The meaning of Stonehenge has been disputed for centuries, and will remain so for some time to come. Recently, two British archaeologists have proposed a new explanation:Stonehenge was a prehistoric pilgrimage site.
Scientifically, the British Stonehenge is counted among the megalithic structures, just like our dolmens, for example. It always concerns monuments from prehistoric times, made of colossal stones. The oldest specimens are in Denmark, Brittany, Ireland and Portugal and could be found shortly after 4500 BC. have been established. The Dutch dolmens are built around 3400 BC. dated.
Stonehenge is a lot younger. The impetus for construction was not started until around 3100 BC. given. And initially everything remained modest:a round moat and rampart, with a ring of piles and a wooden building in the middle. The stone complex as we know it today was only begun around 2500 BC. to tinker.
Before that, the Stonehenge people first traveled to the Preseli Mountains in Wales. From the rocks they cut a series of stones, which they then transported home. They probably did that by ship:first by sea, then by river – a journey of approximately 400 km. In Stonehenge they placed the stones side by side in an untidy semicircle. Usually these boulders from Wales are called the 'bluestones'.
A century later they were replaced by a circle of upright sandstones. Workers laid lying boulders on this, giving the impression that these stones were connected to each other. Inside the circle, the workmen placed a second group of stones, this time in the shape of a horseshoe. They also attached a lying stone to this.
The bluestones landed in a circle on either side of the horseshoe. Later, the builders changed their minds again and also set the inner bluestones in the shape of a horseshoe.
Merlin the Wizard
Archaeologists still have to guess why Stonehenge was built. Nor is it known why the monument was changed several times. One thing is certain:the axis of the complex points to the point on the horizon where the sun rises on June 21 (the solstice). But that observation hardly sheds any light on the purpose of Stonehenge:you don't need such a large monument to predict the sunrise. It couldn't have been built for that.
Like some dolmens in Drenthe, for example, Stonehenge will also have functioned as the central point of the community at that time. It may have been a religious center or some sort of temple. But those explanations don't help us much, because a simpler monument was just as suitable for that.
In the Middle Ages they had come up with a nice theory. According to a legend, many of King Arthur's soldiers were mortally wounded after a battle. To cure them, Merlin the wizard rushed to Ireland. There he knew that there were large stones that were used to heal wounds. With his magical power, Merlin lifted the stones, moved them through the air and lowered them into Stonehenge. Arthur dragged his wounded soldiers against the stones and they were promptly healed.
Although clearly a fabrication, this story has left its mark. Until the 18th century AD. the locals used bits of stone from Stonehenge as a talisman.
Healing stones
Over the past two centuries, archaeologists have repeatedly remodeled Stonehenge. The last time this spring, when archaeologists Tim Darvill and Geoffrey Wainwright re-examined the original bluestones circle. They assumed that the key to understanding Stonehenge must lie in these stones. Why were they so important that they were brought all the way from Wales? And why was it necessary to move them a few times, undoubtedly with great pain and effort?
Around the monument, Darvill and Wainwright found a pile of human bones. Many cases involved deformed bones, much more often than you would expect from a normal population. Apparently people with illnesses or mutilations were mainly buried here.
Thanks to a chemical analysis of the teeth, it was possible to find out where the sick came from. It turned out that it wasn't just local residents, but visitors from a surprisingly wide area:Wales, the Lake District, Ireland. For Darville and Wainwright, this leads to this conclusion:Stonehenge was a place of pilgrimage. It was a prehistoric Lourdes where the sick came from all over to heal.
That explains why there are the bluestones from Wales. When you chop up that rock, not only does it turn a bluish color, but it looks like you're seeing hundreds of stars flickering. Perhaps that got prehistoric man thinking. Just as today some people buy 'medicinal' stones or minerals and wear them on their skin, the people of the time attributed healing properties to the bluestones. That's why the builders of Stonehenge took the trouble to get the stones from so far away.
A few years earlier, both archaeologists had dug into the Preseli Mountains, where the bluestones came from. What they discovered there seems to support their pilgrimage hypothesis perfectly. The quarry is where springs originate, which are traditionally called 'holy wells'. These medicinal properties have been attributed since prehistoric times, precisely because of the beneficent power of the rocks from which the water flows.
Around the wells, Darvill and Wainwright found several dolmens. In many cases one or more bluestones were included. According to both archaeologists, they were supposed to increase the healing power of the springs, just as Stonehenge would later be expanded into an extra strong pilgrimage site.
Why in Stonehenge?
However, with the statement by Darville and Wainwright, the last word on Stonehenge has not been said. For now, not every archaeologist agrees with their ideas. According to some, their evidence is too thin for the time being and their explanation remains too speculative. Not everyone believes that the skeletons Darville and Wainwright were able to dig up belonged to pilgrims. Perhaps they were ordinary migrants who wanted to start a new life in Stonehenge. People also did that during prehistoric times.
Another question that Darville and Wainwright haven't solved is:If the bluestones were indeed intended to build a medicinal pilgrimage site, why exactly did that happen on this site? And not in, or near, another megalithic complex? The region is full of such monuments, so there must have been a special reason for choosing Stonehenge.
Darville and Wainwright can't explain everything either. But they have stuck their necks out. Science is not a matter of giving answers, but of asking questions. That merit belongs to them. Moreover, their theory is not limited to the traditional explanations that a monument like Stonehenge mainly served as a mausoleum for important or deserving persons. Darville and Wainwright have looked further. In doing so, they have steered the debate about Stonehenge in a new direction.