- Stonehenge
- 2,500-1,600 BCE
- Wiltshire, England
- Sarsen stones
Stonehenge
- built in multiple stages
- can be used to predict solstices and eclipses
- assembled using post-and-lintels
- the horizontal and vertical components
- secured with mortise-and-tenon
- outer circle has sarsen megaliths
- different stones used at different times
- stones are brought from far away
- built in three phases
Purpose
- ceremonies of death and burial
- nearby cemeteries
- number of wood posts in a circle
- evidence of long-distance migration
- evidence of burial and cremation
- connected via pathway to Avon River
- could be to connect ancestors of common people
- for unity
- stone is eternal
- could be as a healing site to bring ill people
- relationship to lunar calendar
- astrological site with altar
- henge - a circle of stones or posts
- rough-cut sarsen stones
- inner circle has bluestones
- innermost ring has trilithons
- lone heel-stone marks the summer solstice
- Aubrey holes that contained bluestones and burials
- fine details
- stones are cut to appear uniform from the ground
- stones are slightly cut to eccentuate the Northeast
- shows sophistication and organization