Amelia Edwards

The British novelist and egyptologist Amelia Edwards once said,
“Were I asked to define it, I should reply that archeology is that science which enables us to register and classify our knowledge of the sum of man’s achievements in those arts and handicrafts whereby he has, in time past, signalized his passage from barbarism to civilization.” To put that in simpler words, Amelia means to say that archeology is the study and understandings of our past ancestors, who have grown to modern civilizations. If one is to imagine what the Neolithic period in Great Britain, at Stonehenge, was like, looking up at towering 20 foot megaliths and staring past the massive stones at the horizon, to see the perfectly aligned sun- people kneeling in prayer, letting
the solitude fall over the place. While some theorize that the stones at Stonehenge are part of an international system used for trade and travel, Stonehenge was actually used for ceremonial rituals and astronomical observatory, and although this is a strongly debatable topic, bones, stone alignments, and radiocarbon dating show the sites real use.
Between c.
3100 BCE and c. 1600 BCE, Stonehenge was built and was used for a cemetery for people. Archaeologists have excavated nearly 60 cremation and inhumation graves, with possibly hundreds of others who remain still buried. These graves, mainly consist of males between 25 and 40 years old, indicating that they were probably politically significant individuals. In one situation where the male skeleton lay almost completely intact, examination showed that the man had been shot by six flint-tipped arrows at close range, allegedly by two people, one from the left and the other from the right. With the arrows having been shot from a close distance and by two separate figures, the male was likely executed and sacrificed in a ritual. Druids were also noted to have worshiped near Stonehenge in sacred groves and forests, and have been accused by Roman’s, who claimed in numerous accounts, in which Druids had committed carnivorous human sacrifices. Later evidence of a bog mummified man with a mistletoe in his digestive track, which was very sacred to Druids, shows that a tightened rope was slung around his neck, before his throat was slit, so that a “fountain” of blood shot out in a sacrificial ceremony to please their Celtic gods. These many graves, filled with cremated and inhumed bones, which were found under Stonehenge, show that ceremonial burials happened at this megalithic
site.
Along with Stonehenge having been a site used as a giant cemetery and possibly a place of worship, at another time during it’s history, the Neolithic site was used as an observatory of the atmosphere and outer space. During the time when the Romans took over much of Britain, they destroyed many Druid cult places, while leaving Stonehenge intact. The Romans, perhaps, saw the place as an observatory due to its large bluestone megaliths beginning positioned in a way so equinoxes and solstices may be charted. The stones were placed in a strategic arrangement, so when stood in the center of the large structure, looking over the heel stone, one would see the summer-solstice rising. Computer reconstruction of the site also showed that the stones were aligned with the movements of the sun and the moon. Another way that demonstrates how Stonehenge is positioned for astronomy are the Aubrey Holes. These 56 chalk holes present the time of Moon eclipses when a marker stone arrives at Aubrey Holes 56 or 28, and equinox eclipses when a marker lands on holes 5 or 51. To have such a precise accusation meant major planning went into the construction of Stonehenge, and it was purposely built so significant astronomical occurrences may be followed. Therefore, Stonehenge was intentionally designed to be used for the study and observation of astronomical events.