Stonehenge, the ancient site of ritual in southwest England, remains one of mankind's most intriguing mysteries. How were those massive megaliths transported over great distances and erected in the earth five-thousand years ago? Some researchers are tackling the question again by replicating ancient methods.
Stonehenge, the ancient site of ritual in southwest England, remains one of mankind's most intriguing mysteries.
According to legend, it was the great wizard Merlin who built Stonehenge by magical powers. But among those looking for a more down-to-earth explanation are students of University College's Institute of Archaeology.
That means trying to replicate parts of the literally monumental task.
Researchers have at least established that sleighs were used in construction at the time. Now, they are hoping to establish what kind of sledge would have been capable of moving the huge slabs of stone needed to make up the ancient structure, along with the number of people it would have taken and the speed of the task.
"I've recorded everybody's weights, heights. I'm going to create a kind of average pulling group and using that, I'll be able to estimate the force that was exerted on the stone, and from that I'll be able to estimate the kind of friction that was created and really the efficiency of this method, and then I'll just use those speeds to kind of create average speeds and data, and I'll take all that data, bring it into my modelling, and that's kind of going to input into my doctoral project, which is looking at revising the amount of time that we think places like Stonehenge took," said Barney Harris, researcher of UCL's Institute of Archaeology.
Stonehenge, the ancient site of ritual in southwest England, remains one of mankind's most intriguing mysteries. How were those massive megaliths transported over great distances and erected in the earth five-thousand years ago? Some researchers are tackling the question again by replicating ancient methods.
Professor Parker Pearson is particularly interested in the smaller stones that form the base.
"It's the smaller stones that we're particularly interested in at the moment, because although they only weighed a couple of tonnes, if that, they came from almost 200 miles away, on the west coast of Wales, and we're interested in knowing why did they do that, as well as how did they do that," Pearson said.
This project is as much an attempt to engage students from all disciplines and passersby to encourage them to show interest in ancient history.
Pearson isn't yet able to confirm what the secret of Stonehenge is, but he thinks the answer lies in the Welsh stones.
"They formed the first stage of Stonehenge, so a circle with just small stones, and it's why they moved them all the way from Wales, which is at the heart of the mystery. What we're investigating is whether it was actually a special site in Wales that was dismantled and brought to Stonehenge. And what we do know is when they got them to Stonehenge, it was a burial place. It's actually the largest graveyard in Britain in the whole of the third millennium BC, five thousand years ago," Pearson said.
Whether or not the secret is unlocked, people continue to be drawn to Stonehenge, either to celebrate the seasons, reconstruct pagan rituals, or simply to marvel at the astonishing sight.
Stonehenge, the ancient site of ritual in southwest England, remains one of mankind's most intriguing mysteries. How were those massive megaliths transported over great distances and erected in the earth five-thousand years ago? Some researchers are tackling the question again by replicating ancient methods.
