New Research On Stonehenge

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Stonehenge has always been something of a mystery. You can almost guarantee your local bookstore contains works that describe various theories, some quite outlandish, to describe the reason this place was constructed. Television too frequently shows documentaries and I caught the most recent one last night.

 

The prevailing theories had revolved around questions of life and death. It's believed that processions of worshippers followed the river from nearby Woodhenge and on to the stone ring at Stonehenge as part of a veneration of the dead. That would indicate that Woodhenge was possibly a place where the dead were left to decay and then gathered to be laid to rest elsewhere. The surrounding archaeology supported this theory. There's even signs of a large temporary community surrounding the site.

 

Now it appears another theory suggests that Stonehenge was a place of healing. It revolves around the bluestones, associated with marking out springs and their supposed health giving nature, rather than the taller and more magnificent sarsen stone columns and lintels. Stonehenge was after all initially a ring of bluestones.

 

Furthermore, there's some evidence now that people travelled to Stonehenge from mainland Europe, presumably for its expertise in the healing arts. Whatever might be said about it, the stones were aligned to mark the changing of the seasons, and this recent research highlights mid-winter as the most important point of the year. For all their longevity, these rituals reached a peak around 2100BC and remained a centre of religious life in western europe for two hundred years, after which it seems the bubble had burst. The site went into a long decline afterward.

 

So - is Stonehenge a site to venerate the dead, or heal the living? Strictly speaking it might have served both purposes at seperate times. Perhaps more interestingly, was this cult of healers so powerful that people were bringing the remains of their departed friends and families to be ressurected? That's just idle conjecture, but a fascinating possibility and an illustration of the power that religion has over peoples minds.