What we know about Stonehenge — and what we don't

“What is Stonehenge meant for?” asked a young patron at Arlington Heights Memorial Library.

People who lived thousands of years ago in the time period called the Stone Age created vast ceremonial centers with pathways surrounding massive stones. One of the best known is Stonehenge in southern England, a combination of gigantic stones and henges — another word for carved earthworks.

Stonehenge is remarkable because its builders dragged the multi-ton stones to the site from faraway locations before the wheel was invented, and carved pits and pathways using bones, antlers and stones.

Intentionally placed stones from this time period are called megaliths. The exact purpose is unclear, as Matt Leivers, senior specialist for Wessex Archaeology in England, explains: “The best clue that is the way that many of the phases of building incorporate the rising midsummer and setting midwinter sun into their architecture. This is seen most spectacularly today in what archaeologists call the Sarsen Circle and Trilithon Horseshoe — the big standing stone elements which were constructed so that the sun could be seen to rise and set between the stones on those particular days.”

Stonehenge is one of many sites dotting the globe that feature megaliths. There are other megaliths in England and places in Spain, France, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, Malta, Argentina, Russia, Bolivia, Asia and Easter Island.

The climate was warm when people carved the first henge in southern England in 8,000 B.C., and food was readily available, Leivers said.

“The people that built Stonehenge depended very much on the natural world and the predictable cycle of the seasons for their survival. They weren't farmers in the sense that we would think of it but were moving from place to place with their herds of animals, mostly cattle and pigs,” he said. “They would have had an intimate knowledge of the natural world.”

This is was what scientists describe as the Mesolithic period — the middle of the Stone Age.

At the forested Stonehenge site, five pits were constructed. Then nothing happened. People enjoyed the work completed in the Mesolithic that created the basic layout of Stonehenge. About 1,000 years later, construction commenced using picks made from deer antlers to build a circle 20 feet wide and about 5 feet deep. Chalk excavated from the circle became the base for an embankment inside the circle.

In the center, 56 shallow holes were dug and refilled. Two large stones were placed parallel to each other to form an entrance.

Nothing again for 1,000 years. Then, 80 gigantic bluestone vertical slabs, 4 tons each, were embedded in the soil. The 13-foot-high stones were hauled 240 miles from nearby Wales. Scientists are puzzled as to how the huge slabs were transported.

About 100 years later, an additional ring of stones was installed, and these massive upright stones were connected over top by horizontal stones called lintels. A later addition included an extension of the Avenue, a wide roadway carved almost two miles to extend the main pathway to the River Avon.

What compelled people to undertake such a monumental effort?

“They would have found the world changeable and unpredictable, and would have been very concerned with trying to understand and influence it,” Leivers said. “The architecture of Stonehenge is probably an attempt to do that — to incorporate the single most important thing to human survival — the sun and it's continued rising and setting — into the human world, and therefore to somehow influence it.”

Recent excavations have yielded surprising findings — Stonehenge is surrounded by underground barrows and ditches with about 150 cremation burial sites, the last resting place for some locals, but also for people who came from western England and Wales.

Leivers' organization, Wessex Heritage, researches and conserves historic sites like Stonehenge, another stone circle in England called ADvebury, ancient Roman digs and even castles. They've worked at Stonehenge for nearly three decades and have published research findings for the World Heritage site.

Check it out

The Arlington Heights Memorial Library suggests these titles on Stonehenge:

• “If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge,” by Marc Aronson

• “Stonehenge,” by Toney Allman

• “Solving the Mysteries of Stonehenge,” by Leon Gray

• “Who Let the Gods Out?,” by Maz Evans