Term Papers on Stonehenge

Term Paper Title	Stonehenge
# of Words	1299
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.2

Stonehenge

Stonehenge is surely Britain's greatest national icon, symbolizing mystery,
power and endurance. Its original purpose is unclear to us, but some have
speculated that it was a temple made for the worship of ancient earth deities.
It has been called an astronomical observatory for marking significant events on
the prehistoric calendar. Others claim that it was a sacred site for the burial
of high-ranking citizens from the societies of long ago.

While we can't say with any degree of certainty what it was for, we can say
that it wasn't constructed for any casual purpose. Only something very important
to the ancients would have been worth the effort and investment that it took to
construct Stonehenge.

The stones we see today represent Stonehenge in ruin. Many of the original
stones have fallen or been removed by previous generations for home construction
or road repair. There has been serious damage to some of the smaller bluestones
resulting from close visitor contact and the prehistoric carvings on the larger
sarsen stones show signs of significant wear.

In its day, the construction of Stonehenge was an impressive engineering
feat, requiring commitment, time and vast amounts of manual labor. In its first
phase, Stonehenge was a large earthwork; a bank and ditch arrangement called a
henge, constructed approximately 5,000 years ago. It is believed that the ditch
was dug with tools made from the antlers of red deer and, possibly, wood. The
underlying chalk was loosened with picks and shoveled with the shoulderblades of
cattle. It was then loaded into baskets and carried away. Modern experiments
have shown that these tools were more than equal to the great task of earth
digging and moving.

About 2,000 BC, the first stone circle (which is now the inner circle),
comprised of small bluestones, was set up, but abandoned before completion. The
stones used in that first circle are believed to be from the Prescelly
Mountains, located roughly 240 miles away, at the southwestern tip of Wales. The
bluestones weigh up to 4 tons each and about 80 stones were used, in all. Given
the distance they had to travel, this presented quite a transportation problem.

Modern theories speculate that the stones were dragged by roller and sledge
from the inland mountains to the headwaters of Milford Haven. There they were
loaded onto rafts, barges or boats and sailed along the south coast of Wales,
then up the Rivers Avon and Frome to a point near present-day Frome in Somerset.
From this point, so the theory goes, the stones were hauled overland, again, to
a place near Warminster in Wiltshire, approximately 6 miles away. From there,
it's back into the pool for a slow float down the River Wylye to Salisbury, then
up the Salisbury Avon to West Amesbury, leaving only a short 2 mile drag from
West Amesbury to the Stonehenge site.

The giant sarsen stones (which form the outer circle), weigh as much as 50
tons each. To transport them from the Marlborough Downs, roughly 20 miles to the
north, is a problem of even greater magnitude than that of moving the
bluestones. Most of the way, the going is relatively easy, but at the steepest
part of the route, at Redhorn Hill, modern work studies estimate that at least
600 men would have been needed just to get each stone past this obstacle.

Once on site, a sarsen stone was prepared to accommodate stone lintels along
its top surface. It was then dragged until the end was over the opening of the
hole. Great levers were inserted under the stone and it was raised until gravity
made it slide into the hole. At this point, the stone stood on about a 30°
angle from the ground. Ropes were attached to the top and teams of men pulled
from the other side to raise it into the full upright position. It was secured
by filling the hole at its base with small, round packing stones. At this point,
the lintels were lowered into place and secured vertically by mortice and tenon
joints and horizontally by tongue and groove joints. Stonehenge was probably
final...

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