Исследовательский проект и мультимедийная презентация по теме: "Mysteries of Stonehenge"

• 1 слайд

  Mysteries of Stonehenge…
  

• 2 слайд

• 3 слайд

  Stonehenge…
  Why was it built? Does anyone really know?...
  

• 4 слайд

  The most famous prehistoric monument in the world, and now a world heritage site, Stonehenge stands alone in the vast empty tract of Salisbury plain. Its origins date back nearly 5,000 years and it has been home to pagan religion and spiritual worship, not to be mention public debate ever since. What was this vast collection of stones intended for? Was it observatory of the moon, a temple to the sun, or an elaborate cemetery? Who were the people who carried and carved these 40 ton rocks?
  

• 5 слайд

  The Stonehenge is a formation of stones in a circular fashion that are standing upright. The construction of this prehistoric monument started some 5000 years ago and it is amazing to know that these stones are still in place after 5 millenniums.
  

• 6 слайд

  The circle, 320 feet in diameter, had a single entrance, 56 mysterious holes around its perimeter (with remains in them of human cremations), and a wooden sanctuary in the middle. The circle was aligned with the midsummer sunrise, the midwinter sunset, and the most southerly rising and northerly setting of the moon.
  

• 7 слайд

  The standing stones in the centre consist of two main kinds of rock. The larger blocks and their lintels are all of sarsen, a natural sandstone which occurs as huge boulders on the surface of the Marlborough Downs about 30km (20 miles) to the north of Stonehenge. The smaller stones, known as the Bluestones from their color, are of several kinds of rock which come from the Preseli Mountain in south-west Wales, about 385km (240 miles) away.
  

• 8 слайд

  The Sarsen Circle, about 30m (100ft) in diameter, consisted originally of 30 uprights, each weighing about 25 tonnes, capped by a continuous ring of 30 lintels weighing about 7 tonnes. Inside it was a horseshoe of five Sarsen Trilithons each consisting of a pair of huge uprights, weighing up to 45 tonnes, capped by a massive lintel.
  

• 9 слайд

  The Bluestone Circle, now much ruined and incomplete, stands inside the sarsen circle. Originally it consisted of about 60 stones set close together. Only two of the surviving stones have been dressed to shape, and both of these had formerly been used as lintels.
  

• 10 слайд

  Apart from the Heel Stone and Station Stones, all the sarsens have been dressed to shape by pounding their surfaces with stone hammers. The uprights are slightly 'dished' on the top to provide a secure seating for the lintels, and tenons have been left projecting from them to fit into corresponding hollow mortice-holes in the undersides of the lintels. In addition, the lintels of the outer circle are fitted to each other with vertical tongue-and- groove joints.
  

• 11 слайд

  The Bluestone Horseshoe, standing inside which alternate round the horseshoe. Two of them bear traces on their tops of projecting tenons, which have been almost battered away. Another has a dished top, like the sarsen uprights, and the adjacent pillar has a groove worked all the way down one side. This stone must once have fitted against another with a corresponding ridge, which now survives only as a stump below the surface on the opposite side of the horseshoe.
  

• 12 слайд

  As in many later cathedrals and churches, not all the structures that we see today at Stonehenge were built at the same time. As the result of excavations we can now divide the history of Stonehenge into several periods, covering a span of about fifteen centuries between about 3050 and 1600BC.
  

• 13 слайд

  THE FIRST PHASE of Stonehenge was a circular earthwork, similar in appearance to a Neolithic causewayed enclosure. It may have served as a ceremonial tribal meeting place, but its alignment also suggests a relationship with the midsummer sunrise.The earliest structures were the circular ditch and bank, which survive today, dating from about 3050BC. Within the bank, the ring of the Aubrey Holes was dug. These were round pits in the chalk, averaging one metre wide and deep, with steep sides and flat bottoms, forming a cirqle 86.6m (284ft) in diameter. Initially they held timber posts, but were later left unused except for cremation burials.
  THE SECOND PHASE of Stonehenge lasted three centuries between 2900BC and 2600BC. Archaeological evidence shows that timber settings were added to the interior of the earthwork 'henge', although the design, form and extent of these cannot be affirmed
  

• 14 слайд

  THE THIRD AND FINAL PHASE of Stonehenge saw the arrival of stones, transported over long distances.
  It began with the bluestones in about 2600BC. Bluestones from Preseli Mountain in Wales, weighing up to 4 tonnes apiece, were set up to form a double crescent in the centre of the earthwork. Their excavated sockets are referred to as the Q & R holes. Whether the setting was intended to be circular.
  

• 15 слайд

• 16 слайд

  The principal entrance in the north-east was marked by three Portal Stones. Today only one, the fallen Slaughter Stone, remains. Outside the entrance was set the Heel Stone, also a second stone, marking the alignment with the mid­summer sunrise.
  

• 17 слайд

  PERHAPS TWO OR THREE HUNDRED YEARS after the arrival of the bluestones, the construc­tion of the sarsen stone circle was begun. It was to become one of the greatest achievements of prehistory.
  

• 18 слайд

  The final phase of Stonehenge extended another 700 years until about 1600BC. Archaeological evidence during this period shows no change in the arrangement of the sarsen circle and horseshoe, but, for reasons unknown, the bluestones were rearranged at least three times. They may have imitated the sarsen settings, and were also arranged in the form of a circle and an oval. Then, in their final setting, they were changed to a circle and a horseshoe. In about 1700BC a double circle of the Y and Z Holes was dug around the outside of the sarsen circle, with possibly the intention of rearranging the bluestones yet again. For reasons unknown, the work remained unfinished.
  

• 19 слайд

• 20 слайд

  All the stones are said to be placed perfectly with the sunrise and thus makes it very clear that the place was also being used as a ground for worship
  

• 21 слайд

• 22 слайд

• 23 слайд

  Professors Darvill and Wainwright believe that Stonehenge was a centre of healing - a "Neolithic Lourdes", to which the sick and injured travelled from far and wide, to be healed by the powers of the bluestones.
  
  They note that "an abnormal number" of the corpses found in tombs nearby Stonehenge display signs of serious physical injury and disease.
  
  

• 24 слайд

• 25 слайд

  For many thousands of years, up to about 4000BC, the people living in southern Britain consisted of scattered bands of roving hunters living on game, fish from the rivers and wild plants. They grew no crops and had no domesticated animals. For tools and weapons they used flint, bone and deer antler, and for shelter they built huts or wind-breaks of brushwood at their temporary camp-sites, and perhaps used skin tents as well.
  

• 26 слайд

  Their clothes were of leather (like the suede used today), although evidence of weaving suggests that cloth was worn as well. Hide was probably used for some of their domestic utensils, though excavations elsewhere suggest most would have been of wood. Small implements were of antler and bone. Their baggy round-bottomed pots look like imitations in clay of the leather vessels. They buried their important dead in specially constructed narrow mounds called long barrows.
  

• 27 слайд

  Many researchers have argued, who more convincingly than others, that Stonehenge was a site of religious rites of its time. There are several good reasons behind this assumption, but unfortunately it only takes one aspect of the theory that cannot be proven to collapse the whole train of thought.
  

• 28 слайд

  
  The facts tying Stonehenge to astronomy aren’t foolproof, but some at least very interesting points have been made in several studies of this topic.
  

• 29 слайд

• 30 слайд

• 31 слайд

  With the astronomical connection, it didn’t require an enormous leap of imagination to think that Stonehenge was used to also predicting events of the night sky. Hawkins and Hoyle developed their own methods to predict lunar eclipses with the construction of Stonehenge, which consisted of record-keeping with the help of the Aubrey Holes and movable marker stones or wooden logs. These theories are quite accurate, and the only flaw with them is the fact that they require rather high degree of astronomical and mathematical knowledge, in conjunction with records covering at least nearly twenty years. These records would have had to be passed without written records (since we assume there are none, because we haven't found any), and a society of high mathematical and astronomical skills without the wisdom of writing… well, let’s just say that it doesn’t add up properly.
  
  

• 32 слайд

• 33 слайд

• 34 слайд

  But Stonehenge isn’t ‘alone’. There is an amazing and fascinating monument called Dolmens in our country. Like Stonehenge it’s full of legends and myths about its creation, using and history.
  

• 35 слайд

  It is very difficult now to restore the rituals connected with the dolmens. Different dolmens are believed to have power in different areas, such as health, love, and family. People leave offerings at the appropriate dolmen to get help in each of the different areas of their lives.
  The location of dolmens shows that they are occupying the even parts on the slopes of the hills, river terraces and not high mountains (maximum height up till 500-700 meters over the sea level). Only some single dolmens are located on the heights.
  

• 36 слайд

• 37 слайд

• 38 слайд

• 39 слайд

• 40 слайд

• 41 слайд

  The person buried in the dolmen was the medium between the world of the living and the gods. The dead were left in front of dolmen or were buried in the ground. After rotting, the bones and skull were put inside the dolmen. Later in time, the cult of the dead changed and the fear of the dead appeared. It is the time when the false-portal type of dolmens appeared.
  In order to stop the dead finding their way back in the world of the living, a convexity on a facade was made to simulate a stone plug, but the true hole is cut on the back side - on the north side of the dolmen, which was associated with the world of the dead. Sometimes it would be covered with soil, as it is the entrance to the underworld.
  
  

• 42 слайд

• 43 слайд

• 44 слайд

  While generally unknown in the rest of Europe, these Russian megaliths are equal to the great megaliths of Europe in terms of age and quality of architecture, but are still of an unknown origin. In spite of the variety of Caucasian monuments, they show strong similarities with megaliths from different parts of Europe and Asia, like the Iberian Peninsula, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Israel and India. A range of hypotheses has been put forward to explain these similarities and the building of megaliths on the whole, but still it remains unclear.
  

• 45 слайд

• 46 слайд

• 47 слайд

• 48 слайд

• 49 слайд

• 50 слайд

  Until 1918, when it was given to the nation, Stonehenge was in private hands. Since that date about half of the site has been excavated at various times, and a number of the leaning and fallen stones have been straightened and re- erected. In recent years the number of visitors has become so large (700,000 in a year) that the surface of the monument, right out to the surrounding bank and ditch, has been dangerously eroded, and many of the fallen stones, and the stumps which protrude above the surface, are being ground away by the feet of those who step or climb on them. It has thus become necessary to prevent further erosion by restricting public access to the interior of the site. Only in this way can this unique structure be preserved for the future.
  

• 51 слайд

  But no place has generated so much speculation and wild theories as the standing stones of Stonehenge. After driving for miles through the rolling hills and plains of the English countryside the sight of this unusual structure makes people gasp. A walk around it only provokes more strange feelings. There's a sense that this is something very important. It taunts us with it's mystery. For over 5000 years it has stood silent vigil over the earth. It has been excavated, x-rayed, measured, and surveyed. Yet despite all that has been learned about its age and construction, its purpose still remains one of the great mysteries of the world…
  

• 52 слайд

• 53 слайд

• 54 слайд

  Three hundred years ago the antiquary John Aubrey first suggested that stone circles were Druidical temples, and ever since it has been popularly believed that Stonehenge was built and used by the Druids. This belief is certainly false. Everything that we know about the Druids was recorded by classical writers like Julius Caesar, who tell us that they were a Celtic priesthood who flourished in Britain at the time of the Roman conquest, and perhaps for a few centuries before. By then the stones of Stonehenge had been standing for two thousand years, and were probably already in ruins. Moreover, these accounts make it clear that the Druids built no temples of their own, but held their ceremonies in clearings in the forest.
  

• 55 слайд

• 56 слайд

• 57 слайд

  Modern work studies suggest that even if all 600 people had been continuously employed over the complete route, the task would have taken more than a year to complete.
  

• 58 слайд

• 59 слайд

  The method probably used to erect the stones is shown below. A foundation pit was dug in the chalk, with one side vertical and the opposite one of the form of a sloping ramp. A row of wooden stakes was driven in against the vertical side to stop the chalk being crushed down by the toe of the stone as it was raised. The stone, base foremost, was then moved on rollers towards the ramp, until its toe was over the hole and its centre of gravity avas just behind the leading roller. The outer end was then levered up, dipping the base into the hole, until the stone over-balanced at the next moment and came to rest in a leaning'position. Next, with levers supported by timber packing, it was raised a few inches at a time and held in place by struts when the packing had to be rebuilt closer to the stone. Finally it would be pulled upright by gangs of men hauling on ropes. To raise a stone of the outer circle of sarsens would need about 200 people.
  

• 60 слайд

  The method probably used to raise the lintels is shown above. First the lintel is positioned on the ground, close and parallel to the base of the uprights, and each end alternately is lifted with levers and supported on temporary packing of squared timber. Then a 'crib' of criss-crossed timbers is built around the lintel and uprights, and decked over with stout planks just beneath the underside of the lintel. Now the weight of the stone is transferred with levers from the old packing resting on the ground to new packing resting on the deck. Thereafter the whole process is repeated in stages, the lintel being raised about 60cm (2ft) at each stage. Finally when the uppermost deck was level with the tops of the uprights the lintel is levered sideways to fit over the projecting tenons. Once it was in place the crib would have been dismantled for re-use. Lifting in this way has been used by modern engineers in places abroad where no machines were available.
  

• 61 слайд

  To help in adjusting the stones to a vertical position, their bases were dressed to a blunt point on which the mass could more easily pivot. When the final adjustment had been made, the hole round the base was rapidly packed with stones, including discarded hammers, and with chalk rammed hard.
  

• 62 слайд

  If there is one to be made, it is that we don’t know much anything, which is exactly as much as we did know before. Whereas it’s disputable to claim that Stonehenge was used to predict or even observe astronomical events, it is quite obvious that those Neolithic people who started to build Stonehenge did place a great importance to their gods – mainly the Sun and the Moon and if the megalith in the middle of Salisbury Plains wasn’t exactly built for skyworship, it was probably built with certain amount of honoring to the unknown.
  
  
  
  

• 63 слайд

• 64 слайд

• 1 слайд

  Mysteries of Stonehenge…
  

• 2 слайд

  Stonehenge…
  Why was it built? Does anyone really know?...
  

• 3 слайд

  The most famous prehistoric monument in the world, and now a world heritage site, Stonehenge stands alone in the vast empty tract of Salisbury plain. Its origins date back nearly 5,000 years and it has been home to pagan religion and spiritual worship, not to be mention public debate ever since. What was this vast collection of stones intended for? Was it observatory of the moon, a temple to the sun, or an elaborate cemetery? Who were the people who carried and carved these 40 ton rocks?
  

• 4 слайд

  The Stonehenge is a formation of stones in a circular fashion that are standing upright. The construction of this prehistoric monument started some 5000 years ago and it is amazing to know that these stones are still in place after 5 millenniums.
  

• 5 слайд

  The circle, 320 feet in diameter, had a single entrance, 56 mysterious holes around its perimeter (with remains in them of human cremations), and a wooden sanctuary in the middle. The circle was aligned with the midsummer sunrise, the midwinter sunset, and the most southerly rising and northerly setting of the moon.
  

• 6 слайд

  The standing stones in the centre consist of two main kinds of rock. The larger blocks and their lintels are all of sarsen, a natural sandstone which occurs as huge boulders on the surface of the Marlborough Downs about 30km (20 miles) to the north of Stonehenge. The smaller stones, known as the Bluestones from their color, are of several kinds of rock which come from the Preseli Mountain in south-west Wales, about 385km (240 miles) away.
  

• 7 слайд

  The Sarsen Circle, about 30m (100ft) in diameter, consisted originally of 30 uprights, each weighing about 25 tonnes, capped by a continuous ring of 30 lintels weighing about 7 tonnes. Inside it was a horseshoe of five Sarsen Trilithons each consisting of a pair of huge uprights, weighing up to 45 tonnes, capped by a massive lintel.
  

• 8 слайд

  The Bluestone Circle, now much ruined and incomplete, stands inside the sarsen circle. Originally it consisted of about 60 stones set close together. Only two of the surviving stones have been dressed to shape, and both of these had formerly been used as lintels.
  

• 9 слайд

  Apart from the Heel Stone and Station Stones, all the sarsens have been dressed to shape by pounding their surfaces with stone hammers. The uprights are slightly 'dished' on the top to provide a secure seating for the lintels, and tenons have been left projecting from them to fit into corresponding hollow mortice-holes in the undersides of the lintels. In addition, the lintels of the outer circle are fitted to each other with vertical tongue-and- groove joints.
  

• 10 слайд

  The Bluestone Horseshoe, standing inside which alternate round the horseshoe. Two of them bear traces on their tops of projecting tenons, which have been almost battered away. Another has a dished top, like the sarsen uprights, and the adjacent pillar has a groove worked all the way down one side. This stone must once have fitted against another with a corresponding ridge, which now survives only as a stump below the surface on the opposite side of the horseshoe.
  

• 11 слайд

  As in many later cathedrals and churches, not all the structures that we see today at Stonehenge were built at the same time. As the result of excavations we can now divide the history of Stonehenge into several periods, covering a span of about fifteen centuries between about 3050 and 1600BC.
  

• 12 слайд

  THE FIRST PHASE of Stonehenge was a circular earthwork, similar in appearance to a Neolithic causewayed enclosure. It may have served as a ceremonial tribal meeting place, but its alignment also suggests a relationship with the midsummer sunrise.The earliest structures were the circular ditch and bank, which survive today, dating from about 3050BC. Within the bank, the ring of the Aubrey Holes was dug. These were round pits in the chalk, averaging one metre wide and deep, with steep sides and flat bottoms, forming a cirqle 86.6m (284ft) in diameter. Initially they held timber posts, but were later left unused except for cremation burials.
  THE SECOND PHASE of Stonehenge lasted three centuries between 2900BC and 2600BC. Archaeological evidence shows that timber settings were added to the interior of the earthwork 'henge', although the design, form and extent of these cannot be affirmed
  

• 13 слайд

  THE THIRD AND FINAL PHASE of Stonehenge saw the arrival of stones, transported over long distances.
  It began with the bluestones in about 2600BC. Bluestones from Preseli Mountain in Wales, weighing up to 4 tonnes apiece, were set up to form a double crescent in the centre of the earthwork. Their excavated sockets are referred to as the Q & R holes. Whether the setting was intended to be circular.
  

• 14 слайд

• 15 слайд

  The principal entrance in the north-east was marked by three Portal Stones. Today only one, the fallen Slaughter Stone, remains. Outside the entrance was set the Heel Stone, also a second stone, marking the alignment with the mid­summer sunrise.
  

• 16 слайд

  PERHAPS TWO OR THREE HUNDRED YEARS after the arrival of the bluestones, the construc­tion of the sarsen stone circle was begun. It was to become one of the greatest achievements of prehistory.
  

• 17 слайд

  The final phase of Stonehenge extended another 700 years until about 1600BC. Archaeological evidence during this period shows no change in the arrangement of the sarsen circle and horseshoe, but, for reasons unknown, the bluestones were rearranged at least three times. They may have imitated the sarsen settings, and were also arranged in the form of a circle and an oval. Then, in their final setting, they were changed to a circle and a horseshoe. In about 1700BC a double circle of the Y and Z Holes was dug around the outside of the sarsen circle, with possibly the intention of rearranging the bluestones yet again. For reasons unknown, the work remained unfinished.
  

• 18 слайд

• 19 слайд

  All the stones are said to be placed perfectly with the sunrise and thus makes it very clear that the place was also being used as a ground for worship
  

• 20 слайд

• 21 слайд

• 22 слайд

  Professors Darvill and Wainwright believe that Stonehenge was a centre of healing - a "Neolithic Lourdes", to which the sick and injured travelled from far and wide, to be healed by the powers of the bluestones.
  
  They note that "an abnormal number" of the corpses found in tombs nearby Stonehenge display signs of serious physical injury and disease.
  
  

• 23 слайд

  For many thousands of years, up to about 4000BC, the people living in southern Britain consisted of scattered bands of roving hunters living on game, fish from the rivers and wild plants. They grew no crops and had no domesticated animals. For tools and weapons they used flint, bone and deer antler, and for shelter they built huts or wind-breaks of brushwood at their temporary camp-sites, and perhaps used skin tents as well.
  

• 24 слайд

  Their clothes were of leather (like the suede used today), although evidence of weaving suggests that cloth was worn as well. Hide was probably used for some of their domestic utensils, though excavations elsewhere suggest most would have been of wood. Small implements were of antler and bone. Their baggy round-bottomed pots look like imitations in clay of the leather vessels. They buried their important dead in specially constructed narrow mounds called long barrows.
  

• 25 слайд

  Many researchers have argued, who more convincingly than others, that Stonehenge was a site of religious rites of its time. There are several good reasons behind this assumption, but unfortunately it only takes one aspect of the theory that cannot be proven to collapse the whole train of thought.
  

• 26 слайд

  
  The facts tying Stonehenge to astronomy aren’t foolproof, but some at least very interesting points have been made in several studies of this topic.
  

• 27 слайд

• 28 слайд

• 29 слайд

  With the astronomical connection, it didn’t require an enormous leap of imagination to think that Stonehenge was used to also predicting events of the night sky. Hawkins and Hoyle developed their own methods to predict lunar eclipses with the construction of Stonehenge, which consisted of record-keeping with the help of the Aubrey Holes and movable marker stones or wooden logs. These theories are quite accurate, and the only flaw with them is the fact that they require rather high degree of astronomical and mathematical knowledge, in conjunction with records covering at least nearly twenty years. These records would have had to be passed without written records (since we assume there are none, because we haven't found any), and a society of high mathematical and astronomical skills without the wisdom of writing… well, let’s just say that it doesn’t add up properly.
  
  

• 30 слайд

• 31 слайд

• 32 слайд

  But Stonehenge isn’t ‘alone’. There is an amazing and fascinating monument called Dolmens in our country. Like Stonehenge it’s full of legends and myths about its creation, using and history.
  

• 33 слайд

  It is very difficult now to restore the rituals connected with the dolmens. Different dolmens are believed to have power in different areas, such as health, love, and family. People leave offerings at the appropriate dolmen to get help in each of the different areas of their lives.
  The location of dolmens shows that they are occupying the even parts on the slopes of the hills, river terraces and not high mountains (maximum height up till 500-700 meters over the sea level). Only some single dolmens are located on the heights.
  

• 34 слайд

• 35 слайд

• 36 слайд

• 37 слайд

• 38 слайд

• 39 слайд

  The person buried in the dolmen was the medium between the world of the living and the gods. The dead were left in front of dolmen or were buried in the ground. After rotting, the bones and skull were put inside the dolmen. Later in time, the cult of the dead changed and the fear of the dead appeared. It is the time when the false-portal type of dolmens appeared.
  In order to stop the dead finding their way back in the world of the living, a convexity on a facade was made to simulate a stone plug, but the true hole is cut on the back side - on the north side of the dolmen, which was associated with the world of the dead. Sometimes it would be covered with soil, as it is the entrance to the underworld.
  
  

• 40 слайд

• 41 слайд

• 42 слайд

  While generally unknown in the rest of Europe, these Russian megaliths are equal to the great megaliths of Europe in terms of age and quality of architecture, but are still of an unknown origin. In spite of the variety of Caucasian monuments, they show strong similarities with megaliths from different parts of Europe and Asia, like the Iberian Peninsula, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Israel and India. A range of hypotheses has been put forward to explain these similarities and the building of megaliths on the whole, but still it remains unclear.
  

• 43 слайд

• 44 слайд

• 45 слайд

• 46 слайд

• 47 слайд

• 48 слайд

  Until 1918, when it was given to the nation, Stonehenge was in private hands. Since that date about half of the site has been excavated at various times, and a number of the leaning and fallen stones have been straightened and re- erected. In recent years the number of visitors has become so large (700,000 in a year) that the surface of the monument, right out to the surrounding bank and ditch, has been dangerously eroded, and many of the fallen stones, and the stumps which protrude above the surface, are being ground away by the feet of those who step or climb on them. It has thus become necessary to prevent further erosion by restricting public access to the interior of the site. Only in this way can this unique structure be preserved for the future.
  

• 49 слайд

  But no place has generated so much speculation and wild theories as the standing stones of Stonehenge. After driving for miles through the rolling hills and plains of the English countryside the sight of this unusual structure makes people gasp. A walk around it only provokes more strange feelings. There's a sense that this is something very important. It taunts us with it's mystery. For over 5000 years it has stood silent vigil over the earth. It has been excavated, x-rayed, measured, and surveyed. Yet despite all that has been learned about its age and construction, its purpose still remains one of the great mysteries of the world…
  

• 50 слайд

• 51 слайд

• 52 слайд

  Three hundred years ago the antiquary John Aubrey first suggested that stone circles were Druidical temples, and ever since it has been popularly believed that Stonehenge was built and used by the Druids. This belief is certainly false. Everything that we know about the Druids was recorded by classical writers like Julius Caesar, who tell us that they were a Celtic priesthood who flourished in Britain at the time of the Roman conquest, and perhaps for a few centuries before. By then the stones of Stonehenge had been standing for two thousand years, and were probably already in ruins. Moreover, these accounts make it clear that the Druids built no temples of their own, but held their ceremonies in clearings in the forest.
  

• 53 слайд

• 54 слайд

• 55 слайд

  Modern work studies suggest that even if all 600 people had been continuously employed over the complete route, the task would have taken more than a year to complete.
  

• 56 слайд

• 57 слайд

  The method probably used to erect the stones is shown below. A foundation pit was dug in the chalk, with one side vertical and the opposite one of the form of a sloping ramp. A row of wooden stakes was driven in against the vertical side to stop the chalk being crushed down by the toe of the stone as it was raised. The stone, base foremost, was then moved on rollers towards the ramp, until its toe was over the hole and its centre of gravity avas just behind the leading roller. The outer end was then levered up, dipping the base into the hole, until the stone over-balanced at the next moment and came to rest in a leaning'position. Next, with levers supported by timber packing, it was raised a few inches at a time and held in place by struts when the packing had to be rebuilt closer to the stone. Finally it would be pulled upright by gangs of men hauling on ropes. To raise a stone of the outer circle of sarsens would need about 200 people.
  

• 58 слайд

  The method probably used to raise the lintels is shown above. First the lintel is positioned on the ground, close and parallel to the base of the uprights, and each end alternately is lifted with levers and supported on temporary packing of squared timber. Then a 'crib' of criss-crossed timbers is built around the lintel and uprights, and decked over with stout planks just beneath the underside of the lintel. Now the weight of the stone is transferred with levers from the old packing resting on the ground to new packing resting on the deck. Thereafter the whole process is repeated in stages, the lintel being raised about 60cm (2ft) at each stage. Finally when the uppermost deck was level with the tops of the uprights the lintel is levered sideways to fit over the projecting tenons. Once it was in place the crib would have been dismantled for re-use. Lifting in this way has been used by modern engineers in places abroad where no machines were available.
  

• 59 слайд

  To help in adjusting the stones to a vertical position, their bases were dressed to a blunt point on which the mass could more easily pivot. When the final adjustment had been made, the hole round the base was rapidly packed with stones, including discarded hammers, and with chalk rammed hard.
  

• 60 слайд

  If there is one to be made, it is that we don’t know much anything, which is exactly as much as we did know before. Whereas it’s disputable to claim that Stonehenge was used to predict or even observe astronomical events, it is quite obvious that those Neolithic people who started to build Stonehenge did place a great importance to their gods – mainly the Sun and the Moon and if the megalith in the middle of Salisbury Plains wasn’t exactly built for skyworship, it was probably built with certain amount of honoring to the unknown.
  
  
  
  

• 61 слайд

Муниципальное общеобразовательное учреждение

Одинцовская средняя общеобразовательная школа №3

Номинация: «Исследование»

Тема: «Мистика камней»

Выполнили:

Учащиеся 11 класса

МОУ «СОШ №3»

Одинцовского муниципального района

Зайцева Екатерина,

Гюлумян Артём,

Родина Ксения

Научный руководитель:

Чернякова Татьяна Михайловна

Учитель английского языка

МОУ «СОШ №3»

Одинцовского муниципального района

2010 год

Contents

I.                  Introduction

II.            The main body

1. History and construction of Stonehenge

2. The Stonehenge area

3. Dolmens of North Caucasus

4.  Myths and legends

III.      Conclusion

IV.     List of literature

V.           Supplement I

VI.     Supplement II

VII.                       Supplement III

The main aim:

to tell about the Stonehenge, about its history and the most interesting historical and also mystical and fascinating facts about the Stonehenge; to help pupils to learn an interesting and useful information for their language education  in a easier way.

What I’ve done to reach the aim:

1.                  Learnt many sources of information in Russian and English (exercises-books, modern English and Russian magazines and newspapers, Internet sites, TV-news and programs.

2.                  Found a lot of interesting pictures describing the Stonehenge.

3.                  Analyzed and systematize the information.

4.                  Made some questions to help readers to learn the facts better.

5.                  Made a vocabulary of difficult words to make studying pleasant.

6.                  Made a multi-media presentation to show the audience the main aspects of the work.

Introduction

The old believe everything,

The middle-aged suspect everything,

The young know everything.

Oscar Wilde

More than hundred stone rings exist in the British Isles, and scholars estimate than twice that number may originally have been built. Scholars usually classify these types of these megalithic structures as rings rather than circles, because the rough proportions for the different shapes are 2/3 true circles, 1/6 flatted circles, 1/9 ellipses, and 1/18 eggs. Stonehenge, however, is roughly circular.

The most famous prehistoric monument in the world, and now a world heritage site, Stonehenge stands alone in the vast empty tract of Salisbury plain.

It situated almost 3.2 km west Amesbury. The Stonehenge is a formation of stones in the circular fashion that are standing upright. The construction of this prehistoric monument started some 5000 years ago and it’s amazing to know, that these stones are still in place after 5 millenniums.

Different scholars have different thought about Stonehenge. Some say that the stones initially were erect; it was only after 2400 BC that they changed positions. Others say that the blue stones could have been the ones that were erected. The site of Stonehenge is also another addition to the UNESCO and a part of the World heritage Sites since 1986. It is also protected by scheduled Ancient monument. The Stonehenge is a pride of the national trust of the country.

Most theories have guessed at a cultic purpose behind the astronomical design of the monument, on the grounds that such a mammoth undertaking must have had an ideological rather than practical basis. They derive from anthropology rather than from cultural and technological history. But Lockyer (Stonehenge Astronomically Considered, 1906) and others have pointed out the practical value of astronomical observation at a time when there was no other way to establish precise calendar dates, wether these were Prehistorians and archeologists speak about the ‘myths’ of renewal of ancient cultures, but to the ancient people the festivals were not celebrations of myth but rather celebrations of a current reality. The reality was periodic energetic effect of solar, lunar, and stellar cycles of human beings, the animal kingdom, and the earth itself. This energetic effect, the increased presence of energy at the sacred sites during particular periods of the astronomical cycles, was the focus of the ritual use of stone rings and so many of the other ancient sanctuaries found around the world.

The main body

The standing stones in the centre consist of two main kinds of rock. The larger blocks and their lintels are all of sarsen, natural sandstone which occurs as huge boulders on the surface of the Marlborough Downs about 30km (20 miles) to the north of Stonehenge. The smaller stones, known as the Bluestones from their color, are of several kinds of rock which come from the Preseli Mountain in south-west Wales, about 385km (240 miles) away.

The Sarsen Circle, about 30m (100ft) in diameter, consisted originally of 30 uprights, each weighing about 25 tonnes, capped by a continuous ring of 30 lintels weighing about 7 tonnes. Inside it was a horseshoe of five Sarsen Trilithons each consisting of a pair of huge uprights, weighing up to 45 tonnes, capped by a massive lintel.

Apart from the Heel Stone and Station Stones, all the sarsens have been dressed to shape by pounding their surfaces with stone hammers. The uprights are slightly 'dished' on the top to provide a secure seating for the lintels, and tenons have been left projecting from them to fit into corresponding hollow mortice-holes in the undersides of the lintels. In addition, the lintels of the outer circle are fitted to each other with vertical tongue-and- groove joints.

The Bluestone Circle, now much ruined and incomplete, stands inside the sarsen circle. Originally it consisted of about 60 stones set close together. Only two of the surviving stones have been dressed to shape, and both of these had formerly been used as lintels.

The Bluestone Horseshoe, standing inside which alternate round the horseshoe. Two of them bear traces on their tops of projecting tenons, which have been almost battered away. Another has a dished top, like the sarsen uprights, and the adjacent pillar has a groove worked all the way down one side. This stone must once have fitted against another with a corresponding ridge, which now survives only as a stump below the surface on the opposite side of the horseshoe.

At the focus of the bluestone horseshoe is the Altar Stone, a dressed block of blue-grey sandstone from the shores of Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire, about 5m (16ft) long. It is now buried in the ground beneath the fallen upright

Stonehenge, the most visited and well known of the British stone rings, is a composite structure built during three distinct periods.

History and construction of Stonehenge

As in many later cathedrals and churches, not all the structures that we see today at Stonehenge were built at the same time. As the result of excavations we can now divide the history of Stonehenge into several periods, covering a span of about fifteen centuries between about 3050 and 1600BC.

The first Stonehenge comprised a ditch, bank and counterscarp enclosing the Aubrey Holes. There was a main entrance in the north-east on roughly the present alignment, and a southern secondary entrance

THE FIRST PHASE of Stonehenge was a circular earthwork, similar in appearance to a Neolithic causewayed enclosure. It may have served as a ceremonial tribal meeting place, but its alignment also suggests a relationship with the midsummer sunrise. The earliest structures were the circular ditch and bank, which survive today, dating from about 3050BC. Within the bank, the ring of the Aubrey Holes was dug. These were round pits in the chalk, averaging one metre wide and deep, with steep sides and flat bottoms, forming  a circle 86.6m (284ft) in diameter. Initially they held timber posts, but were later left unused except for cremation burials.

The circular earthwork had two entrances: a main causeway in the north-east, aligning with the midsummer sunrise, and a smaller second­ary southern entrance. No structures at the centre can be attributed to this phase, though the evidence may have been obscured by later developments.

This earliest phase of Stonehenge was contemporary with the Cursus, just to the north. Settlement of the otherwise mobile population was taking place in nearby localities. Interment of their dead was in Long Barrows.

The third phase of Stonehenge began with the arrival of the bluestones from the

THE SECOND PHASE of Stonehenge lasted three centuries between 2900BC and 2600BC. Archaeological evidence shows that timber settings were added to the interior of the earthwork 'henge', although the design, form and extent of these cannot be affirmed.

The Late Neolithic period saw the develop­ment of other 'henge' monuments, such as Durrington Walls and Coneybury. At these sites internal arrangements of post-holes indicate timber settings in the form of either roofed buildings or tribal markers.

At Stonehenge there were timber settings in the centre of the monument and in the north­east entrance, and also running towards the southern entrance.

The ditch had been allowed to fill up nat­urally. Cremation burials were deposited there and in the disused and partially filled Aubrey Holes. It is possible that the site may have held 'celestial' significance for burial.

In this second phase of Stonehenge, there is evidence of settlement within a kilometer of the monument and probably a large palisade, which suggests formal division of land.

THE THIRD AND FINAL PHASE of Stonehenge saw the arrival of stones, transported over long distances.

It began with the bluestones in about 2600BC. Bluestones from Preseli Mountain in Wales, weighing up to 4 tonnes apiece, were set up to form a double crescent in the centre of the earthwork. Their excavated sockets are referred to as the Q & R holes.

PERHAPS TWO OR THREE HUNDRED YEARS after the arrival of the bluestones, the construc­tion of the sarsen stone circle was begun. It was to become one of the greatest achievements of prehistory.

The huge engineering project began with the transport of the sarsen stones, each weighing over 25 tonnes, from the Marlborough Downs, 30km (20 miles) to the north. At the centre, five huge trilithons, each of two uprights and a lintel, were raised, and around them were set 30 sarsen uprights in a circle capped with a continuous line of sarsen lintels, each morticed and shaped to the curve of the circle. The blue- stones were also reset within the circle.

The principal entrance in the north-east was marked by three Portal Stones. Today only one, the fallen Slaughter Stone, remains. Outside the entrance was set the Heel Stone, also a second stone, marking the alignment with the mid­summer sunrise.

Within the perimeter of the bank, the four Station Stones marked alignments with lunar cycles as well as the midwinter sunset. Neither the Station Stones nor the Heel Stone was dressed to shape, in contrast with the stones in the centre of the circle. It is therefore possible that these sarsen stones may have pre-dated the circle, but impossible to know for certainty.

However we can be certain that the pro­cessional Avenue was marked out about this. It was probably the route of the sarsens into the earthwork. The Avenue led directly into the entrance of Stonehenge and its line is marked with parallel ditches and banks. The extraordinary design and construction of Stonehenge exhibits a number of refinements which cannot be found anywhere else amongst the prehistoric stone monuments of Europe, outside the Mediterranean. First, all the stones have been squared and dressed to shape by pounding their surfaces with heavy stone hammers before they were erected. Second, the lintels are held in place on the uprights by mortice-and-tenon joints worked in solid stone, and lintels in the circle are locked end-to-end by vertical tongue-and-groove joints. Thirdly, the sides of the lintels are shaped to the curve of the circle, and the sides of the trilithon lintels

The jointing of the stones was probably copied from woodworking methods, and we know that timber settings had been used on phase 2 of Stonehenge and at Durrington Walls and other sites. The upward taper of the sarsen pillars may imitate the natural form of trees, creating an illusion for greater height. Similarly the tilting of the sides of the trilithon lintels makes them look vertical to an observer inside the horseshoe.

Given the size and weight of the stones, and the primitive means available for moving, shaping and erecting them, Stonehenge represents one of the most remarkable and astonishing of all the achievements of prehis­toric people in Europe.

The final phase of Stonehenge extended another 700 years until about 1600BC. Archaeological evidence during this period shows no change in the arrangement of the sarsen circle and horseshoe, but, for reasons unknown, the bluestones were rearranged at least three times. They may have imitated the sarsen settings, and were also arranged in the form of a circle and an oval. Then, in their final setting, they were changed to a circle and a horseshoe. In about 1700BC a double circle of the Y and Z Holes was dug around the outside of the sarsen circle, with possibly the intention of rearranging the bluestones yet again. For reasons unknown, the work remained unfinished.

During the thousand-year duration of phase 3, the landscape around Stonehenge witnessed substantial cultural change and development. Settlement increased. From about 2000BC metal tools and weapons gradually displaced flint and stone. Round barrows, often in groups, were used for the single burials of kings or leaders, usually with grave goods to support them on the journey into the next world. The environs of Stonehenge may not have supported a large local population, but clearly it was expertly governed to enable communal works such as the sarsen stone circle to be built. Even with imported labour, the building of Stonehenge may have taken a number of years.

Carvings on the stones Several sarsen uprights have prehistoric carvings on their sides. The earliest of these, high up on the inside face of the fourth trilithon of the horseshoe, is a shallow oblong shape thought to be similar to carvings found in Neolithic stone burial-chambers in Brittany, which are sometimes thought to represent in a simplified and symbolic way the figure of a mother-goddess. This carving is out of reach of the ground and was therefore made, probably, before the stone was set up.

Stonehenge is one of the most remarkable achievements of prehistoric engineering in Europe. For building it the only motive power was human muscles, aided by the simplest devices such as ropes, levers and rollers.

The ditch, the Aubrey Holes, and all the other holes for stones and posts were dug with pick-axes made from the antlers of red deer. The chalk rubble loosened with picks was scraped together with the shoulder-blades of cattle and loaded into baskets so that it could be dumped where required. Wooden shovels may have been used as well, but no trace of them survives. Modern experiments have shown that these tools are more effective than they look. To dig the Stonehenge ditch and build the bank with them would have taken only twice the time required to do it today with steel picks, shovels and buckets.

The bluestones at Stonehenge certainly come from the Preseli Mountain in south-west Wales and from the shores of Milford Haven. Whether they were brought directly to Stonehenge, or to some intermediate point in the first instance, their transport over so long a distance is an astonishing feat. The map shows the most likely route. From the Preseli Mountain, where boulders of bluestone of all shapes and sizes lie on the surface, they would be dragged on sledges and rollers to the headwaters of Milford Haven. There they would be loaded on to rafts, and carried by water along the south coast of Wales and up the Rivers Avon and Frome tonear the modem town of Frome in Somerset. On the rivers, rafts were probably used instead of boats, which would have run aground in shallow water. From there they would be hauled overland again for about 10km (6 miles) to near Warminster in Wiltshire. From here to Stonehenge the route is again mainly by water, down the River Wylye to Salisbury and up the Salisbury Avon to West Amesbury. The total distance is about 385km (240 miles).The sarsen stones were almost certainly brought from the Marlborough Downs near Avebury in north Wiltshire, about 30km (20 miles) north of Stonehenge, where large blocks of stone lie thickly on the surface. For these heavier stones water transport would be impossible, and they must have been dragged overland all the way on massive sledges and rollers, hauled with ropes of leather or cow- hair. The map shows the most probable route. Over most of it the slopes up and down are fairly easy; but at Redhorn Hill on the southern edge of the Vale of Pewsey the gradient is steep. To pull the heaviest stone, weighing about 50 tonnes, up this hill would have below Raising a needed about 500 people, with an extra stone into an hundred at least to lay the rollers in front of the upright setting sledge and keep it from wandering sideways.

   Modern work studies suggest that even if all 600 people had been continuously employed over the complete route, the task would have taken more than a year to complete.

At Stonehenge itself the uprights and lintels were dressed to shape by pounding their surfaces with heavy sarsen hammers about the size of a football, many of which were later used as packing-stones round the bases of the uprights. The hollow mortices in the lintels were made in the same way. The tops of the stones must have been dressed level, leaving the tenons projecting, only after the uprights had been raised and given time to settle in the chalk. This was slow work, because sarsen stone is exceptionally hard and will turn the cutting edge even of modern steel tools.

The method probably used to erect the stones is shown below. A foundation pit was dug in the chalk, with one side vertical and the opposite one of the form of a sloping ramp. A row of wooden stakes was driven in against the vertical side to stop the chalk being crushed down by the toe of the stone as it was raised. The stone, base foremost, was then moved on rollers towards the ramp, until its toe was over the hole and its centre of gravity avas just behind the leading roller. The outer end was then levered up, dipping the base into the hole, until the stone over-balanced at the next moment and came to rest in a leaning' position. Next, with levers supported by timber packing, it was raised a few inches at a time and held in place by struts when the packing had to be rebuilt closer to the stone. Finally it would be pulled upright by gangs of men hauling on ropes. To raise a stone of the outer circle of sarsens would need about 200 people.

To help in adjusting the stones to a vertical position, their bases were dressed to a blunt point on which the mass could more easily pivot. When the final adjustment had been made, the hole round the base was rapidly packed with stones, including discarded hammers, and with chalk rammed hard.

The final stage of Stonehenge has been dated to about 1600BC. Its subsequent history is one of ruin, damage and destruction. In spite of their great size, many of the sarsen stones have disappeared. We know, however, that their builders were trying to achieve the maximum overall height with the material available, so that many of them stood in dangerously shallow holes and probably fell over at an early date. Moreover, there is no natural building stone within 21km (13 miles) of Stonehenge, so that in the Middle Ages, if not before, the fallen stones and the lintels (which could be levered or pulled off their uprights fairly easily) must have provided a convenient quarry for local builders.

The disappearance of so many of the bluestones, or their survival only as stumps below ground level, is easy to understand, because they are smaller' and more brittle than the sarsens, and thus easier to pull down or break up with hammers. Much of the destruction is certainly due to earlier visitors, who delighted in knocking off fragments as keepsakes. Indeed at one time a hammer could be readily hired at the blacksmith's forge in Amesbury for this very purpose. It is known too that up to about a century ago the local farmers used to break up the bluestones and the fallen sarsens for road metal, to repair farm tracks and gateways.

Until 1918, when it was given to the nation, Stonehenge was in private hands. Since that date about half of the site has been excavated at various times, and a number of the leaning and fallen stones have been straightened and re- erected. In recent years the number of visitors has become so large (700,000 in a year) that the surface of the monument, right out to the surrounding bank and ditch, has been dangerously eroded, and many of the fallen stones, and the stumps which protrude above the surface, are being ground away by the feet of those who step or climb on them. It has thus become necessary to prevent further erosion by restricting public access to the interior of the site. Only in this way can this unique structure be preserved for the future.

Three hundred years ago the antiquary John Aubrey first suggested that stone circles were Druidical temples, and ever since it has been popularly believed that Stonehenge was built and used by the Druids. This belief is certainly false. Everything that we know about the Druids was recorded by classical writers like Julius Caesar, who tell us that they were a Celtic priesthood who flourished in Britain at the time of the Roman conquest, and perhaps for a few centuries before. By then the stones of Stonehenge had been standing for two thousand years, and were probably already in ruins. Moreover, these accounts make it clear that the Druids built no temples of their own, but held their ceremonies in clearings in the forest.

It may be, however, that the Druids inherited the knowledge and observations of natural events, astronomy included, of the builders of Stonehenge, handed down over the centuries by word of mouth. We are told that the Druids' lore was enshrined in a series of interminable verses, which a novice might take up to twenty years to learn by heart. Since there is no evidence from prehistoric Britain for any method of writing, or of writing down numbers, this is one way in which such knowledge could have been stored and then passed on from one generation to the next. We know, for instance, that in the Pacific today accurate sailing- directions for very long voyages have been handed down by word of mouth alone over a period of many centuries.

Astronomy at Stonehenge Ever since the early eighteenth century it has been recognized that the axis of the sarsen stone circle points roughly to where an observer at the centre of Stonehenge would see the sun rise on the longest day of the year, in its most northerly position on the horizon. The entrance was also reoriented slightly during the lifetime of Stonehenge to compensate for astronomical variation in the midsummer sunrise over many centuries.

More recently it has been suggested that the lines joining the four Station Stones could also have marked the most northerly and southerly positions on the horizon of the risings and settings of the sun and the moon, and that the latitude of Stonehenge was chosen so that pairs of these directions would be at right angles. In addition, the theory has been advanced that the ring of Aubrey Holes could have been used as a simplified model of the motions of the sun and moon, so as to predict eclipses; and it has also been claimed that Stonehenge served as an observatory for very precisc observations of the extreme risings and settings of the moon.

Here oft, when Evening sheds her twilight ray, and gilds with fainter beam departing day, With breathless gaze, and cheek with terror pale, The lingering shepherd startles at the tale, How, at deep midnight, by the moon's chill glance, Unearthly forms prolong the viewless dance; While on each whispering breeze that murmurs by. His busied fancy hears the hollow sigh.

But Stonehenge isn’t ‘alone’. There is an amazing and fascinating monument called Dolmens in our country. Like Stonehenge it’s full of legends and myths about its creation, using and history.

Dolmens of North Caucasus

Concentrations of megaliths, dolmens and stone labyrinths have been found (but little studied) throughout the Caucasus Mountains, including the unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia.

Most of them are represented by rectangular structures made of stone slabs or cut in rocks with holes in their facade. These dolmens cover the Western Caucasus on both sides of the mountain ridge, in an area of approximately 12.000 square kilometers of Russia and Abkhazia.

The Caucasian dolmens represent a unique type of prehistoric architecture, built with precisely dressed large stone blocks. The stones were, for example, shaped into 90-degree angles, to be used as corners or were curved to make a circle. The monuments date between the end of the 4th millennium and the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C.

While generally unknown in the rest of Europe, these Russian megaliths are equal to the great megaliths of Europe in terms of age and quality of architecture, but are still of an unknown origin. In spite of the variety of Caucasian monuments, they show strong similarities with megaliths from different parts of Europe and Asia, like the Iberian Peninsula, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Israel and India. A range of hypotheses has been put forward to explain these similarities and the building of megaliths on the whole, but still it remains unclear.

Approximately 3,000 of these megalithic monuments are known in the Western Caucasus, but more are constantly being found, while more and more are also being destroyed. Today, many of these monuments are in great disrepair and will be completely lost if they are not protected from vandals and general neglect.

The dolmens have a limited variety in their architecture. The floor plans are square, trapezoidal, rectangular and round. All of the dolmens are punctuated with a portal in the centre of the facade. While round portholes are the most common, square ones are also found. In front of the facade is a court that usually splays out, creating an area where rituals possibly took place. The court is usually outlined by large stone walls, sometimes over a meter high, which enclose the court. It is in this area that Bronze and Iron Age pottery has been found - which helped date these tombs -, along with human remains, bronze tools and silver, gold and semi-precious stone ornaments.

The repertoire of decoration for these tombs is not great. Vertical and horizontal zigzags, hanging triangles and concentric circles are the most common motifs. One decorative motif that is quite common is found across the top of the porthole slab. It can best be described as a lintel held up by two columns. Pairs of breasts, done in relief, have also been found on a few tombs. These breasts usually appear above the two columns of the porthole decoration. Perhaps related to these are the stone plugs, which were used to block the porthole, and are found with almost every tomb. They are sometimes phallic-shaped.

Some unusual items associated with dolmens are big round stone balls, double balls and animal sculptures.

One of the most interesting megalithic complexes – group of three dolmens - stands in a row on a hill above Zhane River on the Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar area near Gelendzhik, Russia. In this area there is a great concentration of all types of megalithic sites including settlements and dolmen cemeteries. Large stone mounds surrounded the two monuments.

The central dolmen is rectangular in plan, 4 x 4 meters, while the two flanking dolmens are circular, 4 and 5 meters in diameter. The two round dolmens had been bulldozed - probably in the 1950s - in order to harvest the surrounding trees, but the main structure of the central dolmen had not been damaged. One of the dolmens is unique, with a secret entrance at the back of the chamber, and a façade, dummy entrance and courtyard on the front of the dolmen.

It is very difficult now to restore the rituals connected with the dolmens. Different dolmens are believed to have power in different areas, such as health, love, and family. People leave offerings at the appropriate dolmen to get help in each of the different areas of their lives.

The location of dolmens shows that they are occupying the even parts on the slopes of the hills, river terraces and not high mountains (maximum height up till 500-700 meters over the sea level). Only some single dolmens are located on the heights.

There is a source of water near dolmens all the time – 5-50 meters distance, and sometimes it can be underground. It tells about the importance of water in rituals of the dolmen builders. In most of the mythologies the water is the agent and principle of the birth, which can be connected to the motives of birth and death (alive or dead water) and be male or female. According to legends the dolmens have the special power to call the rain and we can see the zigzag ornament often on dolmens, which possibly means water as it was graphically imaged in many ancient cultures.

 Stone by itself is the material connected to the motives of death. It is the border between the world of the alive and the dead. The dolmen symbolized the mountain of the world, which got the dead to be born again. Naked women rub against the stones, scroll through the hole in stone, and drink water from the stone holes of dolmens to conceive a child.

The person buried in the dolmen was the medium between the world of the living and the gods. The dead were left in front of dolmen or were buried in the ground. After rotting, the bones and skull were put inside the dolmen. Later in time, the cult of the dead changed and the fear of the dead appeared. It is the time when the false-portal type of dolmens appeared. In order to stop the dead finding their way back in the world of the living, a convexity on a facade was made to simulate a stone plug, but the true hole is cut on the back side - on the north side of the dolmen, which was associated with the world of the dead. Sometimes it would be covered with soil, as it is the entrance to the underworld.

Myths and legends

Although it’s probably a futile effort, it is sometimes very intriguing to try to understand the motives behind the building of a monument such as Stonehenge. If the builders are somewhat a mystery to us, then their reasons to build Stonehenge are absolutely outside our scope of knowledge; we can only make educated guesses based on assumptions, so there is no way we could say that some idea is better than other. Here come some thoughts on the subject.

There are a lot of opinions of reasons of Stonehenge building. Most theories have guessed at a cultic purpose behind the astronomical design of the monument, on the grounds that such a mammoth undertaking must have had an ideological rather than practical basis. They derive from anthropology rather than from cultural and technological history. But Lockyer (Stonehenge Astronomically Considered, 1906) and others have pointed out the practical value of astronomical observation at a time when there was no other way to establish precise calendar dates, whether these were needed for agricultural, social, or seasonal-religious reasons.

The first one is that this monument was built with some religion aims. Many researchers have argued, who more convincingly than others, that Stonehenge was a site of religious rites of its time. There are several good reasons behind this assumption, but unfortunately it only takes one aspect of the theory that cannot be proven to collapse the whole train of thought. Remains of pig bones found on the site emphasize the theory of religious site, because no pig skulls were found among the bones. This means that the animals had to have brought to the site ready to cook (=beheaded), which would most likely have been done for the sake of the gods or the clergymen (or both).

This actually doesn't deny the "religious site" scheme (just the opposite), and it is almost as sure as something can be in history that Stonehenge has been used as a site for religious rites at least some point of its history. Now the wild-minded readers may get the impression of brutal human sacrifice rites, and while some evidence has been found to back this, there are no signs of continuous use of megalithic sites as sites for human sacrifice. Animals and such have almost certainly been involved, though. What neither of the previous tell us, is that was religion or sacrifice the initial reason to build Stonehenge, or was it something else? This derives from the fact that no verbal or written heritage has survived through the times about the ideas and motives of those Neolithic tribes (and of course from the fact that we cannot go back in time to ask them…).

The second opinion – Stonehenge is astronomical building. Facts tying Stonehenge to astronomy aren’t foolproof, but some at least very interesting points have been made in several studies of this topic. Probably the best known study of "astronomical Stonehenge" is Gerald Hawkins’ "Stonehenge Decoded", for which he used a modern computer to calculate all the sightlines (line of sight from one point in Stonehenge to a body of sky via landmarks such as stones) and their relation to objects of sky, mostly the Moon and the Sun, though.

The "modern man" must keep in mind that things may not be what they first seem to be. Being very close to earth and nature, not much unlike the close-to-nature cults today, the Neolithic Britons might have held objects of the sky as gods, and predicting the will of the gods was something essential to their existence, thus mixing the concepts we distinguish from each other today – religion and astronomy.

The third opinion is that Stonehenge is an observatory. If those ancient people really thought that the Sun and the Moon are gods, did they build a site where they could observe and worship their gods? There is a good possibility that this is the case, when viewed the characteristics of Stonehenge. For starters, there is a good view to the skies from the middle of the plain, there are no major obstructions to the field of vision, but then again, such is the case in many other places around southern England and Wiltshire, places that might have been more easily maintained and constructed.

According to the studies of other megalithic sites, the circular banks around sites could have been made to smoothen the horizon by elevating it a bit. If this was the case, there is no reason to think that the bank around Stonehenge would have been made for any other reason. On the other hand, this is just an assumption based on other sites that have higher banks around them.

The fact that caused the whole astronomical connection with Stonehenge was the direction of the summer solstice, or the direction of sunrise on the longest day of the year. This direction is almost exactly the same than the direction from the middle of Stonehenge, along the Avenue to the Heel Stone. This causes the image of sun rising behind the Heel Stone on the longest day of the year when observed from the Altar Stone.

Only problem is that there are quite a lot of this kind of sightlines. If one is to use only the Aubrey Holes, with variations of technique a total of over 100 sightlines can be defined. If the point of observation is shifted from the center of the ring to, say next to a sarsen, possible sightlines increase considerably. In fact it would be more amazing, if the sightlines didn’t match with some important astronomical direction.

The big sarsens could also have been used to determine sightlines.

The next one is prediction.  With the astronomical connection, it didn’t require an enormous leap of imagination to think that Stonehenge was used to also predicting events of the night sky. Hawkins and Hoyle developed their own methods to predict lunar eclipses with the construction of Stonehenge, which consisted of record-keeping with the help of the Aubrey Holes and movable marker stones or wooden logs. These theories are quite accurate, and the only flaw with them is the fact that they require rather high degree of astronomical and mathematical knowledge, in conjunction with records covering at least nearly twenty years. These records would have had to be passed without written records (since we assume there are none, because we haven't found any), and a society of high mathematical and astronomical skills without the wisdom of writing… well, let’s just say that it doesn’t add up properly.

Conclusion

If there is one to be made, it is that we don’t know much anything, which is exactly as much as we did know before. Whereas it’s disputable to claim that Stonehenge was used to predict or even observe astronomical events, it’s quite obvious that those Neolithic people who started to built Stonehenge did place a great importance to their gods – mainly the Sun and the Moon and if the megalith in the middle of Salisbury Plains wasn’t exactly built for skyworship, it was probably built with certain amount of honoring to the unknown.

Various theories have been put forth through the years. Some people have thought that the stones were part of religious rites practiced by sun worshippers. One scientist has even proved that the northeast axis of the stones aligns with the sunrise at the summer solstice. Other theories have the stones being part of an elaborate system of astronomical observation. What is for sure is that no one knows for sure why Stonehenge was built.

Much speculation has surrounded the engineering feats required to build Stonehenge. Assuming the bluestones were brought from Wales by hand, and not transported by glaciers as Aubrey Burl has claimed, various methods of moving them relying only on timber and rope have been suggested. In a 2001 exercise in experimental archaeology, an attempt was made to transport a large stone along a land and sea route from Wales to Stonehenge. Volunteers pulled it for some miles (with great difficulty) on a wooden sledge over land, using modern roads and low-friction netting to assist sliding, but it became clear that it would have been incredibly difficult for even the most organized of tribal groups to have pulled large numbers of stones across the densely wooded, rough and boggy terrain of West wales.

Many researchers have argued, who more convincingly than others, that Stonehenge was a site of religious rites of its time. There are several good reasons behind this assumption, but unfortunately it only takes one aspect of the theory that cannot be proven to collapse the whole train of thought.

Many archaeologists believe Stonehenge was an attempt to render in permanent stone the more common timber structures that dotted Salisbury Plain at the time, such as those that stood at Durrington Walls. Modern anthropological evidence has been used by Mike Parker Pearson and the Malagasy archaeologist Ramilisonina to suggest that timber was associated with the living and stone with the ancestral dead amongst prehistoric peoples. They have argued that Stonehenge was the terminus of a long, ritualized funerary procession for treating the dead, which began in the east, during sunrise at Woodhenge and Durrington Walls, moved down the Avon and then along the Avenue reaching Stonehenge in the west at sunset. The journey from wood to stone via water was, they consider, a symbolic journey from life to death. There is no satisfactory evidence to suggest that Stonehenge's astronomical alignments were anything more than symbolic and current interpretations favour a ritual role for the monument that takes into account its numerous burials and its presence within a wider landscape of sacred sites. Many also believe that the site may have had astrological/spiritual significance attached to it.

Stonehenge has been subjected to many theories about its origin, ranging from the academic worlds of archaeology to explanations from mythology and the paranormal.

Many early historians were influenced by supernatural folktales in their explanations. Some legends held that Merlin had a giant build the structure for him or that he had magically transported it from Mount Killaraus in Ireland, while others held the Devil responsible.

In conclusion should add, that no matter, that today we can’t open this mystery secret, which is kept by Stonehenge, but now we now more information about it. And maybe a bit later, maybe after some years scientists will find answers for all our questions about this mystery ‘circle of stones ’, but now we can only make theories.

Supplement I

I, Zaitseva Ekaterina, a schoolgirl 11 form, present you the scientific project devoted to Stonehenge.

All of us heard about such remarkable construction as Stonehenge. But we know about it only as about a heap of stones standing in the middle of a field. But if we study more attentively it will open so much improbably interesting that we want to open all the secrets of Stonehenge, but unfortunately it is impossible. Many riddles and the mystical facts surround this monument of architecture. In my project I will reveal the most interesting secrets, open the most terrible secrets and the most improbable details which surround this surprising and unusual, attracting with the mysteriousness and at the same time frightening with the obscurity.

I will tell you what connects Stonehenge with the astronomy, what ceremonies took place in this construction, and who actually was engaged in its building. What is under these stones? How did Druids use Stonehenge? You also learn how people by means of experiments tried to find out, who has created this mighty monument, people or extraterrestrial beings? And whether it was possible to them? You will learn about archaeological discoveries on the territory of Stonehenge. You also learn whether there are analogues of Stonehenge on the Earth. You will learn not only about the structure of Stonehenge, but also about an arrangement of stones, about their purpose. You will learn about Dolmen and their application. We will tell you secrets and legends which have been exciting our reason and force to wake up our curiosity, to study, to put experiences, to do excavation, to build various theories and then to check each of them.

But we cannot reveal all secrets, solve all secrets and find at once answers to all questions. Today we can slightly open only a curtain of the secret, that big and improbable secret which is hidden under the stones.

Supplement II

Я, Родина Ксения, ученица 11 класса, хочу представить вам свою научную работу, посвящённую этому монументу.

Все мы не раз слышали о таком замечательном сооружении как Стоунхендж. Но мы знаем о нём лишь как о куче камней, стоящих посреди поля и имеющих какую - то связь со сверхъестественным. Но если изучить более внимательно его, то нам откроется столько невероятно интересного, что захочется раскрыть все тайны Стоунхенджа, но, к сожалению, это невозможно. Много загадок и мистических фактов окружают этот памятник архитектуры. В своей работе я открою вам самые интересные тайны, раскрою самые страшные секреты и самые невероятные подробности, которые окружают этот удивительный и необычный, манящий своей загадочностью и в то же время пугающий своей неизвестностью каменный монумент.

Я расскажу о том, что связывает Стоунхендж с астрономией, какое отношение имеет зимнее и летнее солнцестояние к этому строению, какие обряды проходили внутри этого сооружения, откуда были привезены камни для постройки Стоунхенджа, и кто собственно занимался его постройкой. Что находится под этими камнями? Кто такие Друиды, и как они использовали Стоунхендж? Вы также узнаете, как люди с помощью экспериментов пытались выяснить, кто создал этот могучий памятник: люди или внеземные существа? И удалось ли им это? Вы узнаете об археологических раскопках, которые проводились на территории Стоунхенджа, и что учёные в итоге нашли? Вы также узнаете, существуют ли аналоги Стоунхенджа, или же он всё-таки один такой на Земле?

Вы также узнаете всё не только о строении Стоунхенджа, но и о расположении камней, об их назначении. Вы узнаете, что такое Дольмены, и каково их применение. Мы расскажем все тайны и легенды, которые на протяжении уже многих веков будоражат наш разум, заставляют изучать, экспериментировать, ставить опыты, проводить раскопки, строить различные теории, и потом каждую из них проверять.

Но мы не сможем открыть все тайны, разгадать все секреты и найти сразу ответы на все вопросы. Сегодня мы можем лишь приоткрыть занавес тайны, той большой и невероятной тайны, которая прячется под этими многотонными камнями.

Supplement III

1. What is Stonehenge?

2. Where is Stonehenge?

3. What do you know about history of Stonehenge?

4.  Where are there secrets at Stonehenge?

5. Who investigated Stonehenge?

6. What is the structure of these stones?

7. Where is it still possible to meet similar stones?

8. Has Stonehenge got ritual value?

9. Has Stonehenge got symbolical value?

10. How are ancient people and stones of Stonehenge connected?

11. Is Stonehenge a monument?

12. How is Stonehenge arranged?

13. What are the features of an arrangement of stones?

14. Has Stonehenge got any appointment?

15. What do you know about the structure of stones?

16. What do we know about Dolmens?

17. What do you know about an origin of Dolmens?

18. What do you know about Dolmens’ history?

19. What do ornaments on the walls of Dolmens tell us about?

20. Have Dolmens got ritual value?

21. What do you know about structure of Dolmens?

22. Are there legends connected with Stonehenge?

23. What relation does Stonehenge have to UNESCO?

24. Are there any analogues of this monument in the world?

25. How old is Stonehenge?

26. What has happened in the Bronze Age?

27. What are Y and Z holes?

28. How is Stonehenge connected with midsummer?

29. Where are Stonehenge’s stones from?

30. When was the final phase of Stonehenge building started?

31. Where is Marlborough Downs?

32. What are Torrington Walls?

33. What is the connection with Prissily Mountain?

34. Who are Druids?

35. What did they do there?

36. Did anyone try to make their own Stonehenge?

37. What’s happened with some of bluestones?

38. What do scientists think about mysteries of Stonehenge?

39. Who is John Aubrey?

40. What is his connection with Stonehenge?

41. And what is Aubrey Hole?

42. Where did prehistoric people live?

43. What did they do?

44. What clothes did they wear?

45. Where are Coneybury Hills?

46. How many people and how much time did they need to do new Stonehenge?

47. What method was used to erect stones?

48. How do several Sarsen look like?

49. What did the Late Neolitic period show us?

50. What did archeologists find near Stonehenge?

Supplement IV

1. Ancestor-предок.

2. Alignments-выравнивание.

3. Attempt - попытка, покушение.

4. Axis - ось.

5. Assumption - предположение.

6. Accuracy-точно

7.Arial-воздушный

8.Axe-heads-голова топора.

9.Blunt-тупой, резкий.

10.Beneath-под, ниже, внизу.

11.Brittle-хрупкий, ломкий.

12.Beech-бук.

13.Burn-амбар.

14.Bent-сгибать, изгиб.

15.Burial-похороны (погребение)

16.Chalk-мел.

17. Cattle-shed-хлев.

18. Conviction-убеждение.

19. Combination-сочетание.

20. Dig-рыть.

21. Ditch-канава.

22. Derivation-происхождение.

23. Enormous-громадный.

24. Effort-усилие.

25. Emphasize - подчеркивать.

26. Evidence - доказательство.

27.Favor-благосклонность, одолжение.

28.Faint-слабый, падать в обморок.

29.Forge-кузница, ковать.

30.Gate-ворота.

31.Haul-тянуть.

32.Hollow-впалый, пустой.

33. Horse-shoe-подкова.

34. Hint-намёк.

35.Increase-увеличивать, усиливать.

36.Inches-дюйм.

37.Mortise-выемка.

38.Outer-внешний (из, вне).

39.Predict-предсказывать.

40.Pivot-стержень.

41.Rope-верёвка

42.Rout-маршрут

43.Regard-смотреть

44.Render-отдавать

45.Struts-распорка

46.Settle-поселить.

47.Sideways-боком, косвенно

48.Slope-относ

49.Settlement-поселение

50.Sake-ради

51.Skill-искусство

52.Solstice-солнцестояние

53.Tenons-шипы

54.Timler-временный

55.Toe-палец ноги, носок.

56.Thatch-солома

57.Tribal-племя, род.

58.Terminus-конечная остановка.

59.Wheat-пшеница

60.Ditch-канава

Муниципальное бюджетное общеобразовательное учреждение

Одинцовская средняя общеобразовательная школа №3

Номинация: «Исследование»

Тема: «Мистика камней»

Выполнили:

Учащиеся 11 класса

МОУ «СОШ №3»

Одинцовского муниципального района

Зайцева Екатерина,

Гюлумян Артём,

Родина Ксения

Научный руководитель:

Чернякова Татьяна Михайловна

Учитель английского языка

МОУ «СОШ №3»

Одинцовского муниципального района

2010 год

I. Introduction

II.                     The main body

1. History and construction of Stonehenge

2. The Stonehenge area

3. Dolmens of North Caucasus

4.  Myths and legends

III.                  Conclusion

IV.                 List of literature

V.                    Supplement I

VI.                 Supplement II

VII.              Supplement III

The main aim:

to tell about the Stonehenge, about its history and the most interesting historical and also mystical and fascinating facts about the Stonehenge; to help pupils to learn an interesting and useful information for their language education  in a easier way.

What I’ve done to reach the aim:

1.                      Learnt many sources of information in Russian and English (exercises-books, modern English and Russian magazines and newspapers, Internet sites, TV-news and programs.

2.                      Found a lot of interesting pictures describing the Stonehenge.

3.                      Analyzed and systematize the information.

4.                      Made some questions to help readers to learn the facts better.

5.                      Made a vocabulary of difficult words to make studying pleasant.

6.                      Made a multi-media presentation to show the audience the main aspects of the work.

Introduction

The old believe everything,

The middle-aged suspect everything,

The young know everything.

Oscar Wilde

More than hundred stone rings exist in the British Isles, and scholars estimate than twice that number may originally have been built. Scholars usually classify these types of these megalithic structures as rings rather than circles, because the rough proportions for the different shapes are 2/3 true circles, 1/6 flatted circles, 1/9 ellipses, and 1/18 eggs. Stonehenge, however, is roughly circular.

The most famous prehistoric monument in the world, and now a world heritage site, Stonehenge stands alone in the vast empty tract of Salisbury plain.

It situated almost 3.2 km west Amesbury. The Stonehenge is a formation of stones in the circular fashion that are standing upright. The construction of this prehistoric monument started some 5000 years ago and it’s amazing to know, that these stones are still in place after 5 millenniums.

Different scholars have different thought about Stonehenge. Some say that the stones initially were erect; it was only after 2400 BC that they changed positions. Others say that the blue stones could have been the ones that were erected. The site of Stonehenge is also another addition to the UNESCO and a part of the World heritage Sites since 1986. It is also protected by scheduled Ancient monument. The Stonehenge is a pride of the national trust of the country.

Most theories have guessed at a cultic purpose behind the astronomical design of the monument, on the grounds that such a mammoth undertaking must have had an ideological rather than practical basis. They derive from anthropology rather than from cultural and technological history. But Lockyer (Stonehenge Astronomically Considered, 1906) and others have pointed out the practical value of astronomical observation at a time when there was no other way to establish precise calendar dates, wether these were Prehistorians and archeologists speak about the ‘myths’ of renewal of ancient cultures, but to the ancient people the festivals were not celebrations of myth but rather celebrations of a current reality. The reality was periodic energetic effect of solar, lunar, and stellar cycles of human beings, the animal kingdom, and the earth itself. This energetic effect, the increased presence of energy at the sacred sites during particular periods of the astronomical cycles, was the focus of the ritual use of stone rings and so many of the other ancient sanctuaries found around the world.

The main body

The standing stones in the centre consist of two main kinds of rock. The larger blocks and their lintels are all of sarsen, natural sandstone which occurs as huge boulders on the surface of the Marlborough Downs about 30km (20 miles) to the north of Stonehenge. The smaller stones, known as the Bluestones from their color, are of several kinds of rock which come from the Preseli Mountain in south-west Wales, about 385km (240 miles) away.

The Sarsen Circle, about 30m (100ft) in diameter, consisted originally of 30 uprights, each weighing about 25 tonnes, capped by a continuous ring of 30 lintels weighing about 7 tonnes. Inside it was a horseshoe of five Sarsen Trilithons each consisting of a pair of huge uprights, weighing up to 45 tonnes, capped by a massive lintel.

Apart from the Heel Stone and Station Stones, all the sarsens have been dressed to shape by pounding their surfaces with stone hammers. The uprights are slightly 'dished' on the top to provide a secure seating for the lintels, and tenons have been left projecting from them to fit into corresponding hollow mortice-holes in the undersides of the lintels. In addition, the lintels of the outer circle are fitted to each other with vertical tongue-and- groove joints.

The Bluestone Circle, now much ruined and incomplete, stands inside the sarsen circle. Originally it consisted of about 60 stones set close together. Only two of the surviving stones have been dressed to shape, and both of these had formerly been used as lintels.

The Bluestone Horseshoe, standing inside which alternate round the horseshoe. Two of them bear traces on their tops of projecting tenons, which have been almost battered away. Another has a dished top, like the sarsen uprights, and the adjacent pillar has a groove worked all the way down one side. This stone must once have fitted against another with a corresponding ridge, which now survives only as a stump below the surface on the opposite side of the horseshoe.

At the focus of the bluestone horseshoe is the Altar Stone, a dressed block of blue-grey sandstone from the shores of Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire, about 5m (16ft) long. It is now buried in the ground beneath the fallen upright

Stonehenge, the most visited and well known of the British stone rings, is a composite structure built during three distinct periods.

History and construction of Stonehenge

As in many later cathedrals and churches, not all the structures that we see today at Stonehenge were built at the same time. As the result of excavations we can now divide the history of Stonehenge into several periods, covering a span of about fifteen centuries between about 3050 and 1600BC.

The first Stonehenge comprised a ditch, bank and counterscarp enclosing the Aubrey Holes. There was a main entrance in the north-east on roughly the present alignment, and a southern secondary entrance

THE FIRST PHASE of Stonehenge was a circular earthwork, similar in appearance to a Neolithic causewayed enclosure. It may have served as a ceremonial tribal meeting place, but its alignment also suggests a relationship with the midsummer sunrise. The earliest structures were the circular ditch and bank, which survive today, dating from about 3050BC. Within the bank, the ring of the Aubrey Holes was dug. These were round pits in the chalk, averaging one metre wide and deep, with steep sides and flat bottoms, forming  a circle 86.6m (284ft) in diameter. Initially they held timber posts, but were later left unused except for cremation burials.

The circular earthwork had two entrances: a main causeway in the north-east, aligning with the midsummer sunrise, and a smaller second­ary southern entrance. No structures at the centre can be attributed to this phase, though the evidence may have been obscured by later developments.

This earliest phase of Stonehenge was contemporary with the Cursus, just to the north. Settlement of the otherwise mobile population was taking place in nearby localities. Interment of their dead was in Long Barrows.

The third phase of Stonehenge began with the arrival of the bluestones from the

THE SECOND PHASE of Stonehenge lasted three centuries between 2900BC and 2600BC. Archaeological evidence shows that timber settings were added to the interior of the earthwork 'henge', although the design, form and extent of these cannot be affirmed.

The Late Neolithic period saw the develop­ment of other 'henge' monuments, such as Durrington Walls and Coneybury. At these sites internal arrangements of post-holes indicate timber settings in the form of either roofed buildings or tribal markers.

At Stonehenge there were timber settings in the centre of the monument and in the north­east entrance, and also running towards the southern entrance.

The ditch had been allowed to fill up nat­urally. Cremation burials were deposited there and in the disused and partially filled Aubrey Holes. It is possible that the site may have held 'celestial' significance for burial.

In this second phase of Stonehenge, there is evidence of settlement within a kilometer of the monument and probably a large palisade, which suggests formal division of land.

THE THIRD AND FINAL PHASE of Stonehenge saw the arrival of stones, transported over long distances.

It began with the bluestones in about 2600BC. Bluestones from Preseli Mountain in Wales, weighing up to 4 tonnes apiece, were set up to form a double crescent in the centre of the earthwork. Their excavated sockets are referred to as the Q & R holes.

PERHAPS TWO OR THREE HUNDRED YEARS after the arrival of the bluestones, the construc­tion of the sarsen stone circle was begun. It was to become one of the greatest achievements of prehistory.

The huge engineering project began with the transport of the sarsen stones, each weighing over 25 tonnes, from the Marlborough Downs, 30km (20 miles) to the north. At the centre, five huge trilithons, each of two uprights and a lintel, were raised, and around them were set 30 sarsen uprights in a circle capped with a continuous line of sarsen lintels, each morticed and shaped to the curve of the circle. The blue- stones were also reset within the circle.

The principal entrance in the north-east was marked by three Portal Stones. Today only one, the fallen Slaughter Stone, remains. Outside the entrance was set the Heel Stone, also a second stone, marking the alignment with the mid­summer sunrise.

Within the perimeter of the bank, the four Station Stones marked alignments with lunar cycles as well as the midwinter sunset. Neither the Station Stones nor the Heel Stone was dressed to shape, in contrast with the stones in the centre of the circle. It is therefore possible that these sarsen stones may have pre-dated the circle, but impossible to know for certainty.

However we can be certain that the pro­cessional Avenue was marked out about this. It was probably the route of the sarsens into the earthwork. The Avenue led directly into the entrance of Stonehenge and its line is marked with parallel ditches and banks. The extraordinary design and construction of Stonehenge exhibits a number of refinements which cannot be found anywhere else amongst the prehistoric stone monuments of Europe, outside the Mediterranean. First, all the stones have been squared and dressed to shape by pounding their surfaces with heavy stone hammers before they were erected. Second, the lintels are held in place on the uprights by mortice-and-tenon joints worked in solid stone, and lintels in the circle are locked end-to-end by vertical tongue-and-groove joints. Thirdly, the sides of the lintels are shaped to the curve of the circle, and the sides of the trilithon lintels

The jointing of the stones was probably copied from woodworking methods, and we know that timber settings had been used on phase 2 of Stonehenge and at Durrington Walls and other sites. The upward taper of the sarsen pillars may imitate the natural form of trees, creating an illusion for greater height. Similarly the tilting of the sides of the trilithon lintels makes them look vertical to an observer inside the horseshoe.

Given the size and weight of the stones, and the primitive means available for moving, shaping and erecting them, Stonehenge represents one of the most remarkable and astonishing of all the achievements of prehis­toric people in Europe.

The final phase of Stonehenge extended another 700 years until about 1600BC. Archaeological evidence during this period shows no change in the arrangement of the sarsen circle and horseshoe, but, for reasons unknown, the bluestones were rearranged at least three times. They may have imitated the sarsen settings, and were also arranged in the form of a circle and an oval. Then, in their final setting, they were changed to a circle and a horseshoe. In about 1700BC a double circle of the Y and Z Holes was dug around the outside of the sarsen circle, with possibly the intention of rearranging the bluestones yet again. For reasons unknown, the work remained unfinished.

During the thousand-year duration of phase 3, the landscape around Stonehenge witnessed substantial cultural change and development. Settlement increased. From about 2000BC metal tools and weapons gradually displaced flint and stone. Round barrows, often in groups, were used for the single burials of kings or leaders, usually with grave goods to support them on the journey into the next world. The environs of Stonehenge may not have supported a large local population, but clearly it was expertly governed to enable communal works such as the sarsen stone circle to be built. Even with imported labour, the building of Stonehenge may have taken a number of years.

Carvings on the stones Several sarsen uprights have prehistoric carvings on their sides. The earliest of these, high up on the inside face of the fourth trilithon of the horseshoe, is a shallow oblong shape thought to be similar to carvings found in Neolithic stone burial-chambers in Brittany, which are sometimes thought to represent in a simplified and symbolic way the figure of a mother-goddess. This carving is out of reach of the ground and was therefore made, probably, before the stone was set up.

Stonehenge is one of the most remarkable achievements of prehistoric engineering in Europe. For building it the only motive power was human muscles, aided by the simplest devices such as ropes, levers and rollers.

The ditch, the Aubrey Holes, and all the other holes for stones and posts were dug with pick-axes made from the antlers of red deer. The chalk rubble loosened with picks was scraped together with the shoulder-blades of cattle and loaded into baskets so that it could be dumped where required. Wooden shovels may have been used as well, but no trace of them survives. Modern experiments have shown that these tools are more effective than they look. To dig the Stonehenge ditch and build the bank with them would have taken only twice the time required to do it today with steel picks, shovels and buckets.

The bluestones at Stonehenge certainly come from the Preseli Mountain in south-west Wales and from the shores of Milford Haven. Whether they were brought directly to Stonehenge, or to some intermediate point in the first instance, their transport over so long a distance is an astonishing feat. The map shows the most likely route. From the Preseli Mountain, where boulders of bluestone of all shapes and sizes lie on the surface, they would be dragged on sledges and rollers to the headwaters of Milford Haven. There they would be loaded on to rafts, and carried by water along the south coast of Wales and up the Rivers Avon and Frome tonear the modem town of Frome in Somerset. On the rivers, rafts were probably used instead of boats, which would have run aground in shallow water. From there they would be hauled overland again for about 10km (6 miles) to near Warminster in Wiltshire. From here to Stonehenge the route is again mainly by water, down the River Wylye to Salisbury and up the Salisbury Avon to West Amesbury. The total distance is about 385km (240 miles).The sarsen stones were almost certainly brought from the Marlborough Downs near Avebury in north Wiltshire, about 30km (20 miles) north of Stonehenge, where large blocks of stone lie thickly on the surface. For these heavier stones water transport would be impossible, and they must have been dragged overland all the way on massive sledges and rollers, hauled with ropes of leather or cow- hair. The map shows the most probable route. Over most of it the slopes up and down are fairly easy; but at Redhorn Hill on the southern edge of the Vale of Pewsey the gradient is steep. To pull the heaviest stone, weighing about 50 tonnes, up this hill would have below Raising a needed about 500 people, with an extra stone into an hundred at least to lay the rollers in front of the upright setting sledge and keep it from wandering sideways.

   Modern work studies suggest that even if all 600 people had been continuously employed over the complete route, the task would have taken more than a year to complete.

At Stonehenge itself the uprights and lintels were dressed to shape by pounding their surfaces with heavy sarsen hammers about the size of a football, many of which were later used as packing-stones round the bases of the uprights. The hollow mortices in the lintels were made in the same way. The tops of the stones must have been dressed level, leaving the tenons projecting, only after the uprights had been raised and given time to settle in the chalk. This was slow work, because sarsen stone is exceptionally hard and will turn the cutting edge even of modern steel tools.

The method probably used to erect the stones is shown below. A foundation pit was dug in the chalk, with one side vertical and the opposite one of the form of a sloping ramp. A row of wooden stakes was driven in against the vertical side to stop the chalk being crushed down by the toe of the stone as it was raised. The stone, base foremost, was then moved on rollers towards the ramp, until its toe was over the hole and its centre of gravity avas just behind the leading roller. The outer end was then levered up, dipping the base into the hole, until the stone over-balanced at the next moment and came to rest in a leaning' position. Next, with levers supported by timber packing, it was raised a few inches at a time and held in place by struts when the packing had to be rebuilt closer to the stone. Finally it would be pulled upright by gangs of men hauling on ropes. To raise a stone of the outer circle of sarsens would need about 200 people.

To help in adjusting the stones to a vertical position, their bases were dressed to a blunt point on which the mass could more easily pivot. When the final adjustment had been made, the hole round the base was rapidly packed with stones, including discarded hammers, and with chalk rammed hard.

The final stage of Stonehenge has been dated to about 1600BC. Its subsequent history is one of ruin, damage and destruction. In spite of their great size, many of the sarsen stones have disappeared. We know, however, that their builders were trying to achieve the maximum overall height with the material available, so that many of them stood in dangerously shallow holes and probably fell over at an early date. Moreover, there is no natural building stone within 21km (13 miles) of Stonehenge, so that in the Middle Ages, if not before, the fallen stones and the lintels (which could be levered or pulled off their uprights fairly easily) must have provided a convenient quarry for local builders.

The disappearance of so many of the bluestones, or their survival only as stumps below ground level, is easy to understand, because they are smaller' and more brittle than the sarsens, and thus easier to pull down or break up with hammers. Much of the destruction is certainly due to earlier visitors, who delighted in knocking off fragments as keepsakes. Indeed at one time a hammer could be readily hired at the blacksmith's forge in Amesbury for this very purpose. It is known too that up to about a century ago the local farmers used to break up the bluestones and the fallen sarsens for road metal, to repair farm tracks and gateways.

Until 1918, when it was given to the nation, Stonehenge was in private hands. Since that date about half of the site has been excavated at various times, and a number of the leaning and fallen stones have been straightened and re- erected. In recent years the number of visitors has become so large (700,000 in a year) that the surface of the monument, right out to the surrounding bank and ditch, has been dangerously eroded, and many of the fallen stones, and the stumps which protrude above the surface, are being ground away by the feet of those who step or climb on them. It has thus become necessary to prevent further erosion by restricting public access to the interior of the site. Only in this way can this unique structure be preserved for the future.

Three hundred years ago the antiquary John Aubrey first suggested that stone circles were Druidical temples, and ever since it has been popularly believed that Stonehenge was built and used by the Druids. This belief is certainly false. Everything that we know about the Druids was recorded by classical writers like Julius Caesar, who tell us that they were a Celtic priesthood who flourished in Britain at the time of the Roman conquest, and perhaps for a few centuries before. By then the stones of Stonehenge had been standing for two thousand years, and were probably already in ruins. Moreover, these accounts make it clear that the Druids built no temples of their own, but held their ceremonies in clearings in the forest.

It may be, however, that the Druids inherited the knowledge and observations of natural events, astronomy included, of the builders of Stonehenge, handed down over the centuries by word of mouth. We are told that the Druids' lore was enshrined in a series of interminable verses, which a novice might take up to twenty years to learn by heart. Since there is no evidence from prehistoric Britain for any method of writing, or of writing down numbers, this is one way in which such knowledge could have been stored and then passed on from one generation to the next. We know, for instance, that in the Pacific today accurate sailing- directions for very long voyages have been handed down by word of mouth alone over a period of many centuries.

Astronomy at Stonehenge Ever since the early eighteenth century it has been recognized that the axis of the sarsen stone circle points roughly to where an observer at the centre of Stonehenge would see the sun rise on the longest day of the year, in its most northerly position on the horizon. The entrance was also reoriented slightly during the lifetime of Stonehenge to compensate for astronomical variation in the midsummer sunrise over many centuries.

More recently it has been suggested that the lines joining the four Station Stones could also have marked the most northerly and southerly positions on the horizon of the risings and settings of the sun and the moon, and that the latitude of Stonehenge was chosen so that pairs of these directions would be at right angles. In addition, the theory has been advanced that the ring of Aubrey Holes could have been used as a simplified model of the motions of the sun and moon, so as to predict eclipses; and it has also been claimed that Stonehenge served as an observatory for very precisc observations of the extreme risings and settings of the moon.

Here oft, when Evening sheds her twilight ray, and gilds with fainter beam departing day, With breathless gaze, and cheek with terror pale, The lingering shepherd startles at the tale, How, at deep midnight, by the moon's chill glance, Unearthly forms prolong the viewless dance; While on each whispering breeze that murmurs by. His busied fancy hears the hollow sigh.

But Stonehenge isn’t ‘alone’. There is an amazing and fascinating monument called Dolmens in our country. Like Stonehenge it’s full of legends and myths about its creation, using and history.

Dolmens of North Caucasus

Concentrations of megaliths, dolmens and stone labyrinths have been found (but little studied) throughout the Caucasus Mountains, including the unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia.

Most of them are represented by rectangular structures made of stone slabs or cut in rocks with holes in their facade. These dolmens cover the Western Caucasus on both sides of the mountain ridge, in an area of approximately 12.000 square kilometers of Russia and Abkhazia.

The Caucasian dolmens represent a unique type of prehistoric architecture, built with precisely dressed large stone blocks. The stones were, for example, shaped into 90-degree angles, to be used as corners or were curved to make a circle. The monuments date between the end of the 4th millennium and the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C.

While generally unknown in the rest of Europe, these Russian megaliths are equal to the great megaliths of Europe in terms of age and quality of architecture, but are still of an unknown origin. In spite of the variety of Caucasian monuments, they show strong similarities with megaliths from different parts of Europe and Asia, like the Iberian Peninsula, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Israel and India. A range of hypotheses has been put forward to explain these similarities and the building of megaliths on the whole, but still it remains unclear.

Approximately 3,000 of these megalithic monuments are known in the Western Caucasus, but more are constantly being found, while more and more are also being destroyed. Today, many of these monuments are in great disrepair and will be completely lost if they are not protected from vandals and general neglect.

The dolmens have a limited variety in their architecture. The floor plans are square, trapezoidal, rectangular and round. All of the dolmens are punctuated with a portal in the centre of the facade. While round portholes are the most common, square ones are also found. In front of the facade is a court that usually splays out, creating an area where rituals possibly took place. The court is usually outlined by large stone walls, sometimes over a meter high, which enclose the court. It is in this area that Bronze and Iron Age pottery has been found - which helped date these tombs -, along with human remains, bronze tools and silver, gold and semi-precious stone ornaments.

The repertoire of decoration for these tombs is not great. Vertical and horizontal zigzags, hanging triangles and concentric circles are the most common motifs. One decorative motif that is quite common is found across the top of the porthole slab. It can best be described as a lintel held up by two columns. Pairs of breasts, done in relief, have also been found on a few tombs. These breasts usually appear above the two columns of the porthole decoration. Perhaps related to these are the stone plugs, which were used to block the porthole, and are found with almost every tomb. They are sometimes phallic-shaped.

Some unusual items associated with dolmens are big round stone balls, double balls and animal sculptures.

One of the most interesting megalithic complexes – group of three dolmens - stands in a row on a hill above Zhane River on the Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar area near Gelendzhik, Russia. In this area there is a great concentration of all types of megalithic sites including settlements and dolmen cemeteries. Large stone mounds surrounded the two monuments.

The central dolmen is rectangular in plan, 4 x 4 meters, while the two flanking dolmens are circular, 4 and 5 meters in diameter. The two round dolmens had been bulldozed - probably in the 1950s - in order to harvest the surrounding trees, but the main structure of the central dolmen had not been damaged. One of the dolmens is unique, with a secret entrance at the back of the chamber, and a façade, dummy entrance and courtyard on the front of the dolmen.

It is very difficult now to restore the rituals connected with the dolmens. Different dolmens are believed to have power in different areas, such as health, love, and family. People leave offerings at the appropriate dolmen to get help in each of the different areas of their lives.

The location of dolmens shows that they are occupying the even parts on the slopes of the hills, river terraces and not high mountains (maximum height up till 500-700 meters over the sea level). Only some single dolmens are located on the heights.

There is a source of water near dolmens all the time – 5-50 meters distance, and sometimes it can be underground. It tells about the importance of water in rituals of the dolmen builders. In most of the mythologies the water is the agent and principle of the birth, which can be connected to the motives of birth and death (alive or dead water) and be male or female. According to legends the dolmens have the special power to call the rain and we can see the zigzag ornament often on dolmens, which possibly means water as it was graphically imaged in many ancient cultures.

 Stone by itself is the material connected to the motives of death. It is the border between the world of the alive and the dead. The dolmen symbolized the mountain of the world, which got the dead to be born again. Naked women rub against the stones, scroll through the hole in stone, and drink water from the stone holes of dolmens to conceive a child.

The person buried in the dolmen was the medium between the world of the living and the gods. The dead were left in front of dolmen or were buried in the ground. After rotting, the bones and skull were put inside the dolmen. Later in time, the cult of the dead changed and the fear of the dead appeared. It is the time when the false-portal type of dolmens appeared. In order to stop the dead finding their way back in the world of the living, a convexity on a facade was made to simulate a stone plug, but the true hole is cut on the back side - on the north side of the dolmen, which was associated with the world of the dead. Sometimes it would be covered with soil, as it is the entrance to the underworld.

Myths and legends

Although it’s probably a futile effort, it is sometimes very intriguing to try to understand the motives behind the building of a monument such as Stonehenge. If the builders are somewhat a mystery to us, then their reasons to build Stonehenge are absolutely outside our scope of knowledge; we can only make educated guesses based on assumptions, so there is no way we could say that some idea is better than other. Here come some thoughts on the subject.

There are a lot of opinions of reasons of Stonehenge building. Most theories have guessed at a cultic purpose behind the astronomical design of the monument, on the grounds that such a mammoth undertaking must have had an ideological rather than practical basis. They derive from anthropology rather than from cultural and technological history. But Lockyer (Stonehenge Astronomically Considered, 1906) and others have pointed out the practical value of astronomical observation at a time when there was no other way to establish precise calendar dates, whether these were needed for agricultural, social, or seasonal-religious reasons.

The first one is that this monument was built with some religion aims. Many researchers have argued, who more convincingly than others, that Stonehenge was a site of religious rites of its time. There are several good reasons behind this assumption, but unfortunately it only takes one aspect of the theory that cannot be proven to collapse the whole train of thought. Remains of pig bones found on the site emphasize the theory of religious site, because no pig skulls were found among the bones. This means that the animals had to have brought to the site ready to cook (=beheaded), which would most likely have been done for the sake of the gods or the clergymen (or both).

This actually doesn't deny the "religious site" scheme (just the opposite), and it is almost as sure as something can be in history that Stonehenge has been used as a site for religious rites at least some point of its history. Now the wild-minded readers may get the impression of brutal human sacrifice rites, and while some evidence has been found to back this, there are no signs of continuous use of megalithic sites as sites for human sacrifice. Animals and such have almost certainly been involved, though. What neither of the previous tell us, is that was religion or sacrifice the initial reason to build Stonehenge, or was it something else? This derives from the fact that no verbal or written heritage has survived through the times about the ideas and motives of those Neolithic tribes (and of course from the fact that we cannot go back in time to ask them…).

The second opinion – Stonehenge is astronomical building. Facts tying Stonehenge to astronomy aren’t foolproof, but some at least very interesting points have been made in several studies of this topic. Probably the best known study of "astronomical Stonehenge" is Gerald Hawkins’ "Stonehenge Decoded", for which he used a modern computer to calculate all the sightlines (line of sight from one point in Stonehenge to a body of sky via landmarks such as stones) and their relation to objects of sky, mostly the Moon and the Sun, though.

The "modern man" must keep in mind that things may not be what they first seem to be. Being very close to earth and nature, not much unlike the close-to-nature cults today, the Neolithic Britons might have held objects of the sky as gods, and predicting the will of the gods was something essential to their existence, thus mixing the concepts we distinguish from each other today – religion and astronomy.

The third opinion is that Stonehenge is an observatory. If those ancient people really thought that the Sun and the Moon are gods, did they build a site where they could observe and worship their gods? There is a good possibility that this is the case, when viewed the characteristics of Stonehenge. For starters, there is a good view to the skies from the middle of the plain, there are no major obstructions to the field of vision, but then again, such is the case in many other places around southern England and Wiltshire, places that might have been more easily maintained and constructed.

According to the studies of other megalithic sites, the circular banks around sites could have been made to smoothen the horizon by elevating it a bit. If this was the case, there is no reason to think that the bank around Stonehenge would have been made for any other reason. On the other hand, this is just an assumption based on other sites that have higher banks around them.

The fact that caused the whole astronomical connection with Stonehenge was the direction of the summer solstice, or the direction of sunrise on the longest day of the year. This direction is almost exactly the same than the direction from the middle of Stonehenge, along the Avenue to the Heel Stone. This causes the image of sun rising behind the Heel Stone on the longest day of the year when observed from the Altar Stone.

Only problem is that there are quite a lot of this kind of sightlines. If one is to use only the Aubrey Holes, with variations of technique a total of over 100 sightlines can be defined. If the point of observation is shifted from the center of the ring to, say next to a sarsen, possible sightlines increase considerably. In fact it would be more amazing, if the sightlines didn’t match with some important astronomical direction.

The big sarsens could also have been used to determine sightlines.

The next one is prediction.  With the astronomical connection, it didn’t require an enormous leap of imagination to think that Stonehenge was used to also predicting events of the night sky. Hawkins and Hoyle developed their own methods to predict lunar eclipses with the construction of Stonehenge, which consisted of record-keeping with the help of the Aubrey Holes and movable marker stones or wooden logs. These theories are quite accurate, and the only flaw with them is the fact that they require rather high degree of astronomical and mathematical knowledge, in conjunction with records covering at least nearly twenty years. These records would have had to be passed without written records (since we assume there are none, because we haven't found any), and a society of high mathematical and astronomical skills without the wisdom of writing… well, let’s just say that it doesn’t add up properly.

Conclusion

If there is one to be made, it is that we don’t know much anything, which is exactly as much as we did know before. Whereas it’s disputable to claim that Stonehenge was used to predict or even observe astronomical events, it’s quite obvious that those Neolithic people who started to built Stonehenge did place a great importance to their gods – mainly the Sun and the Moon and if the megalith in the middle of Salisbury Plains wasn’t exactly built for skyworship, it was probably built with certain amount of honoring to the unknown.

Various theories have been put forth through the years. Some people have thought that the stones were part of religious rites practiced by sun worshippers. One scientist has even proved that the northeast axis of the stones aligns with the sunrise at the summer solstice. Other theories have the stones being part of an elaborate system of astronomical observation. What is for sure is that no one knows for sure why Stonehenge was built.

Much speculation has surrounded the engineering feats required to build Stonehenge. Assuming the bluestones were brought from Wales by hand, and not transported by glaciers as Aubrey Burl has claimed, various methods of moving them relying only on timber and rope have been suggested. In a 2001 exercise in experimental archaeology, an attempt was made to transport a large stone along a land and sea route from Wales to Stonehenge. Volunteers pulled it for some miles (with great difficulty) on a wooden sledge over land, using modern roads and low-friction netting to assist sliding, but it became clear that it would have been incredibly difficult for even the most organized of tribal groups to have pulled large numbers of stones across the densely wooded, rough and boggy terrain of West wales.

Many researchers have argued, who more convincingly than others, that Stonehenge was a site of religious rites of its time. There are several good reasons behind this assumption, but unfortunately it only takes one aspect of the theory that cannot be proven to collapse the whole train of thought.

Many archaeologists believe Stonehenge was an attempt to render in permanent stone the more common timber structures that dotted Salisbury Plain at the time, such as those that stood at Durrington Walls. Modern anthropological evidence has been used by Mike Parker Pearson and the Malagasy archaeologist Ramilisonina to suggest that timber was associated with the living and stone with the ancestral dead amongst prehistoric peoples. They have argued that Stonehenge was the terminus of a long, ritualized funerary procession for treating the dead, which began in the east, during sunrise at Woodhenge and Durrington Walls, moved down the Avon and then along the Avenue reaching Stonehenge in the west at sunset. The journey from wood to stone via water was, they consider, a symbolic journey from life to death. There is no satisfactory evidence to suggest that Stonehenge's astronomical alignments were anything more than symbolic and current interpretations favour a ritual role for the monument that takes into account its numerous burials and its presence within a wider landscape of sacred sites. Many also believe that the site may have had astrological/spiritual significance attached to it.

Stonehenge has been subjected to many theories about its origin, ranging from the academic worlds of archaeology to explanations from mythology and the paranormal.

Many early historians were influenced by supernatural folktales in their explanations. Some legends held that Merlin had a giant build the structure for him or that he had magically transported it from Mount Killaraus in Ireland, while others held the Devil responsible.

In conclusion should add, that no matter, that today we can’t open this mystery secret, which is kept by Stonehenge, but now we now more information about it. And maybe a bit later, maybe after some years scientists will find answers for all our questions about this mystery ‘circle of stones ’, but now we can only make theories.

Supplement I

I, Zaitseva Ekaterina, a schoolgirl 11 form, present you the scientific project devoted to Stonehenge.

All of us heard about such remarkable construction as Stonehenge. But we know about it only as about a heap of stones standing in the middle of a field. But if we study more attentively it will open so much improbably interesting that we want to open all the secrets of Stonehenge, but unfortunately it is impossible. Many riddles and the mystical facts surround this monument of architecture. In my project I will reveal the most interesting secrets, open the most terrible secrets and the most improbable details which surround this surprising and unusual, attracting with the mysteriousness and at the same time frightening with the obscurity.

I will tell you what connects Stonehenge with the astronomy, what ceremonies took place in this construction, and who actually was engaged in its building. What is under these stones? How did Druids use Stonehenge? You also learn how people by means of experiments tried to find out, who has created this mighty monument, people or extraterrestrial beings? And whether it was possible to them? You will learn about archaeological discoveries on the territory of Stonehenge. You also learn whether there are analogues of Stonehenge on the Earth.You will learn not only about the structure of Stonehenge, but also about an arrangement of stones, about their purpose. You will learn about Dolmen and their application. We will tell you secrets and legends which have been exciting our reason and force to wake up our curiosity, to study, to put experiences, to do excavation, to build various theories and then to check each of them.

But we cannot reveal all secrets, solve all secrets and find at once answers to all questions. Today we can slightly open only a curtain of the secret, that big and improbable secret which is hidden under the stones.

Supplement II

Я, Родина Ксения, ученица 11 класса, хочу представить вам свою научную работу, посвящённую этому монументу.

Все мы не раз слышали о таком замечательном сооружении как Стоунхендж. Но мы знаем о нём лишь как о куче камней, стоящих посреди поля и имеющих какую - то связь со сверхъестественным. Но если изучить более внимательно его, то нам откроется столько невероятно интересного, что захочется раскрыть все тайны Стоунхенджа, но, к сожалению, это невозможно. Много загадок и мистических фактов окружают этот памятник архитектуры. В своей работе я открою вам самые интересные тайны, раскрою самые страшные секреты и самые невероятные подробности, которые окружают этот удивительный и необычный, манящий своей загадочностью и в то же время пугающий своей неизвестностью каменный монумент.

Я расскажу о том, что связывает Стоунхендж с астрономией, какое отношение имеет зимнее и летнее солнцестояние к этому строению, какие обряды проходили внутри этого сооружения, откуда были привезены камни для постройки Стоунхенджа, и кто собственно занимался его постройкой. Что находится под этими камнями? Кто такие Друиды, и как они использовали Стоунхендж? Вы также узнаете, как люди с помощью экспериментов пытались выяснить, кто создал этот могучий памятник: люди или внеземные существа? И удалось ли им это? Вы узнаете об археологических раскопках, которые проводились на территории Стоунхенджа, и что учёные в итоге нашли? Вы также узнаете, существуют ли аналоги Стоунхенджа, или же он всё-таки один такой на Земле?

Вы также узнаете всё не только о строении Стоунхенджа, но и о расположении камней, об их назначении. Вы узнаете, что такое Дольмены, и каково их применение. Мы расскажем все тайны и легенды, которые на протяжении уже многих веков будоражат наш разум, заставляют изучать, экспериментировать, ставить опыты, проводить раскопки, строить различные теории, и потом каждую из них проверять.

Но мы не сможем открыть все тайны, разгадать все секреты и найти сразу ответы на все вопросы. Сегодня мы можем лишь приоткрыть занавес тайны, той большой и невероятной тайны, которая прячется под этими многотонными камнями.

Supplement III

1. What is Stonehenge?

2. Where is Stonehenge?

3. What do you know about history of Stonehenge?

4.  Where are there secrets at Stonehenge?

5. Who investigated Stonehenge?

6. What is the structure of these stones?

7. Where is it still possible to meet similar stones?

8. Has Stonehenge got ritual value?

9. Has Stonehenge got symbolical value?

10. How are ancient people and stones of Stonehenge connected?

11. Is Stonehenge a monument?

12. How is Stonehenge arranged?

13. What are the features of an arrangement of stones?

14. Has Stonehenge got any appointment?

15. What do you know about the structure of stones?

16. What do we know about Dolmens?

17. What do you know about an origin of Dolmens?

18. What do you know about Dolmens’ history?

19. What do ornaments on the walls of Dolmens tell us about?

20. Have Dolmens got ritual value?

21. What do you know about structure of Dolmens?

22. Are there legends connected with Stonehenge?

23. What relation does Stonehenge have to UNESCO?

24. Are there any analogues of this monument in the world?

25. How old is Stonehenge?

26. What has happened in the Bronze Age?

27. What are Y and Z holes?

28. How is Stonehenge connected with midsummer?

29. Where are Stonehenge’s stones from?

30. When was the final phase of Stonehenge building started?

31. Where is Marlborough Downs?

32. What are Durrington Walls?

33. What is the connection with Priseli Mountain?

34. Who are Druids?

35. What did they do there?

36. Did anyone try to make their own Stonehenge?

37. What’s happened with some of bluestones?

38. What do scientists think about mysteries of Stonehenge?

39. Who is John Aubrey?

40. What is his connection with Stonehenge?

41. And what is Aubrey Hole?

42. Where did prehistoric people live?

43. What did they do?

44. What clothes have they wearied?

45. Where are Coneybury Hills?

46. How many people and how much time did they need to do new Stonehenge?

47. What method was used to erect stones?

48. How do several Sarsen look like?

49. What did the Late Neolitic period show us?

50. What did archeologists find near Stonehenge?

Supplement IV

1. Ancestor-предок.

2. Alignments-выравнивание.

3. Attempt-попытка, покушение.

4. Axis-ось.

5. Assumption-предположение.

6. Accuracy-точно

7.Arial-воздушный

8.Axe-heads-голова топора.

9.Blunt-тупой, резкий.

10.Beneath-под, ниже , внизу.

11.Brittle-хрупкий, ломкий.

12.Beech-бук.

13.Burn-амбар.

14.Bent-сгибать, изгиб.

15.Burial-похороны (погребение)

16.Chalk-мел.

17. Cattle-shed-хлев.

18. Conviction-убеждение.

19. Combination-сочетание.

20. Dig-рыть.

21. Ditch-канава.

22. Derivation-происхождение.

23. Enormous-громадный.

24. Effort-усилие.

25. Emphasize-подчеркивать.

26. Evidence-доказательство.

27.Favor-благосклонность, одолжение.

28.Faint-слабый, падать в обморок.

29.Forge-кузница, ковать.

30.Gate-ворота.

31.Haul-тянуть.

32.Hollow-впалый, пустой.

33. Horse-shoe-подкова.

34. Hint-намёк.

35.Increase-увеличивать, усиливать.

36.Inches-дюйм.

37.Mortise-выемка.

38.Outer-внешний (из, вне).