Archaeology & History

The building of Stonehenge was a celebration

By T.K. Randall
March 9, 2018

Image: Stonehenge, Wiltshire
Credit: Udit Kapoor / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) The social and ceremonial aspects of selecting the stones, moving them to the site and setting them up may have been just as important as the finished structure, historians have claimed.

This prioritizing of socializing and celebrations over speed and efficiency may also explain why the builders chose to transport some of the stones over such large distances."In contemporary Western culture, we are always striving to make things as easy and quick as possible, but we believe that for the builders of Stonehenge this may not have been the case," said archaeologist Susan Greaney, Senior Properties Historian at English Heritage.

Celebratory feasts around the site of the construction would have been "a powerful tool in demonstrating the strength of the community to outsiders."

"As soon as you abandon modern preconceptions which assume Neolithic people would have sought the most efficient way of building Stonehenge, questions like why the bluestones were brought from so far away - the Preseli Hills of south Wales - don't seem quite so perplexing," said Greaney.

Source: The Guardian

Tags: Stonehenge