Stonehenge a monument to unity, new theory claims

(LiveScience) The mysterious structure of Stonehenge may have been built as a symbol of peace and unity, according to a new theory by British researchers.

During the monument's construction around 3000 B.C. to 2500 B.C., Britain's Neolithic people were becoming increasingly unified, said study leader Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield.

"There was a growing islandwide culture -- the same styles of houses, pottery and other material forms were used from Orkney to the south coast," Parker Pearson said in a statement, referring to the Orkney Islands of northern Scotland. "This was very different to the regionalism of previous centuries."

By definition, Stonehenge would have required cooperation, Parker Pearson added.

"Stonehenge itself was a massive undertaking, requiring the labor of thousands to move stones from as far away as west Wales, shaping them and erecting them. Just the work itself, requiring everything literally to pull together, would have been an act of unification," he said. [Photos: A Walk Through Stonehenge]

The new theory, detailed in a new book by Parker Pearson, "Stonehenge: Exploring the Greatest Stone Age Mystery" (Simon & Schuster, 2012), is one of many hypotheses about the mysterious monument. Theories range from completely far-fetched (space aliens or the wizard Merlin built it!) to far more evidence-based (the monument may have been an astronomical calendar, a burial site, or both).

The Culture of Stonehenge

Along with fellow researchers on the Stonehenge riverside Project, Parker Pearson worked to put Stonehenge in context, studying not just the monument but also the culture that created it.

What they found was evidence of a civilization transitioning from regionalism to a more integrated culture. Nevertheless, Britain's Stone Age people were isolated from the rest of Europe and didn't interact with anyone across the English Channel, Parker Pearson said.

"Stonehenge appears to have been the last gasp of this Stone Age culture, which was isolated from Europe and from the new technologies of metal tools and the wheel," Parker Pearson said.

Stonehenge's site may have been chosen because it was already significant to Stone-Age Britons, the researchers suggest. The natural land undulations at the site seem to form a line between the place where the sun rises on the summer solstice and where it sets in midwinter, they found. Neolithic people may have seen this as more than a coincidence, Parker Pearson said.

"This might explain why there are eight monuments in the Stonehenge area with solstitial alignments, a number unmatched anywhere else," he said. "Perhaps they saw this place as the center of the world." 

Theories and mystery

These days, Stonehenge is nothing if not the center of speculation and mystery. The monument has inspired its fair share of myths, including that the wizard Merlin transported the stones from Ireland and that UFOs use the circle as a landing site.

Archaeologists have built some theories on firmer ground. Stonehenge's astronomical alignments suggest that it may have been a place for sun worship, or an ancient calendar. A nearby ancient settlement, Durrington Walls, shows evidence of more pork consumption during the midwinter, suggesting that perhaps ancient people made pilgrimages to Stonehenge for the winter solstice, Parker Pearson and his colleagues have found.

Stonehenge may have also been a burial ground, or a place of healing. Tombs and burials surround the site, and some skeletons found nearby hail from distant lands. For example, archaeologists reported in 2010 that they'd found the skeleton of a teenage boy wearing an amber necklace near Stonehenge. The boy died around 1550 B.C. An analysis of his teeth suggest he came from the Mediterranean. It's possible that ill or wounded people traveled to Stonehenge in search of healing, some archaeologists believe.

Other researchers have focused on the sounds of Stonehenge. The place seems to have "lecture-hall" acoustics, according to research released in May. One archaeologist even suggests that the setup of the stones was inspired by an acoustical effect in which two sounds from different sources seem to cancel each other out.

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[Truman1122]

Dumb theory that only exists to be used as support for 'Multiculturalism' in Europe.

[arichards18]

Sounds good Shabble, but they indicate that the stones came from Scotland.

[andrey8411]

"Don't be free riders and pass on the cost of your health care to everybody else"

5 min later

"She found that her lower income made her eligible for a subsidized plan that now costs her nothing. "

so if something cost 0 to someone... how is that not free riding... oh wait its not free, other ppls taxes payed for it!

[RobertoBarreto]

If they are right then this must be one of the first community events ever. They are just making up stuff. If you look at known history, civilization was evrything but a community thousand of years ago. Every recorded construction know to man on those days was constructed with slave labor. Slave labor can hardly be construded as "community unifying.
If at all the only unification that can be speculated here is the unification that could be brought about by a warlord or a dictator or a ruthless sort of king that would have use human resources for the construction of such a structure.
This people must be sipping a bit to much scotch I am afraid.

[Jhihmoac]

I liked the old days better, when nobody had any clue as to what Stonehenge was all about...

[lawyertom1]

Let's see. Primitive society. Major religious center. Researcher says symbol of unity and peace. As to unity, that is a no brainer. As to peace, how could they possibly know given that they are still piecing together various theories on how it was built, let alone what it was used for.

[AnnieDanny]

I suspect that, since nobody knows what it was actually all about: it was possibly not worth remembering. Maybe we're better off, not knowing. Too often such superhuman achievements came at the price of blood and human lives. Stonehenge is awesome but it's also kinda creepy.

[Htos1]

Just FOR the record,if the henge is a mile off it's location in any direction,it wouldn't work.AND it was built there when is NO archaeological eveidence of habitation in the UK.An agrarian society,would be busy SURVIVING,not building celestial calculators designed to withstand epochal disasters.This was bult by a far advanced society that makes us look like bone-nosed pygmies.

[Noval53]

Stone Henge could just as likely been a place of great cruelty and human sacrifice. Lots of ancient monuments around the globe were left by behind by terrible tribal civilizations that fortunately for us, self destructed and fell apart. If we don't get smarter, grow up, and develop the capability to leave this planet; some day it will all be erased by a large cosmic event such as an asteroid, solar flare, or massive solar ejection. Then there will be no monuments or records of anything; including us.

[MagnaCartaUK]

I favour the twin-theory that the Henge was built to honour the seasons, (perhaps life and death too), and provide a structure for marking the agrarian cycle thereafter their construction. I've sometimes thought that more great structures may have been planned for elsewhere, with the idea then abandoned when the difficulties became all too self-evident. Who knows, but it's more than likely we'll never know for certain - and in the modern era where answers are demanded, and impatience rampant, it's refreshing to see Stonehenge still frustrating such irritating traits. I think we'd be surprised at just how sophisticated latter stone-age peoples were, but they've left their decendents some very atmospheric places as a legacy - and living very near one I can vouch for it.

[Elron_Aven]

A culture that's still at a level where the daily struggle to survive is a significant undertaking burns scarce resources and time to build a monument to "unity"? Unity is a notion that has limited utility in an era of profoundly slow unreliable communications/transportation.

Please. An alien spaceship landing pad is a more credible explanation, and that's not credible at all.