 16 feet (4.9 m) above ground, leaning inwards towards the stone circle. It has been known by many names in the past, including "Friar's Heel" and "Sun-stone". Today it is uniformly referred to as the Heel Stone. At summer solstice an observer standing within the stone circle, looking north-east through the entrance, would see the Sun rise above the heel stone.

Some mysteries have already been discovered. The sarsens probably came from a quarry just 20 miles away at Marlborough Down. As many as thousand men may have been needed to drag each one of them on sledges. The smaller stones are not found in this part of England. The nearest bluestone quarry is in South Wales. And it is over 135 miles away as the crow flies.

Mae be they were dragged by sledge of Milford Haven, paddled up the Bristol Channel and pulled overland to Salisbury Plain. And in such a way, the long of the journey will be 240 miles.

So, who built Stonehenge? It was begun by New Stone Age workmen in about 2000 B.C. and completed by Bronze Age people about 500 years later. As for the aim of its building, it was thought to be a temple of the fierce priests known as Druids. Some people thought it was a large and important cemetery. Scientists suppose, that it was a temple connected with the seasons because the Heel Stone is in a direct line with the sunrise on the June 21^st - midsummer's day in the Northern Hemisphere. However, nobody knows what festivals took place or what exactly was worshipped there. And I think we will never know it for sure, because there are no written records that can help us. [1]

There are some suggestions of the purpose for building Stonehenge:

Prior to the 1950's most archaeologists believed that Stonehenge's use had been limited to the ritual activities of different Neolithic chiefdoms. However, it is now known that Stonehenge had another equally important function, which was its use as an astronomical observatory.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Oxford University engineer Professor Alexander Thom and the astronomer Gerald Hawkins pioneered the new field of archaeoastronomy - the study of the astronomies of ancient civilizations. Conducting surveys at Stonehenge and other megalithic structures, Thom and Hawkins discovered many significant astronomical alignments among the stones. This evidence indicates that Stonehenge and other stone rings were used as astronomical observatories.

Stonehenge was simultaneously used for both astronomical observation and ritual function. By gathering data regarding the movement of celestial bodies, the Stonehenge observations were used to indicate appropriate periods in the annual ritual cycle. During those periods, among them being the solstices, equinoxes and different lunar days, festivals and ceremonies were held.[4]

Throughout recorded history Stonehenge and its surrounding monuments have attracted attention from antiquarians and archaeologists. John Aubrey was one of the first to examine the site with a scientific eye in 1666, and recorded in his plan of the monument the pits that now bear his name. William Stukeley continued Aubrey's work in the early eighteenth century, but took an interest in the surrounding monuments as well, identifying (somewhat incorrectly) the Cursus and the Avenue. He also began the excavation of many of the barrows in the area, and it was his interpretation of the landscape that associated it with the Druids. Stukeley was so fascinated with Druids that he originally named Disc Barrows as Druids' Barrows. The most accurate early plan of Stonehenge was that made by Bath architect John Wood in 1740.His original annotated survey has recently been computer redrawn and published.I mportantly Wood's plan was made before the collapse of the southwest trilithon, which fell in 1797 and was restored in 1958.

William Cunnington was the next to tackle the area in the early nineteenth century. He excavated some 24 barrows before digging in and around the stones and discovered charred wood, animal bones, pottery and urns. He also identified the hole in which the Slaughter Stone once stood. Richard Colt Hoare supported Cunnington's work and excavated some 379 barrows on Salisbury Plain including on some 200 in the area around the Stones, some excavated in conjunction with William Coxe. To alert future diggers to their work they were careful to leave initialled metal tokens in each barrow they opened. Cunnington's finds are displayed at the Wiltshire Museum. In 1877 Charles Darwin dabbled in archaeology at the stones, experimenting with the rate at which remains sink into the earth for his book “The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms.”

On 10 September 2014 the University of Birmingham announced findings including evidence of adjacent stone and wooden structures and burial mounds, overlooked previously, that may date as far back as 4,000 BC. An area extending to 12 square kilometres (1,200 ha) was studied to a depth of three metres with ground-penetrating radar equipment. As many as seventeen new monuments, revealed nearby, may be Late Neolithic monuments that resemble Stonehenge. The interpretation suggests a complex of numerous related monuments.

The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. The site and its surroundings were added to the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986 in a co-listing with Avebury Henge. It is a national legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage, while the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.[3]

Castlerigg

Castlerigg Stone Circle is one of the most visually impressive prehistoric monuments in Britain, and is the most visited stone circle in Cumbria. Every year thousands of people visit it to look, photograph, draw and wonder why and when and by whom it was built. The stone circle at Castlerigg is situated near Keswick in Cumbria, North West England.

There is a tradition that it is impossible to count the number of stones within Castlerigg; every attempt will result in a different answer. This tradition, however, may not be far from the truth. Due to erosion of the soil around the stones, caused by the large number of visitors to the monument, several smaller stones have `appeared' next to some of the larger stones. Because these stones are so small, they are likely to have been packing stones used to support the larger stones when the circle was constructed and would originally have been buried. Differences in opinion as to the exact number of stones within Castlerigg are usually down to whether the observer counts these small packing stones, or not; some count 38 and others, 42. The `official' number of stones, as represented on the National Trust information board at the monument, is 40.

Within the ring is a rectangle of a further 10 standing stones. The tallest stone is 2.3 metres high. It was probably built around 3000 BC - the beginning of the later Neolithic Period - and is one of the earliest stone circles in Britain. It is important in terms of megalithic astronomy and geometry, as the construction contains significant astronomical alignments. [6]

The original motivates behind the construction of Castlerigg, its subsequent uses and how these may have changed over time are not known. Current thinking has linked Castlerigg with the Neolithic Langdale axe industry in the nearby Langdale fells: the circle may have been a meeting place where these axes were traded or exchanged. Ritually deposited stone axes have been found all over Britain, suggesting that their uses went far beyond their practical capabilities. Exchange or trading of stone axes may not have been possible without first taking part in a ritual or ceremony.

Much of our knowledge and understanding of Castlerigg stone circle has been passed down to us by the work of 18th century antiquarians and 19th century amateurs. Considering that the stone circles of Cumbria in general are of such antiquity, being the earliest stone circles in the whole of Europe, it is surprising that so little work has been carried out here under modern conditions and that none of the stone circles of Cumbria have so far been scientifically dated.

Since the 1960s, the names Aubrey Burl and Alexander Thom have become synonymous with stone circles and both men have contributed significantly to the literature on this subject, whilst taking opposing sides regarding their purpose and significance. The works of Burl strongly support the idea that any geometry within the circle, or astronomical alignments, are either purely coincidental or symbolic in nature. Thom, on the other hand, is a proponent of the circle builders being adept astronomers and mathematicians and suggests that these skills can be seen in all stone circles, everywhere. While neither Burl's nor Thom's works deal with Castlerigg exclusively, they do attempt to place all the stone circles of Britain in context to each other and to explain their purpose.

English Heritage subjected the scheduled area and the field to its immediate west to a geophysical survey in 1985 in order to improve our understanding of the stone circle and to provide a better interpretation for visitors.A full report of the findings from 1985 has still to be published.

In 2004, Dr Margarita Dнaz-Andreu, of the Department of Archaeology at Durham University, commissioned a survey of the stones at Castlerigg in response to claims that prehistoric rock art had been discovered there. A pioneering survey technique that used a laser to record three-dimensional images of the stones was employed. Unfortunately, only graffiti from more recent times was discovered and no trace of the alleged prehistoric carvings was found.

Although its origins are unknown it is believed that it was used for ceremonial or religious purposes.

Castlerigg stone circle was one of the monuments included in the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882, which included a 'Schedule' of 68 sites in Great Britain and Ireland.It thus became one of the first scheduled ancient monuments. The following year the stone circle was 'taken in to state care'. Under the 1882 act a deed of guardianship could be entered into by a landowner, in which the monument, but not the land it stands on, becomes the property of the state. As one of the first such sites to enter into such an agreement it occupies a small place in the history of archaeological conservation. In 1913, Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, one of the founders of the National Trust, was among the prime organisers of a public subscription which bought the field in which the stone circle stands, which he then donated to the National Trust. Responsibility for the stone circle remains with English Heritage, the successor body to the Ministry of Works, whilst ownership of the site is retained by the National Trust.[5]

Avebury

Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. Unique amongst megalithic monuments, Avebury contains the largest stone circle in Europe, and is one of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary Pagans.

It is the largest stone ring in the world only nine miles west of London and twenty miles north of Stonehenge. Older than the more famous Stonehenge, and for many visitors far more spectacular, the multiple rings of Avebury are cloaked with mysteries which archaeologists have only begun to unravel.

Similar to Stonehenge and many other megalithic monuments in the British Isles, Avebury is a composite construction that was added to and altered during several periods. As the site currently exists, the great circle consists of a grass-covered, chalk-stone bank that is 1,396 feet in diameter (427 meters) and 20 feet high (6 meters) with a deep inner ditch having four entrances at the cardinal compass points. Just inside the ditch, which was clearly not used for defensive purposes, lies a grand circle of massive and irregular sarsen stones enclosing approximately 28 acres of land. This circle, originally composed of at least 98 stones but now having only 27, itself encloses two smaller stone circles. The two inner circles were probably constructed first, around 2600 BC, while the large outer ring and earthwork dates from 2500 BC. The northern circle is 320 feet in diameter and originally had twenty-seven stones of which only four remain standing today; the southern circle is 340 feet across and once contained twenty-nine stones, of which only five remain standing.[7]

The construction of the Avebury complex must have required enormous efforts on the part of the local inhabitants. The sarsen stones, ranging in height from nine to over twenty feet and weighing as much as 40 tons, were first hewn from bedrock and then dragged or sledded a distance of nearly two miles from their quarry site. These stones were then erected and anchored in the ground to depths between 6 and 24 inches. The excavation of the encircling ditch required an estimated 200,000 tons of rock to be chipped and scraped away with the crudest of stone tools and antler picks (there is some evidence that this ditch was once filled with water, thereby giving the inner stone rings the appearance of being set upon an island). From excavation and soil resistivity studies it is known that the three rings originally contained at least 154 stones of which only 36 remain standing today. There are three reasons for the disappearance of these stones. In the 14th century, and perhaps earlier, the local Christian authorities, in their continuing effort to eradicate any vestiges of 'pagan' religious practices, toppled, broke up and buried many stones. Later, in the 17th and 18th centuries, still more of the remaining stones were removed from their foundations. Crops could then be planted in these areas and the massive stones could be broken into smaller pieces to be used for the construction of houses and other buildings.

It is supposed that leather ropes, strapped around huge boulders, would have been used to drag the stones onto wooden rollers. Then the stones were dragged to their destination. It has been estimated that as much as 1.5 million man-hours would have been needed to construct the bank and ditch and to transport the sarsen stones. Once at their site, a small shallow hole was excavated in the chalk, where the stone was to stand. Stakes were set into the chalk, opposite the stone, so that when the stone was raised into position, it would stop the stone falling over. Other stakes would have been driven into the ground to help guide the stone into its correct, upright position. Great care was taken to ensure that the centre of gravity was directly over the hole, a wonderful example being the giant Swindon Stone which has balanced for 4500 years, on one corner, with only a fragment of its bulk underground . Once the stone was raised and held in place by wooden props and ropes, packing material such as chalk blocks and smaller sarsen stones were used to keep it secure.

In the early years of the 18th century, however, the general outline of the Avebury temple was still visible. Dr. William Stukeley, an antiquarian who frequently visited the site in the 1720's, watched in dismay as the local farmers, unaware of the cultural and archaeological value of the ancient temple, continued with its destruction. For over thirty years Stukeley made careful measurements and numerous drawings of the site, drawings that are today our only record of both the immense size and complexity of the ancient temple. Stukeley was the first observer in historical times to clearly recognize that the original ground plan of Avebury was a representation of the body of a serpent passing through a circle and thus forming a traditional alchemical symbol. The head and tail of the enormous snake were delineated by 50-foot wide avenues of standing stones, each extending 1 and 1/2 miles into the countryside. One of the avenues terminated at another stone ring known as the 'sanctuary'. Continuing his explorations and mapping of the countryside surrounding the stone serpent, Stukeley gathered evidence that the sacred complex of Avebury included many other massive earth and stone monuments.

he length of time for the main continuity of use of the Avebury complex throughout the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age was, according to present dating studies, around 2300 years. This lengthy span of time and the vast size of the whole complex give testimony to the fact that the Avebury temple was perhaps the most significant sacred site in all of Britain, if not the entire continent of Europe.

And for what it was used? Various conjectures have been made but it is premature to speak with any certainty. Archaeologist Aubrey Burl believed that rituals would have been performed at Avebury by Neolithic peoples in order "to appease the malevolent powers of nature" that threatened their existence, such as the winter cold, death and disease. The human bones found by Gray point to some form of funerary purpose.[8]

Rollright Stones

The Rollright Stones is a complex of three Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monuments near the village of Long Compton on the borders of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire in the English Midlands. Constructed from local oolitic limestone, the three monuments now known as the King's Men, the King Stone and the Whispering Knights, are distinct in their design and purpose, and were built at different periods in late prehistory. The stretch of time during which the three monuments were erected bears witness to a continuous tradition of ritual behaviour on sacred ground, from the 4th to the 2nd millennium BC.

The first to be constructed was the Whispering Knights, a dolmen that dates to the Early or Middle Neolithic period and which was likely to have been used as a place of burial. This was followed by the King's Men, a stone circle which was constructed in the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age; unusually, it has parallels to other circles located further north, in the Lake District, implying a trade-based or ritual connection. The third monument, the King Stone, is a single monolith, and although it is not known when it was constructed, the dominant theory amongst archaeologists is that it was a Bronze Age grave marker.

The 5000 year old burial chamber, believed to be part of a Neolithic long barrow. The Knights are a small group of five upright stones 400 yards away from the actual Stone Circle, who got their name because of the conspiratorial way in which they lean inwards towards each other as if they are plotting against their king.

The King's Men is a stone circle 33 metres (108 ft) in diameter, currently composed of seventy-seven closely spaced stones. Being a stone circle, it was constructed at some point during the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age in British prehistory.[9]

The King Stone is a single, weathered monolith, 2.4 metres high by 1.5 metres wide, standing 76 metres north of the King's Men. Unlike the other two of the Rollright monuments, it is of uncertain date. Many different interpretations have been made of the King Stone, with various arguments being presented as to what it had originally been designed to be. Lambrick catalogued six distinct hypotheses that had been presented by antiquarians and archaeologists over the preceding centuries and evaluated their likelihood. Some of these argued that it had been positioned in relation to the King's Men stone circle, with others instead suggesting that it was a component of a long barrow or other burial site.

The earliest known written account describing the Rollrights comes from the 14th century CE, during the Late Mediaeval period in Britain. It was at this time that an unknown author wrote a tract entitled De Mirabilibus Britanniae (The Wonders of Britain) in which the prehistoric monuments at Stonehenge and the White Horse of Uffington were mentioned alongside the Rollrights.

And in the 16th century, during the Early Modern period of British history, that further written accounts of the Rollrights were made; one of the earliest of these was provided by the pioneering antiquarian John Leland in his unpublished account of his travel's across England, Itinerary. Nonetheless, despite the fact that he referred to it, he failed to go into any detail.

A more detailed account was made by his fellow antiquarian, William Camden (1551-1623), who wrote about it in his 1586 work Britannia, a topographical and historical survey of all of Great Britain and Ireland. Describing the stones and some of the folklore that the locals attributed to them, Camden went on to hypothesise that they were constructed as a "memorial of some victory, perhaps by Rollo the Dane, who later possessed property in Normandy."

During the late 1580s an Elizabethan tapestry map of Warwickshire was created for hanging in the home of Ralph Sheldon of Long Compton, is believed to be the earliest known depiction of the Rollright Stones on a map. After conservation and cleaning of the tapestry in 2012 it was noted for the first time that a number of monoliths, perhaps forming a stone circle, appear to be shown in the vicinity of Long Compton.

After undertaking limited excavation at the circle in the 1980s, archaeologist George Lambrick concluded that when it had been originally erected, it would have been a "more perfect circle" than it is today, with each of the stones touching one another, creating a continuous barrier all the way around. He also speculated that the monument's builders intentionally chose the smoother sides of the boulders that they were using to face inwards, something evidenced by the fact that the outer facing sides are predominantly rougher in texture. [10]

In 1959, the Bricket Wood coven of Gardnerian Wiccans met for a ritual at the King's Men, at which they hoped to reunite with the a group led by Doreen Valiente who had splintered from them several years before. Pagan studies scholar Ethan Doyle White suggested that this site was chosen because it was neutral ground not owned by either coven and because it had folkloric associations with the supernatural.[38] Doyle White argued that the megalith's folkloric associations with witchcraft were a key reason why Wiccans chose to adopt the site as a place for ritual; he highlighted that Valiente had discussed these folk tales in her books “Where Witchcraft Lives” (1962) and “An ABC of Witchcraft” (1973).

In 1975, the English ceremonial magician William G. Gray published a book entitled “The Rollright Ritual” which described his personal experiences with the site.[40] In the book, Gray described a group of witches using the site, whose practices were reminiscent of those of his friend, Robert Cochrane. Although it is unknown if Cochrane and his coven ever met at the site, The Regency, a Pagan group founded in 1966 by some of the coven's members, did continue to meet there during the 1970s.

In their academic study of the relationship between archaeologists and Pagans in early 21st century Britain, archaeologist Robert Wallis and anthropologist Jenny Blain used the Rollright Stones as a case study. They noted that members of both communities have "made common cause, in part by drawing actively on the diversity of discursive interpretations and positionings evident at the site. A climate of inclusivity and multivocality has resulted, quite simply, in fruitful negotiation". In 2011, Doyle White noted that evidence of Pagan activity continued to be present, including flowers inserted into cracks and fissures in the megaliths.[10]

Conclusion

We can see that there are a lot of monuments in the United Kingdom. And not all have been mentioned. Unfortunately for the scientists and all the people, who interested in history, mysteries of these prehistoric monuments are still not unraveled. And we will never know who exactly built them - extraterrestrial, magicians, giants or ordinary people. We can only surmise.

But I think, that it is not so important who built Stonehenge, Avebury, Rollright Stones or other “mysteries”. It is more important, for what they built them. What message they want to leave for the future generations. Why people or may be not people spent many years to construct such stone circles? For burial dumping? For learning the time measuring? For fun? Nobody will know. There are a lot of books of the mysteries of the world, amount of articles with information about these memorials. They all contain information concerning history, structure and legends of monuments. But there are not enough written sources to know the whole truth.

What we can do now is to amuse the splendour of the constructions and to try to guess how, what for and who built these magnificent prehistoric monuments.

Bibliography

1. The Ancient World / Cootes R. J. , Snellgrove L. E. - Aylesbury : Longman, 1970. - 200 p

2. http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=1962447

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge

4. http://sacredsites.com/europe/united_kingdom/stonehenge_facts.html

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlerigg_stone_circle

6. http://www.visitcumbria.com/kes/castlerigg-stone-circle/

7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury

8. http://sacredsites.com/europe/united_kingdom/avebury.html

9. http://www.rollrightstones.co.uk/

10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollright_Stones

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