Was Stonehenge a Healing and Religious Mecca? Experts Say "Yes"

For many decades now speculation has raged as to the precise significance of one of England’s most well known landmarks, Stonehenge. Located in the county of Wiltshire, Stonehenge is composed of a circle of large standing stones, huge sandstone monoliths that are relatively new, compared to the actual age of Stonehenge.

Archaeologists Geoffrey Wainwright and Timothy Darvill, who are conducting the first excavation of Stonehenge in over 40 years, believe that they have finally uncovered Stonehenge’s original purpose.

Dating back to about 2,300 BC, bluestones originating from Pembrokeshire in Wales were moved to Salisbury Plain, to create the inner circle of Stonehenge. In this area, an unusual number of skeletons have been recovered from the area, all showing signs of disease or injury. In addition, analysis of their teeth showed that these people were not from the nearby area.

"People were in a state of distress, if I can put it as politely as that, when they came to the Stonehenge monument," Darvill told journalists assembled at London's Society of Antiquaries.

Archaeologists attribute their findings that Stonehenge was a place of healing to the bluestone. In other burials in southwest England, bodies were interred with bits of bluestone, as a possible protective measure. Darvill also mentioned that the dig found masses of fragments carved out of the bluestones by people, presumably to create amulets.

"They are of course quite impressive when you see them," Darvill said, referring to the more modern and recognizable sandstone slabs. "But in a sense they are the elaboration of a structure which kicked off with the bluestones."

Both archaeologists are aware that there are other theories. "It could have been a temple, even as it was a healing center," Darvill said. "Just as Lourdes, for example, is still a religious center."

Andrew Fitzpatrick, from British heritage group Wessex Archaeology, said Darvill and Wainwright's discovery was "very important" but that the healing theory, while plausible, was not the only one. "I don't think we can rule out the other main competing theory - that the temple was a meeting point between the land of the living and the dead," he told the BBC.

Posted by Josh Hill.

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