Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) west of Amesbury and 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) north of Salisbury. One of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones. Archaeologists had believed that the iconic stone monument was erected around 2500 BC, as described in the chronology below. However one recent theory has suggested that the first stones were not erected until 2400-2200 BC,[1] whilst another suggests that bluestones may have been erected at the site as early as 3000 BC (see phase 1 below). The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. The site and its surroundings were added to the UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in 1986 in a co-listing with Avebury henge monument, and it is also a legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument. Stonehenge itself is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage while the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.

summer solstice

New archaeological evidence found by the Stonehenge Riverside Project indicates that Stonehenge served as a burial ground from its earliest beginnings.[4] The dating of cremated remains found that burials took place as early as 3000 B.C, when the first ditches were being built around the monument. Burials continued at Stonehenge for at least another 500 years when the giant stones which mark the landmark were put up. According to Professor Mike Parker Pearson, head of Stonehenge Riverside Project:
“ Stonehenge was a place of burial from its beginning to its zenith in the mid third millennium B.C. The cremation burial dating to Stonehenge’s sarsen stones phase is likely just one of many from this later period of the monument’s use and demonstrates that it was still very much a domain of the dead.

Stonehenge

(a Novel)

Stonehenge is a novel in which noted historical novelist Bernard Cornwell imaginatively reconstructs the events of forty centuries ago, when the ancient temple and observatory in what is now called Stonehenge as ambitiously rebuilt, with stone monoliths replacing wooden poles.

The main characters of the novel are Saban and Camaban, the young sons of Hengall, tribal chief of Ratharryn. They both outsmart their enemies and survive attempts to kill them. Their main enemy is their older half-brother, Lengar, an ambitious and bloodthirsty man. When an outsider rides into the Old Temple of the tribe, Lengar mercilessly murders him and steals his gold. Lengar then attempts to also murder his younger half-brother Saban, so there will be no witnesses to Lengar’s theft of the gold. Lengar plans to use the gold to raise an army and make himself into a power in the land. However, the quick-witted and quick-footed Saban outwits and outruns his evil brother. Hengall forces Lengar to give up the stolen gold. A disgruntled Lengar defects from the tribe with most of his friends, plotting to return to kill his own father and attack his own former tribesfolk.

Before he is killed, Hengall invests some of the gold in rebuilding and improving the Sky Temple. All three of his sons get a turn at reshaping this famous center of worship.

The monument is called “The Old Temple” in the novel. Indeed, at the time of the events, it was already a thousand years old, having been created c. 3000 BC as a circular ditch and bank, with 56 wooden posts.