Stonehenge [antikvár]

StonehengeThe Sarsen CircleThe ordinary visitor to Stonehenge will in all likelihood have been taught from his earHest years that Stonehenge was built by the Druids. He can clear his mind of this statement, which is quite incorrect, and which wiU be referred to further below (p. 20). Let him first walk to the centre of the monument and stand with his back to the highest stone. He will then be facing rouglily north-east, and will have opposite him three doorways as it were, made up of four standing stones with three stones or hntels on top of them; these are the remains of the Sarsen Circle, which had originally thirty standing stones. Sixteen remain standing today, each 10 feet apart centre to centre, 7 feet wide and 13 feet 6 inches above ground. The diameter of this circle is 97 feet. The thirty lintels were each cut to a curve to fit the circle; they were each held on to the upright stones by a knob or tenon on the upright fitting into a hole or mortise cut at each end of the under side of the Hntel. The middle opening of these three, between stones 30 and i^, is a foot wider than the average openings, and may be regarded as the entrance. The Hntel above this opening is tliicker than the others; to get the upper surface level with the rest the under surface at the ends where it fits on to the uprights was cut away, to allow it to sink down to the correct height. The lintel above No. 2 has a third dowel hole in it, which is an error. To keep these lintels still more firmly fixed, they each have an upright ridge on one end to fit into a groove on the end of the next stone.Stone 21 of the Sarsen Circle is the only one at present that is known to have been put up from inside the Circle. The next stone, stone 22, feU in 1900, bringing down its hntel which broke in two. In 1958 these stones were re-erected; the hntel is abnormal in having a ridge at each end to fit into a groove of the next hntel; it also has four mortise holes, two at each end; possibly the lintels were prefabricated, the tenons being dressed after erection, to fit a standard spacing of the mortises. Li this case the narrow top of stone 21 required new mortises in the Hntel so that it and the next hntel could fit on the small top of stone 21. Of the thirty hntels that once crowned the uprights there are only six in their original position today; two, or parts of two, are on the ground, and twenty-two are missing'^The numbers are those shown on the plans opposite and at the end of the guide.