A World of Stone Circles

Analysis into construction of megalithic circles around the globe reveals sophisticated knowledge utilised by the ancients.

- Hugh Newman

Stone circles conjure up a lost world of mysterious ceremonies, Druid astronomers, Pagan dances and inquisitive antiquarians. The most famous is Stonehenge in Wiltshire, UK, but it is also the most unusual in that it has lintels and trilithons in its design. Most stone circles are not so glamorous, but with over one thousand of them documented in the British Isles alone, dated between 3,500 BCE and 1,500 BCE, their construction was evidently an important part of our ancient culture.

Stonehenge is also well known for its summer solstice sunrise, and research over the last 60 years has shown that many other circles likewise use sky and landscape alignments to mark astronomical events, with many also sharing geometrical forms and measurement systems.

How such mighty rings were constructed has long baffled archaeologists, antiquarians, and other interested parties. In the 1600s, Christians often cited natural or supernatural explanations, and thus the devil, giants, witches and a host of mythological figures all crop up in local construction legends. For how else were such multiton stones quarried, transported and arranged with such precision? Avebury is so large that a village today sits within its main circle; its tallest stone was of such magnitude that, once broken up, an entire church could be constructed from it.

Whoever made these magnificent structures had a very deep understanding of engineering, surveying, geometry, metrology and astronomy. And they were not an isolated group of builders— as we will see in the pages which follow, stone circle building was once a truly global endeavour.

Göbekli Tepe: Stone Circle Genesis