Bonus Blog: Stonehenge

This semester, my favorite topic we discussed would have to be Stonehenge. I have always had an interest in Stonehenge, in fact, it is one of the main reasons I was so interested in taking this class. It is crazy for me to think about these people that lived so many thousands of years ago and constructed this incredible monument.

One of the most interesting things to me about Stonehenge that baffles me is the fact that whoever built it was able to take tens of huge stones that weighed multiple tons and lift them and place them in the configuration that Stonehenge is in today. With no cranes or machinery that could lift these stones, I would love to see how they managed to lift the stones and construct Stonehenge the way it is.

Another interesting thing to me about Stonehenge is the fact that it is still in its original configuration, thousands of years later. We learned in class that twice a year, thousands of people come to Stonehenge for the winter and summer solstices. And up until a few years ago, people were allowed to actually go into Stonehenge’s center and walk around and even touch the stones. Since people had been able to do this for many many years, its a wonder to me how Stonehenge is still in its same condition and configuration that it was after the last phase of construction.

Something I have always wondered about Stonehenge is the rumor that if you stand at the center of it between all the stones, you feel a sort of magnetic pull on you from all sides. While I have not actually looked into the credibility of this, if it is true, how does that happen? And was it intentional or accidental?

I loved how in class we watched the Operation Stonehenge documentary. It was really cool to see a modern and recent investigation of the history of Stonehenge and its construction. One of my favorite parts of the film was when they performed magnetometry surveys of the landscape to see all of the activity that had occurred in those spots many thousands of years ago.

It is almost incomprehensible to me how we can know and figure out so much about sites such as Stonehenge even though nobody has known any true details about them for almost hundreds of thousands of years. It has truly been an enlightening class for me and one I enjoy ed everyday.