 Click For First Page Of This Chapter
But can we seriously argue the standing stones today, are as they were all those thousands of years ago when Stonehenge, the Druids and sacrafice were endemic?
When it was first constructed by early architectural genius in that primordial period, would it really have been an open site of standing rocks with a few well balanced cross stones on top? Would it really have had no walls, and no roof? Would the whole site be left to expose everything to the hostile elements the British weather can throw at it: the howling winds, driving rain, snow and ice, those bitter, biting February winds? The chances are not. The stone circle itself is probably no more than a structural frame for an outer shell to sit on. As with all early buildings in this period, an oak canopy and thatched roof.
The walls would have been made of Wattle (a framework of stakes or poles interwoven with thin branches and twigs) and covered in Daub (overlay with clay) to give a solid walled environment free from the hostile and inclement weather outside.
Although, I'd imagine it would be somewhat
more grandiose than I make it sound.
Like all important dwellings, it would have been the most prestige in the country, bigger than any other, and more highly decorative, just like any nations parliament or senate is today. To consider Stonehenge a Neolithic place of worship is profoundly ridiculous to say the least.
Any country which produces any form of religious site tends to adopt an idolatrous approach.
There are carvings in the rocks, carved religious icons and a sense, the idolatry takes precedence over all other factors. Don't just think about what we see at Stonehenge, think about what we don't see! What's missing. It's what is
missing which really holds the clues to this most magnificent place.
If we look at the huge sandstone Pyramids in the Valley of the Kings, they are coved from head to toe in Hieroglyphics, the Pyramids of the ancient Inca are inscribed with pictures of ritual sacrifice, wars, killings and some of the most profane acts of barbarity imaginable. Even on Easter Island the tall, carved stone men have been worked with an almost biblical zeal to produce the faces of those they treasured, those they believed inhabited lands beyond this mortal world. Where are the carvings at Stonehenge? Where is the dedicated love of craftsmen diligently plying their trade and satisfying the local community with their skill? Do we seriously believe the tribe would be satisfied with a few rocks set out in a circle? If the early Neolithic Britons offered that to their people as a means of worship, they would have been the first to find themselves the recipient of the local sacrifice.
No society which worships any form of god(s) leaves blank walls that look as though they've just been dug from the ground.
It's an insult to suggest so.
The stone circle stones in Wiltshire wasn't heaved and dragged all the way from Wales just so they could stand the stones in a neat round circle. This was carefully planned, extremely well thought through and executed with a dedicated application. Firstly, these people must have scoured the British countryside from tip-to-toe before they found the
appropriate rock formation, then they must have sat down and discussed at
some length what they should do, how they would do it, how many men would be needed to bring the project forward to fruition, the implication on other duties such as tending the land, who would be in charge, and how to
implement the whole scheme in a methodical way.
To the early Britons, this
was every bit as much a mammoth project, on a scale with building one of the later, great cathedrals dotted throughout the UK.
This was the engineering marvel of the time. And that in itself chucks another load of questions into the arena. What did they draw their plans on? There's no trace of stone carvings
or any other form of material which might have weathered the passage of time. Although one assumes some form of documentation must have been used.
Did the ancient Britons use some form of writing instrument? Some form of early paper, or tree bark. And if they did use this simply, but elegant method to record and log details of their adventurous exploits, just how advanced might their communication skills have been?
Continued
Stonehenge: Essay Paper 1
Stonehenge: Essay Paper 2
Stonehenge: Essay Paper 3
Stonehenge: Essay Paper 4
Stonehenge: Essay Paper 7
|
|
|
