Stonehenge Solved Its Three Observatories, Who built them, How and Why

It is thought unlikely the Stone installation, such as it was, was operationally manned for more than a few weeks. The self discipline required for activities such as scheduled manning, servicing the ropes etc, would have been too foreign to the culture of the population. One is reminded of the disinterest afforded the much later Roman infrastructure once the occupation of Britain was at an end. From this project of our study, it would seem Wimbledonisation, cutting-edge research, and Managements from overseas, are not recent phenomena in Britain, while its demise reveals that Egypt has had its very own White Elephant! But this is not to say interest in the apparent movements of the Moon had ceased, and evidence of its continuation is to be found in some of the nearby barrows. There were some 450 of these in the area of Stonehenge (i), most of which have been ploughed out.

A barrow is widely assumed to mean a mound hosting an interment (of a human, or an animal); this regardless of whether the mound was raised to cover the burial at the outset, or the interment was a subsequent expedient insertion into the mound. In the latter case, the softer disturbed chalk, or soil, would have been attractive because of saved physical effort. A common form of barrow consists of a mound of chalk (in Wessex) surrounded by a ditch, and with an interment beneath its centre. The whiteness of the chalk served to aid the site's relocation while the ditch, dug for the mound's spoil, deterred trespassers.

But barrows took many forms, and saw various functions, the latter before and/or after any interment was introduced. For example, sometimes the configuration of a mound surrounded by a ditch, arose from creating the commencing terminal of a straight way. Whether or not the way's creator stood upon a mound for his initial orientation, subsequent travellers moving towards it would have come upon the lip of the ditch. On following this they would have returned to their start point; a clear indication to them of the way's termination (ii). Several barrows close to Stonehenge were found to contain fresh chippings of bluestone and sarsen (iii), indicating they were created either during construction of the Stone installation, or shortly afterwards before vegetation hid the residual debris of the site.

Of interest is a group of 18 barrows near Shrewton, and at Winterbourne Stoke 2km (1m) WSW of Stonehenge Fig 4. Some of these are seen to comprise a spontaneous development site resulting from the local evolution of the nil-shadow pole methodology (iv). But barrow 23 is of particular interest because it exhibits several of the points made, Figs 58 and 59. It is interpreted as having two main phases, the second with two sub-phases. Phase 1 was an installation for observing the aberrant paths of the Moon when passing overhead, or thereabouts, with nil-shadow poles in a line of five holes 12m (40ft) long. After these had been abandoned with the poles left in position, the first part of phase 2 occurred: 4m (14ft) east of these a burial was made in a parallel, elongated pit. This was covered by a mound 18m (60ft) in diameter, its material being sourced elsewhere. The second part of phase 2 followed with an interment being inserted into the mound, as well as others into the packing of one of the holes coincident with the mound's feathered margin.

It would appear the derelict upright poles served as a beacon for those returning to the initial burial while the soft packing and spoil were attractive media for expedient interments by the subsequently bereaved. The whole gamut of barrows and mounds in Britain would appear to need reconsideration (v).