Although the dates of the various phases of construction of the Stonehenge monument, located on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, are generally agreed upon, scholars continue to the debate the methods used to move, shape, and raise the stones of the monument.
The Phases of Stonehenge Construction
Scholars have divided the construction of Stonehenge into three phases. The most recent scientifically-verified dates for these phases are approximately 3100 to 3000 BC for Stonehenge I, 3000 to 2600 BC for Stonehenge II, and 2600 to 1930 BC for Stonehenge III.
During construction of Stonehenge I and II, the Stonehenge builders dug a circular ditch, used the removed earth to form banks on either side of the ditch, and left the ditch-bank circle …show more content…
It has been proposed that the bluestones were removed to serve as a temple elsewhere. In their place, 81 or more huge sarsen boulders were raised in the same general area which the bluestone circles had occupied, but in a very different pattern. Around the centre of the monument, a horseshoe of five trilithons was erected. A trilithon is a free-standing unit of two uprights capped across the top by a third crosspiece called a lintel. Enclosing this horseshoe, a single circle of 30 uprights was erected, all joined across the tops by …show more content…
One view holds that the sarsens were transported by the Stonehenge people from the nearby Marlborough Downs. The stones may have been moved on sleds, perhaps taking about 1500 people seven weeks to transport a single great stone. According to this estimate, it would have taken at least 11 years to get all of the sarsens to the Stonehenge site. Other scholars suggest that the sarsens may have been brought to the Salisbury Plain by Ice Age glacial
The Phases of Stonehenge Construction
Scholars have divided the construction of Stonehenge into three phases. The most recent scientifically-verified dates for these phases are approximately 3100 to 3000 BC for Stonehenge I, 3000 to 2600 BC for Stonehenge II, and 2600 to 1930 BC for Stonehenge III.
During construction of Stonehenge I and II, the Stonehenge builders dug a circular ditch, used the removed earth to form banks on either side of the ditch, and left the ditch-bank circle …show more content…
It has been proposed that the bluestones were removed to serve as a temple elsewhere. In their place, 81 or more huge sarsen boulders were raised in the same general area which the bluestone circles had occupied, but in a very different pattern. Around the centre of the monument, a horseshoe of five trilithons was erected. A trilithon is a free-standing unit of two uprights capped across the top by a third crosspiece called a lintel. Enclosing this horseshoe, a single circle of 30 uprights was erected, all joined across the tops by …show more content…
One view holds that the sarsens were transported by the Stonehenge people from the nearby Marlborough Downs. The stones may have been moved on sleds, perhaps taking about 1500 people seven weeks to transport a single great stone. According to this estimate, it would have taken at least 11 years to get all of the sarsens to the Stonehenge site. Other scholars suggest that the sarsens may have been brought to the Salisbury Plain by Ice Age glacial