Stonehenge

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)

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Stonehenge on 27.01.08

Stonehenge (स्टोनहेंज) is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, 3 km west of Amesbury. It consists of a ring of standing stones, with each standing stone around 13 feet high, 7 feet wide and weighing around 25 tons. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds.

History

Archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the first bluestones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC, although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC.

One of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon. It has been a legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1882 when legislation to protect historic monuments was first successfully introduced in Britain. The site and its surroundings were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage; the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.

Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings. Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, and continued for at least another five hundred years. Mike Parker Pearson, leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project based at Durrington Walls, noted that Stonehenge appears to have been associated with burial from the earliest period of its existence:

Stonehenge was a place of burial from its beginning to its zenith in the mid third millennium B.C. The cremation burial dating to Stonehenge's sarsen stones phase is likely just one of many from this later period of the monument's use and demonstrates that it was still very much a domain of the dead.

Stonehenge evolved in several construction phases spanning at least 1500 years. There is evidence of large-scale construction on and around the monument that perhaps extends the landscape's time frame to 6500 years. Dating and understanding the various phases of activity is complicated by disturbance of the natural chalk by periglacial effects and animal burrowing, poor quality early excavation records, and a lack of accurate, scientifically verified dates.

The modern phasing most generally agreed to by archaeologists is detailed below. Features mentioned in the text are numbered and shown on the plan, right.

1. Before the monument (8000 BC forward):

Archaeologists have found four, or possibly five, large Mesolithic postholes (one may have been a natural tree throw), which date to around 8000 BC, beneath the nearby old tourist car-park in use until 2013. These held pine posts around 2 ft 6" in diameter, which were erected and eventually rotted in situ. Three of the posts (and possibly four) were in an east-west alignment which may have had ritual significance. Another Mesolithic astronomical site in Britain is the Warren Field site in Aberdeenshire, which is considered the world's oldest Lunar calendar, corrected yearly by observing the midwinter solstice. Similar but later sites have been found in Scandinavia. A settlement that may have been contemporaneous with the posts has been found at Blick Mead, a reliable year-round spring 1 mile (1.6 km) from Stonehenge.

Salisbury Plain was then still wooded, but 4,000 years later, during the earlier Neolithic, people built a causewayed enclosure at Robin Hood's Ball and long barrow tombs in the surrounding landscape. In approximately 3500 BC, a Stonehenge Cursus was built 2,300 ft north of the site as the first farmers began to clear the trees and develop the area. A number of other adjacent stone and wooden structures and burial mounds, previously overlooked, may date as far back as 4000 BC. Charcoal from the ‘Blick Mead’ camp 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) from Stonehenge (near the Vespasian's Camp site) has been dated to 4000 BC. The University of Buckingham's Humanities Research Institute believes that the community who built Stonehenge lived here over a period of several millennia, making it potentially "one of the pivotal places in the history of the Stonehenge landscape."

2. Stonehenge 1 (ca. 3100 BC):

The first monument consisted of a circular bank and ditch enclosure made of Late Cretaceous (Santonian Age) Seaford Chalk, measuring about 110 metres (360 ft) in diameter, with a large entrance to the north east and a smaller one to the south. It stood in open grassland on a slightly sloping spot. The builders placed the bones of deer and oxen in the bottom of the ditch, as well as some worked flint tools. The bones were considerably older than the antler picks used to dig the ditch, and the people who buried them had looked after them for some time prior to burial. The ditch was continuous but had been dug in sections, like the ditches of the earlier causewayed enclosures in the area. The chalk dug from the ditch was piled up to form the bank. This first stage is dated to around 3100 BC, after which the ditch began to silt up naturally. Within the outer edge of the enclosed area is a circle of 56 pits, each about a metre (3 ft 3 in) in diameter, known as the Aubrey holes after John Aubrey, the seventeenth-century antiquarian who was thought to have first identified them. The pits may have contained standing timbers creating a timber circle, although there is no excavated evidence of them. A recent excavation has suggested that the Aubrey Holes may have originally been used to erect a bluestone circle. If this were the case, it would advance the earliest known stone structure at the monument by some 500 years. A small outer bank beyond the ditch could also date to this period.

In 2013 a team of archaeologists, led by Mike Parker Pearson, excavated more than 50,000 cremated bones of 63 individuals buried at Stonehenge. These remains had originally been buried individually in the Aubrey holes, exhumed during a previous excavation conducted by William Hawley in 1920, been considered unimportant by him, and subsequently re-interred together in one hole, Aubrey Hole 7, in 1935. Physical and chemical analysis of the remains has shown that the cremated were almost equally men and women, and included some children. As there was evidence of the underlying chalk beneath the graves being crushed by substantial weight, the team concluded that the first bluestones brought from Wales were probably used as grave markers. Radiocarbon dating of the remains has put the date of the site 500 years earlier than previously estimated, to around 3000 BC. A 2018 study of the strontium content of the bones found that many of the individuals buried there around the time of construction had probably come from near the source of the bluestone in Wales and had not extensively lived in the area of Stonehenge before death.

3. Stonehenge 2 (ca. 3000 BC):

Evidence of the second phase is no longer visible. The number of postholes dating to the early 3rd millennium BC suggest that some form of timber structure was built within the enclosure during this period. Further standing timbers were placed at the northeast entrance, and a parallel alignment of posts ran inwards from the southern entrance. The postholes are smaller than the Aubrey Holes, being only around 0.4 metres (16 in) in diameter, and are much less regularly spaced. The bank was purposely reduced in height and the ditch continued to silt up. At least twenty-five of the Aubrey Holes are known to have contained later, intrusive, cremation burials dating to the two centuries after the monument's inception. It seems that whatever the holes' initial function, it changed to become a funerary one during Phase 2. Thirty further cremations were placed in the enclosure's ditch and at other points within the monument, mostly in the eastern half. Stonehenge is therefore interpreted as functioning as an enclosed cremation cemetery at this time, the earliest known cremation cemetery in the British Isles. Fragments of unburnt human bone have also been found in the ditch-fill. Dating evidence is provided by the late Neolithic grooved ware pottery that has been found in connection with the features from this phase.

Stonehenge 3 I (ca. 2600 BC):

Archaeological excavation has indicated that around 2600 BC, the builders abandoned timber in favour of stone and dug two concentric arrays of holes (the Q and R Holes) in the centre of the site. These stone sockets are only partly known (hence on present evidence are sometimes described as forming 'crescents'); however, they could be the remains of a double ring. Again, there is little firm dating evidence for this phase. The holes held up to 80 standing stones, only 43 of which can be traced today. It is generally accepted that the bluestones (some of which are made of dolerite, an igneous rock), were transported by the builders from the Preseli Hills, 150 miles (240 km) away in modern-day Pembrokeshire in Wales. Another theory is that they were brought much nearer to the site as glacial erratics by the Irish Sea Glacier although there is no evidence of glacial deposition within southern central England.

The long distance human transport theory was bolstered in 2011 by the discovery of a megalithic bluestone quarry at Craig Rhos-y-felin, near Crymych in Pembrokeshire, which is the most likely place for some of the stones to have been obtained. Other standing stones may well have been small sarsens (sandstone), used later as lintels. The stones, which weighed about two tons, could have been moved by lifting and carrying them on rows of poles and rectangular frameworks of poles, as recorded in China, Japan and India. It is not known whether the stones were taken directly from their quarries to Salisbury Plain or were the result of the removal of a venerated stone circle from Preseli to Salisbury Plain to "merge two sacred centres into one, to unify two politically separate regions, or to legitimise the ancestral identity of migrants moving from one region to another". Each monolith measures around 2 metres (6.6 ft) in height, between 1 and 1.5 m (3.3 and 4.9 ft) wide and around 0.8 metres (2.6 ft) thick. What was to become known as the Altar Stone is almost certainly derived from the Senni Beds, perhaps from 50 miles (80 kilometres) east of Mynydd Preseli in the Brecon Beacons.

The north-eastern entrance was widened at this time, with the result that it precisely matched the direction of the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset of the period. This phase of the monument was abandoned unfinished, however; the small standing stones were apparently removed and the Q and R holes purposefully backfilled. Even so, the monument appears to have eclipsed the site at Avebury in importance towards the end of this phase.

The Heelstone, a Tertiary sandstone, may also have been erected outside the north-eastern entrance during this period. It cannot be accurately dated and may have been installed at any time during phase 3. At first it was accompanied by a second stone, which is no longer visible. Two, or possibly three, large portal stones were set up just inside the north-eastern entrance, of which only one, the fallen Slaughter Stone, 4.9 metres (16 ft) long, now remains. Other features, loosely dated to phase 3, include the four Station Stones, two of which stood atop mounds. The mounds are known as "barrows" although they do not contain burials. Stonehenge Avenue, a parallel pair of ditches and banks leading 2 miles (3 km) to the River Avon, was also added. Two ditches similar to Heelstone Ditch circling the Heelstone (which was by then reduced to a single monolith) were later dug around the Station Stones.

Stonehenge 3 II (2600 BC to 2400 BC):

During the next major phase of activity, 30 enormous Oligocene-Miocene sarsen stones were brought to the site. They may have come from a quarry around 25 miles (40 km) north of Stonehenge on the Marlborough Downs, or they may have been collected from a "litter" of sarsens on the chalk downs, closer to hand. The stones were dressed and fashioned with mortise and tenon joints before 30 were erected as a 33 metres (108 ft) diameter circle of standing stones, with a ring of 30 lintel stones resting on top. The lintels were fitted to one another using another woodworking method, the tongue and groove joint. Each standing stone was around 4.1 metres (13 ft) high, 2.1 metres (6 ft 11 in) wide and weighed around 25 tons. Each had clearly been worked with the final visual effect in mind; the orthostats widen slightly towards the top in order that their perspective remains constant when viewed from the ground, while the lintel stones curve slightly to continue the circular appearance of the earlier monument.

The inward-facing surfaces of the stones are smoother and more finely worked than the outer surfaces. The average thickness of the stones is 1.1 metres (3 ft 7 in) and the average distance between them is 1 metre (3 ft 3 in). A total of 75 stones would have been needed to complete the circle (60 stones) and the trilithon horseshoe (15 stones). It was thought the ring might have been left incomplete, but an exceptionally dry summer in 2013 revealed patches of parched grass which may correspond to the location of removed sarsens. The lintel stones are each around 3.2 metres (10 ft) long, 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) wide and 0.8 metres (2 ft 7 in) thick. The tops of the lintels are 4.9 metres (16 ft) above the ground.

Within this circle stood five trilithons of dressed sarsen stone arranged in a horseshoe shape 13.7 metres (45 ft) across, with its open end facing north east. These huge stones, ten uprights and five lintels, weigh up to 50 tons each. They were linked using complex jointing. They are arranged symmetrically. The smallest pair of trilithons were around 6 metres (20 ft) tall, the next pair a little higher, and the largest, single trilithon in the south west corner would have been 7.3 metres (24 ft) tall. Only one upright from the Great Trilithon still stands, of which 6.7 metres (22 ft) is visible and a further 2.4 metres (7 ft 10 in) is below ground. The images of a 'dagger' and 14 'axeheads' have been carved on one of the sarsens, known as stone 53; further carvings of axeheads have been seen on the outer faces of stones 3, 4, and 5. The carvings are difficult to date, but are morphologically similar to late Bronze Age weapons. Early 21st-century laser scanning of the carvings supports this interpretation. The pair of trilithons in the north east are smallest, measuring around 6 metres (20 ft) in height; the largest, which is in the south west of the horseshoe, is almost 7.5 metres (25 ft) tall.

This ambitious phase has been radiocarbon dated to between 2600 and 2400 BC, slightly earlier than the Stonehenge Archer, discovered in the outer ditch of the monument in 1978, and the two sets of burials, known as the Amesbury Archer and the Boscombe Bowmen, discovered 3 miles (5 km) to the west. Analysis of animal teeth found 2 miles (3 km) away at Durrington Walls, thought by Parker Pearson to be the 'builders camp', suggests that, during some period between 2600 and 2400 BC, as many as 4,000 people gathered at the site for the mid-winter and mid-summer festivals; the evidence showed that the animals had been slaughtered around 9 months or 15 months after their spring birth. Strontium isotope analysis of the animal teeth showed that some had been brought from as far afield as the Scottish Highlands for the celebrations. At about the same time, a large timber circle and a second avenue were constructed at Durrington Walls overlooking the River Avon. The timber circle was oriented towards the rising sun on the midwinter solstice, opposing the solar alignments at Stonehenge. The avenue was aligned with the setting sun on the summer solstice and led from the river to the timber circle. Evidence of huge fires on the banks of the Avon between the two avenues also suggests that both circles were linked. They were perhaps used as a procession route on the longest and shortest days of the year. Parker Pearson speculates that the wooden circle at Durrington Walls was the centre of a 'land of the living', whilst the stone circle represented a 'land of the dead', with the Avon serving as a journey between the two.

Stonehenge 3 III (2400 BC to 2280 BC):

Later in the Bronze Age, although the exact details of activities during this period are still unclear, the bluestones appear to have been re-erected. They were placed within the outer sarsen circle and may have been trimmed in some way. Like the sarsens, a few have timber-working style cuts in them suggesting that, during this phase, they may have been linked with lintels and were part of a larger structure.

Stonehenge 3 IV (2280 BC to 1930 BC):

This phase saw further rearrangement of the bluestones. They were arranged in a circle between the two rings of sarsens and in an oval at the centre of the inner ring. Some archaeologists argue that some of these bluestones were from a second group brought from Wales. All the stones formed well-spaced uprights without any of the linking lintels inferred in Stonehenge 3 III. The Altar Stone may have been moved within the oval at this time and re-erected vertically. Although this would seem the most impressive phase of work, Stonehenge 3 IV was rather shabbily built compared to its immediate predecessors, as the newly re-installed bluestones were not well-founded and began to fall over. However, only minor changes were made after this phase.

Stonehenge 3 V (1930 BC to 1600 BC):

Soon afterwards, the north eastern section of the Phase 3 IV bluestone circle was removed, creating a horseshoe-shaped setting (the Bluestone Horseshoe) which mirrored the shape of the central sarsen Trilithons. This phase is contemporary with the Seahenge site in Norfolk.

After the monument (1600 BC on):

The Y and Z Holes are the last known construction at Stonehenge, built about 1600 BC, and the last usage of it was probably during the Iron Age. Roman coins and medieval artefacts have all been found in or around the monument but it is unknown if the monument was in continuous use throughout British prehistory and beyond, or exactly how it would have been used. Notable is the massive Iron Age hillfort Vespasian's Camp built alongside the Avenue near the Avon. A decapitated seventh century Saxon man was excavated from Stonehenge in 1923. The site was known to scholars during the Middle Ages and since then it has been studied and adopted by numerous groups.

Theories about Stonehenge

Stonehenge was produced by a culture that left no written records. Many aspects of Stonehenge, such as how it was built and which purposes it was used for, remain subject to debate. A number of myths surround the stones. The site, specifically the great trilithon, the encompassing horseshoe arrangement of the five central trilithons, the heel stone, and the embanked avenue, are aligned to the sunset of the winter solstice and the opposing sunrise of the summer solstice. A natural landform at the monument's location followed this line, and may have inspired its construction. The excavated remains of culled animal bones suggest that people may have gathered at the site for the winter rather than the summer. Further astronomical associations, and the precise astronomical significance of the site for its people, are a matter of speculation and debate.

There is little or no direct evidence revealing the construction techniques used by the Stonehenge builders. Over the years, various authors have suggested that supernatural or anachronistic methods were used, usually asserting that the stones were impossible to move otherwise due to their massive size. However, conventional techniques, using Neolithic technology as basic as shear legs, have been demonstrably effective at moving and placing stones of a similar size. How the stones could be transported by a prehistoric people without the aid of the wheel or a pulley system is not known. The most common theory of how prehistoric people moved megaliths has them creating a track of logs on which the large stones were rolled along. Another megalith transport theory involves the use of a type of sleigh running on a track greased with animal fat. Such an experiment with a sleigh carrying a 40-ton slab of stone was successful near Stonehenge in 1995. A team of more than 100 workers managed to push and pull the slab along the 29 km journey from Marlborough Downs. Proposed functions for the site include usage as an astronomical observatory or as a religious site.

More recently two major new theories have been proposed. Professor Geoffrey Wainwright, president of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and Timothy Darvill, of Bournemouth University, have suggested that Stonehenge was a place of healing—the primeval equivalent of Lourdes. They argue that this accounts for the high number of burials in the area and for the evidence of trauma deformity in some of the graves. However, they do concede that the site was probably multifunctional and used for ancestor worship as well. Isotope analysis indicates that some of the buried individuals were from other regions. A teenage boy buried approximately 1550 BC was raised near the Mediterranean Sea; a metal worker from 2300 BC dubbed the "Amesbury Archer" grew up near the alpine foothills of Germany; and the "Boscombe Bowmen" probably arrived from Wales or Brittany, France.

On the other hand, Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University has suggested that Stonehenge was part of a ritual landscape and was joined to Durrington Walls by their corresponding avenues and the River Avon. He suggests that the area around Durrington Walls Henge was a place of the living, whilst Stonehenge was a domain of the dead. A journey along the Avon to reach Stonehenge was part of a ritual passage from life to death, to celebrate past ancestors and the recently deceased. Both explanations were first mooted in the twelfth century by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who extolled the curative properties of the stones and was also the first to advance the idea that Stonehenge was constructed as a funerary monument. Whatever religious, mystical or spiritual elements were central to Stonehenge, its design includes a celestial observatory function, which might have allowed prediction of eclipse, solstice, equinox and other celestial events important to a contemporary religion.

There are other hypotheses and theories. According to a team of British researchers led by Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield, Stonehenge may have been built as a symbol of "peace and unity", indicated in part by the fact that at the time of its construction, Britain's Neolithic people were experiencing a period of cultural unification.

Researchers from the Royal College of Art in London have discovered that the monument’s bluestones possess "unusual acoustic properties" — when struck they respond with a "loud clanging noise". According to Paul Devereux, editor of the journal Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture, this idea could explain why certain bluestones were hauled nearly 320 km —a major technical accomplishment at the time. In certain ancient cultures rocks that ring out, known as lithophones, were believed to contain mystic or healing powers, and Stonehenge has a history of association with rituals. The presence of these "ringing rocks" seems to support the hypothesis that Stonehenge was a "place for healing", as has been pointed out by Bournemouth University archaeologist Timothy Darvill, who consulted with the researchers. The bluestones of Stonehenge were quarried near a town in Wales called Maenclochog, which means "ringing rock", where the local bluestones were used as church bells until the 18th century.

Sarsen stones

Sarsen stones are sandstone blocks found in quantity in the United Kingdom on Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire; in Kent; and in smaller quantities in Berkshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Dorset and Hampshire. They are the post-glacial remains of a cap of Cenozoic silcrete that once covered much of southern England – a dense, hard rock created from sand bound by a silica cement, making it a kind of silicified sandstone. This is thought to have formed during Neogene to Quaternary weathering by the silicification of Upper Paleocene Lambeth Group sediments, resulting from acid leaching.

The word "sarsen" (pronunciation ['sa:sǝn]) is a shortening of "Saracen stone" which arose in the Wiltshire dialect. "Saracen" was a common name for Muslims, and came by extension to be used for anything regarded as non-Christian, whether Muslim, pagan Celtic, or other.

The builders of Stonehenge used these stones for the heelstone and sarsen circle uprights. Avebury and many other megalithic monuments in southern England are also built with sarsen stones.

Fire and in later times explosives were sometimes employed to break the stone into pieces of a suitable size for use in construction. Sarsen is not an ideal building material, however. William Stukeley wrote that sarsen is "always moist and dewy in winter which proves damp and unwholesome, and rots the furniture". In the case of Avebury, the investors who backed a scheme to recycle the stone were bankrupted when the houses they built proved to be unsaleable and also prone to burning down. However, despite these problems, sarsen remained highly prized for its durability, being a favoured material for steps and kerb stones.

Note - Sarsena is a large village in Wair tahsil of district Bharatpur in Rajasthan. It is inhabited by Sinsinwar Jats. It is a matter of research why there is similarity of names?

Migration of Jats to the New World

Hukum Singh Panwar (Pauria) writes....we may very well attempt an account of migrations of Asias and Indian including remote ancestors of Jat to the New World across the Pacific ocean, on the other side of the globe, in the Neolithic period. Of late, the view that the Americas were totally unknown to Asia and Europe, has been widely challenged, and ample evidence has come to view now pointing to several people of the Old World having made incursions to the Americas in remote antiquity. The Reader's Digest in its book "Strange Stories, Amazing Facts" (1990 : 216 ff) says that "few lands have been discovered as often as America. The Phoenicians, Irish, Vikings, Welsh and Chinese voyaged to the New World before Columbus (1492 A.D.). A sixth century legend has us believe that a Buddhist monk, Hoei Shin, found a continent called Fusang. Was it America? No one has answered the question". Among these, we believe, people from India were the most important migrants to these continents, having crossed to them and actually settled-there.

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Hukum Singh Panwar (Pauria) writes... The fact, that a number of Saka (Scythian) tribes migrated from Sapta Sindhu and central Asia to the New World between 8000 to 12000 years ago, indubitably establishes the truth that the Old World was their cradle at that time. But, unfortunately, the ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine writers, and the subsequent European and Indian historians who followed them, do not stipulate the antiquity of these people earlier than, at the most, 2500 B.C. To suspect, however, as a few scholars do, that so far as the antiquity of the Sakas (Sacae or Scythians) is concerned, the) might have been the victim of a 'conspiracy of silence' of the ancient chroniclers and their disciples, will be very unfair to them. All in all, we may say that these writers on the Scythians (Sakas or Sacae or Getae) did not have the benefit of the evidence which, consequent upon the latest researches in various sciences, is available to present students of the subject to determine the antiquity and migrations of these adventurous people. It is, perhaps, Waddell, followed by Calvin Kephart, Bridget Allchins, Siddhartha and Purushottam Singh who drew directly or indirectly our attention for the first time to the honourable antiquity of the Sakas or Getae and their migrations. Kephart even goes to the extent of saying that these people, after moving from higher reaches of the Indus river (Sapta Sindhu) to the fertile valley of the Oxus, gave their name Gete to it in circa 8000 B.C. and became the progenitors of the White (Nordic or Aryan) race.

स्टोन हेंज (Stonehenge)

Stonehenge World Heritage England Tour-19.8.2018

19.8.2018: आज ट्रेन से ब्राइटन (Brighton) के लिए 8.10 पर रवाना हुआ. बर्जेस हिल (Burgess Hill) से 7.45 बजे की ट्रेन के लिए रवाना हुआ था. स्टेशन पर ही पता लगा कि Thameslink ट्रेन आज निरस्त हो गई है. इसलिये अगली ट्रेन से जाना पड़ा. समय कम था परंतु ठीक 8.40 पर निर्धारित स्थान पर ब्राईटन पहुँच गया. रेल का रिटर्न टिकट किराया 5.60 पॉन्ड. ब्राइटन में रॉयल पविलियन के पास और विक्टोरिया गार्डन के सामने 1-मालबोरो प्लेस, जो सेंट गैलस कालेज के सामने है, वहाँ पहुँचा. रेल्वे स्टेशन से 1-मालबोरो प्लेस पहुँचने में रास्ता भटक गया था और सीधा समुद्र की तरफ पहुँचा तब ध्यान आया कि यह रास्ता तो गलत है. दुर्भाग्य से ऑनलाइन टिकट में संपर्क नंबर भी नहीं छपा था. समय बहुत कम रह गया था और भटकते हुये रॉयल पविलियन ब्राइटन का रास्ता कुछ लोगों से पूछकर अंतिम समय तक पहुँच गया. यहाँ से डिस्कवरी टूर की बस में स्टोन्हेंज (Stonehenge) और बाथ यात्रा की टिकट बुक पहले से करली थी. टिकट 50 पॉन्ड का है. 8.45 बजे बस रवाना होती है और शाम 8.30 पर वापस छोडती है. हमारे साथ बस में गाइड मिस्टर फेबियो था. वह एक अच्छा आदमी है. बहुत तरीके से यात्रा में गाइड किया. रास्ते में उसने सभी महत्वपूर्ण स्थानों का परिचय दिया. ब्राईटन से रवाना होकर रास्ते में जो स्थान पड़े वे थे:

Brighton (9.00) - Hove – Shoreham – Worthing - Little Hampton - Arundel – Arun River - Tangmere – Chichester – Havant - Portsmouth & Isle of Wight (Left) – Fareham – Meon River - Southmpton – Romsev - New Forest National Park – Test River - Alderbury – Salisbury – Avon River - Stonehenge (11.30-2.00) (Near Amesbury) – Warminster - Avon River - Bath (3.30-6.00) - Back to Brighton (9.30)

विश्व-विरासत स्थल स्टोन्हेंज (World Heritage Site Stonehenge)

Laxman Burdak at Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, 3 km west of Amesbury

19.8.2018 को 11.30 पर विश्व-विरासत स्थल स्टोन्हेंज (Stonehenge) पहुँच कर गाइड फेबीओ द्वारा पूरे ग्रूप के टिकट विजिटर सेंटर से व्यक्तिगत लेकर दिये और साथ में एक आडिओ उपकरण भी दिया जो स्थल का पूरा विवरण देता है. यहाँ पहले सेंटर की बस से पत्थरों वाले स्थान पर जाना होता है. स्थल विजिटर सेंटर से कोई 2 किमी दूर है और वहाँ टूरिस्ट बसें और कार नहीं जाने दिये जाते हैं ताकि पत्थरों पर प्रदूषण का विपरीत प्रभाव नहीं पड़े. यहाँ से उनकी बसों से ही आना-जाना पड़ता है.

स्थल के पत्थरों को कोई छूए नहीं इसके लिए तार से एक गोल घेरा बना दिया है इसलिये अब दूर से ही देखना होता है. स्थल पर कई मार्क अंकित हैं और वह नंबर उपकरण में दबाने पर पूरा विवरण सुनाया जाता है. यह आश्चर्य ही है और रहस्य बना हुआ है कि कैसे लोगों ने ये पत्थर लाकर तरासे और यह अद्भुत गोलाकार संरचना तैयार की. यह पत्थर आस-पास नहीं मिलता है. यह अनुमान लगाया जाता है कि खदान पर पत्थर तरास कर लकड़ी के राफ्टरों से यहाँ लाया गया हो. इसके नमूने के लिए विजिटर केंद्र पर एक पत्थर भी इस ढंग से राफ्टरों पर रखा गया है. साथ ही तीन घास-फूस से छाए झोंपड़े भी बने हैं जो राजस्थान के पुराने झोंपड़ों से मिलते हैं. हर पत्थर कोई 13 फीट ऊँचा और 7 फीट चौड़ा है. वजन कोई 25 टन है.

यह स्मारक सारसेन स्टोन के बने हुये हैं. Sarsena is a large village in Wair tahsil of district Bharatpur in Rajasthan. It is inhabited by Sinsinwar Jats. It is a matter of research why there is similarity of names?

विजिटर सेंटर के कार पार्किंग स्थल के पास 2013 में एक पेड़ खुदाई में निकला था जो 8000 बीसी का है. यहाँ मिली हड्डियों से अनुमान लगाया गया है कि ये बरियल ग्राउंड रहे हैं.8000 बीसी से प्रारंभ यह संरचना अद्भुत है. 3500 बीसी से यहाँ खेती का काम शुरू हो गया था. यह अनुमान है कि यह संरचना 3000-2000 बीसी के बीच निर्मित हुई है. अंतिम संरचना 1600 बीसी की है. सबसे पुराना ढाँचा 3100 बीसी का पाया गया है. यह शौध का विषय है कि 3102 बीसी का संबंध क़ृष्ण से है तो क्या उनके वंशजों का कभी इधर आने के संकेत कहीं मिलते हैं.

एक अनुमान के अनुसार अवोन नदी (Avon River) से मृतकों की अंतिम यात्रा शुरू कर इस स्थान तक आकर यहाँ अंतिम संस्कार किया जाता था. यह दूसरा अनुमान है कि किसानों को खेती में सहायता के लिए क्रॉप पैटर्न के ज्ञान के लिए ये संरचनाएं शुरू की गई हों. कुछ इतिहासकार मानते हैं कि ये स्थान शांति-स्थल थे और इनका उपयोग स्वास्थ्य सुधार के लिए किया जाता था.

विश्व विरासत स्थल स्टोन्हेंज का कृष्ण और उनके वंशज जाटों से संबंध:

स्टोन्हेंज की संरचनाओं की तिथियाँ जाटों के इतिहास से मेल खाती हैं. 8000 बीसी यहाँ पाये गए सबसे पुराने पेड़ का कार्बन डेटिंग काल है. यही काल जाटों के पश्चिम में अभिगमन का काल है.

Hukum Singh Panwar (Pauria) writes... The fact, that a number of Saka (Scythian) tribes migrated from Sapta Sindhu and central Asia to the New World between 8000 to 12000 years ago, indubitably establishes the truth that the Old World was their cradle at that time. But, unfortunately, the ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine writers, and the subsequent European and Indian historians who followed them, do not stipulate the antiquity of these people earlier than, at the most, 2500 B.C. To suspect, however, as a few scholars do, that so far as the antiquity of the Sakas (Sacae or Scythians) is concerned, the) might have been the victim of a 'conspiracy of silence' of the ancient chroniclers and their disciples, will be very unfair to them. All in all, we may say that these writers on the Scythians (Sakas or Sacae or Getae) did not have the benefit of the evidence which, consequent upon the latest researches in various sciences, is available to present students of the subject to determine the antiquity and migrations of these adventurous people. It is, perhaps, Waddell, followed by Calvin Kephart, Bridget Allchins, Siddhartha and Purushottam Singh who drew directly or indirectly our attention for the first time to the honourable antiquity of the Sakas or Getae and their migrations. Kephart even goes to the extent of saying that these people, after moving from higher reaches of the Indus river (Sapta Sindhu) to the fertile valley of the Oxus, gave their name Gete to it in circa 8000 B.C. and became the progenitors of the White (Nordic or Aryan) race.

यहाँ की अंतिम संरचना 1600 बीसी की है. सबसे पुराना ढाँचा 3100 बीसी का पाया गया है. यह महाभारत काल को प्रदर्शित करता है. किसानों को खेती में सहायता के लिए क्रॉप पैटर्न के ज्ञान के लिए ये संरचनाएं शुरू की गई थी. ये तथ्य कृष्ण और उनके वंशज जाटों के इस भूभाग में भूतकाल में निवास करने के संकेत करते हैं.

महाभारत में उल्लेख मिलता है कि जरासंध और कालयवन ने जब मथुरा पर आक्रमण कर आतंक बढ़ा दिया तो कृष्ण ने अपने 18 वृष्णि कुलों के साथ द्वारका के लिए प्रस्थान करने का निर्णय लिया.

श्री कृष्ण ने गुजरात के समुद्र के बीचों बीच द्वारिका नाम की राजधानी बसाई थी। द्वारिका पूरी सोने की थी और उसका निर्माण देवशिल्पी विश्वकर्मा ने किया था। इससे यह ज्ञात होता है कि वे वास्तुकला में निपुण थे.

द्वारका की रचना का मूल कारण कालयवन और जरासंध से त्रस्त यदुवंशियों की रक्षा करना और सुदूर रहकर महाभारत युद्ध सञ्चालन करना था; परन्तु साथ ही दुनिया के अन्य देशों से वैदेशिक सम्बन्धों का सुदृढ़ीकरण, आवागमन, आयात-निर्यात, व्यापर आदि तथ्यों का ध्यान रखा गया प्रतीत होता है। क्योंकि प्रारम्भ से ही यह अरब देशों से भारत में प्रवेश द्वार का काम करता था. युधिष्ठिर ने कृष्ण के प्रपौत्र वज्रनाभ को शूरसेन देश का राजा बनाया। बड़े होने पर वज्रनाभ द्वारका आ गए और उन्होंने अपने दादा कृष्ण की स्मृति में त्रैलोक्य सुन्दर विशाल मंदिर का निर्माण कराया।

श्री कृष्ण को ज़रा नाम के शिकारी का बाण उनके पैर के अंगूठे मे लगा वो शिकारी पूर्व जन्म का बाली था, बाण लगने के पश्चात भगवान स्वलोक धाम को गमन कर गए।

ठाकुर देशराज ने जाटों के पश्चिम तरफ बढ़ने के संबंध में प्रकाश डाला है ....उत्तरोत्तर संख्या वृद्धि के साथ ही वंश (कुल) वृद्धि भी होती गई और प्राचीन जातियां मे से एक-एक के सैंकड़ों वंश हो गए। साम्राज्य की लपेट से बचने के लिए कृष्ण ने इनके सामने भी यही प्रस्ताव रखा कि कुल राज्यों की बजाए ज्ञाति राज्य कायम कर डालो। ....द्वारिका के जाट-राष्ट्र पर हम दो विपत्तियों का आक्रमण एक साथ देख कर प्रभास क्षेत्र में यादवों का आपसी महायुद्ध और द्वारिका का जल में डूब जाना। अतः स्वभावतः शेष बचे जाटों को दूसरी जगह तलाश करने के लिए बढ़ना पड़ा। वज्र को तो पांडवों ने ले जाकर मथुरा का राजा बना दिया। लेकिन स्वयं भगवान श्रीकृष्ण के आठ पटरानियों से 17 पुत्र थे। पुराण अन्य रनियों से 80800 पुत्र बताते हैं। खैर हम 17 को ही सही मान कर चलते हैं। इनमें से दो चार तो बच्चे ही होंगे। ये लोग पूर्व-दक्षिण की ओर तो बढ़ नहीं सकते थे। क्योंकि साम्राज्य का हौआ दक्षिण से ही बढ़ रहा था। दूसरे उधर आबादी भी काफी थी। अतः पश्चिम उत्तर की ओर बढ़े।

पश्चिमी देशों में कृष्ण और उनके जाट वंशज गोत्रों का नाम प्रचलित है। ऊपर दलीप सिंह अहलावत ने ब्रिटेन पर जट्स, सेक्सन्स एंगल्स की विजय (410 ई० से 825 ई०) का वर्णन किया है.

प्रो डेविड ने पंजाब और हरियाणा के जाटों के अलावा भारत और पाकिस्तान के विभिन्न जातीयों व समुदायों के डीएनए सर्वेक्षण कर अपनी पुस्तक में निष्कर्ष निकाला है कि इंग्लैंड, स्कैंडिनेविया - जर्मनी, स्वेडन, डेनमार्क, आदि देशों में जाट डीएनए पाया गया है.

यह स्मारक सारसेन स्टोन के बने हुये हैं. Sarsena is a large village in Wair tahsil of district Bharatpur in Rajasthan. It is inhabited by Sinsinwar Jats. It is a matter of research why there is similarity of names?

इससे यह निष्कर्ष निकाला जा सकता है कि विश्व विरासत स्थल स्टोन्हेंज में कृष्ण और उनके वंशज जाट पहुँचे हैं और यहाँ खेती की परंपरा शुरू की. स्टोनहेञ्ज का अंग्रेजी में संक्षिप्त परिचय इस प्रकार है:

A Brief Introduction of Stonehenge : Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, 3 km west of Amesbury. It consists of a ring of standing stones, with each standing stone around 13 feet high, 7 feet wide and weighing around 25 tons. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds. Archaeologists believe it was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the first bluestones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC, although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC. One of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon.

The site and its surroundings were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage; the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.

Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings. Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, and continued for at least another five hundred years.

Theories about Stonehenge: Stonehenge was produced by a culture that left no written records. Many aspects of Stonehenge, such as how it was built and which purposes it was used for, remain subject to debate. A number of myths surround the stones. The site, specifically the great trilithon, the encompassing horseshoe arrangement of the five central trilithons, the heel stone, and the embanked avenue, are aligned to the sunset of the winter solstice and the opposing sunrise of the summer solstice. A natural landform at the monument's location followed this line, and may have inspired its construction. The excavated remains of culled animal bones suggest that people may have gathered at the site for the winter rather than the summer. Further astronomical associations, and the precise astronomical significance of the site for its people, are a matter of speculation and debate.

दोपहर बाद में इंग्लैंड के एक दूसरी वर्ल्ड हेरिटेज स्थल – बाथ का प्रवास किया जिसका विवरण आगे दिया गया है.

गुर्ग

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ...गुर्ग (AS, p.292) आदिलाबाद ज़िला, तेलंगाना के ऐतिहासिक स्थानों में से एक है। यहाँ प्रागैतिहासिक काल के श्मशान के चिह्न (पत्थरों के घेरे के रूप में) विशेष रूप से उल्लेखनीय हैं। इसी प्रकार के प्रागैतिहासिक पत्थरों के घेरे (Stonehenge) अन्य देशों, जैसे- ब्रिटेन आदि में भी मिले हैं।

विश्व विरासत स्थल पर सूर्य उपासना के लिए पहुंचे ब्रिटेन के लोग

विश्व विरासत स्थल पर सूर्य उपासना के लिए पहुंचे ब्रिटेन के लोग

ब्रिटेन के सेलिसबरी में सैकड़ों लोग विश्व विरासत स्थल स्टोनहेंज में जमा हुए। मान्यता है कि साल की सबसे लंबी रात का जब अंत होता है, तब लोग सूर्य के दक्षिणायन होने का पर्व (विंटर सोल्सटिस) मनाने आते हैं। कई तो हजारों साल पुराने स्टोनहेंज के पत्थरों से भी लिपटते हैं। परंपरा है कि ऐसा करने से फसल अच्छी होती है और उन्नति भी मिलती है। उगते सूर्य की पहली किरण पाने के लिए यहां पहुंचने वाले लोग पूर्व दिशा की तरफ मुंह करके खड़े होते हैं। परंपरावादी ढोल-नगाड़ों की थाप पर नाचते हैं।

External links

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen%27s_House#/map/0