Stonehenge was ‘Mecca on stilts’, claims new book

Eric Hopton for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

It fascinates everyone from archaeologists to the fruitcakes who dress in white frocks and gather to celebrate arcane solstice rituals. Stonehenge, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and one of the world’s most famous monuments and landmarks, has always attracted controversy. Hundreds of years of serious scientific research and speculation about its origin and purpose have thrown up theories ranging from the utterly believable to the totally bizarre. A former museum director, Julian Spalding, has thrown his hat in the stone ring by claiming the ancient site was really a sort of ‘Mecca on stilts’.

Spalding has written about his theory theories in his latest book, Realisation-from Seeing to Understanding: The Origins of Art. The book challenges accepted interpretations of several famous artworks and monuments. Other theories in ‘Realisation’ include the suggestion that the Pyramids were “not primarily tombs or support structures for temples, but realisations of the massive forces that were believed to bind the flat world together.” Spalding also claims that Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling was “not primarily a display of superhuman genius but a triumphant re- assertion that heaven still stood above us though the earth was a sphere.”

New theory and old theories

His new theory for Stonehenge is that the megaliths, those iconic giant standing stones, were actually supports for a circular wooden platform where celebrants performed their ceremonies and rituals as the stars rotated in the skies above them.

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One of the most common theories for the great henge is that it served as a huge temple for the Druid priests and their followers. It has also been seen as a kind of astronomical calendar, a healing centre, an abode of the long dead, and even a place dedicated to human sacrifice. But all previous speculation has placed Stonehenge activity right on the ground. Wrong, says Spalding, the action all took place on the great stage-like altar above.

Spalding, in a Guardian interview, cites supporting evidence for his theory from ancient monuments around the world including China, Peru and Turkey where such sites were located on manmade or natural sites, and in circular patterns possibly linked to celestial movements.

He told the Guardian that he believed, in ancient religions, “The feet of holy people were not allowed to touch the ground. We’ve been looking at Stonehenge from a modern, earth-bound perspective.” Allowing the feet of the religious leaders to touch the ground, he claims, “would have been unimaginably insulting to the immortal beings, for it would have brought them down from heaven to bite the dust and tread in the dung.”

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In Spalding’s vision of the elevated Stonehenge, there would have been circular ramps or staircases to allow priests and their followers to climb to the raised platform.

How much should we believe him, though?

Not surprisingly, Spalding’s theory is seen by the academic community as mere speculation and, in truth, there is no real supporting evidence. The fact that the author is not an archaeologist himself will not help him win scientific backing for his idea. The Daily Mail quotes Sir Barry Cunliffe, a prehistorian and Emeritus Professor of European Archaeology, Oxford University, who said: “He could be right, but I know of no evidence to support it… There are a large number of stone circles around the country which clearly didn’t have a platform on top. So why should Stonehenge?”

The arguments are unlikely to trouble the one million plus visitors to Stonehenge, which is around 4-5,000 years old. There is enough evidence based history to fire the imagination of any modern tourist. Somehow, in around 3,000 BC, its builders organized an estimated 30 million man hours in the construction. Over 80 of the enormous stones were transported from the Preseli mountains around 240 miles away in south-west Wales. Some of these bluestones weighed 4 tons each and scientists believe they were dragged on rollers and sledges to the headwaters on Milford Haven. There, they were loaded onto rafts and floated around the coast of south Wales and up the Avon and Frome rivers. They were then dragged overland again to near present day Warminster in Wiltshire. Finally, they were floated down the river Wylye to Salisbury, then the Salisbury Avon to west Amesbury.

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Around 2000 BC, the largest of Stonehenge’s megaliths arrived. Sarsen stones were transported the 25 miles from the Marlborough Downs near Avebury, in north Wiltshire. Weighing up to 50 tonnes these could not have been brought by water. Archaeologists believe that it would have taken 500 men using leather ropes to pull one stone. Another 100 would have been needed to constantly move the huge rollers for the sledge. Did all this stone have a wooden lid? It seems unlikely we will ever know for sure.

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