Rocking at Stonehenge 神秘的古建筑群——巨石阵

神秘的古建筑群——巨石阵，究竟是如何建造而成的？

Rocking at Stonehenge

Stonehenge is an ancient circle of rocks in southern England. You can see it from the road as you drive across Salisbury Plain (索尔兹伯里平原). There are no big towns or buildings close by, so it catches your eye immediately. The rocks stand there big, rough, dark, silent and mysterious.

People have always wondered about Stonehenge: who built it, when was it built, how was it built and, especially, why was it built? Archaeologists (they study how people lived in the past) have answers to most of the questions. Stonehenge was built by ancient Britons 4,600 years ago, about the same time as the pyramids in Egypt. The heavy stones were brought from hundreds of miles away and it took many years to build Stonehenge. So, why did the ancient Britons go to all this trouble? The answer is, they wanted to get to the “afterlife.”

The ancient Britons believed in a life after death and that when people died they went to another place, a spirit place, to live. Stonehenge was the gateway to that spirit place. So, Stonehenge was about death but death, to the ancient Britons, was not a sad thing. It was, apparently, an opportunity to party!

Archaeologists have found a town close to Stonehenge. They say people went to this town at special times of the year, “to feast and party.” They came at the summer solstice and the winter solstice: the longest and shortest days of the year. At those times, people would come from all over southern England and even Europe to bury the ashes and bones of dead people near the ancient stones. Then they would go to the nearby town and the party would begin.

Everyone would be “rocking” at Stonehenge.