SC-L30 Stonehenge A Riddle

Stonehenge: A Riddle by Mia Lewis

Stonehenge is a circle of tall stones. It is about 80 miles west of London, in England. This circle of stones has fascinated people for thousands of years. There are many other stone circles all over Europe. This one, however, is the most famous.

People study Stonehenge. They write about it. They talk about it. Experts have ideas about who built it. Even so, no one really is sure of who built it, or why.

@@@

Discovering Dates

Archaeologists try to figure out how old ruins are. They dig carefully. They look at the tools the builders used. If the tools are made of stone or bone, the builders probably worked before metal was used.

As people dig, they look for materials that were once part of living things. They look for wood or bone. These can be tested to see how old they are. The digging and the tests have helped scientists figure out when Stonehenge was built. It was a long time ago!

@@@

Three Stages

The stones at Stonehenge no longer stand as they once did. Many are missing. Some have fallen. The ones that are left reveal a lot. They show that Stonehenge was carefully planned and built at a very slow pace. It was built over a long period of time.

The stones were set up in three main stages. The stages were many years apart. They are often called Stonehenge I, Stonehenge II, and Stonehenge III. Each stage was different.

@@@

Stonehenge!

Many people **underestimated** the age of Stonehenge. Archaeologists now think that workers began building about 3100 B.C.E. That’s more than 5,000 years ago! They began by digging a round ditch. The ditch, **extending** about twenty feet from side to side, was about six feet deep.

Workers dug fifty-six holes inside the ditch. They filled in the holes with dirt. Nobody is sure what the purpose of the holes was.

@@@

Stonehenge II

The second building stage took place around 2100 B.C.E. Workers put about eighty rocks in the center of the site. These rocks are called bluestones, because of their color.

The bluestones are the smallest rocks at Stonehenge. Still, each one weighs several tons. They probably came from mountains in Wales, about 240 miles away. There were no carts with wheels back then. Maybe the stones were carried over water. Maybe workers used log rollers to drag the stones over land. No one is sure.

@@@

Stonehenge III

More giant stone blocks were added to Stonehenge between 2000 B.C.E. and 1500 B.C.E. Workers built a circle of upright stones. They put a ring of flat stones on top. One flat stone topped each pair of upright stones. Nobody knows exactly how the builders lifted the heavy stones.

In the more recent past, people took stones from Stonehenge to build houses. Now half of the stones are fallen or missing. Even so, Stonehenge is an awesome sight.

@@@

More Questions

Scientists have reasoned that Stonehenge was very important in its time. Many workers were needed to carry the stones. Many more were needed to shape the stones and put them up. New rocks were added over a fifteen-hundred-year period.

Maybe the building was for important religious events. Again, no one knows for sure. Undoubtedly, people will keep coming up with ideas about Stonehenge. My bet is that the circle of stones will remain a riddle.

@@@

Discovering the Past

Our plan was to search for signs of an ancient civilization. At the site, there were mounds of earth **extending** over a large area. The mounds stretched from the river all the way to the bottom of a cliff.

There was **undoubtedly** something under those mounds. We began to dig. We went at a slow **pace**. We didn’t want to damage whatever was there.

Before too long, we realized that we had **underestimated** how important our discovery would be. We thought we might find a few old pots and coins. Instead, we discovered the remains of a whole town!

The town was completely covered with layers of dirt. From the items we found, we **reasoned** that the town was thousands of years old! We decided to call more experts for help.

@@@