Who Built Stonehenge?

These people seemingly built boat after boat and moved stone after stone hundreds of miles across open sea. The investment of time, human effort and ingenuity is almost beyond comprehension - and this from a supposedly 'primitive' people. Once the bluestones had arrived on the site they still had to be raised, but this was easy compared to raising the much larger stones and lintels. According to modern estimates, it might have taken 300 people up to three years to build Stonehenge. The work may have been spread out over generations - much like a medieval Cathedral. But what could have possibly motivated them to undertake such a huge project? Maybe the sheer size of the stones was designed to impress and tower over worshipers, reminding them of an omnipresent god - just like cathedrals thousands of years later. Stonehenge as a religious site is a theory favoured by many historians and archaeologists.

The builders, revealed

In April 2003, construction workers unearthed human remains at Boscombe Down, just three miles from Stonehenge. Flint arrow heads found with the bodies earned them the nickname The Boscombe Bowmen. Could they offer evidence about the people who were alive when Stonehenge was built?

Credit: Dave Norcott, Wessex Archaeology The grave at Boscombe Down during its excavation.

According to Andrew Fitzpatrick of Wessex Archaeology, it was only when the excavation was done that they realised there was something very unusual about the grave. Skeletons had been uncovered near Stonehenge before -, but they had either been identified as foreign visitors or bodies that were buried many years after it was constructed.

The new grave contained hundreds of bones suggesting multiple burials - which was unusual for this time period. The next clues came from human remains specialist Jackie McKinley: "One of the first things I do when I get material like this into the laboratory is lay everything out. And with quite a lot of work it was possible to work out that we had parts of seven individuals." A closer investigation of the bones of the skulls revealed that this was probably a family grave. Unfortunately, the condition of the bones meant that a genetic test is out of the question. Was there another way of uncovering the relationship between the bodies?