Stonehenge

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Stonehenge is a Neolithic and grounded until at least the Bronze Age-used building located near Amesbury in Wiltshire, England, about 13 kilometers north of Salisbury. It consists of a grave complex, which surrounds a Megalith structure, which in turn is composed of several concentric stone circles. The two most striking stone circles are an outer circle of stone pillars, which are bridged by cap jewels, and an inner horseshoe Trilithons structure of the original five (two keystones that) are bridged by a capstone. In between are other structures of smaller stones and holes in the ground. Other megaliths and two burial mounds are found in close proximity.

The emergence of the system can be roughly divided into three phases. The early phase of the plant, with a circular earthen wall and a moat, is dated to around 3100 BC. The striking Megalith structure was roughly between 2500 BC and 2000 BC built. The entire system is probably much older than previously thought. Accordingly, the Megalith structure was already around 3000 BC [1] All further discussion in the article, however, refer to the previously accepted date.

The UNESCO declared the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites, which include Stonehenge, a World Heritage Site in 1986.

Overview

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The name Stonehenge originates from the Old English and means "hanging stones". The second part of the name, Henge, is now used as an archaeological term for a class of Neolithic monuments which consist of a circular enclosure with an increased inner cavity. Stonehenge itself is under the current henge terminologist a so-called atypical, as its landfill is located within the trench. It belongs to the British government since 1918. Managed and developed for tourism is from the English Heritage Stonehenge, the surroundings of the National Trust. The site and the surrounding area since 1986, including as part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site.

The complex was built in several phases, extending over a period of about 2000 years ago. Demonstrated the site but was used prior to the establishment and even long after the Neolithic heyday. Three large post-holes are located near today's parking lot, they date from the Mesolithic period, around 8000 BC in the vicinity of the shrine were found in the soil of cremation ashes from a period between 3030 to 2340 BC, the fact indicate that the place was before the placing of stones, a burial ground. The recent religious uses are as for the 7 Century AD detected, here a grave is one decapitated Anglo-Saxons to mention.

The various phases of activity dating of Stonehenge and understanding is difficult. Early excavations, which no longer correspond to today's standards and only a few 14C data complicate matters. The sequence is now generally accepted in the following text explains the numbers refer to the plan this right, which shows the site in 2004. For the sake of clarity, the roof-stones are not shown there. Holes that contain no more stones or never contained stones are shown as open circles. Still visible stones are color-coded.

The plant

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The Heel stone and the location of stones at Stonehenge are arranged according to the positions of the solstices and equinoxes. Therefore, it is often assumed that Stonehenge is a prehistoric observatory, although the exact nature of the use and importance, as the sowing and harvest the best times (see below) are still being discussed.

Description of Stones
* The altar stone is a block of 5 meters of green sandstone. All the other stones in the inner circle are blue stone (dolerite), a basaltic from the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales, which are located about 380 km. The sandstone blocks of the outer circle must have been moved on sledges pulled by an estimated 250 men, on inclines of up to 1,000 men. Alternatively, the use of draft animals is discussed.
* The altar stone is somewhat isolated from the center.
* The Heel Stone (Stone heel), also known as Friars Heel.
* Position stones

Other special features:
* The Aubrey holes
* Y and Z Holes
The plant is similar to the stone circles in the north of Scotland, known as the Ring of Brodgar.

Newly religious use

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With the rediscovery and diffusion of classical literature after the Renaissance was an increasing interest in the Druids, are mentioned in ancient texts. Since the scientific exploration of the history was still in its infancy, Stonehenge has been assigned as pre-Roman temple of the Druids. This erroneous connection is still influential. In 1781 the Englishman Henry Hurle had founded a secret society called the "Ancient Order of Druids. Although the interest in Druids in the middle of the 19th Waning century, were incurred by the religious orders Communities persist. Their trips to Stonehenge always attracted and spectators. A striking example is the ceremony of the Ancient Order of Druids in August of 1905, when 700 members gathered at Stonehenge this order and ceremoniously received 256 candidates in their order. Today, the modern Druids are a part of the new religious landscape, especially the neo-paganism. They meet regularly at Stonehenge and then hold their ceremonies.

The summer solstice at Stonehenge in 1972 was the first time in Britain this time one of the popular "Free Festival" was organized. The Stonehenge Free Festival was held over the years, emerging as a leader, in 1984 estimated 70,000 visitors gathered at the stone circle and celebrated with live music and also with various Druidic and pagan rites, the solstice.

In 1985 it came before the festival, visitors to violent conflict with the police ( "battle of the Beanfield"), whereupon the police, forbade the festival at Stonehenge and the area, particularly to the solstices and the equinoxes for all visitors barred widely .
1998, small groups of neo-pagans have been (including druids again) left in the stone circle, and reached the turn of the millennium "Secular Order of Druids" by invoking the right of free exercise of religion, that the Assembly ban was lifted for Stonehenge.

Stonehenge in the esoteric
The amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins (1855-1935) introduced in the 20s of the 20th Century, a theory according to which the prehistoric megalithic monuments - including Stonehenge - by so-called ley lines, straight lines are interconnected. Watkins had in mind, however, to real pathways. The author John Michell (b. 1933) took up this argument, he pointed lines in his 1969 book The View Over Atlantis, but no more than means, but brought the ley lines in connection with Earth's magnetic force fields, and "power centers".

This view found in the following years, among the adherents of the esoteric until very recently it quickly many adherents. Thus Michell's thesis should be evidence that the prehistoric builders of Stonehenge and similar megalithic monuments still in perfect harmony with the universe lived and could intuitively centers such "lines of force" and "-" in which they will for example, built temples such as Stonehenge. Neither physicists, geologists, historians or archaeologists has found evidence for this view.

Modern History

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In recent years, Stonehenge was influenced by the proximity of a busy main A303 between Amesbury and Winterbourne Stoke. There have been repeated several proposals to relocate the street or tunnel Stonehenge, but these were rejected as too expensive or too destructive. In spring 2003, the Department for Transport announced that the A, to be built 303, including the construction of a tunnel at Stonehenge to channel visitor flows. The plans are controversial and the government has not yet accepted them.

Because the authorities fear a deterioration of the stones from the many visitors, is the construction of Stonehenge after repeated vandalism is now fenced off and heavily guarded. The stones themselves are no longer accessible to the public - visitors must be content to look at it from an appropriate distance. The current situation is felt by some English as a national disgrace. Due to the never-ending onslaught of tourists is only willing to rounding in the line of visitors. A dwelling to its senses on this memorable place is hardly possible.

It was also announced to open in 2006, a new Visitor Center. In 2005, the plans for financial reasons, were first postponed until further notice. In 2009, the British government announced a 25-million-pound plan to create a new visitors' center, it should be its funding through private and public sources. The precise funding, the building permit and the planned operation was still not provided any information.

The first written mention

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The entire period of the archaeological evidence of task Stonehenge at the end of the Bronze Age to the conquest of England by the Normans, is located in the historical dark. The first mention of Huntingdon Henry returns to the year 1130 in his History of England, in which he counts "Stanenges" on a short list of famous monuments in England. Detail is dedicated to Geoffrey of Monmouth, the stone circle in its history, written in 1135 about the Kings of Britain. He attributes the construction of the monument to the magician Merlin.

The first pictorial representations of the plant are from manuscripts of the 14th and 15 Century. Since 16 Century, there is a relatively realistic visual representations.

The historian Polydore Vergil (1470-1555) takes up Monmouth's narrative and also explains Stonehenge as a memorial, which was built Merlin the magician at the time of the conquest of England by the Anglo-Saxons with the help of his magical powers.

Theory since the early modern period

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Around the year 1580, the archaeologist William Lambard first rule out a supernatural origin of the plant, as he observed that in the construction of the stone circle on the stone construction techniques of Stonehenge were transferred. Moreover, he recognizes as the first, that the stones were described not as before, brought over by Merlin from Ireland with the help of magic, but come from the region of Marlborough.

The first book on Stonehenge appear in 1652. Its author, the architect Inigo Jones, examined the investment on behalf of King James I in detail and explain the stone circle, finally as a Roman temple in honor of the god COELUS.
In subsequent years, trying various other authors in the interpretation of the stone circle: the physician Walter Charleton increases in 1663, it's Stonehenge was a crowning place of Danish kings of England have been. Historian Aylett Sammes writes about in 1676 the construction of the plant the ancient Phoenicians.

The antiquary John Aubrey (1626-1697) recognizes the end of the 17th Century, the relationship Stonehenge with similar monuments in Scotland and Wales and points to the creation of all these systems as the first true local builders.
Fatal for future research and the interpretation of the plant to the present day proves, however, that ascribing Aubrey Stonehenge and all similar monuments in the British Isles the Celts. His mistake is understandable from a scientific perspective, the end of the 17th Century: there were no possibilities for dating prehistoric archaeological monuments, one dated the age of the world even after the biblical story of creation to a few thousand years, and the popular literature of ancient writers Aubrey contained no evidence of pre-Celtic population of the British Isles. Aubrey could see the ancient Greek and Latin authors, however, detailed descriptions of the Druids as Celtic priestly class, and he suggested gently, the stone circles are just the temples of these druids. In fact, lie between the tasks of the plant by the end of the Bronze Age and the first appearance of so-called Celtic culture in Europe, features more than 1000 years.

Researchers of the 18th Century attack on Aubrey's thesis inspired the historian John Toland assigns Stonehenge in its written in 1719 Critical History of the Celtic religion and learning, the Druids. The physician William Stukeley performs in the years 1721 to 1724, the hitherto most detailed and accurate measurements of the plant and the first suspected an axial direction of the plant to the point of the summer solstice. In 1740, he summarizes his results in a book and suggests Stonehenge but with questionable and unscientific methods as well Druidic temple.

Suggests in his book, The Geology of Scripture (The geology of the Scriptures), Henry Browne, since 1824, curator of Stonehenge, the prehistoric stone circle as the temple from the days of Noah. He refers to the theories of the paleontologist William Buckland (1784-1856), who represents the theory of evolution rather than the catastrophic or Kataklysmentheorie.

First astronomical theories

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The view of a possible astronomical use of the facility opened in the early 20th First century, the astronomer Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836-1920). He believed - as Stuckeley a century before him - the pursuit of the plant to the point of the summer solstice, but you recommend speculating about the use of the stone circle as an astronomical calendar to determine sacred Celtic festivals.
Among the archaeologists of his time, Lockyer's theory was not appreciated, as its calculation basis of it inaccurate and were arbitrarily chosen partly in order to achieve the desired results from it. Stonehenge is therefore of the archaeological experts continue to be "considered only" as a prehistoric cult or shrine.

The astronomer Gerald Hawkins was trying to change that image, when in 1965 he published his book Stonehenge Decoded. With the help of detailed measurements of the monument and complicated calculations Hawkins tries to prove that Stonehenge served as a sort of Stone Age computer by its designers, it would have been possible to predict lunar eclipses, for example, quite reliable.
As was John Aubrey's "Celtic thesis was" now also Hawkins' theory enthusiastically taken up by the general public. The professional world, however, tore his research: the archaeologist Richard Atkinson showed, for example, that Hawkins had included in his argument also parts of the plant, which had been shown were built at different times, and could therefore not be part of the same plant.

Excavations

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The explorer William Cunnington (1754-1810) began researching the modern Stonehenge. Cunnington excavations and observations confirm the dating of Stonehenge in the pre-Roman times. His research will be published in the years 1812 to 1819 in the work of local history Ancient History of Wiltshire, the historian Richard Colt Hoare.

By 1900, John Lubbock shows based in neighboring grave mounds found bronze objects that Stonehenge was used as early as the Bronze Age.

William Gowland (1842-1922) restored parts of the plant and is making the most careful excavation by then which will be finalized 1,901th From his findings, he concludes that caused at least parts of the monument at the time of transition from the Neolithic Age to the Bronze Age.

Archaeologist William Hawley digs in the years 1919 to 1926, about half of the site. His methods and reports are so inadequate, that there are no new insights. The geologist H. Thomas succeeds in this time, however, the evidence that the blue stones were brought from the creators of the plant from South Wales.

1950, instructed the Society of Antiquaries ", the archaeologist Richard Atkinson, Stuart Piggott and Marcus Stone with further excavations. You will find many hearths and further develop the classification of the various phases of construction as it is today represented most frequently.

In the second half of the 20th Century to take the archaeologist Richard Atkinson and Stuart Piggott continually further excavations. With the development and perfection of radiocarbon dating from the mid-20th Century succeed now safe datings of the first plant in the first half of the 2nd Millennium before Christ. Atkinson and Piggott also restore other parts of the plant by some of the fallen stones and erect in jeopardized again and concreting in the ground. These reconstructions can be limited until now to those stones, which were shown only in modern times or fallen or got into difficulties.
Many of the modern damage to the monument are both due to the historic needs of the surrounding population of stones, on the other hand, the souvenir needs of previous visitors. In the meantime, offered a blacksmith in nearby Amesbury town tourists a hammer for hire, who could refuse to order bits of the stones as souvenirs.

Digging under the Stonehenge Riverside Project archaeologists Walls 3.2 kilometers away from Stonehenge Durrington since September 2006 in the ruins of a Neolithic village from the period 2600 to 2500 BC (Grooved Ware) from. "We think we have found the village of the builders of Stonehenge," said in January 2007 Mike Parker Pearson, head of the excavation project of the University of Leeds.

Of 31 March to 11 April 2008 is the first excavation in the stone circle held since 1964. Headed by Timothy Darvill and Geoff Wainwright, a ditch, the excavations at the Hawley and Newall was created in the 1920s, reopened to search for organic material. Thus it is possible using mass spectrometry and radiocarbon dating, the time it was erected on which the blue stones to determine accuracy of a few decades.

Construction techniques and design

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There are a lot of speculation about how Stonehenge was built. If the blue stones transported by people of Wales and not brought here by glaciers were as Aubrey Burl suspects there are many methods that huge stone with ropes and wood to move.

As part of an experiment was tried in 2001 transporting a large stone along the presumed land and sea route from Wales to Stonehenge. Many volunteers took him on a wooden sledge over land, and loaded him about it on the reproduction of a historic boat. But this soon along with the stone sank in rough seas in the Bristol Channel.

It has been suggested that A-shaped wooden frame, similar to a roof structure were used to erect the stones and move them with ropes in a vertical position. The roof-stones may have been raised, for example, with wooden platforms and then moved in height to her place. Alternatively, they could also have been pushed over a ramp in position or moved upward. The pin connections on the stones at builderart suggest that the people involved already had skills of woodworking. Such information could have been a great help in the design and erection of this monument.

By Alexander Thom, the view was expressed that using the builders of Stonehenge, the megalithic yard as a base for various lengths have.

The engraved on the Sarsenstones depictions of weapons are unique in megalithic art in the British isles. Elsewhere, abstract images were preferred. Similarly, unusual for this culture is the horseshoe arrangement of the stones, as elsewhere, the stones were arranged in circles. However, the discovered Axtmotives is comparable with the symbols of Brittany in this time. It is therefore likely that at least two construction phases of Stonehenge were built under continental influence is significant. This would explain, among other things, the unusual nature of the monument.

Nevertheless, Stonehenge is a very unusual monument, also in the larger context of the entire prehistoric European culture.

There are estimates of manpower, each of which was necessary for the establishment of the various phases of Stonehenge. The totals exceed this multi-million man hours. Stonehenge 1 has probably about 11,000 hours of work required, Stonehenge 2 is about 360.000, and the various parts of Stonehenge 3 may have requires up to 1.75 million hours worked. The processing of the stones is one of approximately 20 million hours of work, especially considering the moderately powerful tools at this time. The general will for the establishment and maintenance of this structure must have been very strong, and therefore required a further pronounced social organization. In addition to the highly complex organization of the construction project (planning, transportation, processing, and precise details of the stones) this also requires a high level of years of overproduction of food to feed the actual "workers" during her work with the project Stonehenge.

Stonehenge as part of the religious landscape

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Many archeologists believe that Stonehenge was an experiment, general wood structures that were common at the time on the Salisbury Plain and have been demonstrated for example in Durrington Walls, transferred to durable stone. Mike Parker Pearson and the archaeologist Ramilisonina draw up enthnografische parallels by which stood the wood for the stone for the life and death. They argue that Stonehenge was part of a long, ritual funeral procession road to the east at sunrise when Woodhenge and Durrington Walls started, on to the River Avon and then along the Avenue reaching Stonehenge in the west at sunset. Have been the trip from wood to stone across the water posed a symbolic journey from life to death dar. It had a people with great commercial power. But there is no evidence for the theory that Stonehenge astronomical alignments were more than just symbolic. Current interpretations, however, prefer a ritual role for the monument because of the many tombs in the area and its location in a landscape of sacred buildings of Stonehenge.

The Blue Stones

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Roger Mercer noted that the blue stones are finely worked exceptionally. He suggested that they were brought by an older date not yet specified localized Monument here in Pembrokeshire. Most other archaeologists agree, however, that the blue stones were processed compared with the Sarsensteinen. If Mercer's theory is correct, the blue stones here might have been introduced in order to confirm an alliance or display superiority over a defeated enemy. Constellations of blue oval stones, which are similar to Stonehenge 3 IV, were also found in the known places as Bedd Arthur in the Preseli mountains and on the island of Skomer off the southwest coast of Pembrokeshire. Some archaeologists have proposed a very speculative interpretation that the igneous and sedimentary rocks of the Blue Sarsensteine are symbolic of an alliance between two cultures from different landscapes and, consequently, with different backgrounds.

New analysis of the contemporary tombs in the area, known as the Boscombe Bowmen, have shown that at least some of the people who lived at the time of Stonehenge 3 may have come from what is now Wales. An analysis of the crystal polarization has revealed that the stones could only have come from the Preseli mountains.

Aubrey Burl says that the blue stones were not alone by humans, but at least one piece by the glaciers of the Pleistocene of Wales have been transported here. But so far found no geologic evidence for such a transfer between the Preseli Mountains and the Salisbury Plain. In addition, we have found no other copies of this unusual Doleritstone near Stonehenge.

Alignment

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The alignment of Stonehenge in England was made so that on the morning of Midsummer day, when the sun is at the northernmost of the year, the sun is rising over the Heel Stone and the sun's rays in a straight line into the interior of the building, between the horseshoe arrangement, invaded.

It is unlikely that this orientation is accidentally revealed. The northernmost point of the rising sun is directly dependent on the geographic latitude. Thus the alignment is correct, it must have been calculated for the latitude of Stonehenge 51 ° 11 'accurately or determined by observation. This precise alignment must have been fundamental to the plan of the facility and the placement of the stones in at least some of the phases of Stonehenge. The heel stone is now interpreted as a part of a solar corridor that trimmed the sunrise.

Stonehenge may have been used among other things, to predict the summer and winter solstice and the vernal and autumnal equinox, and thus the important seasonal turning points. Priest-Kings might use this knowledge to ensure the survival of the hard-working people in agriculture, since it depended on sowing and harvesting. Stonehenge was a kind of calendar, and eventually was used to predict the different seasons based on the positions of the sun and moon to the earth.

According to latest research results here over the moon appear to have played a far greater role than previously thought. Stonehenge may have been a religious meeting place. The political power was possibly in the hands of the people revered priest.

Stonehenge 3 VI

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Approx. 1700 BC two other rings with holes were dug outside the stone circle. These are known as Y and Z Holes (11 a.m. to 12 p.m.). The concentric circles of 30 holes were never filled with stones. The monument of Stonehenge in England appears shortly thereafter, around 1600 BC to have been abandoned. The holes were filled in the next few centuries, the upper layers of fillings contain materials from the Iron Age.

Stonehenge 3 V

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Soon thereafter, the northern part was removed in the Phase 3 IV built bluestone circle, and a horseshoe-shaped pattern emerged, which is called the Bluestone Horseshoe. This reflected the shape of the central horseshoe Trilithons and is dated from 2270 to 1930 BC. The phase of Stonehenge 3 V thus runs parallel to that of Seahenge in Norfolk.

Stonehenge 3 IV

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In this phase, about 2280 to 1930 BC, the blue stones were re-converted. A portion was set up as a circle between the two Sarsen stones and installed the other in an oval shape in the middle of the monument. Some archaeologists assume that some of the blue stones were brought to this time in the second installment of Wales. The Altar Stone may have been moved within the oval. Work on Stonehenge 3 IV were performed in comparison with his immediate predecessors, rather poor. The blue stones were re-established poorly embedded in the ground and partially overturned quickly.

Stonehenge 3 III

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At a later stage of the Bronze Age, the blue stones of Stonehenge for the first time seem to have been erected. The exact appearance of the site in this period is not yet clear.

Stonehenge 3 II

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At the end of the third millennium before Christ, according to radiocarbon dates from around 2440-2100 BC, was the main place of construction activity for Stonehenge. Now, the construction from 74 Sarsenstones (Gray was located on the plan) built in, which determines the current global picture of Stonehenge. Each of these stones, the smaller, at 25, the great difficulty, at 50 tons, comes from a 30 km north to Quarry near Marlborough.

30 of Sarsenstones formed the cornerstone of a circular structure with a diameter of thirty meters. These pillars were a closed ring of 29 stones deck. This roof-stones were secured at their contact surfaces by carved from stone Spundung, as well as their contact points on the pillars of a similarly carved out of the mortising against displacement.

Within this circle, five so-called Trilithons were placed, two each bridged by a covering stone pillars. The stones used here each have a mass of about 50 tons. Again, the roof-stones were secured with a pin connection on the piers.

The surface of all Sarsenstones is trimmed. The surfaces were smoothed, the pillars of Trilithons be slightly wider towards the top to balance the perspective of the viewer. The roof-stones of Trilithons received a slight curvature and holes, as well as tongue and groove joints to fit it into the cones of the keystones and cornerstones of the wedge. The stones taper from top to bottom, the roof-stones of the ring are also slightly curved. In addition, there are some on the stone pillars carved or engraved images. Perhaps the oldest, a flat rectangular shape could be on the inside top of the fourth Trilithons to be a symbolic representation of a mother goddess. It was probably installed when the stone was still on the ground. All other images of Stonehenge in England appear only after the setting up of the stones to have been attached. To be mentioned in particular the stone 53, the figure of a bronze dagger and fourteen Axtheads, other representations of Axtheads found on the stones, 3, 4 and 5 The dating of the images is difficult, but there are morphological similarities with Late Bronze Age weapons.

Stonehenge 3 I

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In the middle of the sanctuary were built around the year 2600 BC, two concentric semicircles of 80 upright stones, the so-called blue stones. Although they were later transferred, the holes where the stones were then laid down (the so-called Q-and R-holes), but are detectable. Again, there are few useful dating evidence for this phase. The blue stones come from the territory of the Preseli Mountains, located about 380 miles from Stonehenge, located in present-day Pembrokeshire in Wales. The rocks are mainly of dolerite, but with inclusions of rhyolite, tuff and volcanic and calcareous ash. They weigh about four tons. The altar stone known as six tons of heavy stone is made of green sandstone. He is twice as large as the blue stones were also brought here from Wales, probably through an ice age, perhaps he was a great monolith in the center.

At this time the entrance was widened, so he just lay in the direction of the midsummer sunrise and sunset on the winter solstice that time. The blue stones were, as mentioned, after some time away and the Q and R holes filled.

Maybe even the heel stone was erected during this period outside the northeast entrance. The dating is uncertain, in principle, each section of the third phase of the question. There probably was a second stone, but no longer exists. Two, possibly three, large portal stones were set up inside the northeastern entrance. Only one of them, 4.9 m long, is - upset - still preserved.

Loosely dated to phase 3 of Stonehenge, the structure of the four Station Stones and the installation of the Avenue, one on both sides by ditches and earthworks marked path that leads over a distance of 3 km to the River Avon. Held sometime in the third phase of construction trenches were both around the station as well as stones at the heels of stone that have stood as a single monolith must be the latest.

This phase of Stonehenge is the one that sees the Amesbury Archer would have to replace, in the late phase of the Henge of Avebury, Stonehenge appears as the central cult place in the region.

Stonehenge 2

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Visible remains of the second phase no longer exist. The dating via late young time "grooved pottery" (English: Grooved ware), which was found in a number of findings of this period. Post-holes indicate that there is in the early third millennium BC, a wooden structure inside the enclosure must have. Other posts were at the north entrance, a parallel pole positions ran from southern entrance from inside. At least 25 of the Aubrey holes contained the remains of cremation burials, which were built about two centuries after the construction of this building. The holes were then turned into a burial ground. Thirty further cremations are in the ditch and at other points of the plant, mostly in the eastern half. Also unburned pieces of human bones from this period were found in a ditch.

Genesis

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The first building of Stonehenge measured about 115 m in diameter and consisted of a circular wall with a ditch as edging, typological terms, therefore an atypical Henge complex. It stood in the northeast and a smaller one in the south, deer and cattle bones were placed at the bottom of the trench. These bones were considerably older than the antler picks, with which the trench was dug, and were well received when they were buried. This first phase is dated to around 3100 BC. The outer circumference of a circle was thus framed area from 56 holes. These Aubrey holes, named after its discoverer, John Aubrey, a historian of the 17th Century, may have once contained a wooden pillar. A smaller outer wall that surrounded the ditch could also date from this period.