HOW STONEHENGE WAS BUILT.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 September 1924, Page 4

HOW STONEHENGE WAS BUILT.

TILU KS poi: n.WLINt: 2;; TON S’l’t )X K.S. LONDON. July 12. I low tin* builders el Stonehenge, on Salisbury Hlaiii. with the appliances of. say, .’LotMl years ago, managed to get the last stones upright and place others cn their tops Inis nlwa.\s l.evt one of the marvel- of primitive engineering. lo his Look ••Stonehenge.” iiisi published. Hr I!. Herbert Stone lim- a most inl-rc-ling -erie.. ol photograph. I '' . o t...... I..| -■ e w.• I 1.i1,;* in...). I -hi mean- ol which Ihe various operations eoimeeletl with the rai-ing of the stones ol Stonehenge as here described .have been rehearsed step by step in full detail.” A figure renrescnling a Neolithic man, who ha- an elf-like smallness beside the huge monnlillis, is introduced in the dilfereut views to give an idea of scale. I’ur the purpose of his experiment in I ibis ••iveoiislriicl ion,” Mr Stone has j taken the average weight of the stones 1 of the outer circle at Stonehenge ns. , for uprights, 21! tons each, and lor the lintels placed across their tops, I’D | tons. The appliances used, lie points, out, would he mainly ropes, rollers, and shear legs, plus man-power working in ear*.folly rehearsed unison. A • POItP.IDXPIi’S” AY Oil l\. Mr Slone suggests that the man who designed Stonehenge "was probably a foreigner." After the upright stones had been finely bedded in the ground, "an earth bunk is thrown up around the pair ol j upright -tones on which a lintel is to i lie placed.” The oilier part of this j hank is "brought lo :i smooth surface and rammed bard, to make a track up which the lintel is to he hauled.” Then when everything is in place the well-drilled man-power tabes ihe strain and drags the great mas- lip the -lope till linallv il rests oil Ihe tops o! the two imbedded -toll'-, ’file bank can then he removed, leaving the bilge trilith.ni lowering clear above Ike ground. Mr Stone Concludes:

We have no means of knowing Ihe purpose for which it was creeled. II may have been a temple lor S’ome lorm of worship —or a court of justice—or a hall lor ceremonial mootings of tribal chiefs. All we can say with certainty is; "We do not know.”