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The Nature of Stonehenge and its Context

Stonehenge is comprised of the vestiges of three discrete installations (or henges), for observing and recording aberrant paths of the Moon. Although 6-700 years apart, each was circular in concept and their centres are almost coincident. But here, their similarity ends, because the methods of observation employed at each were quite different. The location of the first installation was determined by its constructors choosing a nexus of chance intersections of dead straight paths, or ways, and which happened to coincide with a local flat area on elevated ground. The builders of the following installations each exploited what they found.

Concerning the astronomical aspects, it would be a mistake to contemplate Stonehenge in isolation. The insights gained in this research result from integrating the interpretations of its three installations with those derived from Avebury, Newgrange in Ireland, the Moon, Silbury Hill and Woodhenge, among others. The derived hypothisis is enhanced by the episode having a natural cause and a natural termination. Although the findings for Stonehenge are anticipated to be seminal, those concerning astronomy are seen to be far more profound.

The Astronomical Scenario

The astronomical circumstances under which these developments occurred were as follows. The Moon's unusual paths were caused by a binary asteroid (comprised of two closely related, discrete pieces) ricocheting off the Moon's Mare Fecunditatis, thereby creating two craters called Messier A and Messier. The impacts created fractured pieces and these, together with displaced Moon lava, regolith and dust, left the Moon's surface, only to be captured by the Moon's gravitation and taken into orbit around it.

This, in conjunction with an unknown solar system force, caused the Moon's orbit around Earth to leave its customary plane and turn 180 degrees, or half a full turn, around Earth, finishing up as we see it today. In so doing, inevitably at some stage, its plane intersected the line of Earth's axis of spin. Around that time, because of Earth's own 24 hour spin, to mankind in the British Isles, the Moon's apparent movements in the sky were spirals, anticlockwise then clockwise. The foregoing is evident from the rock art at Newgrange, Ireland, and the northwest seaboard of Britain, but especially the former. The concentric circles and spirals of the art respectively depict the orbits around the Moon, and those of the Moon around Earth.

A commentary is essential at this juncture, initially a statement of the obvious. Given Moon's anticlockwise rotation around Earth today, from west to east (when viewed from the North Star, although because of Earth's rotation it appears to be the reverse, east to west), before the 180 degree turn it must have been in the opposite direction, from east to west. Now, firstly, the features of Moon are incongruous. Its cratered face is towards Earth, while its regolith 'blanket' and underlying Crusta are thickest away from Earth. These are the 'wrong' way round and it must therefore have turned after it had solidified. It would appear probable the hypothesised 180 degree turn was the most likely opportunity in Moon's history for this to occur, even though such complex movements of the Moon seem to preclude it (but this would be equally so at any other time). Secondly, although Moon has settled down into today's repetitive movements, its orbit plane oscillates slightly on an 18.61 year cycle. Thirdly, the earlier assertion of the asteroid fragments orbiting Moon, causing its plane of orbit around Earth to rotate, appears implausible, given the minute mass of the orbiting pieces relative to that of Moon.

The fundamental question is whether these unresolved matters invalidate the hypothesis. This cannot be a foregone conclusion because their consideration must take place within the context of the existence of an extremely powerful unknown force within the solar system: the 'joker in the pack', as it were. Its presence is evidenced by at least three phenomena: Earth's constantly orientated 23.5 degree Angle of Obliquity relative to the fixed stars, regardless of its movement round the Sun; the 18.61 year cycle of Moon's orbit plane oscillations, and the axis of the planet Uranus being constantly orientated, and at 5 degrees to the elliptic, regardless of that planet's movements round the Sun.

Movement of Earth's Core and Axis of Spin

Returning now to the hypothesised movements of the Moon relative to Earth, the slow turn of its orbit plane is thought to have taken about 3000 years from the 5^th to the 2^nd millennium during much of which time its gravitational effects caused movement of Earth's solid core. Consisting, it is said, of iron and nickel, this is very, very slightly oval, and it is hypothesised that Earth's axis of spin is directly related, or geared, to it. This relationship is disguised by all the 'layers' within Earth rotating in unison with the core, their boundaries notionally behaving like clutches. Of these boundaries, that between the solid core and the molten, liquid iron and nickel surrounding it, is germane. The Moon's rotating orbit plane, taking with it the Moon's gravitational pull, caused the core to turn but only with a significant lag, and with many short snatches, punctuated with five very large ones. At some stage the rotation of the plane had progressed to the point of serving to retard the core's movement, and at the point of reversal there was a prolonged pause. Thereafter the core returned smoothly to its start point because the outward movement had eliminated the initial obstacles in the solid/liquid core boundary. As a consequence of Earth's axis of spin being directly geared to the solid core, it too suffered numerous outward jerks, interspersed with five very large ones on its outward movement as far as St Petersburg. There it paused for a long time before returning smoothly to the Pole. Because of its continuing lag, the core, hence the location of the axis of spin, finally settled down in today's positions, just after the Moon had settled into today's orbits. (A child's 'tippe top' demonstrates that the axis of spin can depart a rotating body.)

Climate Change: Deluges, Floods, High Winds and Temperatures, Tall Trees

These movements affected the climate. Firstly, when the axis of spin was approaching St Petersburg, and while there, the British Isles daily swung almost into the plane of the Sun's elliptic The consequence was average temperatures in the order of 2 degrees Celsius higher than today. Secondly, each sudden jerk in the axis of spin's outward movement caused a shift in the North Atlantic air stream, such that over the British Isles, its warm, moisture instantaneously collided with cold air from the direction of the Arctic. Each jerk in the location of the axis of spin consequently saw a sudden deluge, and with each of the five large jerks, a catastrophic, instantaneous deluge. There were two major outcomes of this scenario. The climate was warm and often moist giving rise to excellent growing conditions, amongst the outcomes being very tall trees (including an oak 27.5m (90ft) to the first branch). Additionally, the large instantaneous deluges imperilled lives and destroyed infrastructure and agriculture, as a consequence of ferocious rain impeding personal movement, and very deep local floods.The great 'British' storm of October 15/16^th 1987 may have approached these conditions, but with far less rain.

Initial Stimulation of Mankind's Interest

These conditions impelled mankind's interest in any possible means of forecasting the onset of such emergencies. The result was a correlation being observed between short term changes in the Moon's apparent behaviour and the feared events. This led to the widespread spontaneous creation of timber and stone rings and circles, henges, and other different, but far fewer constructions. All were concerned with observing shadows cast by the Moon. However, the vestiges of these are to be found only west of the longitude passing through Oxford, about 90km (55miles) west northwest of London. (This area can be extended south to include the Atlantic coast of France.) The reason for this derives from earlier times when the debris of the ricocheting binary asteroid was orbiting the Moon. Then, ultimately two large pieces were left as the debris atrophied and one of these escaped, falling to Earth. On reaching our atmosphere it disintegrated into thousands of incendiaries, many of which reached the ground west of this longitude, causing mayhem. The fear of repetition from the piece remaining in orbit (but which did not materialise in the British Isles) stimulated the creation of the earliest crude means of observing the moon by night, and building shelters of rock covered with soil. Ruins of the latter are conventionally called dolmens. In these times the light of the Moon was more brilliant than today because the orbiting glassy regolith served to augment the sunlight reflected by the Moon's surface. (However, with the ultimate disappearance of the orbiting regolith, the Moon's reflected light was barely adequate for the observation of shadows.) The outcome of these events was the populace being aware of the Moon's presence, and already skilled to some extent, when difficulties deriving from the weather commenced.

Mankind's Response

With the advent of these installations we see the beginning of the role of prehistoric monuments in the British Isles, in conveying to us mankind's responses to a natural episode in Earth's history. To mention only a few, the monument of Newgrange, Ireland, and the rock art there, as well as that to be found generally in the west and north of these Islands, record the earliest events at the Moon and their consequences. The monuments of Avebury are a group of creations recording mankind's efforts to push the boundaries of methodology within the limits of his best technology in that district. Silbury Hill, with its five stages of exponentially increasing heights, constructed on a natural platform and constituting a flood refuge, is testimony to the five catastrophic deluges. It is within this context of numerous unique monuments that Stonehenge emerges as the most dramatic in appearance, and we are now prepared for continuing to address it.

The First Installation, or Early Henge

The observational method at the first installation, or Early henge, was that of watching successive shadows of the free end of a near vertical pole, cast by the Moon. The butt of the pole was secured in the backfill of a pit and it could be adjusted to some extent, by nudging and tamping the backfill, or packing. Waits of a lunar month before discerning any change in the Moon's apparent paths, or none, were obviated by setting further poles at shorter time intervals. The method was limited to passes of the Moon proximate to overhead because otherwise the pole cleaved the backfill under its own weight and lost accuracy. When a pole required resetting because of instability in the packing, the pit was emptied and its sides made smooth, an essential preparation because of the nodular nature of the chalk.

To ensure the packing remained uncontaminated, the pits were dug around and within a large, wide annular ring of chalk scraped clean of turf (a significant gap was left on the northeast). The turf was scraped to the ring's outer edge, resulting in a continuous heap, which today is conventionally called the Counterscarp. When servicing a pit, or station, packing was heaped inwards of it, on the clean chalk surface. Because of the ring, inevitably the pits ultimately formed a circle. With the passage of time, many successive resets and cleanings made the pits larger and larger in diameter and depth, until the point was reached where the intersection of pits could no longer be avoided. Notwithstanding this the process was continued, forming a deep trench with scalloped sides in plan view, and a bottom of stepped levels. Stations continued in use even on these, and use of the site did not cease until after the line of the trench had been extended between two upright stones, which stood in the gap of the ring. These stones are speculated to have represented a reference direction of importance, but the nature of this is not obvious. The trench is conventionally called the Ditch, while the irregular spoil heaps were the initial phase of what, today, is called the Bank.

Operation of the method was limited to passes of the Moon overhead or thereabouts, at night, its larger phases, and to cloud free conditions. However, as we have seen, the greater brightness of the Moon's reflected sunlight must be taken into account. The limitations of technology ensured that the only alternative method was sighting the Moon when just above the horizon, by means of a 'pole' cradled in a ramp of matching section and cut into the lip of a pit. However, the effectiveness of this was inferior and relatively few instances have been identified. After commencing with pits thought to be up to about 0.75m (30in) diameter, the ultimate extreme exploitation of the installation begs the question of whether its termination resulted from force majeure, or a perceived cessation of need. It is speculated the installation was operational at about the time of the earliest in the group in Avebury District, say c2700BC.

The Second Installation, or Stone Henge

The second installation, or Stone henge was designed, executed and managed by Egyptians. Their units of measurement and their ratios in its dimensions, the design, the construction methods, its physical scale, and evident tours of duty, all testify to this authorship. The establishment of their presence allows consideration of previously unperceived transportation methods, and the ascendancy of geometric relationships over dubious provenancing with the inevitable probabilities, of much radio carbon dating.

Construction manpower and logistical support were provided by their hosts, the Britons, and by Bretons from a staging post the Egyptians came upon at Carnac, on the French Atlantic coast. There, they erected Le Grande Menhir Brise when making their earliest exploratory journeys in small flotillas. Their agreements with the Britons and Bretons included the design and supervision of the final construction stage of Silbury Hill, which is 24km (15m) north of Stonehenge.

The intended design was as follows. The method of observation was of a flint mounted at each end of a suspended timber spar. This was used for sighting the notional centre of the Moon's disc, day or night. There were 28 spars, or stations, the approximate days in the lunar month, and the number of digits in the Royal Egyptian cubit of measurement. Positioned around a circle, 13 of these covered the whole horizon up to an angle of elevation (AoE) of about 30 degrees. Interspersed were five groups of three adjacent spars, 15 in all, providing four horizontal oblong windows, with a rectangular one, for sighting opportunities in the dome of the sky. The maximum AoEs of these was 70 degrees. When operational, the sights of a spar were set to a fleeting instantaneous point on the Moon centre's path, and subsequent deviations from this were noted.

All the spars were slung by ropes beneath stone beams and held and controlled by ropes, or lines, passed about the uprights supporting the beams, then to be secured to a bollard. Those for high AoEs were hoist-assisted by lines passing over tall masts, these situated inwards of the circle and conventionally called Trilithons. Two entrances, on the west and northeast, allowed passage through the 'cat's cradle' of lines, making 30 gaps between the stones, in what is conventionally called the Sarsen Circle. The entire installation was of stone and rope, with the small, but crucial addition of timber runners on the tops of the masts.

Construction progressed clockwise round the circle from its commencement just north of the northeast entrance. It was carried out by four successive working parties, or tours, following an initial visit by a reconnaissance team which, in conjunction with their hosts, developed a prototype for the prospective installation at nearby Woodhenge. The first party built, notionally,17% of the circle, the second, third and fourth parties, 13%, 25% and 45% respectively, while taking in their allotted share of mast construction. Erection of all the bollards and rigging of spars and lines was finally done by the fourth party, which was not required to erect a mast. The lintels, or beams, and bearers were raised by means of tree stem levers, in the former case by protruding them between the uprights, from outside. The beams were guided with precision into their final positions with staves, used in conjunction with bluestone frames, these progressively erected around the inside of the circle. For raising the much heavier bearer of a mast, three tree stems were employed in unison; in the case of the tallest mast to southwest, mounted on a sunken bolster, which was abandoned in position and today is conventionally called the 'Altar Stone'.

The first party surveyed and laid out the whole site according to a total design decided back at base, and the quality of their workmanship was high and accurate. However, that of their successors increasingly deteriorated to the point where much of the installation on the west was inoperable. The second party accidentally misplaced their arc of the circle. The third party had the onerous, but planned, task of erecting the tallest mast on the site of an obstructing pit. The problems of the fourth and last party were aggravated by a shortage of suitable stones from the quarry on Marlborough Downs, and by being denied an erection frame of bluestones, for positioning beams on their uprights. This was because it was accidentally rendered useless by the third party at the end of their tour. Notwithstanding much of the installation being inoperable, and although the last party left the site in a mess, the installation was still significantly useful. However, it is suspected the contract of the Britons for making observations and reporting results, was short lived, and in any event was of little consequence in Egypt.

The methods of quarrying, transportation of the stones, and construction were informed by years of experience in Egypt. They included the flotation of bluestones under rafts, and the employment of 'A' frame sledges, for their journey from the Pembroke Hills in South Wales via Newport Sands there, and Totton at the head of Southampton Water. Also, the passage from Marlborough Downs, of large stones with one smooth face each, over a trackway of transverse timber sleepers. The climate saw calmer seas than those of today, and the utilisation of numerous enormous trees way beyond the sizes of our biggest. Their stems and branches were fashioned and employed for most aspects of construction, especially in the form of levers. The basic characteristics of all construction movements were constraint, compression and inching, never 'open ended' tension.

The vestiges of the Early henge provided an ideal site and location for the Stone installation. Its benefits included the convenience of dumping the foundation spoil of the stones (with noteworthy exceptions), on the old spoil heaps, thus finally creating the Bank. The project commenced, notionally, c2100BC. The skills of the Egyptians, combined with those of their hosts and the Bretons, in quarrying, moving, and erecting large, irregularly shaped, unfashioned stones, leads to a speculated project duration of about 30 years.(It is noted that the precise means of raising a sarsen upright from horizontal to vertical; and inserting and extracting, vertical bluestones in near glove-fit holes, have not yet been satisfactorily identified; the use of rope is discounted. In the former case, larger, irregularly shaped, totally unworked stones, were previously raised by indigenous people at Avebury.)

The Third Installation, or Final Henge

The third installation, or Final henge, arose as a consequence of curiosity about the last movements of Moon rises and sets along the horizon. These were complex and resulted from the interactions of three phenomena: the seasonal variations of the Moon's arcs, with which we are familiar; the 18.61 year cycle of the Moon's movements back and forth on the horizon, again as today; and movement in the relocation of Earth's axis of spin near the Pole as the solid core finally settled down. The method of observing the conjunctions of Moon and horizon was by sighting them across the tops of pairs of uprights. These were located around the inner foot of the surrounding spoil heap, or Bank, their sight lines just clearing the top of this.

The first of two phases saw the two longest possible sightlines just clear the derelict sarsen circle, one on each side. The fore and backsights were of stone, the former encircled by a delineating ditch. These sightlines, and a conjoint third, were directed to extreme winter Moonrise and set conjunctions, or standstills. Additionally there was a fourth sightline, using a further backsight stone adjacent to the erstwhile Slaughter Stone, but its target conjunction is not obvious. The second phase was of twelve backsights, one of stone, the remainder timber posts, placed at the foot of the surrounding spoil heap in a ragged group, all of them related to one of the phase 1 foresights. Their sightlines straddled today's extreme position of summer Moonset's largest standstill arc in the 18.61 cycle. The existence of the holes of the timber backsights has hitherto been overlooked because they have hosted cremations. This second phase is thought to have sighted the very last apparent movements of the Moon on the horizon, arising from the final settlement of Earth's axis of spin, aka, core. It is likely this third installation was later than the last timber and stone henges to be built elsewhere in the British Isles.

Straight Ways

In the centuries before Stonehenge and for many more afterwards, people travelled across the landscape on narrow, dead straight ways: footpaths the width of a man's shoulders. These were struck spontaneously and terminated according to need, and atrophied when no longer used. Their alignment across the terrain was maintained regardless of slopes and obstacles, and when these proved insurmountable, creation of a way was abandoned. When use of a way revealed a recurring misleading or hazardous point, its alignment was indicated by the rim of a circular pit, dug to be tangential to one or other of its margins. An alternative was the tangential lip of the end, or flank, of a ditch. Ditches were also dug to steer an erring traveller back to his way. Terminals and subsequent deliberate obstructions truncating a way, were likewise created with an appropriate ditch.

It would appear the creation of the line of a way was by a form of dowsing, and its travellers had an animal-like extra sensory perception for steep-walled depressions in the ground. Straight ways were the infrastructure of later Iron Age 'hillforts' and were in use during the Roman occupation (minor roads to their 'motorways'), dying out with the arrival of the Saxons with their heavy carts, following contours in the landscape.

Because the creation of ways was spontaneous according to felt need, their density in the landscape varied and reflected that of the population and its activities. Consequently nexuses of way intersections occurred, and one such was just west of the town of Amesbury. Within this the location of the Early henge was determined by a small group of intersections on high level ground, readily accessible to its creators. Towards the northern fringe of the nexus, at some stage the density of the ways was not only high, but some were obsolete, or partly so, while the slow slopes of the ground were variable. This combination resulted in confusion, and to clarify matters for travellers, two long ditches were dug to flank the margins of ways, causeways being left for ways passing across, or through them. That the two ditches were dug with spoil banks back to back is significant. This is because of the rule that disorientated travellers, off a way, were never allowed potentially to be exposed to the possibility of stumbling up and over the rear of a spoil bank. The bank was always guarded by a near-parallel 'fender' ditch, the two banks facing inwards, towards one another. This is the rationale of the' Stonehenge Cursus'.

People from east of the River Avon and south of Amesbury, visiting Stonehenge, once across the stream, travelled by tracing a route via several intersecting ways, rather than choosing to create a new way directly to it. They took curved 'short-cuts' at obtusely angled intersections, and this is reflected in the line of the continuous ditch they dug to guide them. In pursuit of the principle explained for the Cursus, a fender ditch was also dug and the pair are conventionally called 'The Avenue'.

The district of Stonehenge was not unique in these respects. Straight ways were widespread in Britain, instances being identified in Perthshire, Oxfordshire and elsewhere. The number of examples and the variety of the evidence warrant recognition as a body of knowledge for study, perhaps conveniently called Euthyology: 'the study of directness'. (Straight ways are not to be confused with 'Ley lines'.)

Levels of Confidence, Remaining 'Unknowns', and Challenges

Inevitably, the levels of confidence to be assigned to various aspects of the research are subjective, and need the consideration of other enquirers. Contemplation of the levels is facilitated by noting the degree to which facts are the foundation of an interpretation, as distinct from speculation. A summary of the author's assessments follows.

The following are regarded as 100% secure:

straight ways and their waymarking, but the means of their creation is speculative
for the Early, Stone and Final installations, or henges: their function, aim-design, construction and choice of location
Egyptian presence in the aim-design and construction of the Stone henge and in management of the overall project
events at the Moon as evidenced in rock art, principally at Newgrange, Ireland
180 degree rotation of the Moon’s orbit plane about Earth
a different climate and consequent differences in flora: huge, notably tall, trees

The following are speculations, based on adduced evidence:

effects of a binary asteroid ricocheting off the Moon.
significant movement of Earth’s core, and with it Earth’s axis of spin
intermittent instantaneous deluges, floods and high winds
effects of a generally recognised powerful, unknown force in the solar system
methods of transportation of the bluestones from Pembrokeshire to Stonehenge

The following are 'unknowns' arising from chapter 15, and seen to be amenable to further research; solutions to be within observed parameters (excluding the use of rope):

the detailed methods of turning through 90 degrees, to be vertical, the rough Sarsen stones at Avebury; also the partially worked ones at the Stone henge
methods of insertion and extraction of bluestone lever guide posts, and bollards, at the near glove-fit holes

The solution to each of these will require:

identification of the parameters of the problem, to be culled from this research, followed by,

completion of a sound theoretical solution, followed by,
construction of a table-top size model

Proper execution of the foregoing should render unnecessary a full scale field simulation.

This research project is intended to encourage others to confirm or modify, and hone the detail, fill in the 'unknowns', and develop the speculations. Stonehenge is a multi-disciplinary challenge to engineers, scientists and mathematicians, and it is hoped a computerised model of the astronomy it helps to reveal will be forthcoming.