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CONTENTS DEPARTMENT
5000 Years Ago: Around 3000 B.C.E.
STONEHENGE REVISITED
Around 10,500 years ago, established tribes in England
set up totem poles on a sacred field, Salisbury Plain.
Hunting was good, and the area was used for burial
rituals. Somewhere around 2,000 to 3,000 B.C.E, tribal
leaders and shamans became adventurous and ordered
the construction of a massive, circular rock monument.
The largest stones, called "sarsens", rise 30 feet and
weigh 25 tons. These huge boulders were dragged over
20 miles from Marlborough Downs. Smaller stones,
known as "bluestones", weighed only four tons and were
transported from different sites in western Wales. And
recent discoveries have unearthed a massive wooden
building that may have used for burial rituals.
Archeologists believe Stonehenge was constructed for
multiple purposes – spiritual gatherings, festival making,
and burial rites. Stones were placed to predict particular
sun, moon and star cycles. Specific stone circles are
aligned with the midsummer sunrise, midwinter sunset
and the most southerly rising and setting of the moon.
Festivals were believed to be held at those energetic
periods determined by astronomical observations.
Legends also tell how the circular stones may contain
healing powers. Built with very specific geologic stones,
positioned according to sacred geometry, this massive
monument functioned like a battery for gathering folks,
concentrating and emanating the earth energies around
them.
3000 B C
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