Stonehenge has been the subject of many theories about its origin, ranging from the academic worlds of archaeology to explanations from mythology and the paranormal.
Early theories
Many early historians were influenced by supernatural folktales in their explanations. Some legends held that Merlin had a giant build the structure for him or that he had magically transported it from Mount Killaraus in Ireland, while others held the Devil responsible.
Henry of Huntingdon was the first to write of the monument around AD 1130 soon followed by Geoffrey of Monmouth who was the first to record fanciful associations with Merlin which led the monument to be incorporated into the wider cycle of European medieval romance. According to Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae, when asked what might serve as an appropriate burial place for Britain's dead princes, Merlin advised King Aurelius Ambrosius to raise an army and collect some magical stones from Mount Killarus in Ireland. Whilst at Mount Killarus, Merlin laughed at the soldiers' failed attempts to remove the stones using ladders, ropes, and other machinery. Shortly thereafter, Merlin oversaw the removal of stones using his own machinery and commanded they be loaded onto the soldiers' ships and sailed back to England where they were reconstructed into Stonehenge.Geoffrey, 1842 : 159–160 Contrary to popular belief Geoffrey did not claim Merlin had commanded a giant to build Stonehenge for him, it appears this detail was embellished by Robert Wace who later translated Geoffrey's original text into French.
In 1655, the architect John Webb, writing in the name of his former superior Inigo Jones, argued that Stonehenge was a Roman temple, dedicated to Caelus, (a Latin name for the Greek sky-god Uranus), and built following the Tuscan order.Webb, John, 1665. A vindication of Stone-Heng restored in which the orders and rules of architecture observed by the ancient Romans are discussed : together with the customs and manners of several nations of the world in matters of building of greatest antiquity : as also, a historical narration of the most memorable ons of the Danes in England, Printed by R. Davenport for Tho. Bassett: London. Later commentators maintained that the Danes erected it. Indeed, up until the late nineteenth century, the site was commonly attributed to the Saxons or other relatively recent societies.
Druids and scientific evidence
The first academic effort to survey and understand the monument was made around 1640 by John Aubrey. He declared Stonehenge the work of Druids. This view was greatly popularised by William Stukeley. Aubrey also contributed the first measured drawings of the site, which permitted greater analysis of its form and significance. From this work, he demonstrated an astronomical or calendrical role in the placement of the stones. The architect John Wood, the Elder was to undertake the first truly accurate survey of Stonehenge in 1740.Wood, John, 1747, Choir Guare, Vulgarly called Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain. Oxford However, Wood's interpretation of the monument as a place of pagan ritual was vehemently attacked by Stukeley, who saw the druids not as pagans, but as biblical patriarchs.Stukeley, William, 1740, Stonehenge A Temple Restor'd to the British Druids. London
By the turn of the nineteenth century, John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury was able to attribute the site to the Bronze Age based on the bronze objects found in the nearby barrows.
Radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating of the site indicates that the building of the monument at the site began around the year 3100 BC and ended around the year 1600 BC. This allows the elimination of some of the theories presented. The theory that the Druids were responsible may be the most popular; however, the Celtic Britons who spawned the Druid priesthood emerged only after 300 BC. Additionally, the Druids are unlikely to have used the site for sacrifices, because they performed the majority of their rituals in the woods or mountains, areas better suited for "earth rituals" than an open field. The fact that the Romans first came to the British Isles when Julius Caesar led an expedition in 55 BC negates the theories of Inigo Jones and others that Stonehenge was built as a Roman temple.
Early references to Stonehenge
The classical Greek writer Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC) may refer to Stonehenge in a passage from his Bibliotheca historica. Citing the 4th-century BC historian Hecataeus of Abdera and "certain others", Diodorus says that in "a land beyond the Celts" (i.e. Gaul) there is "an island no smaller than Sicily" in the northern sea called Hyperborea, so named because it is beyond the source of the north wind or Boreas. The inhabitants of this place chiefly worship Apollo, and there is "both a magnificent sacred precinct of Apollo and a notable temple which is adorned with many votive offerings and is spherical in shape."Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca Historica II, Chapters 47–48. Some writers have suggested that Diodorus' "Hyperborea" may indicate Great Britain, and that the spherical temple may be an early reference of Stonehenge.Chippendale, p. 83Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca Historica II, note 32.Charles Squire, Celtic Myths and Legend, p. 42
Christopher Chippindale commented that "This might be Stonehenge, but the description is short and vague, and there are discrepancies — the climate of the Hyperboreans is so mild they grow two crops a year." Aubrey Burl noted that other parts of Diodorus' description make it a poor fit for Stonehenge and its neighbourhood. Diodorus also says that in that area Apollo (meaning the Sun or the Moon) "skimmed the earth at a very low height". However, both the Moon and the Sun are always seen far above the horizon at the latitude of Stonehenge; only 500 miles farther north can they be observed to remain near the horizon.
The bluestones
J. F. S. Stone felt that a bluestone monument had earlier stood near the nearby Stonehenge Cursus and the stone had been moved to their current site from there. If Mercer's theory is correct then the bluestones may have been transplanted to cement an alliance or display superiority over a conquered enemy, although this can only be speculation. An oval-shaped setting of bluestones similar to those at Stonehenge 3iv occurs at Bedd Arthur in the Preseli Hills, but that does not imply a direct cultural link. Some archaeologists have suggested that the igneous bluestones and sedimentary sarsens had some symbolism, of a union between two cultures from different landscapes and therefore from different backgrounds.
Recent analysis of contemporary burials found nearby known as the Boscombe Bowmen, has indicated that at least some of the individuals associated with Stonehenge 3 came either from Wales or from some other European area of ancient rocks. Petrological analysis of the stones themselves has verified that some of them have come from the Preseli Hills but that others have come from the north Pembrokeshire coast and possibly the Brecon Beacons.
The main source of the bluestones is now identified with the dolerite outcrops around Carn GoedogThe Guardian: Archaeologists looking for Stonehenge origins 'are digging in wrong place'. Nov 20, 2013 although work led by Olwen Williams-Thorpe of the Open University has shown that other bluestones came from outcrops up to 10 km away. Dolerite is composed of an intrusive volcanic rock of plagioclase feldspar that is harder than granite.
Aubrey Burl and a number of geologists and geomorphologists contend that the bluestones were not transported by human agency at all and were instead brought by glaciers at least part of the way from Wales during the Pleistocene. There is good geological and glaciological evidence that glacier ice did move across Preseli and did reach the Somerset coast. It is uncertain that it reached Salisbury Plain, although a spotted dolerite boulder was found in a long barrow at Heytesbury in Wiltshire, which was built long before the stone settings at Stonehenge were installed. One current view is that glacier ice transported the stones as far as Somerset, and that they were transported from there by the builders of Stonehenge.BBC News: New Glacier theory on Stonehenge Retrieved on 13 October 2008 However, in 2015, researchers reported they had confirmed the Preseli Spotted Dolerite stones at Stonehenge came from two Neolithic quarries at Carn Goedog and Craig Rhos-y-felin in the Preseli Hills. Using radiocarbon dating, researchers dated the quarry activities to around 3400 BC for Craig Rhos-y-felin and 3200 BC for Carn Goedog. Project director Professor Mike Parker Pearson of the UCL Institute of Archaeology noted the finding was "intriguing because the bluestones didn't get put up at Stonehenge until around 2900 BC... It could have taken those Neolithic stone-draggers nearly 500 years to get them to Stonehenge, but that's pretty improbable in my view. It's more likely that the stones were first used in a local monument, somewhere near the quarries, that was then dismantled and dragged off to Wiltshire." In 2018 two of the quarries – Carn Goedog and Craig Rhos-y-felin – underwent more excavation to reveal evidence of megalith quarrying around 3000 BC. If true, this shortens the period between excavation and transportation to the Stonehenge site.
During 2017 and 2018, excavations by Pearson's team at Waun Mawn, a small and unimpressive-seeming fragmentary stone circle in the Preseli Hills, revealed that the site had originally housed a 110 metre diameter stone circle of the same size as Stonehenge's original bluestone circle, and also like it, oriented towards the summer solstice. The circle at Waun Mawn also contained a hole from one stone which had a distinctive pentagonal shape, very closely matching the one pentagonal stone at Stonehenge (stonehole 91 at Waun Mawn/stone 62 at Stonehenge). Soil dating of the sediments within the revealed stone holes, via optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), suggested the absent stones at Waun Mawn had been erected around 3400-3200 BC, and removed around 300-400 years later, a date consistent with theories that the same stones were moved and used at the more famous site, before later being reorganised into their present locations and supplemented with local sarsens as was already understood. Human activity at Waun Mawn ceased around the same time, and overall the pattern, along with isotope studies suggesting that at least some of the population at Stonehenge originated and lived in the Western Wales area, suggested migration to the researchers. However, as it seems unlikely that Waun Mawn ever contained as many of the same type of stones, as Stonehenge, it is considered possible that stones from other sources may have been added, perhaps from other dismantled circles in the region. The discoveries were published in February 2021, and popularised in a documentary the same month.
Healing