Stonehenge may date back to 5,000 years ago in its earliest stages, but it continues making news all the time. Recently, researchers have attributed new possible meanings to two of the central stones. Unlike the other monoliths, they have been singled out as possibly representing the male and female spiritual principles. Meanwhile, Stonehenge-like monuments continue to turn up across the world. For example, a team has stumbled across a 4,000-year-old timber circle in Denmark.
Stonehenge’s Male and Female Principles
The Independent reported that Professor Terence Meaden, an archaeologist and retired physicist, has identified stones that may represent the male and female principles at Stonehenge.
The well-known Altar Stone, which lays horizontally, could pair with an upright stone that Meaden determined is a carved phallus. Unlike all the other stones, this mysterious Altar Stone is greenish-gray Micaceous sandstone. For some mysterious reason, people carried it from at least 430 miles (700km) away in Scotland.
More on the Altar Stone by Stefan Milo:
Signifying their importance, both stones are in what was probably the “most sacred axis” of the inner circle. In that position, they align with the mid-summer solstice and mid-winter sunset. Behind them, the largest structure, called the Great Trilithon, formed a standing trinity, framing them in the light. However, the Trilithon fell over onto the partly buried Altar Stone and phallic-shaped stone.
Video about the Great Trilithon by English Heritage:
An Altar to the Sun and Mother Earth?
Do these stones represent the male Sun and female Moon principles? In similar monuments, we see connections with Sun worship and agricultural rituals.
“If Professor Meaden is correct in asserting that Stone 67 was deliberately shaped as a phallus to represent the male principle and that the Altar Stone was intended to represent the female principle, then it is conceivable that the two stones represented, respectively, a solar and lunar deity. Alternatively, they may have represented, respectively, a solar deity and Mother Earth, ” writes The Independent.
Thousands of years ago, at the winter solstice around December 20, the setting Sun shone directly on these stones, marking the rebirth and renewal of the light.
As someone fascinated by Egyptian beliefs, all kinds of comparisons are readily apparent. The Sun and Moon, the obelisk representing the male Earth or Geb principle, unites with the Sky, or Nut. As for the solstice, it was the symbolic resurrection of the light, the flooding of the Nile River, and the rising of the Star Sirius, representing the Goddess Isis.
Last week, we looked at how cultures around the world incorporated symbols of the Sun into their spiritual systems.
Denmark’s Stonehenge
Meanwhile, in Denmark, workers building a housing estate stumbled upon a 4,000-year-old circle similar to Stonehenge. However, this one is more like “Woodhenge” and is made up of 45 wooden posts in a 100-foot circle.
“The Danish woodhenge seems to align with Stonehenge and the nearby Woodhenge. This hints that Neolithic communities across Europe might have shared religious or cultural beliefs,” writes Archeology News.
Like Stonehenge, this structure is near related structures, a smaller wood henge and a necropolis. Why were there similar types of structures in proximity? In the case of Stonehenge, there is an elaborate connecting avenue with the River Avon and smaller circular structures.
More about the Stonehenge in Demark by Wonder World:
Domain of the Dead and Land of the Living
In 2009, English archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson proposed that the stone structures at Stonehenge may be reserved for the eternal “domain of the dead” and the afterlife.
Nearby, the timber structures and a Bluestone structure with connecting avenues may have served as the “land of the living.” Upon examination, large amounts of wood were burned at these smaller sites. Thus, he suggested another purpose for the site of cremation.
“Maybe the bluestone circle is where people were cremated before their ashes were buried at Stonehenge itself,” Parker Pearson said in a statement. “It could be that Bluestonehenge was where the dead began their final journey to Stonehenge,” he added. “Not many people know that Stonehenge was Britain’s largest burial ground at that time.”
In this view, there were processions as people carried the remains of their loved ones along ceremonial routes to their final resting place. If so, one can imagine elaborate ceremonies to honor the ancestors. In addition to celebrating the solstices, people may have come to honor the cycle of life, death, day and night, and the spiritual principles, both male and female.
Bell Beaker Culture
According to Artnet, the timber structure in Denmark connects with the Bell Beaker phenomenon and henges of prehistory. Along with early metallurgy, this culture sometimes practiced cremation with finely decorated, bell-shaped funerary urns. Their metalwork included lunulae and gold discs compared to a solar boat, the Sun, and the Crescent Moon.
Could the Bell Beaker people have carried their carefully decorated urns along the ceremonial path to place them on the Altar stone? As it turns out, urns have been found near Stonehenge, including cremation and burial urns. For example, the “Stonghenge Urn” contained a cremation sealed by a large triangular stone. It is housed at the Wiltshire Museum.
Video about the Bell Beaker Culture and Stonehenge by Historia Orbis:
More about Stonehenge and related monuments along the River Avon by Unearthed History:
Feature image: Stonehenge via Wikimedia Commons, James Waterhouse – Stonehenge, Trilithon (On the left of altar stone) – B2018.7.51 – Yale Center for British Art with Gold Lunula via Wikipedia and Gold discs, Ireland, c. 2200-2000 BC[41], Wikipedia