STONEHENGE

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 July 1925, Page 2

STONEHENGE

MYSTERY INVESTIGATED. For some time past Colonel Hawley has been investigating Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, on behalf of the Society of Antiquaries of London., This well-knoWn and ancient British enclosure is now public property, and the Office of Works has recently raised many of the fallen stones and made others secure in an altogether praiseworthy and careful manner. The popular view of Stonehenge is that it was a temple built by the Druids, but this opinion, with others 1 like it, has been proved to be false. It is now clear that the remains are those of the latest of three enclosures that mice existed on the site. So far as we know the oldest took the form of a circular ditch or fosse, surmounted possibly by a stockade, surrounding an encampment or a sacred place of some sort. At a later period this was abandoned, and a large circle of great standing stones erected- This great circle no doubt formed part of a religious temple. Later still these stones were removed to form, part of the present Stonehenge, and it is of much interest to note that, when this happened, each hole from which, a stone had been taken had placed in it some burned - human bones. This shows how sacred the place must have been to the people who built the existing structure, as they obviously imagined that the wrath of their deity at the removal of the stones needed for its appeasement nothing less than human sacrifice. Similar stones to those used are found in a natural .state near the monument, but others have been traced to the Presley Mountains in Wales. The methods by which they were brought such a long distance are veiled in mystery. It is possible that Ihe .ate-t temple - at Stonehenge was erecM during the Age of Bronze, wh-jn this ;..»>tai was coming into general use, but the older ' structures were of much more rem «■? 'late.

Com pare ! with Stonehenge our most ai cient cathedrals are Int r,f yesterday, and it is comforting 10 lumw ’het this great ruin will If- for and studied bv (hose who. appreciate and understand its uni me inn ortance.