Stonehenge, with its huge monoliths erected in a mysterious circle, was a Lourdes-style Stone Age healing center revered for its ability to cure the sick, according to new archaeological findings.
"It could have been a temple, even as it was a healing center," archaeologist Timothy Darvill said today as he and fellow archaeologist Geoffrey Wainwright disclosed some findings of recent investigations in and around Stonehenge.
The archaeologists managed to date the construction of the stone monument to about 2300 BC, a couple of centuries younger than was previously thought, according to the Associated Press. It was at that time that bluestones — a rare rock known to geologists as spotted dolomite — were shipped by hand or by raft from Pembrokeshire in Wales to Salisbury Plain in southern England, to create the inner circle of Stonehenge.
Wainwright and Darvill said the content of graves scattered around the monument and the ancient chipping of its rocks to produce amulets indicated that Stonehenge was the primeval equivalent of Lourdes, the French shrine venerated for its supposed ability to cure the sick.
An unusual number of skeletons recovered from the area showed signs of serious disease or injury. Analysis of their teeth showed that about half were from outside the Stonehenge area.
"People were in a state of distress, if I can put it as politely as that, when they came to the Stonehenge monument," Darvill told journalists assembled at London's Society of Antiquaries. He pointed out that experts near Stonehenge have found two skulls that showed evidence of primitive surgery, some of just a few known cases of operations in prehistoric Britain.
Also found near Stonehenge was the body of a man known as the Amesbury Archer, who had a damaged skull and badly hurt knee and died around the time the stones were being installed. Analysis of the Archer's bones showed he was from the Alps.
The scientists announced their findings Monday, ahead of a documentary due to air on the BBC and the Smithsonian Channel on Saturday, September 27.
Click here for the Associated Press article.
Click here for a BBC article and 2-minute video on the findings.
For more details, click here for The Guardian article.
Archaeology students sift through earth at Stonehenge to find fragments of bluestone.
Archaeologists Tim Darvill, left, and Geoffrey Wainwright with fragments of bluestones at their press conference today at the Society of Antiquaries of in London.