Stonehenge was built at least 300 years before the Egyptian Pyramids. HISTORY.com 7 Ancient Sites Some People Think Were Built by Aliens Stonehenge. These spots might not have been crafted by extraterrestrials, but that doesn’t mean they’re not out of this world.
For centuries, historians and archaeologists have puzzled over the many mysteries of
Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument that Neolithic builders toiled over for an estimated 1,500 years. While many modern scholars now agree that it served as a sacred burial ground, they have yet to explain how a civilization without modern technology—or even the wheel—produced the mighty circle of upright megalithic stones.
Stonehenge’s outer ring consists of sarsen sandstone slabs that hail from local quarries, but its inner ring is made up of smaller rocks called bluestones that scientists have traced to the Preseli Hills in Wales, some 200 miles from where Stonehenge sits on England’s Salisbury Plain.
How did the workers who broke ground on Stonehenge as early as 5,000 years ago transport these 4-ton boulders over such a great distance? Here are some theories.
Wicker Baskets In November 2010, the engineer and former BBC presenter Garry Lavin unveiled a new hypothesis, suggesting that the builders used basket-like wicker cages to transport Stonehenge’s massive bluestones. To demonstrate his concept, he created a prototypical cradle made from willow and alder saplings. Lavin believes that groups of four or five men used similar contraptions to roll the stones over long distances, perhaps with the help of oxen. When they reached rivers, the giant baskets became flotation devices that the movers could guide downstream.
Lavin’s theory is supported by archaeological evidence that people were already weaving baskets and other structures back when Stonehenge was created. So far, though, he’s only managed to test his prototype on a 1-ton slab—a fraction of the bluestones’ size. Further experiments with supersized baskets and 5-ton rocks may show how much water the basket hypothesis really holds.
Ball Bearings Shortly before Lavin’s basket theory made headlines, researchers from the University of Exeter proposed their own innovative solution to the mystery of Stonehenge. After studying puzzling stone balls found near ancient stone circles in Scotland that resemble Stonehenge, they concluded that Neolithic workers may have used wooden or stone balls and long grooved planks to slide the heavy slabs all the way from Wales. With a team of oxen, the researchers estimate, Stonehenge’s creators could have transported the massive rocks some 10 miles a day, taking roughly two weeks to make the trek from the Preseli Hills quarry to the construction site in England.
The researchers tested their theory by enlisting student volunteers and constructing a model out of wooden balls, planks and concrete slabs. While they have yet to reproduce the experiment with more authentic materials and oxen, initial attempts suggest that their hypothesis is entirely feasible—and that Leonardo da Vinci may not have been the inventor of ball bearings after all.
Stone Age Technology In 2003, Wally Wallington, a retired construction worker from Michigan who built a Stonehenge replica in his yard, demonstrated a low-tech way to move large objects by placing walnut-sized rocks underneath them and spinning them. According to his estimates, one man could transport a 1-ton concrete block 300 feet per hour with this technique, and a team of movers could convey much bigger objects at faster rates. Wallington has single-handedly moved an entire barn and many other hefty structures using his simple method.
Wallington also explored how Stonehenge’s builders might have raised the enormous stones, using weights and leverage to slowly rock heavy pillars into standing positions. His approach resembles that of Edward Leedskalnin, the Latvian-born eccentric who built the extraordinary monument known as Coral Castle in Florida between 1923 and 1951. Constructed by one man without the help of modern technology, Leedskalnin’s masterpiece consists of numerous megalithic stones that weigh up to 30 tons each.
It is said that Stonehenger Buiders Used Lard to Move Its Boulders Into Place. Animal fat residue found on ceramic vessels suggests the ancient Britons who built the monument greased their wooden sledges with lard.