London: Daytrip to Stonehenge

I believe Stonehenge is a place everyone should visit at least once in their lives. We have all seen the pictures, and likely heard the history about how even today we cannot explain how the giant stones were moved and placed here. 

The day trip was originally planned for Monday, our last day. When our Friday night show was cancelled due to technical issues and moved to Monday, I moved this tour to Saturday, our first full day in London. Unfortunately we had a miserable night's sleep due to our room being next to the front door with a very loud lock and guests coming and going all hours of the night. We had to wake up at 5:30 am in order to catch the tour bus at 7 am, fortunately I booked a room a five minute walk from the start. 

Tour guide Sinead and Driver John took excellent care of us. All sixteen of our fellow travelers all arrived back to the bus early making for a smooth outing. We were the first tour bus to arrive at Stonehenge, which gave us a chance to feel the space and take pictures before the crowds, which in the summer is about 7,000 a day.

Sinead commented as we drew closer that Stonehenge had terrific marketing to turn this (paraphrasing: pile of rocks) into a major tourist destination.

Five thousand years ago man started to create Stonehenge, a project that took about a thousand years to complete. 3000 AD predates written word, as well as the pyramids. There is both an inner and outer henge visible. Archaeologists have found evidence of over 250 cremations, Neolithic huts, and burial mounds. 

Suddenly my ears perked up. Archaeologists? Burial mounds? We had hoped to visit Sutton Hoo on this trip, but I dismissed that plan when I realized it would take four hours each way to get there (including a steep 30 minute walk from the train station). The trip is shorter during the week, but more is open on weekends in January.

The stones are perfectly aligned with the sun as if it was meant as a temple of worship, or a place to keep track of time.

Most of the time visitors are not allowed to touch or move around the rocks. The exception to that rule is on the summer and winter solstice when about 20,000 people flock there to perform religious ceremonies.

The large blue stones are each about four to five tons. They were somehow transported 250 miles from Wales. How did this happen? Modern man has tried to recreate it, and have failed.

There is evidence of a certain kind of cattle teeth found at the site, implying perhaps they helped transport the stones. 

The stones have precise and interlocking joints. Stonehenge is a spiritual and magical place. However, it has not always been respected. stones were used as target practice by the Royal Air Force. People chipped at them to create souvenirs. Other similar sites went back to nature.

As we were about to walk to the shuttle bus I asked a docent, a woman in her mid-20s, if she has seen anything weird at this site. She said many of her coworkers are into that, but she is not. For those that are, they are more likely to see something than she is. Instead she raved about what humans could do 5,000 years ago that we still have not been able to replicate.

I learned more from talking the the interpreters stationed in the recreated huts in the Neolithic Village. I'd share a link to them, but I'm not seeing one. The huts they have near the visitors center/museum were recreated huts for the workers. They have about six huts on display, the day we were there one had two docents in it, a man and a woman both about retirement age. 

I asked if only men lived on the site when Stonehenge was built. The man answered no, there is evidence of men, women, children, and the elderly all living there. The woman was surprised to hear this, she thought only men lived on site. It just shows there is more than one way to interpret data, or perhaps the data keeps transforming.

His response went further. He said everyone had a job to do. Some were healers. There is evidence of broken bones that were healed. Note, when wild animals break bones they are left to die. Humans working to heal each other is an evolutionary step. Someone in the group had to know something about medicine.

The woman said they would have had fires inside these tiny huts, and that they might not have had holes in the top of the huts. Smoke rises. These huts were used for sleeping, which meant they would have been lower to the ground than modern day tourists who are standing during their visits. Less wood would have been needed to heat the hut.

I could have listened to the two of them for hours. I love hearing about artifacts and how they are interpreted. There is a pre-historic axe that was found by an ordinary person and is now on display at the British Museum (yes, I should have looked for it a couple of days later when we went there).

All too soon it was time to go back on the bus. There is a half day option to visit Stonehenge. That allows an extra hour at the site. We opted for the full-day tour including Bath. We piled in the bus to drive an hour through the countryside to our next stop.