I doubt any of the central stones would have been poor enough quality to have eroded away; they are made of Welsh bluestone, which is harder than granite - and (assuming the human transport theory is correct) they were hauled hundreds of miles to site - if you’re going to do that, you wouldn’t transport the crappy examples.
You’re probably right, but would people know if a stone had a central flaw? Anyway, erosion could account for some of the other missing stones, or even sinking. How much excavation has been done? I’ve only been there once, and I read a lot right before visiting it, but it was a long time ago.
There was a problem with the docking clamps on the Millenium A-02 series, so some of the stones got lifted out and only dropped off once they were out of atmo.
BBC recently showed an excellent documentary about Stonehenge. (The two 53-minute episodes are both available at YouTube.) With many new underground discoveries obtained by magnetometers and radar, this is a “must-see”, I think, for those interested.
… And due to unusual weather in 2013 the missing stone riddle is partly solved: Parch marks appeared on the grass exactly where the missing stones should have been.
Yep. Been there and had lunch in the pub. This was about 20 years ago, but the thing I like about it was that you could wonder about and even touch the stones if you wanted. Stonehenge is pretty much off limits these days.
Let’s not forget the time when G’sron Tb’alla forgot to purge the phlogiston filter on the aft drive sprocket.
Poor guy couldn’t shamble for more than a galactic week after that.
Er. I mean…
I love Earth!
Actually, you can see a few houses in Salisbury that include pieces of Stonehenge itself. I think one of the cathedral’s (former) outbuildings is among them.
It was the only place they could get material for Black Sabbath’s full-sized Stonehenge replica.
Operation Stonehenge: What Lies Beneath
“Before Stonehenge there was Woodhenge and Strawhenge.
But, er…
But a big, bad wolf came and blew them down.”
Eddie Izzard - Dress To Kill
CMC fnord!
Yes I saw that too. Wth the recent cropmarks showing up where the missing stones once were, it looks like the ‘never finished’ theory is pretty much dead (for now).
You laugh now…
Probably already answered, but:
This is definitely incorrect. They have used ground penetrating radar plus excavation and seen not only where the major stones of the henge were placed, but a lot of other stones further out, plus the remains of earlier wooden structures in the area. It was definitely finished…many times, in fact, and partially torn down or re-arranged several times, as the complex was re-purposed or reconfigured or expanded.
The village where I was brought up was build on a Merovingian cemetary. The stone sarcophagi were conveniently reused as watering places for cattle. There were many of them when I was a kid (and they all dissapeared since and I wonder what they did with them. thrown away or destroyed, probably). Also one was gathering the water of a spring, and you could see one in the coping of a well at the post office. Around 1980, a municipal building contractor dug up a couple. They were broken to be reused in the fundations of a house he was building nearby.
So, even in modern times, people on the overall give more importance to their immediate and mundane than to the historical value of things. Last year, I don’t remember in which latin american country, a precolombian pyramid was secretly partially demolished by a contractor to reuse the stones to build a road. Someone mentioned that marble columns have often been reused in later monuments. But in the past, marble was often not even reused but plainly turned into plaster. So went many antique statues.
Avebury reminds me of the creepiest thing I watched as a kid: The Children of the Stones! Happy day!
to remove toads???
Indeed Stonehenge was rearranged many times. But there is no guarantee that the last re-arrangement was ever finished, especially since some of the lintel stones are missing and would not have left any holes whether they were there or not, since they would have been suspended in the air.
Anyone approaching the last incarnation of Stonehenge from The Avenue would have seen the front of the monument, which was almost certainly complete; but they wouldn’t have been able to see the stones at the back so well.
Sorry, I don’t have a cite handy for this one, but looking at the lintel stones and doing analysis you can see both groves and pins (a mortise and tenon type configuration IIRC) and the evidence that the stones had been set (wear on the remaining stones for example). I remember reading this a few years ago and it was based on then current archeological evidence that the stone circle had been completed…there was no doubt…including the lintel stones. Based on most of the posts in this thread, it’s not really that much of a mystery what happened to them. As someone up thread said, it’s more a mystery how any of them survived in tact on the site for 4-5k years.
If you have access to BBC iPlayer there’s been a two-part series on Stone Henge in the last month which goes over the recent discoveries made using the LIDAR scanning.
It’s only online for another 3 days so watch it while you can.
Good username/post combo.
Here’s a bit more detail on the ‘never finished’ theory
I think he is talking about Stone 11, which is still mostly upright, but is too small to support a lintel. The idea seems to be that it stood underneath a lintel, looking like a proper upright but not supporting anything. I doubt that was the original plan, but it probably looked okay from most angles.