WILL WE EVER SOLVE THE MYSTERIES OF STONEHENGE?

In February a new book and exhibition will reveal the Stone Age secrets of one of the world's most extraordinary historical sites

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Stonehenge in the snow.

A few years ago a famous British actor told me a story about Stonehenge. The actor was working on a Hollywood movie - the umpteenth sequel in big action franchise - and the plot of the film had taken them to Wiltshire, for a scene inside the famous neolithic stone circle.

Filming at Stonehenge was tricky. English Heritage, who manage the site, were worried about the crew inadvertently damaging it. They would only allow a small number of cast and crew inside the circle. I believe there was a replica Stonehenge built nearby where much of the action could be filmed, but the director - a veteran American with a big personality - wanted to capture key moments in the real thing.

During one fraught exchange with the heritage officers, the director was heard to protest at volume that he needed to get his way, because ‘I’m [name redacted] and this film is going to put Stonehenge on the map’. The heritage officers were understandably nonplussed. Stonehenge is already on the map, they said (or perhaps just thought); it’s been on the map for the last five thousand years.

Last week I read an excellent new book, called How To Build Stonehenge, by Mike Pitts. I reviewed it for the Sunday Times - if you’re a subscriber to that newspaper you can read my conclusions here. In short: the book was beautifully written, well argued and full of things I didn’t know. It is published to coincide with an exhibition at the British Museum called The World of Stonehenge, which opens on February 10th, and aims to explore the wider culture of the Neolithic world. I can’t wait to go along and visit the show, and if you can get to London any time this spring, I suggest you do the same.

In the meantime, here are five things that stuck in my mind from a week spent reading Pitt’s book and thinking about Stonehenge. What else would you like to know about it? Let me know in the comments section (subscribers only).

5. Stonehenge is actually two monuments

Stonehenge as it would have looked in 2500BC (left) and as it looked in 1898 (right)

The first ring of stones to be erected on the site of Stonehenge was a circle of 56 ‘bluestones’ - mostly dolerite from the Preseli Hills in western Wales. This circle was created around 3200BC and remained in use as a cremation burial ground for centuries, with some additions and rearrangements. It was not until seven hundred years later that the more famous football-goal/pi-shaped structures (trilithons), made from vast pieces of local sarsen, were brought to the site. At that point, the bluestones were re-ordered once more. So what we see today at Stonehenge represents the overlaid visions of people as far removed from one another in time as we are from the Plantagenets.

4. There’s another Stonehenge... in Tonga

Ha’amonga a Maui, ‘the Stonehenge of the Pacific’

It is, however, rather a poor relation. Ha’amonga ‘a Maui, on one of the islands of Tonga, is often likened to Stonehenge, since it is a trilithon - three massive pieces of stone arranged with two uprights and a lintel. However, Ha’amonga ‘a Maui was built in the later Middle Ages, which makes it far closer to our own time than to Stonehenge’s. That said, it is still a famous landmark, with a colourful folklore behind it. The name loosely translates as ‘the burden of Maui’.

3. Stonehenge definitely wasn’t built in the 1950s

Restoration work on Stonehenge in 1958

In the late 1950s the British government’s Ministry of Works carried out extensive works on Stonehenge, including re-erecting one of the biggest trilithons. That work has since been criticised for its intrusive nature. But according to Pitts’ book, pictures of the restoration work have also been used by a Russian-backed website to try and start rumours that Stonehenge was actually built shortly after the Second World War, and that its supposed antiquity is a giant hoax. (Incidentally, the two Russians accused of the Salisbury Novichok poisonings in 2018 claimed that they were in the area to look at the medieval cathedral and visit Stonehenge.)

2. Stonehenge wasn’t built by Merlin

Merlin casting a spell at Stonehenge (artist’s impression)

In 1136 Geoffrey of Monmouth included a Stonehenge origin story in his popular and influential History of the Kings of Britain. He said that an ancient British king wanted to construct a monument to his war-dead. The wizard Merlin advised him to steal an Irish one, known as the ‘Giant’s Ring’, which was situated on the (fictitious) Mount Killaraus. The king went to Ireland to try and do just that, but his men found the Giant’s Ring too heavy to move. Merlin stepped in, and did the job single-handed, moving the whole lot to Salisbury Plain, where it now stands. Of course, today we have more sober, scientific explanations for how Stonehenge was built. And they don’t involve stealing things from Ireland. (Which is just as well, or there would surely now be a pious campaign to return them to Ireland with the usual apologies for the evils of imperialism.)

1. Stonehenge is covered in graffiti

WREN WOZ ERE

You have to look fairly hard to see it, but this picture from one of the stones at Stonehenge says WREN. It is far from the only example of graffiti there - dozens more have been identified by surveyors and there are likely hundreds of others besides. This is, however, a particularly tantalising autograph, since there was a famous Wren - Sir Christopher - who was born near Stonehenge in 1632. Did the man who grew up to be arguably Britain’s greatest ever architect leave his mark on Britain’s most famous ancient landmark? We may never know. But it’s fun to think he could have.

What else would you like to know about Stonehenge? Comments are open to subscribers. If you’d like to subscribe and join the discussion, just click this button: