InsIght Into culture Stonehenge between mystery and identity

Stonehenge between mystery and identity

Stonehenge is the most important prehistoric monument in the whole of Britain. What exists today is only a small part of the original complex.

The construction of Stonehenge probably took place in several stages. It is still difficult to trace back the exact date of the monument, but it is likely that the first Stonehenge was built in about 3000 B.C: the outer circular bank and a large earthwork1 were built to be used as

a place of Neolithic worship2 and

burial3. Around 2500 B.C. the first forty bluestones from the Preseli Mountains in Wales were raised within the earthwork and over the next six hundred years a circle of twenty-five trilithons (two upright blocks crossed bya lintel4) were added. The purpose of all this work remains baffling5 . The location of the site (a slight rise in a flat valley with a view of the horizon in all directions) as well as its alignment6 towards the points of sunrise and sunset on the summer and winter solstices suggest that Stonehenge was some sort of observatoryor time-measuring device. Today, new studies suggest that monuments like Stonehenge acted like prehistoric focal points, where Britons from the far corners of Scotland, England and Wales gathered to feast together as compatriots (the inclusion of the bluestones from Wales might simbolise some kind of “political unification” of different British peoples). Feasts were a crucial part of lifein prehistoric Britain, involving long-distance travel, spectacular ceremonies and vast quantities of food. Since animals such as cows and pigs were also brought to the site from hundreds of miles away, experts concluded that in 2500 B.C. Stonehenge was known across Britain as a place of pilgrimage and celebration.

Civic Literacy

1. earthwork_terrapieno 2. worship_culto 3. burial_sepoltura 4. lintel_architrave 5. baffling_incomprensibile 6. alignment_allineamento

CHECK IN

1. Read the text and tick where appropriate.

Stonehenge probably served as: a. □ an astronomical observatory b. □ a site for human sacrifice c. □ a temple d. □ a cemetery e. □ a gathering place 2. Read again and find a. how old Stonehenge is. b. where it is located. c. what recent theories about this monument suggest. d. who gathered at Stonehenge and why. 3. Watch the video “Evidence suggests Stonehenge was an elite cemetery”. What are the questions posed by the video?

Roman Britain (55 B.C.-410 A.D.)

▲ Hadrian’s Wall (128 A.D.). The Romans arrived in Britain in 55 B.C. with the aim of conquest. At that time, the leader of the Roman army was Julius Caesar, who wanted to make the north-west border of the Roman Empire safe. Caesar invaded Britain twice: first in 55 B.C. and then a year later, when he marched up to Essex. However, the Roman leader could not complete the conquest: a rebellion in Gaul (the territory that comprised modern-day France and Belgium, already occupied by the Romans) forced him to leave Britain with his troops. Ninety years passed before the Roman army returned to Britain. In 43 A.D. Rome’s new emperor, Claudius, decided to invade Britain again. The island was potentially a very wealthy place, since it had “gold, silver and other metals to make it worth conquering”, as Roman historian Tacitus wrote. From north to south, the Romans built an incredible network of roads, most of which are still in use today, and a gigantic wall, Hadrian’s Wall, near the Scottish border to control and defend the area from Scottish tribes. Gradually, the Britons (as the Celtic peoples living in Britain were called) adopted Roman law and ways. Towns were rebuilt following Roman architecture, and soon London (Londinium) started serving as the administrative capital with a basilica, a forum, a governor’s palace, and a bridge crossing the Thames. The Romans remained in Britain for nearly four centuries, until the beginning of the 5th century (410 A.D.), when the last troops were completely withdrawn to defend Italy, which was itself under attack.

▲ The ancient Roman baths in Bath. Anglo-Saxon invasion and settlement (410-1066)

▼ Viking ship (11th century). The departure of the Romans in 410 A.D. left the island undefended against the invasions of the Germanic tribes of the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes from Northern Germany. The Anglo-Saxon invaders colonized northwards and westwards, subduing the Romanised Britons and pushing the Celtic tribes to the fringes of Britain, mainly to Cornwall, Wales and Scotland. In 597 St Augustine began the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon pagans to Christianity. Churches and monasteries were built all over England and written culture started.

The Vikings’ invasion and Alfred the Great (8th-10th centuries)

Between the 8th and the 10th centuries, the Vikings came from today’s Denmark, Norway and Sweden raiding throughout Europe. They landed in the British Isles several times. Most of the Vikings were raiders in search of gold, animals and slaves. The following is a description from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of how a group destroyed a church, killing the monks and stealing their treasure in 793: