A new look at ancient Stonehenge

[Aurelia]

Very interesting article which traces the significance Stonehenge has held through the centuries to different generations.

 

“HOW grand! How wonderful! How incomprehensible!” Thus Richard Colt Hoare, a British antiquarian and arche­ologist, delivered his verdict on Stonehenge in the first volume of his Ancient History of Wiltshire, published in the early 19th century. His reaction was typical of the complex emotions stirred within visitors to this prehistoric monument on the windswept Salisbury Plain over the past 4500 years.

 

With its five great central trilithons (each comprising two massive upright stones, some weighing more than 32,000kg, capped with a horizontal lintel), and scores of smaller bluestones transported to the site from the Pre­seli Hills of Wales, about 290km to the west, the stone circle is certainly magnificent. But it is also baffling.

 

The article continues here.

 

Incidentally, I also found the BBC documentary the writer refers to in the article!