Stonehenge is surrounded by many enduring mysteries, from who built it to what it was used for. Stonehenge was also produced by a culture that left no written records. Last October, David Jacques led an archaeological dig at a site 1.5 miles from Stonehenge. The Huffington Post reported that David Jacques team unearthed flint tools and the bones of aurochs, extinct cow-like animals that were a food source for ancient people.
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England. It is about 2 miles west of Amesbury and 8 miles north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is the remains of a ring of standing stones set within earthworks. It is in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds. Archaeologists define henges as earthworks consisting of a circular banked enclosure with an internal ditch.
Professor Geoffrey Wainwright OBE, FSA, president of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and Professor Timothy Darvill, OBE of Bournemouth University have suggested that Stonehenge was a place of healing – the primeval equivalent of Lourdes.
An archaeology research fellow at the university, David Jacques, has said in a written statement according to the Huffington Post that, “For years people have been asking why is Stonehenge where it is, now at last, we have found the answers.” The researchers say evidence suggests that before erecting Stonehenge, people living in the area set up gigantic timbers between 8820 and 6590 B.C.
“The site blows the lid off the Neolithic Revolution in a number of ways,” David Jacques said in the statement. Carbon dating of the bones showed that modern-day Amesbury, an area that includes the dig site and Stonehenge itself, has been continuously occupied since 8820 B.C. Amesbury has now been declared the oldest continually occupied area in Britain. “The area was clearly a hub point for people to come to from many miles away, and in many ways was a forerunner for what later went on at Stonehenge itself,” David Jacques said according to the Huffington Post. Many aspects of Stonehenge remain subject to debate. This multiplicity of theories, some of them very colorful, is often called the “mystery of Stonehenge”.
Image credit: www.telegraph.co.uk