Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in Wiltshire, England, just two miles of Amesbury. It is made up of a ring of standing stones. Each of the stones is around 13-feet high, 7-feet wide, and they weight around 25-tons. It believed that Stonehenge built about 5,000 years ago. We know a lot about Stonehenge, but what we don’t know is how it was built. With stones this heavy, experts want to know how the people managed to move them to their positions and stand them up. Heavy machinery wasn’t invented yet, so how did the people move the stones? Thanks to a recent discovery, scientists now have a plausible theory.
Sleds
Because nothing was written about the building on Stonehenge, experts only have theories regarding how the stones were placed. Until recently, it believed that the people used large sleds to transport the rocks. Even with sleds, moving 25-ton stones couldn’t have been easy. Many people believe that manpower couldn’t be capable of such a feat. An archaeologist named Lisa-Marie Shillito has performed studies and thinks that she knows how the people were able to move these massive 20-ton rocks.
Ceramic Pots
The only artifacts discovered around Stonehenge that associated with that time period were ceramic pots. Researchers believed that these pots used for cooking food. The area was abundant with wild boars, which is what experts thought that the people ate. In many of the ceramic pots, scientists found traces of animal fat. This is what led them to believe that they used for cooking. While this theory still holds up, Lisa-Marie has another theory regarding the fat traces found in the pots.
2018 Study
A 2018 study performed to learn more about the fragments of the pots that discovered near Stonehenge. Big bones found at the site, but it found that the pigs couldn’t have been cooked in the pots, which debunks the previous theory. The skeletons found intact, which meant that they never butchered. Because the pigs weren’t cut up before cooking, and there’s no way that whole pig would have fit into the pot, the experts are wrong about the way the food cooked. According to the new theory, the pigs spit-roasted over an open fire, and the drippings caught in the pot. Over time, the drippings turned to lard. The question is, why did they store the fat?
Flavor?
Some people believed that the lard stored to heat up later to add flavor to the meat. Since fine dining wasn’t important to people 5,000 years ago, this likely isn’t the case. The people back then focused on avoiding starvation than they were with taste, so this theory wasn’t plausible. It is highly unlikely that the drippings used for gravy, but according to Lisa-Marie, the drippings may have had a much more important purpose.
Grease
One thing that we know about pig grease is that it is slippery. Maybe the people 5,000 years ago used to to make an area slicker. Why would they need the area to be slick? Lisa-Marie believes that she has the answer to that question. Her answer may have answered a question that people have been asking for centuries.
Building Stonehenge
Lisa-Marie believes that Stonehenge’s massive megaliths may have been moved into place with pig lard. Sure, the people used sleds to move the multi-ton stones, but even with a lot of manpower, this couldn’t have been easy. Lisa-Marie believes that the people greased the ground where the sleds would pushed to help them move the sleds easier.
Stonehenge’s Massive Megaliths: A Good Theory
This is actually an excellent theory. Why else would the people have been storing lard in their ceramic containers? Since the stones were so heavy, greasing the ground to help the sled move easily would have made it much easier to get the rocks into their desired position. This theory answered some excellent questions.
Still Just a Theory Of Stonehenge’s Massive Megaliths
Because nobody bothered to write anything down about how Stonehenge was built, Lisa-Marie’s theory was just that, a theory. There is no way of knowing how or why Stonehenge was built. All the experts have are theories, and this is one of the best arguments so far.
Amazing
Even with this new theory of how the people who built Stonehenge could prove that things were easier, it doesn’t answer all of the questions. The stones are standing. How did they manage to stand 25-ton stones up without heavy machinery? Unfortunately, we may never have the answer to this question. At least Lisa-Marie’s theory has answered at least one question. It might be a good thing that we don’t know everything there is to know about Stonehenge. The mystery behind its construction if part of what makes it such a popular tourist destination.
