“That structure embeds within it some sort of calendrical reference,” Darvill says, because the number and patterns of the stones also indicate a 365.25-day calendar.Though it’s not possible that the Druids built Stonehenge, the connection hasn’t been lost. “It was probably known about before his time, but the literature is rather sparse until the mid-18th century,” according to Darvill.Though the summer solstice may be a big tourist attraction for the monument, it may not be the only show in town. But with no writing from the era, there’s a lot left to the imagination.Stukeley may have been partially right about one thing — the solstices — but he was wrong about the other. One explanation is simple: the weather. December in the U.K. is nothing short of frigid, and visitors in the summer often have picnics and enjoy concerts, according to Sebire. Why is Stonehenge important? For many, this orientation suggests that ancient astronomers may have used Stonehenge as a kind of solar calendar to track the movement of the sun and moon and mark the changing seasons. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you.New excavations in recent years, however, have unearthed a different theory based on hundreds of human bones found at the site, dating across 1,000 years and showing signs of cremation before burial. Despite a dearth of technology and resources, the Neolithic builders knew the winter solstice was the shortest day of the year. But it’s more than just the solstices that align with the monument. All of this should be considered when connecting something, like Stonehenge, that happened so long before 1707, to a much more recent political entity. Stonehenge includes a circle of 56 pits. But Stukeley had been writing about the later-prehistoric people whom Caesar had called Druids — an entirely different group than has existed for the last few centuries.The most important work on Stonehenge before Stukeley had been from John Aubrey, who discovered the monument in the 17th century — naming the ring of pits that were dug for the early burial sites the Aubrey holes.“Whether those folks ever did anything at Stonehenge, I’m afraid we just don’t know,” Darvill says.
These Neolithic people lived within the Durrington Walls, a nearby settlement.It wasn’t until the 16th century that the key text of Druidry was transcribed and made available, according to the website of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, a modern authority on Druidry in the U.K. A circle of 56 pits, known as the Aubrey Holes (named after … Here’s what we do know.Experts are almost certain that the builders strategically placed the rocks to showcase the solstices twice a year.
The presence of these remains suggests that Stonehenge could have served as an ancient burial ground as well as a ceremonial complex and temple of the dead. Though he theorized that it was the Druids who built the monument, Darvill says there’s no evidence that the original Druids, named in the Roman era by Caesar in the 1st century BC, were alive at the time it was built.It’s not just the direction that gives experts like Sebire and Darvill reason to believe the monument was more closely associated with the winter solstice. “We can put ourselves as nearly as possible in the shoes of prehistoric people, which is a phenomenal experience,” Darvill says.Beginning in 3000 BC, the basis of the monument was a spiritual burial site for a civilization which lived two miles away, according to Timothy Darvill, the director of the Centre for Archaeology and Anthropology at Bournemouth University. One enduring hypothesis for Stonehenge’s purpose comes from the initial observation, first made by 18th-century scholars, that the monument’s entrance faces the rising sun on the day of the summer solstice. It’s the Trilothon’s direction towards the sun at the midwinter sunset that is actually best aligned, Sebire explains.Clearly, the mystique of Stonehenge lives on today. At the winter solstice, the rocks are also hinged for ideal viewing — the sun falls behind the Trilothon, two vertical stones with a horizontal one laying atop. Good weather would come back so they could sow their next crops.” Moreover, Darvill says, in the 17th and 18th centuries modern-day Pagans and Druids began to practice a new version of the tradition, adding to the confusion.