And why? Right now, on NOVA. These range from seven to more than 40 tons.Recordedin a laser scan, their shape and size point to one thing: they probably heldbluestones, just like the ones now standing at Stonehenge.Howdid people with Stone Age technology manage to build on such a vast scale?Onthese days, crowds may have traveled along the river, moving between the realmof the living at Durrington Walls, and the realm of the dead at Stonehenge.Some may have cast the ashes of their dead into the sacred waters, a gesture ofdevotion. The plaque has stopped soil falling down in amongst them.
Brooding and majestic, Stonehenge is an icon of prehistory. We're in a veryimportant place. To offset the compression of the Douglas fir, they placewooden inserts in the grooves.A NOVA Production by Gemini Productions LLCAnd what it's probably telling us is a connection inpeople's minds between the sun and the seasonal cycle, and how, by having theright ceremonials at the right time, they could keep in harmony with thecosmos.How did prehistoric people quarry, transport, sculpt, and erect these giant stones? Those digsestablished that the monument was built in stages.
Use one of the services below to sign in to PBS: You've just tried to add this video to My List.But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. Show Schedule. NARRATOR: The Secrets of Stonehenge, revealed, right now on NOVA. So Parker Pearson brought his team.ParkerPearson believes they were moved to Stonehenge. Perhaps royal burials were held at Stonehenge during these seasonalfeasts.Andlater, parallel banks would define a processional avenue that stretched all theway from Stonehenge to the River Avon.
This probably happened around2500 B.C., when the giant sarsens were installed in the center of the monument.Onepoint two; that's very good.Today,all that remains are traces of postholes, but their size indicates some heldtree trunks 15 feet high, weighing several tons. An Egyptian obelisk. Several otherstones completed the monument.Back at the riverside, Parker Pearson and histeam expand their trenches and expose more of that strange circular structure.It appears to be the ditch and eroded bank of a henge.When they got to the bottom, when they finished,maybe it was broken, and they just dropped it, or maybe they just deliberatelyleft it there, almost as an offering.Toarchaeologist Mike Pitts, the process involved manpower and myth.Tofind out, archaeologists are studying Stonehenge with new tools and new eyes.Butthere's a quick fix.