Standing in a circle on the Salisbury Plain in England, Stonehenge is one of the most ancient and easily recognizable monuments in the world. What we see is the result of thousands of years of building by various cultures. It's thought that the name Stonehenge originates from the Anglo-Saxon period. The old English word "henge" means hanging or gibbet. So what we have is literally "the hanging stones", derived probably from the lintels of the trilithons which appear to be suspended above their massive uprights. Today the word "henge" has a specific archaeological meaning: a circular enclosure surrounding settings of stones and timber uprights, or pits.

The Building of Stonehenge

One of the myths about Stonehenge is that it was built by the Druids. In fact, the stones were built over a period of over a thousand years by three different cultures, Windmill, First Wessex and the Beakers - so named because when they buried their dead they had their pots interred with them.

The First Stage – 3100 BC

The first stage of Stonehenge likely consisted on an earthwork circle or henge, a ditch, and a timber circle. Archeologists have identified 56 holes around the perimeter at a diameter of 284 feet now known as Aubrey Holes, named after the 17th century antiquarian, John Aubrey, who found them in about 1666. These holes were probably dug to hold timber posts. The ditch was probably dug by hand using animal bones, deer antlers which were used as pick-axes to loosen the underlying chalk and then the shoulder blades of oxen or cattle were used as shovels to clear away the stones. At the time, the place was likely a venue for religious ceremony. Shortly after this stage, Stonehenge was abandoned and left untouched for nearly a thousand years.

The Second Stage – 2150 BC

Stonehenge was rebuilt, this time in stone. Bluestones were used, coming from the Prescelli Mountains in Pembroke, South Wales 245 miles away. They were dragged down to the sea, floated on huge rafts, brought up the River Avon, finally overland to where they are today. Each of these stones weighed five tons. Once at the site, these stones were set up in the center to form an incomplete double circle. During the same period the original entrance of the circular earthwork was widened and a pair of Heel Stones was erected. Also the nearer part of the Avenue was built, aligned with the midsummer sunrise.

The Third Stage – 2000 BC

This stage saw the arrival of the Sarsen stones, which were almost certainly brought from the Marlborough Downs near Avebury, in north Wiltshire, about 25 miles north of Stonehenge. As these stones weighed upwards to fifty tons, water transport would have been impossible. The stones could only have been moved using sledges and ropes. Modern calculations show that it would have taken 500 men using leather ropes to pull one stone, with an extra 100 men needed to lay the huge rollers in front of the sledge. The bluestones were dug up and rearranged. The Sarsen stones were laid out in an outer circle with a continuous run of lintels. Inside the circle, five trilithons were placed in a horseshoe arrangement. To get the lintels to stay in place, the first wood working techniques were used. They made joints in stone, linking the lintels in a circular manner using a tongue and groove joint, and subsequently the upright and lintel with a ball and socket joint or mortice and tenon. This was all cleverly designed on the alignment of the rising of the mid summer sun.