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SCALE OF FEET
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See also:SCALE OF FEET SIDStones'See also:standing on 30oDecember/900
Stones recumbent on same date.
See also:lintel stones. About 9 ft. within this circle and concentric with it is another, formed of smaller " See also:blue stones," originally See also:forty in number, but only a few of which now remain in situ; within that was a horseshoe of five huge trilithons formed by ten monoliths with their imposts (all sarsens); and within the See also:horse-See also:shoe was an inner horseshoe of " blue stones," originally nine-teen in number. The open See also:part of the horseshoe exactly faces the sunrise at the summer See also:solstice. Beyond the See also:outer circle (not shown on See also:plan) a See also:great monolith—the See also:sun See also: Antrobus's legal See also:title to it was confirmed by a lawsuit in 1905. II 2/ e` Nt`!47 i ~~ See also:boa Gab' 59 6 3-9 29 $9 600 6 —To - To 7 S. The See also:societies advised that trilithon 6, 7, with lintel—which had slewed See also:round—and trilithon 56, which was leaning at a dangerous See also:angle, should be examined with a view, to replacement with as little excavation as possible; that the monolith and lintel 22 be replaced, and its See also:companion sarsen (21) secured; and that trilithon J7, 58, should be re-erected in its See also:place, which was exactly known. Steps were taken to place the See also:matter in the hands of See also:engineering experts. On the 19th of See also:September 1901 trilithon 56 was successfully raised to a perpendicular position. It then presented an imposing See also:appearance, standing 21 ft. above ground: its See also:total length was found to be 29 ft. 6 in., and its See also:weight about 30 tons. The excavations were carried to a See also:depth of 8 ft. 3 in. below the datum See also:line, and many See also:objects were found, including chippings and lumps of the stones, stone tools, bones, and (in the upper strata) coins and fragments of pottery. Nearly See also:loo stone implements were excavated—axes, See also:hammer axes, stone hammers and mauls—which, according to Dr Gowland, who superintended the See also:work, had been used not only for breaking the See also:rude blocks into See also:regular forms, but also for working down their faces to a level or curved See also:surface. No See also:light was thrown, however, on the transport of the blocks. Notwithstanding the many attempts, both by excavations and speculative writings, to elucidate the See also:history of this unique See also:monument, the archaeological data available are insufficient to decide definitely between the conflicting opinions held with regard to the date of its construction and the purpose for which it was originally intended. The finding of chips of " sarsens " and " blue stones " together " down to the See also:bed of the See also:rock " would seem to disprove the theory that the inner circle and inner horseshoe were built earlier than the See also:rest of the monument. Dr Gowland at a See also:meeting of the Society of Antiquaries (Dec. 19, 1901), read a See also:paper on his See also:recent excavations on the site of Stonehenge, in which he came to the conclusion that the structure was a See also:temple dedicated to the See also:worship of the sun, and he assigns its erection to the end of the See also:Neolithic See also:period (2000 to 1800 B.C.), on the ground that no See also:bronze implements or See also:relics were found during his explorations. It does not follow, however, from the fact that only stone tools were found at the bottom of the trenches that the monument was constructed when See also:metal tools were unknown, because none of the Stonehenge tools have the characteristic forms of Neolithic implements, so that they might have been specially improvised for the purpose of roughly hewing these huge stones, for which, indeed, they were really better adapted, and more easily procured, than the See also:early and very costly metal tools of the Bronze See also:Age. On the other See also:hand, the recorded See also:discovery of See also:iron See also:armour, See also:Roman and See also:British pottery and coins, together with the bones and horns of See also:deer and other animals, is of little evidential value without a precise See also:record of the circumstances in which they were' found. Only one See also:object, viz. an See also:incense burner, seems to the See also:present writer to have any See also:chronological value, as it is an undoubted sepulchral relic of the Bronze Age. That the sun on midsummer See also:day rises nearly, but not quite, in line with the " See also:avenue " and over the Friar's Heel, has long been advanced as the See also:chief See also:argument in support of the theory that Stonehenge was a temple for sun-worship. On the sup-position that this stone was raised to See also:mark exactly the line of sunrise on midsummer's day when the structure was erected, it would naturally follow, owing to well-known astronomical causes, that in the course of See also:time the direction of this line would slowly undergo a See also:change, and that, at any subsequent date since, the amount of deviation would be commensurate with the See also:lapse of time, thus supplying chronological data to astronomers for determining the age of the See also:building. The See also:solution of this problem has recently been attempted by Sir See also:Norman See also:Lockyer (Stonehenge and other British Stone Monuments), who calculates that on midsummer day, 168o n.c., the sun would rise exactly over the Friar's Heel, and in a.See also:direct line with the axis of the temple and " avenue." The above date he therefore considers to be the date of the erection of this great See also:national monument, within a margin of possible See also:error, on either See also:side, of 200 years. Looking at Stonehenge from the architectural standpoint,there can be no hesitancy in regarding .it as an advanced re-presentative of the See also:ordinary stone circles, some two See also:hundred of which, great and small, are known within the British Isles. It is, however, differentiated from them all by having hewn stones, capstones, tenons and sockets. That its analogues were chiefly used as sepulchres has been fully established, and this is presumptive See also:evidence that the sepulchral See also:element was, at least, one of the objects for which Stonehenge was constructed: and it was probably for this See also:reason that it was erected on Salisbury Plain, where there already existed an extensive See also:necropolis of the Bronze Age. Nor would this by any means militate against its use as a temple for consecrating the dead, or for sun-worship, or any other religious purpose.
AuTHoRITIEs.—Among numerous writings on Stonehenge may be mentioned Stonehenge and Abury, by Dr See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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