More than 900 stone ring laid on England Archipelago, and scientists estimate two times more than those number may have built. Scholars usually classify these types of megalithic structures as rings and not circles, because the rough proportions for different shapes are 2/3 perfect circles, 1/6 flat circles, 1/9 ellipses, and 1/18 eggs. Stonehenge, however, is roughly circular. It is difficult to precisely date stone rings because of the rarity of datable remains in contact with them, but it is known that they were built during the Neolithic period. In the south of England, the Neolithic period originated from the development of the first peasant community around 4000 BC to the development of bronze technology around 2000 BC, when the construction of most megalithic monuments ended.
Because of the limited archaeological record in the stone ring, to explain the function of the structure are often interpretive. The interpretation of stone rings made in previous centuries tends to reflect the cultural biases of their time and is sometimes very imaginative. Only in the last few decades have Stonehenge's truly comprehensive tests been carried out by archaeoastronomers such as John Michell, Robin Heath, and John North. It is interesting to note that more than 40,000 megalithic sites survived in the British Isles, this number exceeds the number of modern cities and villages, but only a small part has been thoroughly studied.
In the seventeenth century, long before the development of archaeological dating methods and accurate historical research, antiquarian John Aubrey suspected that Stonehenge and other megalithic structures were built by Druids. While this idea (and the associated set of strange ideas) has become a popular cultural belief that is undoubtedly from the seventeenth century to the present, the Druids have nothing to do with the construction of the stone ring.
The Celts, when the Druid priestly system was adopted, appeared in England only after 300 BC more than 1500 years after the last stone ring was made. Furthermore, there is little evidence to suggest that the Druid, after finding stone rings positioned in the countryside, used them for ritual purposes. Druids are known to have carried out their ritual activities mainly in the sacred forest.
Therefore, the Druidic relationship, in the sense of construction, with stone rings is inaccurate. Other seventeenth and eighteenth-century visitors to the stone ring suggested that this monument was built by the Romans, but this idea was more or less in historical possibility than the Druid theory because the Romans did not enter the British Isles until AD 43, almost 2000 years after construction stone ring.
During the nineteenth and early 20th centuries, prehistory connects Stonehenge and other stone rings to Egyptian and Mycenean tourists who are thought to have instilled Bronze Age culture in Europe. With the development of Carbon-14 dating techniques, the conception of infusion-diffusion of British Neolithic history has been abandoned and British (and European) megalithic monuments are shown to precede the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean, Egypt, Mycenean, and Greece.
While the Carbon-14 method provides an estimated date for a stone ring, nothing can explain its function. Over the last few decades, orthodox archeological opinion generally considers its function to pay attention to ritual activities and territorial marking by various tribal chiefs in the Neolithic era. Research by scientists outside the orthodox boundaries of the archeological discipline began to suggest alternative theories.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Oxford University engineer Professor Alexander Thom and astronomer Gerald Hawkins pioneered a new field of archaeoastronomy - the astronomical study of ancient civilizations. Conducting precise theodolite surveys on many stone rings and other types of megalithic structures, Thom and Hawkins found significant astronomical alignment between the stones. This evidence shows that the stone ring was used as an astronomical observatory.
In addition, the archaeoastronomers expressed the mathematical sophistication and extraordinary technical abilities developed by the native English people of both Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures. Two thousand years before Euclid's explanation of the Pythagorean triangle theorem and at least 3000 years before the sixth century AD, Arya Bhata had "discovered" the concept and value of Pi, the British megalithic builders incorporated this mathematical understanding into their stone rings. Adding to the revolutionary findings and interpretation of Thom and Hawkins, studies by Aubrey Burl and Benjamin Ray focus on stone rings as astronomical observatories and also their "magico-religious" use.
Stonehenge, the most visited and famous British stone ring, is a composite structure built over three different periods. In Period I (radiocarbon-dated 3100 BC), Stonehenge was a circular gutter with an internal bank. The circle, with a diameter of 320 feet, has one entrance, 56 mysterious holes around it (it remains there for human cremation), and a wooden sanctuary in the center. The circle is aligned with the mid-summer sunrise, mid-winter sunset, and the southernmost and southernmost moon settings.
Period II (2150 BC) saw the replacement of a wooden refuge with two 'bluestone' circles (dolerite stone with a bluish tint), widening entrances, building entrances marked by parallel trenches parallel to the midsummer sunrise, and erection, outside the circle, from the 'Rock Heel' weighing fifty tons. Eighty bluestones, some weighing up to four tons, were transported from the Prescelly Mountains in Wales, 240 miles away.
During Period III (2075 BC), blue stones were lowered and huge Sarsen stones - which still survive today - were installed. These stones, with an average height of eighteen feet and weighing twenty-five tons, were transported near the Avebury stone which had a wall twenty miles north. Sometimes between 1500 and 1100 BC, about sixty bluestones are reset in a circle immediately inside the Sarsen circle, and another nineteen are placed in a horseshoe pattern, also in a circle. It is estimated that the three stages of construction require more than thirty million hours of work. Recent studies have shown that Stonehenge did not function properly after 1100 BC.
Current theories regarding the purpose of Stonehenge show the simultaneous use of astronomical observations and ritual functions. By gathering data on the movements of celestial bodies, Stonehenge observations are used to show the exact day in the annual ritual cycle. In this case, it is important to mention that the structure is not used only to determine the agricultural cycle, because in this region the summer solstice occurs well after the planting season begins and the winter solstice ends after the harvest is complete.
Regarding its architectural form and function, scientists have suggested that Stonehenge, especially in the middle and later, is intended to be a stone replica (and thus cannot be considered) of a wood shelter that was more common in the Neolithic era.
What is the nature of the ritual performed at Stonehenge? Ray theorizes that, because Stonehenge is located in an area with many graves, there may be some relevance in funeral rituals. Because of its shape, which resembles Neolithic ceremonial buildings, it may be more directed as a holy place for the living than for the dead. As a temple for life, the capacity of Stonehenge to determine the date of solstices and equinoxes is very important.
Throughout the ancient world, people regarded the sun and moon as sacred creatures whose cyclic rhythms, with their seasonal strengths and weaknesses, had positive, miraculous, and beneficial effects on human life. Stonehenge and a large number of other stone rings located throughout the British Isles (and the world) are sun /lunar/star observatories and some ritual structures. Mystery persists: Why?
Mythology and archeology students will be familiar with the fact that many ancient cultures hold open-air festivals and equinoxes. The most common interpretation of these festivals is that they are an opportunity for renewal of society and land by heavenly forces, and also renewal of heavenly land and beings by agents of human intention, celebration, and sacrifice. The interpretation usually stops here.
Discussions may indeed continue regarding the characteristics of the festival or their sociological functions in contributing to periodic renewals and strengthening the ties of certain cultural groups, but the true depth of interpretation of the time and original meaning of the solstice festival is rarely carried out. being chased. Why so? The answer is quite simple.
Almost all scientists and writers have the academic knowledge to be able to discuss various ancient cultures and mythologies. They have obtained this information while spending their lives in concrete cities, alienated from land-based experiences that give rise to feelings - understanding the subtle energy rhythms from nature. In other words, the tendency of modern urban-based life, in isolating people from nature, automatically implanting and perpetuating biases that prevent prehistoric, anthropologists, and archeologists (and most others) from truly understanding nature-based life.
We are neolithic cultures. We people Modern may (with a pretty impressive scholarship) catalog the behavior of the ancients, but an understanding of the motivations and meaning of that behavior often avoids us. This is especially true of the festival of renewal that takes place at the solstice and equinox in holy places.
Prehistorians and archaeologists talk about the 'myths' of ancient cultural renewal, but for ancient people, festivals are not a celebration of myth but a celebration of current reality. That fact is the periodic energetic effect of the solar, lunar, and star cycles on humans, the animal kingdom, and the earth itself. This energetic effect, the increased presence of energy in holy places during certain astronomical cycle periods, is the focus of the use of stone ring rituals and so many other ancient shrines found throughout the world.
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