Archaeologists Set Out to Unlock Secrets of Stonehenge

[PointRadix]

Mar. 31, 2008 (Reuters) —

Archaeologists are embarking on a project to unlock one of the secrets of Stonehenge, the majestic monument in southern England – specifically, to determine when the first standing stones were placed at the ancient religious site. The concentric stone circles that make up Stonehenge, 125 km southwest of London on the sweep of Salisbury Plain, consist of giant sandstone blocks or sarsens and smaller bluestones – volcanic rock of a blueish tint with white flecks.

Experts will use modern carbon dating techniques and analysis of soil pollen and sea shells in an attempt to determine when the stones were set up, in the first archaeological dig at the World Heritage site since 1964.

The archaeologists believe the bluestones, which made up the first stone circles at Stonehenge, were thought to have magical curative powers. The massive standing stones, set up as long as 5,000 years ago, dominate the even older religious site, marked by numerous burial mounds or barrows. Attempts to determine when the first stone was placed at Stonehenge, involve digging a small trench around one of the stone's sockets and dating what is found. Theories of the role of Stonehenge range from the supernatural -- one says the legendary wizard Merlin built it -- to sacrifices linked to sun worship.

Some 80 bluestones, weighing between one and four tonnes each, were transported by land and sea from South Wales to the Salisbury Plain site between 4,500 and 5,000 years ago. Only about one-third of them remain on the site, the rest having been removed or broken up over the millennia. For example, in the early 1900s there were signs in Amesbury (the nearest town to the site) offering the hire of a hammer so that visitors could chip off their own bit of bluestone. The bluestones are distinct from the massive sandstone sarsens that make the monument instantly recognizable.

The excavation has been blessed by Druids, spiritual descendants of the learned priests of pre-Christian Celtic Europe, who had links with the site in ancient times.

Link: Scientists set out to unlock secrets of Stonehenge