Stonehenge - a mysterious stone complex in Great Britain

In the county of Wilshire, 130 km from London, there is a mysterious place - a cluster of giant stone blocks arranged in a circle in the middle of Salisbury Plain. This complex of megalithic structures is called. It was built in the 3rd millennium BC, but its purpose is still not clear.

What is Stonehenge: interesting facts

The stones, weighing from 25 to 45 tons, used in the construction of Stonehenge, were transported 380 km from eastern Wales. The megalithic complex was built between 3500 and 1100 AD. BC. in three stages. Initially I was a ring-shaped rampart surrounded by a ditch. 56 depressions were dug along the inside of the shaft, later called "Aubrey's Holes" in honor of their first explorer.

Outside the entrance to the earthen structure stood a 35-ton “Heel Stone.” During the construction of Stonehenge II, two rings of massive blue-gray blocks were erected. A 6-ton stone, the so-called “Altar,” was erected in the center of the circle, and an earthen path was laid between the “Heel Stone” and the entrance.

At the final stage of construction, the blue blocks were replaced with 30 Sarsen sandstone monoliths, and a horseshoe of five free-standing triliths was installed within the Sarsen Ring.

Legends of Stonehenge

According to legend, the stones were erected here by the almighty Merlin, the court magician of King Arthur. Popular rumor attributes the authorship of Stonehenge to the inhabitants of Atlantis, aliens, and also giants. The British call Stonehenge “the dance of the giants”: the stones, arranged in a circle, resemble a round dance of huge giants holding hands.

Stonehenge: who built it and why

Nowadays, many hypotheses have accumulated about the purpose of Stonehenge. For a long time it was believed that the stone ring belonged to the Druids - Celtic priests who performed rituals here religious ceremonies. According to another version, the complex was the burial place of Boadicea, a pagan queen who fought the Romans. It is also claimed that the structure served as a cemetery for leaders.

English astronomer J. Hawkins believes that Stonehenge is a grandiose Stone Age observatory that allows one to predict eclipses and the exact dates for the start of field work. Yes, per day summer solstice the sun rises exactly above the “Heel” stone. According to historians Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright from the University of Bournsmouth, Stonehenge was built as a Neolithic medical center.

Radiocarbon dating of the bones found showed that many of the people buried at Stonehenge suffered from serious illnesses. The sick and wounded came here from surrounding villages, believing in the healing power blue stones. If we exclude mystical versions and the excitement that arose around the monument, then it becomes obvious that the megalith complex is not so unique. Megalithic structures are found throughout Europe, including in Russia in the North Caucasus, Altai Mountains, Karelia and the Kola Peninsula. Even next to Stonehenge there is Avebury.

Gerald Hawkins

Stonehenge deciphered. Stone Age Observatory

This book is dedicated to Lord Snow of Leicester, author of The Two Cultures.

Introduction

It is significant that the discoveries described in this book were made by an astronomer affiliated with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

Samuel P. Langley, third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and founder of the astrophysical observatory, became the first leading scientist to recognize the possible astronomical significance of the "rough, enormous monoliths" in the Salisbury Valley. In his book The New Astronomy, he wrote: “Most of the great national observatories, such as Greenwich and Washington, are improvements on the type of astronomy whose infancy was recorded by the builders of Stonehenge. Primitive people could find out where the Sun would rise on any given day and make observations of its location, without knowing anything about its physical nature.” By “that type of astronomy” he meant classical positional observations, the study not of structures, but of the movements - that is, not “what”, but “where” - of celestial bodies. His “New Astronomy” is nothing more than modern astrophysics.

Langley wrote this in 1889, serendipitously the same year that construction began on the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

Everyone who visits Stonehenge wonders: what is its purpose? The rough stones lack any words of dedication, construction symbols and any readable signs. Therefore, the word “deciphered” in the title requires some explanation.

In this book we will try to prove that the very location of the stones, the general plan of the entire complex and the actual choice of location already carry a wealth of information. Much can be read about Stonehenge without the aid of ancient or modern words. It represents a unique cryptographic riddle, the solution of which led to an understanding of the mentality of ancient people. Previously, when we had only vague legends, the distant past seemed incomprehensible to us. Now, perhaps, the door to prehistory is wide open.

My working hypothesis has gradually developed over the past two years as follows: if some pattern or general relationship was discovered in different parts of Stonehenge, it was natural to assume that these facts were also known to its builders. This conclusion prompted me to take many unimaginable steps. In retrospect, this hypothesis is conservative because it allows Stonehenge to be equal to me, but not better than me. Many facts, such as the 56-year eclipse cycle, remained unknown to me and other astronomers and were discovered (or rather, rediscovered) during the deciphering of Stonehenge.

There is no doubt that Stonehenge served as an ancient observatory. This is confirmed by impartial mathematics, probability theory and the celestial sphere. The form of the complex is an original computer, but was it used? As a scientist, I cannot answer this question. But in my own defense, I will say that such skepticism can be directed towards other researchers of the ancient stage of human development. Do we need to see lip prints on a cup, blood on a dagger, or sparks struck from pyrites by flint to be sure that these objects were actually used?

These studies were carried out at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the Harvard Observatory at Boston University, and in and around Stonehenge. This led me into the field of humanities, as well as natural sciences, and I have to some extent crossed the bridge between Sir Charles P. Snow's "two cultures."

In the process of work, I communicated with many people who provided me with every possible support. I would especially like to note with gratitude the conversations with R.S. Newell, X. Henken, R.J. Atkinson, S. Piggot, H.E. Edgetron. A. Tom and S.A. Newham. My wife Dorothy followed my research with constant interest. I am grateful to Mr. F. Friendly and the CBS staff for filming astronomical events that occurred at Stonehenge in 1964 that might otherwise have gone unnoticed, like those of previous millennia.

This book would not have been published without the tireless help and support of John B. White. Mrs. Edith Homer typed the various drafts and the final manuscript conscientiously and without a single complaint.

Gerald S. Hawkins

Mogus Hill

Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts

This publication contains a wealth of new archaeological information kindly contributed by Professor Atkinson.

J.S.X.

Stonehenge is a unique structure. There is nothing in all the world like the dismal ruins which, in the words of Henry James, “rise as lonely in history as in their vast plain.” Huge and motionless, they are beyond the control of either man or time. Being inside these silent circles, you begin to feel the great past thickening around you. And it seems that you can see and hear something until you try to imagine, which ones exactly events took place in this place, what sounds were heard here, what people came here in those incredibly distant times from us.

What was it? What purpose did Stonehenge serve, this monument and monument to people whose other monuments have long since disappeared from the surface of the earth? Was it the city of the dead? A place where the Druids made horrific sacrifices? Temple of the Sun? Market? A pagan cathedral, a sanctuary in the middle of the blessed land? What was he and when?

There were many tales and legends about this strange monument, and some of them have survived to this day.

Stonehenge is so ancient that its true age was apparently forgotten by the ancient period. Ancient Greek and Roman writers hardly mention it. Arriving in Britain, the rational Roman conquerors did not show him much respect - after all, Rome was proud of its temples, Egypt - its pyramids, which were in better condition than this group of stones. There is evidence that the Romans broke some of the stone blocks. They could regard this place as a possible center of resistance.

And only in the Middle Ages, when people became interested in everything mysterious, ancient stones again captured their imagination. By that time, any memories of the origin of Stonehenge and the purpose of the “giant pile” had long since sunk into oblivion. There was a need to create some kind of history of him, just as the lives of countless righteous men and saints were collected piece by piece.

We are not given to know who became the first biographer of Stonehenge. He could have been someone who lived in the 6th century. Gildas, whom some called the Wise, and some said he was an invention. Or Aneurin, the great Welsh bard, who in the 7th century. supposedly sang the beginning of the work of the giants. Or who lived in the 9th century. Nennius, in romantic style describing a stone monument erected in memory of the treacherously murdered British nobility. However, was this monument Stonehenge and was there really a chronicler monk named Nennius?

We know for certain that by the 12th century. he was already surrounded by a sufficient number of conclusions and legends. Weiss, an Anglo-Norman, noted that he was called "hanging stones" both in England and in France - "Stanhengues ont nom en englois, pierres pendues en Francois." Henry of Huntington explained that this name was quite justified, since the stones “hang in the air by themselves.” (Others believed that the epithet did not refer to the stones, but to the criminals who were hanged on them.) Henry, however, did not consider Stanheng to be Britain's greatest miracle. The first wonder of this land, as he wrote, was “the wind coming from a cave in the east in a mountain called Pec” (perhaps specialists in the history of the Middle Ages know where this mountain is, I do not).

And the second marvel was Stonehenge, “where stones of amazing sizes are erected in the manner of doorways, as if one door follows another, and no one can imagine what kind of art made it possible to raise such big stones up and why it was done.” Giraldius Sambrensis, a friend of Richard the Lionheart and John I, also called these stones a miracle, like many chroniclers of the time.

Attempts to find an explanation for the origin of this miracle led to the emergence of myths. These myths were carefully collected and passed on to descendants by a talented historian and storyteller of the 12th century. Geoffrey of Monmouth.

I will quote from Geoffrey's writings at some length, not because I am a great fan of legends - I am not - but because this ancient myth, so well told by him, remains the source of most of the tall tales about Stonehenge for five hundred years.

It is significant that the discoveries described in this book were made by an astronomer affiliated with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

Samuel P. Langley, third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and founder of the astrophysical observatory, became the first leading scientist to recognize the possible astronomical significance of the "rough, enormous monoliths" in the Salisbury Valley. In his book The New Astronomy, he wrote: “Most of the great national observatories, such as Greenwich and Washington, are improvements on the type of astronomy whose infancy was recorded by the builders of Stonehenge. Primitive people could find out where the Sun would rise on any given day and make observations of its location, without knowing anything about its physical nature." By “that type of astronomy” he meant classical positional observations, the study not of structures, but of the movements - that is, not “what”, but “where” - of celestial bodies. His “New Astronomy” is nothing more than modern astrophysics.

Langley wrote this in 1889, serendipitously the same year that construction began on the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

Everyone who visits Stonehenge wonders: what is its purpose? The rough stones lack any words of dedication, building symbols or any readable signs. Therefore, the word “deciphered” in the title requires some explanation.

In this book we will try to prove that the very location of the stones, the general plan of the entire complex and the actual choice of location already carry a wealth of information. Much can be read about Stonehenge without the aid of ancient or modern words. It represents a unique cryptographic riddle, the solution of which led to an understanding of the mentality of ancient people. Previously, when we had only vague legends, the distant past seemed incomprehensible to us. Now, perhaps, the door to prehistory is wide open.

My working hypothesis has gradually developed over the past two years as follows: if some pattern or general relationship was discovered in different parts of Stonehenge, it was natural to assume that these facts were also known to its builders. This conclusion prompted me to take many unimaginable steps. In retrospect, this hypothesis is conservative because it allows Stonehenge to be equal to me, but not better than me. Many facts, such as the 56-year eclipse cycle, remained unknown to me and other astronomers and were discovered (or rather, rediscovered) during the deciphering of Stonehenge.

There is no doubt that Stonehenge served as an ancient observatory. This is confirmed by impartial mathematics, probability theory and the celestial sphere. The form of the complex is an original computer, but was it used? As a scientist, I cannot answer this question. But in my own defense, I will say that such skepticism can be directed towards other researchers of the ancient stage of human development. Do we need to see lip prints on a cup, blood on a dagger, or sparks struck from pyrites by flint to be sure that these objects were actually used?

These studies were carried out at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the Harvard Observatory at Boston University, and in and around Stonehenge. This brought me into the realm of the humanities as well as the natural sciences, and I crossed to some extent the bridge between Sir Charles P. Snow's "two cultures."

In the process of work, I communicated with many people who provided me with every possible support. I would especially like to note with gratitude the conversations with R.S. Newell, X. Henken, R.J. Atkinson, S. Piggot, H.E. Edgetron. A. Tom and S.A. Newham. My wife Dorothy followed my research with constant interest. I am grateful to Mr. F. Friendly and the CBS staff for filming astronomical events that occurred at Stonehenge in 1964 that might otherwise have gone unnoticed, like those of previous millennia.

This book would not have been published without the tireless help and support of John B. White. Mrs. Edith Homer typed the various drafts and the final manuscript conscientiously and without a single complaint.

Gerald S. Hawkins

Mogus Hill

Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts

This publication contains a wealth of new archaeological information kindly contributed by Professor Atkinson.

J.S.X.

Stonehenge is a unique structure. There is nothing in all the world like the dismal ruins which, in the words of Henry James, “rise as lonely in history as in their vast plain.” Huge and motionless, they are beyond the control of either man or time. Being inside these silent circles, you begin to feel the great past thickening around you. And it seems that you can see and hear something until you try to imagine, which ones exactly events took place in this place, what sounds were heard here, what people came here in those incredibly distant times from us.

What was it? What purpose did Stonehenge serve, this monument and monument to people whose other monuments have long since disappeared from the surface of the earth? Was it the city of the dead? A place where the Druids made horrific sacrifices? Temple of the Sun? Market? A pagan cathedral, a sanctuary in the middle of the blessed land? What was he and when?

There were many tales and legends about this strange monument, and some of them have survived to this day.

Stonehenge is so ancient that its true age was apparently forgotten by the ancient period. Ancient Greek and Roman writers hardly mention it. Arriving in Britain, the rational Roman conquerors did not show him much respect - after all, Rome was proud of its temples, Egypt - its pyramids, which were in better condition than this group of stones. There is evidence that the Romans broke some of the stone blocks. They could regard this place as a possible center of resistance.

And only in the Middle Ages, when people became interested in everything mysterious, ancient stones again captured their imagination. By that time, any memories of the origin of Stonehenge and the purpose of the “giant pile” had long since sunk into oblivion. There was a need to create some kind of history of him, just as the lives of countless righteous men and saints were collected piece by piece.

We are not given to know who became the first biographer of Stonehenge. He could have been someone who lived in the 6th century. Gildas, whom some called the Wise, and some said he was an invention. Or Aneurin, the great Welsh bard, who in the 7th century. supposedly sang the beginning of the work of the giants. Or who lived in the 9th century. Nennius, in a romantic style, described a stone monument erected in memory of the treacherously murdered British nobility. However, was this monument Stonehenge and was there really a chronicler monk named Nennius?

We know for certain that by the 12th century. he was already surrounded by a sufficient number of conclusions and legends. Weiss, an Anglo-Norman, noticed that he was called “hanging stones” both in England and in France - “Stanhengues ont nom en englois, pierres pendues en Francois.” Henry of Huntington explained that this name was quite justified, since the stones “hang in the air by themselves.” (Others believed that the epithet did not refer to the stones, but to the criminals who were hanged on them.) Henry, however, did not consider Stanheng to be Britain's greatest miracle. The first wonder of this land, as he wrote, was “the wind coming from a cave in the east in a mountain called Pec” (perhaps specialists in the history of the Middle Ages know where this mountain is, I do not).

The history of Stonehenge goes back at least four thousand years. No one knows with one hundred percent certainty about its true purpose. Many claim that there is a special energy around it and call Stonehenge a place of power. This wonderful building is surrounded by many legends, in which the history of its creation is dissolved. Some legends say that it was created by the great magician Merlin, others attribute its authorship to the giants who lived before the flood.

Stonehenge - ancient observatory

At all times, everyone was interested in the true origin of this structure, and a lot of research was carried out. It was only in the 60s of the last century that astronomer Gerald Hawkins managed to put an end to them. He proved that Stonehenge is a very ancient observatory, built around 1800 BC by the people who inhabited Salisbury Plain at that time.

With the help of this observatory, they could carry out astrological observations of the moon and the sun, and with very high accuracy, determine the time when field work began. And the priests, being in holes dug at the same distance from the stones, determined the years of eclipses and much more. But how did people manage to build it?

How was Stonehenge built?

Not everything in the history of the creation of Stonehenge is clear. You can still imagine how the vertical stones were installed, but how were the stone crossbars lifted up? The only reasonable way to do this is the earthen mound method. But, given that no remains of earthen embankments were found anywhere nearby, and this would require incredibly gigantic labor, this version was dropped. Stonehenge was built on Salisbury Plain from various stones: dolerites, rhyolites, sandstones. They were formed in Wales near the coast of Bristol Bay. The distance from there to the location of Stonehenge is 380 kilometers. The stones, the total weight of which was at least 400 tons, were transported on wooden sleds. They passed jewelry processing. They were treated with water and fire, and then polished. But over the centuries, wind and water have significantly spoiled the original appearance of the stones.

Stonehenge is a mystery from ancient times. It is a little younger than the Egyptian pyramids, but is not mentioned in any ancient writings: neither in Greek nor in Roman. Such skillful stone processing technology for the construction of such a structure cannot be found anywhere else. A number of different books have been written about him and many films have been made. The theory that Stonehenge is an observatory is plausible, but scientists never cease to propose more and more new theories, wanting to find its true purpose.