Decoding the ancient astronomy of Stonehenge

Stonehenge was built and modified several times over the course of a thousand years starting around 5,000 years ago. This kit shows what the final version probably looked like based on the ruins that are there today. But some of these stones are simply missing so archaeologists can’t know for sure that this plan was ever actually completed. These tall structures are called trilithons, and the tallest one is 9 meters, or 30 feet. There's only 3 of them still standing today, but it would have been just two, except they propped one back up in the 1950s. These smaller stones are called bluestones. The geological source for these is over 200km away, and there’s an ongoing debate about whether they were carried to the site by people, or by glaciers some time long ago. Even these smaller stones weigh around 3 or 4 tons, so it would be like moving 40 dead hippos from DC to Philly without a wheel. This is a prehistoric project, which means that the neolithic people that built it didn't leave any written records about why or how they were doing this. But they did leave behind some clues, like the antlers they used as picks to dig holes. Because antlers are organic material, they can be radiocarbon dated, which is how archaeologists can estimate the chronology of all of this. These outer stones weigh around 25 tons. Their source was more local, but they still had to be moved some 20 km. and archaeologists can only guess how they did that. They’re called sarsen stones and they’re harder than steel but they were shaped into these fairly uniform blocks using stone tools. And then they were pushed into pits before being pulled upright. The stones in the top ring are called lintels and you can’t tell from this model but they actually had joints - like woodworking joints. There were grooves in the lintels that fit into bumps on the top of the upright stones and then on the side of the lintels, they also fit together like puzzle pieces. And not only that, but the neolithic builders who made this were able to carefully calculate the heights of all the stones so that the monument was level even though it’s not on level ground. Grass! Ta- da! Except we’re not actually done. The stone circle was just part of the Stonehenge site. It sits in a much larger circle that was drawn in the earth with ditches and mounds. There was an avenue leading up to the entrance of that circle, a big stone on that avenue called the Heel stone, and four other stones that form a rectangle and may be linked to certain moon cycles. This site must have been incredibly important to the neolithic people that built it, but despite hundreds of years of analysis and speculation, we’ll never know for sure what it really meant to them. But we do know that it’s design involved an early form of astronomy. In the 18th century, a historian noticed that the central axis of stonehenge points toward the location on the horizon where the sun rises on the summer solstice. So if you stood in the center of the monument and looked toward the Heel stone, you'd see the sun rise there on June 21st — it’s not a perfect alignment, but it's close. Summer solstice is when the sun’s path is furthest north, rising in the northeast and setting in the northwest. That makes it high in the sky in the northern hemisphere and low in the southern hemisphere. This is all because the earth is tilted relative to it’s orbit around the sun, and the solstices are where the sun’s path appears to pause and change direction. But the people that built stonehenge didn’t know the earth moves around the sun or spins on a tilted axes. They probably didn’t even suspect it was round. They just saw the sun bring longer days in the summer and shorter days in the winter and those turning points would have meant a lot for their food security. And there’s reason to think that the winter solstice was particularly important for the people at Stonehenge. The winter solstice sunset is on the same axis as the summer solstice sunrise - just on the other end, toward the southwest. And the midwinter alignment shows up in other monuments, like the Newgrange tomb in Ireland which has a window that allows the sunrise to illuminate the inner chamber on the sunrise of winter solstice. Archeologists also found pig bones from a settlement near Stonehenge that they believe were slaughtered in the wintertime, based on the pigs’ age. Their findings suggest an annual winter solstice pilgrimage and feast. The idea is that people would have approached the monument by walking on the avenue, which would have put the midwinter sunset in their sightline, right in the window of the tallest trilithon. Historian John North argued that when viewed from this side, the monument’s silhouette would have looked like a solid black form, with the setting sun bursting through bringing the promise of another spring.

Channel: Vox

Views: 2,146,737

Rating: 4.9120021 out of 5

Keywords: vox.com, vox, explain, observatory, stonehenge, summer solstice, neolithic, stone age, winter solstice, solstice, sunrise, sunset, alignment, astronomy, archaeoastronomy, ancient astronomy, sun, joss fong, sarsen, bluestones, longest day of the year, how was stonehenge built, who built stonehenge, model kit, history, UK, why was stonehenge built, stonehenge theory, shortest day of the year

Id: Fx-KrvuiafE

Length: 6min 29sec (389 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 21 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I could listen to Jocelyn Fong explain just about anything.

She should do a cooking show.

[u/trtryt]

mmm Joss Fong

[u/eking85]

She just got +6 culture and 1 great engineering point

[u/dudethatsmeta]

"It would be like moving 40 dead hippos from DC to Philly"

False. 40 dead hippos would spoil in the sun, inflate and explode like in that whale video, causing massive damage and hippo fallout in the region as well as widespread panic.

[u/soomuchcoffee]

We had the Pagans. They were into sex, death, and religion in an interesting night-time telly type of way. And we had the Druids! Long white robes, long white beards, early transvestites, didn't get their shaving together; and they built Stonehenge, one of the biggest henges in the world. No one's built a henge like that ever since. No one knows what the fuck a henge is! Before Stonehenge, there was Woodhenge and Strawhenge, but a big bad wolf came and blew them down, and three little piggies were relocated to the projects.

But they built Stonehenge, and it's built in an area called Salisbury Plain in the South of England. The area of Salisbury Plain where they built it is very (eerie chanting), ‘cause that's good, you know. It's a mystical thing; build it in a mystical area. You don't want to build it in an area that's (singing upbeat jazzy tune). No, there you build Trump Tower. But yeah, so they built it there. And the stones! The stones are 50 foot high, 30 foot long, 20 foot deep, and other measurements as well! And they’re not from ‘round there, that's the amazing thing! Remember, this is B.C. ( mumbles). This was before the B.C./A.D. changeover,when everyone was going, “Is it A.D. yet?” (mimes adjusting watch) You didn't have to wind your watch back, you had to get a new bloody watch! “Oh, it’s A.D., isn’t it? Fucking ‘ell!” And the Muslim people going, "A.D? Who's he?" Yes. Good laugh there!

So, yeah, the stones are from 200 miles away,in Wales, so these guys in Wales were obviously carving the rocks out of the very living mountain... "Fantastic, building a henge, are we? That's a fantastic idea! That's a marvelous religion the Druids have got! Yes, got a lot of white clothing, I like that. There we go!" And they smashed out a huge stone and then they put tree trunks down to roll it along on.

"All right, walk it along, here we go, here we go."

"Help you push 'em along? It's not far, is it?"

And the Druids going, "Heave, everyone, heave! Well done, everyone, you're doing very well! You'll love it when you see it. I've seen some of the drawings already, it's very special."

After 200 miles…

"You fucking bastards! You never told us 200 miles! 200 miles in this day and age - I don't even know where I live now! I wish the Christians would hurry up and get here!"

And they set all the stones up and the Druids still there tinkering around going, "No, that stone and this one - can we swap them around?"

So that was the Pagans.