Did Scientists Just Unravel One Mystery of Stonehenge?

About eight miles north of Salisbury in the southern United Kingdom sits the collection of massive, carefully place stones known as Stonehenge. Sometime around 3000 BCE, the area was dug out in a circular ditch known as a henge. A few centuries years later, around the time the earliest pyramids in Egypt were also being constructed, the large iconic stones were added to the earthwork henge. 

Henges themselves are not uncommon. Have you heard of Woodhenge?

Henges themselves are not uncommon. Have you heard of Woodhenge? It’s not far from Stonehenge and also dates back to the Neolithic time period. But Stonehenge is certainly something special. (There is also, of course, Carhenge outside of Alliance, Nebraska, but that one was built in 1987.)

What is Stonehenge?

The large circle of what was originally thought to be 80 stones is meticulously aligned so that someone standing at the center of the circle will see the sunrise on the summer solstice pass through the entrance to the monument marked by an archway of gigantic stones. Outside the main circle, separated from the rest, sits a large, relatively rough stone known as the Heel Stone. While standing inside the monument and looking to the northeast, that same summer solstice sun rises over the Heel Stone on the longest day of the year. 

When I visited Stonehenge in the early 2000s, I saw a procession dancing to drum beats marking the start of a neo-Druid ceremony.

Thousands of people gather at the monument on the summer solstice to mark this first sunrise of summer in the northern hemisphere. Due to the global pandemic, 2020 marked the first year the event was streamed live online. Before 1977, visitors to the stones were allowed to walk through and even climb on them. But to save the stones from erosion, a rope now keeps visitors relegated to the perimeter a short distance away. Entrance is reserved for religious observers including modern Pagans. When I visited Stonehenge in the early 2000s, I saw a procession dancing to drum beats marking the start of a neo-Druid ceremony. 

Archeologists have puzzled and debated for centuries how the gigantic rocks at Stonehenge came to be placed there at a time long before tractor-trailers and cranes. The larger stones are...

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