Editing Stonehenge (section)

==Function and construction==
{{Main|Theories about Stonehenge}}
{{See also|Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge}}

Stonehenge was produced by a culture that left no written records. Many aspects of Stonehenge, such as how it was built and for what purposes it was used, remain subject to debate. A number of myths surround the stones.<ref name="CBS News 2012">{{cite news |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57459053/stonehenge-a-monument-to-unity-new-theory-claims/ |work=CBS News |title=Stonehenge a monument to unity, new theory claims&nbsp;– CBS News |access-date=24 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624101715/http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57459053/stonehenge-a-monument-to-unity-new-theory-claims/ |archive-date=24 June 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The site, specifically the great trilithon, the encompassing horseshoe arrangement of the five central trilithons, the heel stone, and the embanked avenue, are aligned to the sunset of the winter solstice and the opposing sunrise of the summer solstice.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/stonehenge-two-explanations-121012.htm |title=Understanding Stonehenge: Two Explanations |work=DNews |access-date=27 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928151514/http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/stonehenge-two-explanations-121012.htm |archive-date=28 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Schombert |url=http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/stonehenge.html |title=Stonehenge revealed: Why Stones Were a "Special Place" |website=University of Oregon |access-date=26 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150424023904/http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/stonehenge.html |archive-date=24 April 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> A natural landform at the monument's location followed this line, and may have inspired its construction.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/sep/08/stonehenge-ice-age-solstice-axis |last1=Alberge |first1=Dalya |title=Stonehenge was built on solstice axis, dig confirms |newspaper=The Guardian |date=8 September 2013 |access-date=13 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201172625/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/sep/08/stonehenge-ice-age-solstice-axis |archive-date=1 December 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> It has been conjectured that the design of the monument included a celestial observatory function, which might allow prediction of eclipse, solstice, equinox and other celestial events important to the builders' belief system.<ref name=Hawkins>{{cite book |first1=GS |last1=Hawkins |year=1966 |title=Stonehenge Decoded |publisher=Dorset Press |isbn=978-0-88029-147-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/stonehengedecode00gera}}</ref> The excavated remains of culled animal bones suggest that people may have gathered at the site for the winter rather than the summer.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pearson |url=http://blog.stonehenge-stone-circle.co.uk/2013/06/22/stonehenge-revealed-why-stones-were-a-special-place/ |title=Stonehenge |date=2013-06-22 |access-date=26 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526193253/http://blog.stonehenge-stone-circle.co.uk/2013/06/22/stonehenge-revealed-why-stones-were-a-special-place/ |archive-date=26 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

There is little or no direct evidence revealing the construction techniques used by the Stonehenge builders. Over the years, various authors have suggested that supernatural or anachronistic methods were used, usually asserting that the stones were impossible to move otherwise due to their massive size. However, conventional techniques, using Neolithic technology as basic as [[shear legs]], have been demonstrably effective at moving and placing stones of a similar size.<ref>{{citation |pages=76–77 |title=Archaeology by Experiment |author=John Coles |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=9781317606086}}</ref> The most common theory of how prehistoric people moved megaliths has them creating a track of logs along which the large stones were rolled.<ref name="Author not listed 2003">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Stonehenge.aspx#1 |title=Stonehenge |encyclopedia=Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained |location=US |publisher=[[Gale (publisher)|Gale]] |access-date=11 November 2015 |date=2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151107105321/http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Stonehenge.aspx#1 |archive-date=7 November 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Another megalith transport theory involves the use of a type of sleigh running on a track greased with animal fat.<ref name="Author not listed 2003"/> An experiment with a sleigh carrying a 40-ton slab of stone was successfully conducted near Stonehenge in 1995; a team of more than 100 workers managed to push and pull the slab along the {{convert|18|mi|km|adj=on}} journey from the [[Marlborough Downs]].<ref name="Author not listed 2003"/>

Proposed functions for the site include usage as an astronomical observatory or as a religious site. In the 1960s, [[Gerald Hawkins]] described in detail how the site was apparently set out to observe the Sun and Moon over a recurring 56-year cycle.<ref name=Hawkins/> More recently, two major new theories have been proposed. [[Geoffrey Wainwright (archaeologist)|Geoffrey Wainwright]], president of the [[Society of Antiquaries of London]], and [[Timothy Darvill]], of [[Bournemouth University]], have suggested that Stonehenge was a place of healing—the primeval equivalent of [[Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes|Lourdes]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Satter |first=Raphael |title=UK experts say Stonehenge was place of healing |newspaper=[[USA Today]] |date=27 September 2008 |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-09-22-1046484398_x.htm |access-date=1 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006154618/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-09-22-1046484398_x.htm |archive-date=6 October 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> They argue that this accounts for the high number of burials in the area and for the evidence of trauma deformity in some of the graves. However, they do concede that the site was probably multifunctional and used for ancestor worship as well.<ref>{{cite news |author=Maev Kennedy |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/sep/23/archaeology.heritage |title=The magic of Stonehenge: new dig finds clues to power of bluestones |work=Guardian |location=UK |access-date=1 May 2011 |date=23 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002210210/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/sep/23/archaeology.heritage |archive-date=2 October 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> Isotope analysis indicates that some of the buried individuals were from other regions. A teenage boy buried approximately 1550 BC was raised near the Mediterranean Sea; a metal worker from 2300 BC dubbed the "[[Amesbury Archer]]" grew up near the Alpine foothills of Germany; and the "[[Boscombe Bowmen]]" probably arrived from Wales or Brittany, France.<ref name="medit">{{cite news |title=Stonehenge boy 'was from the Med' |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11421593 |work=BBC News |date=28 September 2010 |access-date=28 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100929043730/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11421593 |archive-date=29 September 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref>

On the other hand, Mike Parker Pearson of [[Sheffield University]] has suggested that Stonehenge was part of a [[ritual landscape]] and was joined to [[Durrington Walls]] by their corresponding avenues and the River Avon. He suggests that the area around Durrington Walls henge was a place of the living, whilst Stonehenge was a domain of the dead. A journey along the Avon to reach Stonehenge was part of a ritual passage from life to death, to celebrate past ancestors and the recently deceased.<ref name=Pearson-2005/> Both explanations were first mooted in the twelfth century by [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]], who extolled the curative properties of the stones and was also the first to advance the idea that Stonehenge was constructed as a funerary monument. 

There are other hypotheses and theories. According to a team of British researchers led by Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield, Stonehenge may have been built as a symbol of "peace and unity", indicated in part by the fact that at the time of its construction, Britain's Neolithic people were experiencing a period of cultural unification.<ref name="CBS News 2012" /><ref>{{cite journal |title=Interview with Mike Parker Pearson |journal=Papers from the Institute of Archaeology |year=2012 |first1=Thomas |last1=Williams |first2=Hana |last2=Koriech |volume=22 |pages=39–47 |doi=10.5334/pia.401|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Stonehenge megaliths include smaller [[bluestone]]s and larger [[sarsen]]s (a term for silicified sandstone boulders found in the chalk downs of southern England). The bluestones are composed of dolerite, tuff, rhyolite, or sandstone. The igneous bluestones appear to have originated in the [[Preseli hills]] of southwestern Wales, about {{convert|140|mi|km}} from the monument.<ref name="Antiquity"/> The sandstone Altar Stone may have originated in east Wales. Analysis published in 2020 indicates the sarsens came from [[West Woods]], about {{convert|16|mi|km}} from the monument.<ref name="Nash" />

Researchers from the Royal College of Art in London have discovered that the monument's igneous bluestones possess "unusual acoustic properties" – when struck they respond with a "loud clanging noise". Rocks with such acoustic properties are frequent in the Carn Melyn ridge of Presili; the Presili village of [[Maenclochog]] (Welsh for bell or ringing stones) used local bluestones as church bells until the 18th century. According to the team, these acoustic properties could explain why certain bluestones were hauled such a long distance, a major technical accomplishment at the time. In certain ancient cultures, rocks that ring out, known as [[lithophonic rock]]s, were believed to contain mystic or healing powers, and Stonehenge has a history of association with rituals. The presence of these "ringing rocks" seems to support the hypothesis that Stonehenge was a "place for healing" put forward by Darvill, who consulted with the researchers.<ref>{{cite web |title=RCA Research Team Uncovers Stonehenge's Sonic Secrets |url=https://www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/sonic-stones/ |publisher=Royal College of Art |access-date=4 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171205042110/https://www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/sonic-stones/ |archive-date=5 December 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>