Megalithic Madness – Was Stonehenge Built in the 1950s?

In this episode of megalithic madness we take a look at the crazy online rumours that stonehenge was BUILT/CREATED in the 1950s.

There are many well documented images of Stonehenge drawn & painted prior to 1958, so to claim it was BUILT in the middle of the 20th century is ludicrous… but there is documented evidence to suggest that some of the fallen stones were re-erected (I have highlighted these blocks in BLUE throughout this post) and the tilted block in the sketch below was straightened up in 1901 (I have highlighted this block in GREEN throughout this post).

If anybody takes the time to compare the older drawings and paintings of stonehenge against any modern photo, you can clearly see that in 1820 & 1835 when the British artist John Constable sketched the monument there were 6 horizontal lintel blocks in place on the outer circle of Sarsen stones and 2 horizontal lintel blocks still in place on the inner Horse Shoe Trilithons. A total of 8 horizontal lintels.

Today there are 6 horizontal lintel blocks on the outer sarsen circle of stones and 3 horizontal lintel blocks on the inner Horse Shoe Trilithons. A total of 9 horizontal lintels. This would mean that somebody has re-erected the additional horizontal lintel block since 1835.

In fact, to reposition the horizontal lintel block on the inner Horse Shoe Trilithon, would have required that the 2 fallen vertical blocks (HIGHLIGHTED IN BLUE) which form the modern upright pillars of the Trilithon that the horizontal block now rests on, would have to be re-erected first, because older maps & drawings show those two vertical blocks collapsed on the floor next to their accompanying lintel.

Some conservational repair works were carried out in 1901 when The Great Trilithon was straightened and set in concrete. In 1919/1920 just two years after the monument was gifted to the nation by Sir Cecil Chubb (who had bought it for £6,600 at an auction in Sept 1915), six stones including the lintels of some of the Outer Circle of Sarsen stones were repositioned.

I have also read in the 1959 “Ministry of Public Building & Works Official Guidebook” that one of the sarsen stones (numbered 22 on most maps of stonehenge), fell over in 1900 but was not re-erected (along with its broken lintel) until 1958.  It was also in 1958/59 that one of the inner Horse Shoe Trilithons was re-erected (3 stones), and in 1964 a further 4 stones were repositioned and set in concrete after Sarsen numbered 23 had fallen over in March 1963.

1959 “Ministry of Public Building & Works Official Guidebook to Stonehenge page 7

1959 “Ministry of Public Building & Works Official Guidebook to Stonehenge page 10

The 1958 repair works are what can be seen in the online photos that some misinformed bloggers have erroneously suggested show the CREATION of Stonehenge. I have another posting which shows how the Bolivian government blatantly REBUILT the majority of the ancient site of Tiawanaku in the mid 20th century, but I do not believe the British government are guilty of a similar offence. There is a big difference between the conservation of a monument and the blatant tampering & fabrication of history to be found at the Tiawanaku site in Bolivia.

The paper clip below from 1919 hints at an unwritten rule regarding the re-erection of the fallen stones, ie, if the archaeologists knew the date that a stone fell over then they felt it was OK to stand it back up again…

Which stones are OK to re-erect ?

I have taken the extract below from a 1916 book titled “Stonehenge – Today and Yesterday” written by Frank Stevens, which says that the TILTED trilithon block (HIGHLIGHTED IN GREEN) was straightened in 1901.

…Five great Trilithons, arranged in a horseshoe, with the opening to the north-east. These Trilithons rise gradually in height towards the south-west. The largest group of stones fell 1620AD. Those next to the great Trilithon on the north-west fell on 3rd January 1797AD. To-day only two of the Inner Trilithons are standing. One upright of the great Trilithon (raised and made secure in 1901) is erect.

 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19130/19130-h/19130-h.htm

In this book there is a plan/map of Stonehenge drafted by the Illustrator Heywood Sumner. This plan/map clearly shows only two of the five horse shoe LINTELS still in place on top of their corresponding Trilithons. The third trilithon which we see standing today, is shown lying on the floor with its lintel leaning against the vertical Sarsen block which it crashed into and displaced during its collapse (HIGHLIGHTED BELOW IN BLUE).

Any logical minded person can see that the 3rd Horseshoe Trilithion was re-erected in 1958, but that does not warrant wild claims that the whole site was constructed in 1958.

This newspaper article below from 1919 clearly proves that the henge was not CREATED in 1958… (Credit MIKEPITTS.com)

Have a look at some of the photos and make your own conclusion…

   

ABOVE – It is interesting to note that in the red circle in the photo above, there are two vertical Sarsen stones but the horizontal lintel is missing? I think this lintel was also repositioned or removed to allow engineers to straighten up the vertical Sarsen stone which was slightly misplaced when it was crashed into by the lintel from the collapsing Horse Shoe Trilithon (see map earlier in post).

ABOVE -The lintel is placed on top of the re-erected vertical blocks of the fallen Horse Shoe Trilithon.

BELOW – The tallest of all the standing Trilithon blocks is the same block that in earlier drawings & paintings was seen to be tilted.

I have looked through the collection of photos from 1958 and it is true that they do show cranes lifting & raising sarsen blocks into place, there is even one photo which shows a sarsen block loaded on a long base trailer, the type of trailer used for transporting army tanks or road surfacing vehicles.

At first sight you could be forgiven for thinking the block on the trailer is being delivered to the site, but it isn’t…

…because In order to re-erect the vertical sarsen blocks from the fallen horse shoe trilithons the conservational archaeologists first had to re-dig the pits for the vertical blocks to stand in, but because the locations of the original pits lay underneath the fallen sarsen blocks, the archaeologists had to temporarily move the fallen blocks out of the way so they could re-dig the pits in their original locations, as can be seen in the photo below where you can see that both of the fallen trilithon blocks have been removed from the inner Horse Shoe circle.

Mobile cranes were used to lift the fallen vertical blocks onto the trailer and also later on to raise the horizontal lintels into place.

The great Trilithon Stonehenge

In the photo above it would appear that there is only one big Trilithon stone and 3 smaller blue stones left standing in the whole field, but this is solely a trick of the camera angle at which the photo was taken, as can be clearly seen in the animation below…

I hope this episode of Monolithic Madness has helped to clarify that Stonehenge was not BUILT in 1958 by British Archaeologists. It is strikingly obvious that some blocks have been repositioned throughout its history, but the Stonehenge that we see today is very much similar to how it looked when the stones were first erected in approx 1,750BC. So the monolithic madness expressed here is in the heads of the online bloggers who actually believed that Stonehenge was built only 60 years ago…

 

BELOW ARE ALL THE PHOTOS FROM THE 1958 REPAIRS…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stonehenge moved from Wales to Wiltshire…

 A selection of Sketches & Paintings of Stonehenge from the last 4 centuries

“Stonehenge – Today and Yesterday” written by Frank Stevens 1916

Sir Cecil Chubbs gifted Stonehenge to the nation 1n 1918

1920 News Paper Article about Repairs to Stonehenge

Roger Taverner – How They Rebuilt Stonehenge 50 years ago

ALL THE PHOTOS

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