1 00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 1: It is nineteen seventy one and the August heat beats 2 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:18,320 Speaker 1: down on the Wiltshire countryside in southern England. Five free 3 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:22,360 Speaker 1: spirited teens who've spent their summer traveling the country in 4 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:26,759 Speaker 1: a campavan, hopping from one festival to another, or on 5 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:31,720 Speaker 1: their way to their final destination, an unofficial campsite on 6 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:37,080 Speaker 1: Salisbury Plain. As their van crests a hill, it comes 7 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:44,440 Speaker 1: into view Stonehenge. The behemoth stands tall and inscrutable against 8 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 1: the rolling green hills. The ancient ruins are comprised of 9 00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:54,440 Speaker 1: a partial outer ring of vertical sarsen stones that stand 10 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:59,640 Speaker 1: about thirteen feet tall and seven feet wide, some still 11 00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:03,760 Speaker 1: possess seeing their stone lintels, And in the center of 12 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:07,679 Speaker 1: it all stands what's left of a series of trilithons, 13 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:14,240 Speaker 1: huge stand alone n shaped structures which together once stood 14 00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 1: in the shape of a horseshoe. Three still stand complete, 15 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:23,760 Speaker 1: each around twenty feet high. They look like giant portals 16 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:28,360 Speaker 1: to some other place. Another vast stone of the inner 17 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:32,480 Speaker 1: sanctum lies flat on the ground, leading some to believe 18 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:36,920 Speaker 1: it may have been some kind of altar. The five 19 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:42,680 Speaker 1: teenages are mesmerized as they draw ever closer even at 20 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:47,080 Speaker 1: a distance. The vastness of the stones and their weighty 21 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:53,080 Speaker 1: presence is palpable. Just beyond it lies what's known as 22 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 1: a heel stone, a single outlying standing stone to the northeast. 23 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:02,600 Speaker 1: The kids in the van think back to the summer 24 00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:07,120 Speaker 1: solstice two months before, when they, along with many of 25 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:12,120 Speaker 1: their friends, gathered there to watch the sunrise it crested 26 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:16,040 Speaker 1: the horizon. Just to the left of the heelstone. Many 27 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:20,400 Speaker 1: years before, a second stone had stood there too, the 28 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 1: pair of them perfectly framing the rising solstice sun. As 29 00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:30,560 Speaker 1: the five friends continue on their way, they talk about 30 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:34,959 Speaker 1: how it all might have once looked, the perfect completed 31 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:39,920 Speaker 1: circle of the outer ring, the giant trilithon stones inside, 32 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:43,560 Speaker 1: the tallest of which would have towered over the others 33 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:49,079 Speaker 1: at twenty four feet high. Debate surrounding what's left of 34 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:53,000 Speaker 1: the stones that litter the inner circle continues to rage 35 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:59,480 Speaker 1: to this day, as archaeologists, historians, and geologists argue over 36 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:03,639 Speaker 1: which stone stood upright, which ones have broken into pieces, 37 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:07,840 Speaker 1: and what on earth it was all for, none of 38 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:11,360 Speaker 1: which is any concern to the teenagers. As they arrived 39 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:16,720 Speaker 1: finally at their destination after parking up, they grabbed their 40 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:21,520 Speaker 1: camping gear and head straight for the mighty structure. The 41 00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:25,880 Speaker 1: enigmatic stone circle looms high over the teenagers as they 42 00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:29,799 Speaker 1: make their way inside, passing first through the outer ring 43 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:34,240 Speaker 1: before settling right in the center. Pleased to find the 44 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:39,800 Speaker 1: place is completely deserted, and there among the collapsed stones, 45 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:51,720 Speaker 1: they pitched their tents. Yuenesco has since prevented open access 46 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:56,480 Speaker 1: to Stonehenge, deeming it at World Heritage Site, but things 47 00:03:56,520 --> 00:04:01,720 Speaker 1: were different in the nineteen seventies. Long the group are 48 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:06,200 Speaker 1: opening beers and smoking weed, philosophizing on the meaning of 49 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 1: life and soaking up the strange energy of the place. 50 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: They note the muted sounds of the surrounding world and 51 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:19,600 Speaker 1: how oddly charged the air seems, the result of the storm, 52 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:25,000 Speaker 1: perhaps slowly moving toward them. It rolls closer as the 53 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:29,920 Speaker 1: evening wears on, the sky darkening ominously as heavy rain 54 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:34,840 Speaker 1: clouds slowly blot out the sun. Then the rain begins. 55 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:39,359 Speaker 1: It pummels down onto the group as they huddle in 56 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:46,720 Speaker 1: their tents. Thunder booms above and lightning forks the sky nearby. 57 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:51,600 Speaker 1: A local police officer notices the strange frequency of lightning 58 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:55,200 Speaker 1: and the way it casts the stones into sharp relief 59 00:04:55,279 --> 00:04:58,719 Speaker 1: against the sky as it lights up with a fierce, 60 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:05,200 Speaker 1: electric blue glow. Others step out of their homes, farmers 61 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:09,040 Speaker 1: and local residents, drawn by the blinding light and the 62 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:12,600 Speaker 1: sound of trees crashing to the ground as the storm 63 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:17,960 Speaker 1: grows in intensity. Then another sound seems to carry over 64 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:22,400 Speaker 1: to them, just audible through the booms of thunder and 65 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:27,800 Speaker 1: the thrashing of branches, the sound of screaming coming from 66 00:05:27,839 --> 00:05:33,400 Speaker 1: the direction of Stonehenge. The screams are faint and ghostly, 67 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:37,480 Speaker 1: at first, hurled toward them on the wind, before being 68 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:41,919 Speaker 1: ripped away again as the squawn rages on, but grow 69 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 1: steadily in volume. Drawn by the screams, the police officer 70 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:52,920 Speaker 1: sprints toward the henge, but is forced to stop, throwing 71 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:55,679 Speaker 1: his arms up to his face as a fresh bolt 72 00:05:55,720 --> 00:06:00,839 Speaker 1: of lightning shoots down from the sky. Moments later, he 73 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:05,479 Speaker 1: can only watch in mesmerized horror as another bolt shoots down, 74 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:08,640 Speaker 1: hitting the center of the henge in a blast of 75 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:16,320 Speaker 1: white blue light. Then the screaming stops. The officer falls back, 76 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:21,520 Speaker 1: too afraid to get any closer. When the storm finally passes, 77 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:26,640 Speaker 1: the officer rushes into the stone circle, racing himself what 78 00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:32,440 Speaker 1: he might find there dead bodies, perhaps hideously burned and 79 00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:37,520 Speaker 1: charred by the lightning, But what he sees is far 80 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:42,520 Speaker 1: more eerie. There are backpacks and the remnants of a 81 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:48,400 Speaker 1: small fire, but not a single person. The campers had 82 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:55,000 Speaker 1: completely disappeared. In some versions of this story, the teenagers 83 00:06:55,040 --> 00:07:01,000 Speaker 1: have names Julia Ashton, Lucas Adams, Cherie E. Wilson Junior, 84 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 1: Daniel Wilson, and Wilma Rupert. Their details are said to 85 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:11,400 Speaker 1: have been found on missing persons reports. It is, of course, 86 00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:17,600 Speaker 1: an urban myth created on Internet forums and message boards. Nonetheless, 87 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:22,800 Speaker 1: it serves as a perfect allegory for Stonehenge. Stories around 88 00:07:22,840 --> 00:07:26,520 Speaker 1: it persist, a relic from a bygone era, with no 89 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:33,040 Speaker 1: written explanation for its existence, centuries of speculation spinning itself 90 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:37,200 Speaker 1: into a tangled web of myth and history, an alluring 91 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:41,280 Speaker 1: mixture of fact and fiction, all shadowed by an ever 92 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:48,520 Speaker 1: present aura of death and pagan's spiritual energy. You're listening 93 00:07:48,520 --> 00:08:02,000 Speaker 1: to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McLane. Smith. Stonehenge captivates us 94 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:06,760 Speaker 1: precisely because we don't have all the answers. Who built it, 95 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:10,560 Speaker 1: how did they build it, When did they build it? 96 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:15,920 Speaker 1: And most importantly, why did they build it? One of 97 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:20,560 Speaker 1: the earliest answers came from one of Britain's earliest historiographers. 98 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:27,480 Speaker 1: Galfridus Alturas, also known as Geoffrey of Monmouth, the twelfth 99 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:30,640 Speaker 1: century cleric from Wales, was a major figure in the 100 00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:35,040 Speaker 1: development of written history, best known for popularizing tales of 101 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:38,880 Speaker 1: the fabled King Arthur, a mythical figure said to have 102 00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:43,880 Speaker 1: defended ancient Britons against the invading Anglo Saxons in the 103 00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:51,000 Speaker 1: fifth century CE. For his Stonehenge origin story, Galfridus Alturus 104 00:08:51,559 --> 00:08:56,440 Speaker 1: spun a tale of magic and wonder. According to him, 105 00:08:57,040 --> 00:09:01,640 Speaker 1: back in the fifth century, two brothers named Hengist and Horser, 106 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:05,680 Speaker 1: members of the ancient tribe of people known as Dutes, 107 00:09:06,320 --> 00:09:10,800 Speaker 1: arrived in Britain from what his present day Denmark. They 108 00:09:10,840 --> 00:09:14,600 Speaker 1: came first to fight as mercenaries for the so called 109 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:19,040 Speaker 1: King Vortigern of the Britons, but would eventually turn on him. 110 00:09:20,200 --> 00:09:23,800 Speaker 1: Hengust is said to have led a bloody uprising, murdering 111 00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:29,800 Speaker 1: four hundred or so of Vortigan's men. Vortigan's successor, King 112 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:35,480 Speaker 1: Aurelius Ambrosius, the supposed uncle of King Arthur, was devastated 113 00:09:35,559 --> 00:09:39,840 Speaker 1: by the assault. Such was his grief that he declared 114 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:45,800 Speaker 1: no ordinary memorial for the nobles would do. He wanted 115 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:51,840 Speaker 1: something immortal, a tribute to their sacrifice that would last forever. 116 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:58,240 Speaker 1: His builders made suggestions, came to him with plans, but 117 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:03,520 Speaker 1: nothing seemed like it would truly last. After weeks of 118 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:08,600 Speaker 1: pacing and fretting, he summoned for the wizard Merlin. Merlin 119 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:13,040 Speaker 1: did not disappoint Have you heard of the Giant's Dance, 120 00:10:13,200 --> 00:10:18,800 Speaker 1: your majesty, he asked him. Ambrosius had not, and so 121 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:23,320 Speaker 1: Merlin explained all about the strange circle of stones that 122 00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:26,559 Speaker 1: had been brought from Africa all the way to Ireland 123 00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:30,920 Speaker 1: by a group of giants. The stones, known as the 124 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,320 Speaker 1: Giant's Dance, were said to be located at the top 125 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:39,720 Speaker 1: of a mysterious mountain called Mount Killerouse. Legend had it 126 00:10:40,040 --> 00:10:43,119 Speaker 1: that the stones were used as a site for performing 127 00:10:43,240 --> 00:10:49,000 Speaker 1: strange magic rituals and had magical healing properties. It was 128 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:52,840 Speaker 1: Merlin's suggestion that they find the stones and bring them 129 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:59,400 Speaker 1: back for themselves to use for King Ambrosius's memorial. Ambrosius agreed, 130 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:04,280 Speaker 1: and within days he and his brother King Uther Pendragon, 131 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:08,760 Speaker 1: King Arthur's father gathered a small army and set off 132 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:23,480 Speaker 1: for Ireland. When the King's legions arrived in Ireland, they 133 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:28,920 Speaker 1: were met with fierce resistance. However, after much bloody fighting, 134 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:34,760 Speaker 1: they eventually broke through and made their way to Mount Killerouse. There, 135 00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:38,400 Speaker 1: at its summit they found the mighty stones of the 136 00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:43,800 Speaker 1: Giant's Dance. Ambrosius and his men stared up in awe 137 00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:48,000 Speaker 1: at the vast sarsen stones that seemed to vibrate with 138 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:52,400 Speaker 1: their own life force. Across the top of them were 139 00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:58,079 Speaker 1: the huge lintels, creating endless thresholds into the preternatural space within. 140 00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:04,920 Speaker 1: Hung in the air like dust. Then Merlin shook back 141 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:09,840 Speaker 1: his sleeves and got to work. Peace by piece, he 142 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:14,800 Speaker 1: magically dismantled the structure, imbuing each stone with a magical 143 00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:18,000 Speaker 1: mark so that he knew exactly how to put it 144 00:12:18,040 --> 00:12:22,560 Speaker 1: back together. Then he used his sorcery to make each 145 00:12:22,640 --> 00:12:25,760 Speaker 1: stone light enough to be carried by only a few men, 146 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:31,040 Speaker 1: and borne on their ships back to Britain. The stones 147 00:12:31,080 --> 00:12:34,880 Speaker 1: were then carted back across the Irish Sea through the 148 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:38,960 Speaker 1: West Country of ancient Britain, all the way to Salisbury 149 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:44,880 Speaker 1: Plain in what is present day England. Once there, Merlin 150 00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:50,200 Speaker 1: reassembled the gigantic pieces into what we now know as Stonehenge. 151 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:54,360 Speaker 1: When the final piece was put back into place, the 152 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:58,280 Speaker 1: stones began to hum once more, just as they did 153 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:05,560 Speaker 1: on Mount Killerouse today. Much of what galfridas Salturus wrote 154 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:08,319 Speaker 1: about the history of Britain is thought to have been 155 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:13,160 Speaker 1: fabricated for centuries. However, give or take the use of 156 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:17,520 Speaker 1: Merlin's magic, what he wrote about the origins of Stonehenge 157 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:21,920 Speaker 1: was widely believed. It was only around the seventeenth to 158 00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:25,679 Speaker 1: eighteenth century, during the birth of the field of study 159 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:29,720 Speaker 1: we now know as archaeology, that other theories put forward 160 00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:35,000 Speaker 1: began to dispel the Merlin myth. For John Aubrey, the 161 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:40,920 Speaker 1: famed seventeenth century antiquarian and pioneer of archaeological study, it 162 00:13:40,960 --> 00:13:45,440 Speaker 1: was most likely the Druids who erected the stones. Celtic 163 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:49,160 Speaker 1: pagan priests of ancient Britain thought to have been most 164 00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:55,920 Speaker 1: prominent between four hundred BCE and two hundred CE. Druid communities, 165 00:13:56,280 --> 00:13:59,880 Speaker 1: which have been traced to areas around Salisbury Plain, where 166 00:13:59,880 --> 00:14:04,479 Speaker 1: Stonehenge is located, a thought to have placed special significance 167 00:14:04,559 --> 00:14:07,560 Speaker 1: on the marking of the seasons and the veneration of 168 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:11,880 Speaker 1: the dead, two common interpretations of the purpose of the 169 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:17,760 Speaker 1: stone circle. It's also believed they used altar stones similar 170 00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:22,600 Speaker 1: to the one found in Stonehenge, principally, as some have suggested, 171 00:14:23,120 --> 00:14:29,840 Speaker 1: for human sacrifice. However, since the Druids never kept written records, 172 00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:34,240 Speaker 1: most of our knowledge about this mysterious elite holy order 173 00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:40,000 Speaker 1: comes second hand from Greco Romans, including famously Julius Caesar, 174 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:44,360 Speaker 1: who declared the Celtic God's delight in the slaughter of 175 00:14:44,400 --> 00:14:48,800 Speaker 1: prisoners and criminals, and when the supply of captives runs short, 176 00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:55,600 Speaker 1: they sacrifice even the innocent. Without any verifiable evidence, this 177 00:14:55,880 --> 00:15:01,000 Speaker 1: interpretation of the Druids has frequently been dismissed as baganda 178 00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:05,880 Speaker 1: aimed at dehumanizing what to Roman invaders was simply strange 179 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:17,960 Speaker 1: people from a strange, unknown world. Back in the nineteen twenties, 180 00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:24,840 Speaker 1: archaeologist William Hawley was carrying out excavations at Stonehenge when 181 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:29,280 Speaker 1: his assistant Robert Newell, discovered a ring of forty six 182 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:34,520 Speaker 1: chalk pits surrounding the stone circle. Inside some of them 183 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:41,560 Speaker 1: were cremated human remains. Suddenly, the prospect of Stonehenge being 184 00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:45,840 Speaker 1: used for Druidic human sacrifice seemed a little more real. 185 00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:50,440 Speaker 1: It isn't known exactly what the precise purpose of the 186 00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:54,800 Speaker 1: holes were, aside from providing a final resting place for 187 00:15:54,880 --> 00:16:00,720 Speaker 1: some ancient peoples. Known today as Aubrey Holes, named after 188 00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:05,960 Speaker 1: antiquarian John Aubrey, some have speculated they may have had 189 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:11,040 Speaker 1: an astronomical significance and were possibly the markings left behind 190 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:16,320 Speaker 1: by another stone circle. A further two circles of holes 191 00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:20,480 Speaker 1: surrounding the site, known more prosaically as the Y and 192 00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:26,400 Speaker 1: Z holes, were also discovered during Hawley's dig, though these 193 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:31,000 Speaker 1: are thought to being created some time after Stonehenge was built, 194 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:35,960 Speaker 1: with Hawley pursuing a theory that the Henge was simply 195 00:16:35,960 --> 00:16:41,440 Speaker 1: a fortified settlement. The cremated remains he found there were 196 00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:46,360 Speaker 1: gathered together and placed in Aubrey Hole number seven, where 197 00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:53,400 Speaker 1: they were reburied and forgotten about. Then, in nineteen fifty 198 00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:57,880 Speaker 1: four came a further extraordinary discovery. Though it can't be 199 00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: known for sure if the Druids did utilize Stonehenge for 200 00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:08,439 Speaker 1: terrifying human sacrificial rituals, what was proved beyond any doubt 201 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:15,600 Speaker 1: was that they didn't build the thing. Back in the 202 00:17:15,680 --> 00:17:20,560 Speaker 1: nineteen forties, physical chemist William Libbey was a key player 203 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:24,840 Speaker 1: in the Manhattan Project, helping to develop a more productive 204 00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:31,240 Speaker 1: way to enrich the uranium used in the first atomic bombs. Later, 205 00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:36,360 Speaker 1: as a professor of chemistry at Chicago University, he returned 206 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:39,520 Speaker 1: to the area of study that had interested him prior 207 00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:45,760 Speaker 1: to the war, the study of radioactivity. At the time, 208 00:17:46,240 --> 00:17:49,600 Speaker 1: it was known that carbon fourteen could be found in 209 00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:53,679 Speaker 1: the Earth's atmosphere, and the extent of it calculated to 210 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:57,359 Speaker 1: a fairly accurate degree. It was also known that this 211 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:02,120 Speaker 1: global concentration of carbon forty is evident in the tissue 212 00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:07,480 Speaker 1: of all living things. What Libby realized was that because 213 00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:12,400 Speaker 1: plants and animals cease ingesting carbon fourteen when they die, 214 00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:15,080 Speaker 1: all he had to do to work out how long 215 00:18:15,119 --> 00:18:18,800 Speaker 1: ago something died was measure the state of the carbon 216 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:23,280 Speaker 1: fourteen in its remains. By then, applying the half life 217 00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:27,800 Speaker 1: principle the rate at which atoms decay, you could calculate 218 00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:32,719 Speaker 1: how old it was. William Libby's discovery, known of course 219 00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:36,240 Speaker 1: as carbon dating, would win him the Nobel Prize in 220 00:18:36,359 --> 00:18:40,919 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty. Before then, however, one of the first things 221 00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:46,359 Speaker 1: he tested his theory on was Stonehenge. Using the charcoal 222 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:51,160 Speaker 1: remains of a campfire found at the site, Libby calculated 223 00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:54,680 Speaker 1: that they dated to as far back as eighteen forty 224 00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:59,760 Speaker 1: eight BCE. A further carbon dating analysis in two thousand 225 00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:02,480 Speaker 1: and eight Nate pushed the first known use of the 226 00:19:02,560 --> 00:19:07,520 Speaker 1: site even further back to twenty three hundred BCE, but 227 00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:18,800 Speaker 1: there was even more yet to come. Professor Mike Parker Pearson, 228 00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:23,440 Speaker 1: world renowned archeologist at University College London, and his team 229 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:26,800 Speaker 1: had been working at Stonehenge for years when they began 230 00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:30,640 Speaker 1: looking closer at the Aubrey Holes. It was they who 231 00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:34,879 Speaker 1: finally took the remains from a whole number seven, estimated 232 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:39,399 Speaker 1: to contain more than fifty thousand cremated bone fragments of 233 00:19:39,560 --> 00:19:45,480 Speaker 1: roughly sixty individuals, and had them dated. The remains were 234 00:19:45,520 --> 00:19:49,520 Speaker 1: found to be around five thousand years old, suggesting the 235 00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:54,000 Speaker 1: area where Stonehenge was built was in use, perhaps as 236 00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:59,960 Speaker 1: a sacred burial site, since three thousand BCE. Professor park 237 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:03,960 Speaker 1: Arker Pearson has been a leading archaeological figure of the 238 00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:07,680 Speaker 1: Stonehenge site for a number of years and has carried 239 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:11,520 Speaker 1: out work on other nearby and similar sites such as 240 00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:16,959 Speaker 1: Durrington Walls, the remains of a Neolithic settlement located about 241 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:21,159 Speaker 1: two miles northeast of Stonehenge, near the village of Durrington. 242 00:20:22,359 --> 00:20:26,200 Speaker 1: Archaeologists believe that at one time thousands of people would 243 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,840 Speaker 1: have lived there, and have speculated that they were, in 244 00:20:29,880 --> 00:20:34,359 Speaker 1: fact the builders of Stonehenge, though perhaps not in the 245 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:39,160 Speaker 1: sinister way of ritual and blood sacrifice. It seems increasingly 246 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:44,200 Speaker 1: certain that the true purpose of Stonehenge was inextricably linked 247 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:50,000 Speaker 1: to death and burial. Like in Galfridis Arturis's Merlin story, 248 00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:54,720 Speaker 1: those buried at Stonehenge are thought to be nobles or royals. 249 00:20:55,680 --> 00:21:00,399 Speaker 1: Professor Parker Pearson's team have estimated that the cremated romins 250 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:03,400 Speaker 1: of as many as one hundred and fifty to two 251 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:08,199 Speaker 1: hundred and forty people were buried within Stonehenge over a 252 00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:13,400 Speaker 1: period of five hundred years. As time went on, remains 253 00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:17,720 Speaker 1: were buried more and more frequently descendants of those elites, 254 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:23,080 Speaker 1: perhaps being laid to rest with their forebears. There's even 255 00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:27,400 Speaker 1: a so called avenue, made up of parallel banks and ditches, 256 00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:32,159 Speaker 1: which curves in an arc from Stonehenge eastwards all the 257 00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:35,919 Speaker 1: way to the banks of the nearby River Avon. This 258 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:41,959 Speaker 1: avenue forms an axis between midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset. 259 00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:45,919 Speaker 1: Perhaps it was built to aid the veneration of the 260 00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:51,040 Speaker 1: ancient gods, or rather as a funereal procession path along 261 00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:54,760 Speaker 1: which solemn mourners would march as they brought the dead 262 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:58,200 Speaker 1: from the River Avon and laid them to rest at 263 00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:02,280 Speaker 1: the stones. As the sun cast its beams along it 264 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:05,200 Speaker 1: on the longest day of the year, it is hard 265 00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:08,479 Speaker 1: not to feel what its ancient builders must have felt 266 00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:12,479 Speaker 1: all those thousands of years ago, that this is a 267 00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:17,760 Speaker 1: strange and powerful place, just like on Ya McGuinness felt 268 00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:31,000 Speaker 1: when she visited there in November twenty twenty. Back in 269 00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:35,240 Speaker 1: November of twenty twenty, after a series of lockdowns were 270 00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:39,760 Speaker 1: introduced to stave off the spread of COVID nineteen, England 271 00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:43,560 Speaker 1: was beginning to open up again, with the threat of 272 00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:47,680 Speaker 1: another surge of the infectious disease likely to take hold 273 00:22:47,720 --> 00:22:52,240 Speaker 1: again soon. The threat of another lockdown was also imminent, 274 00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:56,920 Speaker 1: and so while she could, on Ya McGuinness and her 275 00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,280 Speaker 1: boyfriend decided to get out of Oxford for the day 276 00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:05,720 Speaker 1: and take a drive to Stonehenge. The day was crisp 277 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:10,199 Speaker 1: and clear and unusually warm for November, and as Anya 278 00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:15,400 Speaker 1: road shotgun, she couldn't escape the overarching sensation that was building. 279 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:22,160 Speaker 1: She felt strange. She'd never been to Stonehenge before, had 280 00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:26,240 Speaker 1: never even driven past it. As a native of Belfast, 281 00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:29,119 Speaker 1: she spent most of her time in England, in Oxford 282 00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:33,639 Speaker 1: or on trains to London, and yet she could sense 283 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:38,280 Speaker 1: it lurking in the corner of her eye. The drive 284 00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:42,360 Speaker 1: was about ninety minutes, and with each passing mile she 285 00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:46,879 Speaker 1: became more and more aware of it, a dark, pulsing pull, 286 00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:53,600 Speaker 1: an absence of light that sharply contrasted the golden autumnal day. 287 00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:58,400 Speaker 1: It has been said that Stonehenge is different to other 288 00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:03,200 Speaker 1: Neolithic monuments. So iconic is it in the national psyche. 289 00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:07,520 Speaker 1: It is even different to the others in Wiltshire nges 290 00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:09,919 Speaker 1: that it is thought to be connected to in a 291 00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:16,720 Speaker 1: vast Neolithic network, the meaning of which remains unknown, like 292 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:20,439 Speaker 1: the stone circles in the village of Avebury, twenty miles 293 00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:24,880 Speaker 1: north of Stonehenge, one of which is the largest megalithic 294 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:30,760 Speaker 1: stone circle in the world. Perhaps it's Stonehenge's looming presence 295 00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:35,800 Speaker 1: that begets its reputation. Perhaps it's the strange mixture of stones, 296 00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:40,080 Speaker 1: or perhaps it's the way that it exerts a powerful force, 297 00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:45,240 Speaker 1: a force that calls to people worldwide, from those with 298 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:48,639 Speaker 1: an interest in geology to those with an interest in 299 00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:54,440 Speaker 1: paganism and the occult, the same force that Honya felt 300 00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:06,720 Speaker 1: as they approached Salisbury Plain, where Stonehenge is located. Onya, 301 00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:11,680 Speaker 1: like those apocryphal hippies of the seventies, like anyone who 302 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:16,600 Speaker 1: visits the ancient site, thought about the solstice. She knew 303 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:20,160 Speaker 1: that marking the passage of time was important to many 304 00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:25,720 Speaker 1: ancient cultures. For the people of Stonehenge, most likely farmers 305 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:29,960 Speaker 1: growing crops and tending herds of animals, knowing when the 306 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:35,159 Speaker 1: seasons were changing was important. She also read about the 307 00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:41,159 Speaker 1: Coney Barrier Nomally, another strange Stonehenge mystery. The Coney Barrier 308 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:45,000 Speaker 1: Nomally is a pit with animal remains and other refuse 309 00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:50,840 Speaker 1: found close to the Henge site. Excavations discovered a large 310 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:55,040 Speaker 1: amount of Neolithic pottery, together with a large quantity of 311 00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:59,800 Speaker 1: animal bone and strangely, flint tools from both the Neolithic 312 00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:06,240 Speaker 1: as and earlier Mesolithic era. These two distinct types of tools, 313 00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:11,840 Speaker 1: the technology of which spanned entirely different epochs, were placed 314 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:16,240 Speaker 1: in the pit at the same time, suggesting two very 315 00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:20,640 Speaker 1: different groups of people at once enjoyed an intimate social 316 00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:24,760 Speaker 1: gathering at the site. The material in the pit was 317 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:29,200 Speaker 1: dated to somewhere in the region of thirty nine hundred BCE. 318 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:34,560 Speaker 1: The more Oyna read, the more she realized that the 319 00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:38,560 Speaker 1: whole layout of Stonehenge is designed in relation to the 320 00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:43,000 Speaker 1: solstices marking the death of one year and the birth 321 00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:46,480 Speaker 1: of another, and all the hope and fear that is 322 00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:54,520 Speaker 1: extant between the two. Suddenly, Stonehenge looms before her. Onya 323 00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:57,160 Speaker 1: could feel it in her throat as they drove up. 324 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:01,919 Speaker 1: It reminded her not of darknesses exactly, but like a 325 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:06,440 Speaker 1: photo in negative, some kind of unnatural inversion of light 326 00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:11,400 Speaker 1: and matter. When they finally parked and walked up to it, 327 00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:15,960 Speaker 1: Onnya saw that the monument was covered with crows that 328 00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:21,160 Speaker 1: hadn't seemed to settle anywhere else nearby. As they cowed loudly, 329 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:24,520 Speaker 1: she felt as though she were being sucked towards the center, 330 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:29,720 Speaker 1: towards the jumble of fallen and collapsed stones, towards the 331 00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:35,399 Speaker 1: altar stone. The place felt as though it hummed with energy, 332 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:41,000 Speaker 1: with something raw and compelling and inevitable. It made her 333 00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:52,480 Speaker 1: think of death. Honya and her boyfriend entered the visitors 334 00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:57,800 Speaker 1: center and carried out the obligatory reading. The nearest place 335 00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:01,200 Speaker 1: from which the large sarsen stone could have been brought 336 00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:05,400 Speaker 1: from was said to be the Marlborough Downs, eighteen miles 337 00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:10,520 Speaker 1: to the northeast. The heavier stone weighs upwards of thirty tons. 338 00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:14,919 Speaker 1: The bluestones thought to come from the Prosselli Mountains in 339 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:20,560 Speaker 1: Wales were from even further afield. Suddenly, Merlin's help didn't 340 00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:24,800 Speaker 1: seem so unlikely. It was said to have been constructed 341 00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:28,240 Speaker 1: in three stages. The first was the building of a 342 00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:32,879 Speaker 1: circular bank and ditch that contains the Aubrey Holes. Sometime 343 00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:38,200 Speaker 1: around twenty five hundred BCE, the first standing sarsen stone 344 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:43,360 Speaker 1: was erected outside the single entrance to this circle. Two 345 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:49,080 Speaker 1: hundred years later, the bluestones and trilithons appeared carefully crafted 346 00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:53,120 Speaker 1: by hand into a slightly convex shape and then slotted 347 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:57,240 Speaker 1: into place, with lintels covering each of the two vertical 348 00:28:57,320 --> 00:29:02,680 Speaker 1: stones hinged artfully into place with tongue and groove joints. 349 00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:07,920 Speaker 1: Some fifteen hundred years later, the bluestones were dismantled and 350 00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:11,760 Speaker 1: re erected inside the circle, where they can be found 351 00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:16,680 Speaker 1: to day. The so called alter Stone, which is said 352 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:19,920 Speaker 1: to have somehow traveled over one hundred and eighty miles 353 00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:23,560 Speaker 1: from Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire to the north, was then 354 00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:27,760 Speaker 1: set up inside the circle. It would have taken a 355 00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:32,719 Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of collective hours over thousands of years, 356 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:38,560 Speaker 1: employing huge amounts of strength, machinery and highly detailed planning. 357 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:43,720 Speaker 1: And despite all of the archaeological conjecture, no one can 358 00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:50,680 Speaker 1: really say by who or why Onnya felt its strange 359 00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:55,440 Speaker 1: pull once more, we have to get a picture, suggested 360 00:29:55,480 --> 00:30:00,760 Speaker 1: her boyfriend. On your side, but eventually agreed and posed 361 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:05,280 Speaker 1: a short distance away from the Henge itself. Her boyfriend 362 00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:10,360 Speaker 1: took the picture on her iPhone. Oh hold on, he said, 363 00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:14,880 Speaker 1: as she walked back towards him. It's come out really weird, 364 00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:20,320 Speaker 1: he said. She paused beside him to look where all 365 00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:23,600 Speaker 1: the other pictures from the day. Photos in the car 366 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:26,760 Speaker 1: as they left Oxford snapped at their lunch at a 367 00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:30,480 Speaker 1: nearby cafe, even pictures of the signs at the car 368 00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:37,080 Speaker 1: park were completely normal, but this one was not. It 369 00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:41,520 Speaker 1: had somehow zoomed in and distorted. Even though her boyfriend 370 00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:47,120 Speaker 1: swore he didn't do anything unusual, Anya looked closer and 371 00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:52,000 Speaker 1: felt a shiver run down her spine. Her face was 372 00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:56,400 Speaker 1: marred and hazy. She had two sets of eyes, and 373 00:30:56,440 --> 00:31:00,360 Speaker 1: her nose and mouth were distorted. It was as though 374 00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:05,680 Speaker 1: something other worldly had interfered with the pixels. It had 375 00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:14,920 Speaker 1: never happened before, and it never happened again. This episode 376 00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:20,320 Speaker 1: was written by Ella mcleoud and Richard McLain Smith Unexplained 377 00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:24,840 Speaker 1: as an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain smith. 378 00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:28,800 Speaker 1: All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are 379 00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:33,440 Speaker 1: also produced by me Richard McLain Smith Unexplained. The book 380 00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:36,880 Speaker 1: and audiobook with stories never before featured on the show, 381 00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:41,400 Speaker 1: is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, 382 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:46,520 Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. 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