British history III

Neolithic and Bronze Ages

Henge monuments c. 4000 BC - c. 1500 BC

At some point in this period, circular henge monuments began to appear in the British Isles. Stonehenge has become the best known of these and the circle still stands on Salisbury Plain, in Wiltshire. It consists of over seventy worked standing stones set in an incomplete circle linked by lintel stones at a height of up to seven metres above ground.

Within the circle is a horseshoe arrangement of five further stones and a so-called 'altar stone' on the axis of the horseshoe. This faces the direction of the rising sun on the summer solstice and the setting sun of the winter solstice - suggesting a fairly advanced understanding of the calendar and the seasons.

Stonehenge is the most famous but by no means the only prominent henge monument of the time. Others such as Woodhenge in Wiltshire, Taara in Ireland or Stenness in the Orkney Isles all served similar purposes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/britain/neo_monuments.shtml