Stonehenge Circle Photos of the Inspiring Neolithic Stones

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Stonehenge Circle – Photos of the Inspiring Iconic Neolithic Standing Stones on the Salisbury plain England. Photos by photographer Paul E Williams.  (TIP: Use the small icons below the slideshow for info & thumbnails)

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Photos of Stonehenge Circle of Standing Stones – England

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Photos of the iconic Stonehenge Neolithic Stonehenge Circle of awe inspiring standing stones, England.

The UNESCO World Heritage site of Stone henge is one the most instantly recognisable monuments in England . Situated north of Salisbury on an undulating plain, Stone henge is a ring of stones that stands at the centre of large area full of Neolithic burial mounds and monuments.

The earliest record of activity at Stonehenge dates from 8000 BC. Until recently it was believed that in 3100 BC the first monument on the Stonehenge site was built consisting of a round ditch inside of which were 56 holes that may have contained standing wooden posts.

In 2014 excavations by the University of Buckingham using ground penetrating radar revealed that an area extending to 12 square kilometres around Stonehenge appear to have had as many as 17 monuments like the early stonehenge dating to 4,000BC.

Around 2600 BC the use of upright stones started. Between 2600 and 2400 BC 30 enormous sarcen stones were erected at Stonehenge. For the next 1000 years the site was developed the last known phase of construction being around 1600BC.

Stonehenge has been the centre of much academic speculation but it will never be known for certain what ceremonies took place at Stonehenge. Excavations of Stonehenge by Mike Parker Parsons have produced 50,000 cremated bones and the remains of 63 individuals.

It is clear then that from early times Stonehenge was the focus of burial rights. Mile Parker Parsons has concluded that “Stonehenge was a place of burial from its beginning to its zenith in the mid third millennium B.C.

The cremation burial dating to Stonehenge’s sarsen stones phase is likely just one of many from this later period of the monument’s use and demonstrates that it was still very much a domain of the dead”. Stonehenge had a more social use than is evident at the moment.

Whatever Stonehenge was built for will probably never be known but it is still an incredible monument that really is though provoking and demonstrates that our Neolithic ancestors were amazing engineers and lived in an incredibly well organised society that could come together to build great monuments.