Standard audio tour script
ENG10662 Script for translators 7 Mar 07
99 Welcome
Welcome to Stonehenge.
Make your way to the tunnel while I tell you about your
audio guide.
As you go round the site you’ll find circular markers set
low on the ground near the path.
Each has a number. All you have to do is key that number
into your audio guide and then
the green play button to hear the relevant commentary.
Sometimes we’ll suggest you key
in an extra number to hear more information.
To adjust the volume use the loudspeaker buttons. To
pause a commentary press the red
button – and then the green to re-start. If you miss
something you can rewind using the
double-arrow button on the left.
When you get to the tunnel walk on through - past the
artist’s impression of a prehistoric
landscape on the wall - and keep listening.
Stonehenge has stood here for thousands upon thousands of
years. It was already an
ancient site by the time the Romans invaded Britain. But
its original purpose has long been
lost, swept away by the mists of time. Throughout history
countless people have been
drawn here to admire, to marvel, and to wonder why and
how it was built. Hundreds,
maybe thousands, of prehistoric people toiled to make
this unique construction. The
centuries have taken their toll but the monument still
remains imposing, enigmatic and
forever mysterious.
We will give you a brief history of Stonehenge as you
walk around the site and you’ll also
have the choice of listening to more explanations on the
wider landscape and to some of
the myths and legends that have grown up around it.
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And if you’d like any information that isn’t included on
this tour do ask our custodians.
They’re always on site and are very happy to answer
questions. Whilst no stones have
been replaced, several have been re-erected or
straightened in the last one hundred
years. This has been done to ensure safety and greater
understanding for visitors.
But for now, walk on up the ramp and look out for the
first marker – number one. You’ll find
it on the right, a little way along the path. When you
reach it, press number one on your
handset, then the play button.
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1 Introduction
Man
Stand here for a moment and listen as you look towards
the stones. They’re still an
impressive sight, but now only about half of the original
monument remains. Some stones
have fallen down, others were taken away long ago to be
used in such things as buildings,
or repairing farm tracks. And still others were damaged
by souvenir hunters. In earlier
times visitors hired hammers from the blacksmith in
Amesbury to chip off a keepsake.
Woman
Before Stonehenge was built the whole of Salisbury plain
was a forest of towering pines
and slender hazel trees, very different from the open
landscape here today. Over many
centuries this gave way to more open downland in which
work on building Stonehenge
started.
Henge is the old English word for hanging or gibbet. So
Stonehenge really means the
hanging stones. Stonehenge is the third and last to be
built here. The earliest henge on
this site dates from around three thousand and fifty BC –
over five thousand years ago –
and wasn’t made from stone. It consisted of a circular
bank and a ditch, some one hundred
metres, three hundred feet wide, with a ring of timber
posts inside the bank. You can just
see the remains of the bank over to your right. The huge
ditch was dug out by hand – deer
antlers were used as pickaxes and the shoulder-blades of
cattle as shovels. A
backbreaking task that must have taken years, but those
were the only tools they had.
Now follow the path towards the next marker, number two,
but keep listening.
Man
Each stone would have towered around six metres, eighteen
feet high, and was linked to
the others by a continuous ring of lintels, those top
pieces, shaped to fit on top of the
pillars and to curve in a giant circle. Within this outer
circle is an inner circle of slightly
smaller stones, bluestones. Both these circles enclose
two horseshoe shapes. Five giant
archways called trilithons form the larger one and inside
it is a smaller horseshoe of
bluestones.
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It was during excavations of this ditch that antlers were
found. And it was by carbon dating
them that we know the approximate age of this first
Stonehenge, which was about 3000
BC. And we know that wood was used because, in 1666, John
Aubrey, a famous
seventeenth century gentleman who was an amateur
archaeologist and historian, found
a ring of fifty six timber post-holes around the edge of
the bank. They became known as
aubrey holes and are marked by white discs. Look out for
them as you walk around the
site. There are two original entrances through this bank
and ditch, a larger one to the north
west and a smaller one in the south.
So about five thousand years ago the first site here at
Stonehenge was already in
existence. A circle of wooden posts surrounded by a bank
and a steep ditch all dug by
hand, using pieces of bone.
Woman
The next building phase began around 2900 BC and lasted
for around three centuries.
Timber constructions were erected within the bank, the
ditch was allowed to fill in and ash
from cremated bodies was interred in it and in the aubrey
holes, which by that time had
been lost their timbers and became partially filled in.
This may have been some form of
ceremonial burial.
Now, when you reach the second tour marker, which is on
the right, press number two on
your keypad and then press the play button.
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2 The stones
Woman
Three hundred years later, in around 2600 BC, at about
the same time as the first
pyramids were being built in Egypt, the first stone
structure was built here at Stonehenge.
Eighty or so bluestones were transported from the
Preselli mountains in south west Wales
– some three hundred and eighty five kilometres, that’s
two hundred and forty miles away.
They were probably dragged down to the sea, loaded onto
huge rafts and brought up the
river Avon, which flows past Amesbury and through
Salisbury. Then, somehow, they were
carried a considerable distance overland to here.
Now move on towards the next marker, but keep listening.
Man
Once they were here, the bluestone monoliths were set
upright into the ground. They’re
the smaller stones inside the circle you see today. No
mean feat when you think that each
one weighs around five tons! Some are only stumps now,
but others still stand proud, in
the same position they have held for centuries.
Woman
But why they were brought all that way is still a
mystery. Perhaps it was because the
bluestone is always warmer to touch than other stones. Or
perhaps it was for their colour.
If you split a bluestone open, inside it’s blue with
white specks. Perhaps the stones were a
status symbol, brought back after successful trading,
because the Preselli mountains were
the first landmark to be seen from the sea on the
prehistoric trade route from Ireland. At
that time, Wiltshire, the home of Stonehenge, was a rich
area of good farmland,
prosperous communities, and the bluestones may have been
intended as a centre for
ceremony to celebrate that fact.
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6
Man
The bluestones were placed to create a double horseshoe
shape. But before this phase of
Stonehenge was complete, work stopped. And began again
two or three hundred years
later on a new, bigger, Stonehenge.
When you reach the next marker press number three then
the play button, and we’ll tell
you about this final phase.
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3 Construction
Woman
So, over five thousand years ago, the first henge was
built. Then four thousand five
hundred years ago the bluestones were erected, creating
the first Stonehenge. And for
about the next thousand years, the stone circle was
remodelled at various times before
being abandoned about three thousand five hundred years
ago. For example, the
bluestones were dug up and moved nearer to the centre. A
stone was placed in the
middle, now called the altar stone. And a number of huge
sandstones were brought from
the Malborough downs, about thirty kilometres, that’s
nineteen miles north of here.
Man
To shape these giant stones known as sarsens the builders
hammered away using balls of
stone called mauls. They gave each sarsen a broad base
and tapered it towards the top.
Some of the marks they made can still be seen.
Woman
And to secure the lintels, the cross-pieces at the top,
they used woodworking techniques.
The tall pillar standing on its own in the centre has a
pointed bump on its top. This fitted
into a hollow carved into the bottom of the lintel and
held the lintel secure as it rested on
top of the sarsen. It’s a form of mortice and tenon joint
and is the same idea as the ball
and socket joint on the hips and shoulders of a skeleton.
Man
But that wasn’t all. To make each lintel fit snug against
each other the builders carved a
vertical tongue and groove joint on each one, so the
lintels slotted together like the pieces
in a jigsaw. They were also given a slight curve to form
a smooth circle. This forms a ring
beam which links the tops of the stones together and
gives the whole structure more
strength.
Now continue along the path to the next marker, which is
on the left, but keep listening.
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Woman
We don’t know how those stones, the sarsens, were brought
here from the Marlborough
downs. On log rollers or sleds, perhaps. And once they
were here, we don’t know how the
builders ever managed to get them to stand upright. The
heaviest of the stones weighs
forty five tons, roughly the same as seven large
elephants. We’re almost sure that deep
holes were dug with one sloping side, then the stones
were levered down the slope and
heaved upright. To do this we think they used wedges,
levers, rollers, ropes and the sheer
muscle power of hundreds of men. It was a massive job
because a third of each stone is
below ground. But eventually the stones were set firmly
into place, like giant teeth into the
gums of the earth.
Man
Once the upright stones were in place, the lintels had to
be positioned on their tops. Again,
we’re not sure how this was achieved. Perhaps a wooden
ramp was used to haul the
lintels to their resting places; but the most widely
accepted possibility was that a timber
scaffolding was used. And by using this, together with
levers and wedges, those long-ago
builders were able to raise the lintels to their final
positions, and the building was complete.
Woman
When you reach the next marker, press number four, then
the play button.
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9
4 Purpose of Stonehenge
Woman
From here you can see in the distance, framed in the
farthest arch, the heel stone. You
may have to move a pace or two to see it clearly. On
midsummer’s day, the summer
solstice, the sun rises over the heel stone and its rays
shine through the archway towards
the altar stone, which now lies flat in the centre of the
circle but was once an upright
sarsen stone.
Man
This alignment of Stonehenge seems to indicate that the
midsummer sunrise was an
important occasion for the people who originally used it,
as it was in medieval times and
still is for some today. And of course all those
thousands of years ago our ancestors were
entirely ruled by the changing seasons so it’s natural
that they were acutely aware of the
way the seasons were marked by the movements of the sun
and moon.
Woman
The people who lived in southern England three and a half
thousand years ago were
farmers. They lived in circular houses, clustered
together in little settlements; they made
their own pottery, wove cloth, and were expert
woodworkers. Whilst Stonehenge was still
an actively used site, they became very skilful
metalworkers using bronze to produce
weapons such as axes and knives together with more
personal items such as jewellery.
They were also traders. They traded stone for their tools
from as far away as northern
Ireland, Wales, the Lake District in the north of
England, and the west of Cornwall, and
traded their pottery across the country. So they were a
prosperous people. And with
prosperity came a social hierarchy.
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Man
Once the real purpose of Stonehenge had been forgotten,
many myths and legends
sprang up about the site. There has always been a lot of
speculation about why it was built
and what it was used for. For a long time people thought
the site might have been used as
a sort of prehistoric observatory for looking at the
stars and planets. Some even took this
idea further and suggested it might be a sort of
calculator for the stars and planets. But
now greater understanding of astronomy and other
prehistoric sites show that these ideas
don’t really have a factual basis.
Now move on to the next marker, number five. But if you’d
like to hear more about some of
the myths and legends as you go, press number forty four,
four and four again, and then
the play button. If not, when you reach the next marker
press number five, then the play
button.
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44 Myths and legends
Woman
Many of the old myths feature giants building Stonehenge,
but one of the earliest legends,
dating from the twelfth century, involves the wizard
Merlin. After vanquishing the Saxons,
the British king, Aurelius Ambrosius, decided to erect a
memorial to the four hundred and
sixty British nobles who were treacherously massacred by
the Saxons at Amesbury abbey.
He called in the wizard Merlin, who said, send for the
giants round. This was a ring of
stones said to have been transported to Ireland from
Africa by the giants. The king’s
brother, Uther Pendragon, set forth for Ireland with
fifteen thousand men. They reached
mount Kilaraus, where the giants round stood, but try as
they might they couldn’t dismantle
the stones. Merlin grew impatient and used his magical
powers to take down the stones
himself and bring them here, then erected them again in
exactly the same way as they had
stood in Ireland. Kings Aurelius and Uther Pendragon are
both said to have been buried
here at Stonehenge, and Uther Pendragon’s son was of
course the legendary king Arthur.
Famous for his knights of the round table, and the quest for
the holy grail.
Man
According to another myth it was the devil who put the
stones here. He was employed by
Merlin to take the stones from an old woman’s back
garden, again in Ireland. Dressed as a
gentleman, the devil offered the old woman as much money
as she could count while he
gathered up the stones. She foresaw the task would take
an immense amount of time and
that she would be as rich as a princess. But the devil
tricked her, for as soon as she
started counting the money he had bundled up the stones
and vanished. It’s said that as
he flew here with the stones he dropped one or two, and
those can still be found in the
surrounding countryside.
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Woman
Perhaps, with this long history of recurring stories of
the stones being flown or magicked
here, the theory that they were brought by aliens from
another planet is not too far fetched
after all. The stones were also believed to have healing
powers and it was said that
casting scrapings of the stones down a well would cleanse
the water of all the venomous
creatures, especially the toads.
Now, when you reach marker number five, which is on the
left, press number five on your
handset, then the play button.
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13
5 Station stones
Man
The small stone nearest the marker is part of another
mystery of Stonehenge. It’s a station
stone. We think there were once four of these station
stones, though now there are only
two. But what were they for? Again, we don’t know for
sure. What we do know is that this
stone is near the position of the sunrise on the shortest
day of the year, the winter solstice,
just as the last place we stopped marked the position of
the sun on the summer solstice,
the longest day.
Woman
Something else that’s remarkable. If all four station
stones were in place and a line was
drawn between them, they would form a perfect rectangle
along the axis, or centre line of
the stone circle. And if you then join all four corners
to the centre, the point where they
cross is the centre of the circle, where the altar stone
used to stand. There’s a diagram in
the guidebook showing this.
Man
Yes, the station stones have certainly been here a long
time, perhaps since the very first
henge built in stone, so just possibly they were put
there to guide the builders. Reference
points for prehistoric surveyors, perhaps.
Woman
But the most tantalising mystery is why? Why did they
build Stonehenge in the first place?
And then build it again and again? Was it a temple? To a
sun god? Or an ancient
observatory, a place to study the movement of the sun and
moon? Was it built for science
– or for religion? In those days science and religion
weren’t the two schools of thought they
often seem today. Why did people look after Stonehenge so
carefully for such a long
period of time, nearly fifteen hundred years, before
abandoning it some three thousand
five hundred years ago?
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Man
Now move on to marker number six, but keep listening.
For about three hundred years, some people have
associated the druids with Stonehenge.
But there’s no evidence to suggest that they were ever
here. It seems to have been John
Aubrey, who discovered the aubrey holes in the
seventeenth century who first suggested
they might be connected with Stonehenge. Roman historians
writing about their arrival in
Britain at around ad forty five talk about coming across
the druids as part of a Celtic
religious sect. But even though this religious practice
may have been in existence for up to
a century or so before then, Stonehenge was already an
ancient and probably ruined site.
The roman accounts also described the druids as holding
their ceremonies in forest
clearings, rather than building special centres of their
own.
When you reach marker six, press number six on your
keypad, then the play button.
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6 Heel stone
Woman
You’re now standing near the heel stone, the tall stone
near the road, opposite the marker
number six. It leans towards the circle, almost pointing
at it. The heel stone’s a sarsen that
hasn’t been shaped by hammering with mauls, which is why
it’s an irregular shape. It
marks the end of the avenue, the procession route used in
the long-ago ceremonies that
may have taken place here. You can’t see the avenue very
well now, but if you look at the
base of the heel stone, you’ll see a slight ridge in the
ground on either side. Those are the
borders of the avenue. The avenue continued across the
road and over the field beyond,
then it turned right and went up the hill to your right,
over the hill between the trees and
down to the banks of the river Avon near Amesbury.
Man
But imagine how even more impressive the stones would
have been if you were taking
part in a procession, approaching Stonehenge by the
avenue. The way the sarsens were
shaped gives an optical illusion of greater height and
the circle would have towered above
you as you climbed up the hill. Perhaps it was, after
all, simply a symbol of power. Maybe
that was the real power and significance of Stonehenge.
The power it had over the daily
lives of the people and as a symbol of existing authority
which lasted for well over a
thousand years.
Woman
But if it was simply a symbol of power, why then does it
also act as a calendar? You can
use the position of the sun on the stones to work out
what month you’re in. Midsummer,
the summer solstice, is on the 24
th
June. In that month the light of the sun falls through
that central archway opposite you. But in July it falls
through the next archway to the left.
In August it falls through the next archway after that,
and so on, as the days grow shorter,
until the winter solstice in December, when the birth of
a new year was celebrated and the
light falls through the archway near the station stone
we’ve just passed. In January it starts
coming back round this way, until June, when it falls
again through the centre arch.
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Man
If you turn round now and face the heel stone, over to
your right in the field there’s a small
round mound. That’s a barrow, an ancient grave. Other
barrows can also be seen from
here in the distance and this area has perhaps the
densest concentration of burials of this
type in a three kilometre or two-mile radius. They’re
arranged in groups, in a linear pattern
on the crest of ridges. The generations of people who
used Stonehenge gradually
changed the way they buried their dead. They went from
using communal burial places,
sometimes called long barrows, to burying their dead
singly. The body was placed in a pit,
accompanied by grave goods, favourite items such as a
decorated pottery vessel and
stone or flint tools. Sometimes, especially if they were
rich or celebrated, a bronze dagger
or bronze trinkets would also be put in and very rarely,
gold jewellery. Occasionally even a
dog or horse was buried with them. Then the earth would
be piled on top, making these
round mounds. Later, other bodies or the ashes from
cremations would be buried in these
mounds.
Woman
Now, before we move on to the last marker, turn back
towards the circle and have a look
at the so-called slaughter stone – it’s in the ditch
between the heel stone and the circle. In
reality it’s probably a sarsen that has fallen. The
sarsens contain iron ore, which, when
wet, turns red, and this is really noticeable here as the
stone is lying down. This geological
phenomenon gave rise to the myth that it was used as a
sacrificial stone. In fact all the
sarsens would turn red in this way if they were lying
down.
Man
It’s time to move on to the last marker on our tour.
You’ll find marker seven near the tardis,
which looks like a sentry box. If you’d like to listen to
more about the wider landscape as
you go, press number sixty six, that’s six and six again,
then the play button. If you’d like to
hear about other sites of interest in the area, press
number sixty seven, six then seven,
and the play button. Otherwise, press number seven when
you reach the marker, then the
play button.
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66 Wider landscape
Man
Stonehenge is a creation of generation upon generation of
people. The monument and the
landscape we see around it have been used for thousands
and thousands of years. Yet
the rich archaeological fabric that makes up the site
remains fragile and sensitive to
change and the trappings of modern life. It is priceless
and irreplaceable, requiring care
from all who come and spend time here.
Woman
English Heritage is charged with looking after Stonehenge
and is committed to its
conservation and good management for future generations.
We encourage people to
enjoy, understand and appreciate England’s historic
environment. The National Trust,
which owns nearly fifteen hundred acres of the land that
lies around the monument, is
equally concerned for the well-being of this area. If you
have the time, an exploration of the
surrounding countryside, with its henges, cursus and
barrows, and all the other
monuments, is well worthwhile. And, later, you may like
to visit the museums in Salisbury
and Devizes, where artefacts excavated from Stonehenge
can be seen.
Man
We are standing in a vast landscape, with Stonehenge as
the ultimate expression of the
power that held prehistoric society together thousands of
years ago. People have been
travelling past Stonehenge since time immemorial, pausing
to gaze and wonder at the
mysterious site.
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Woman
But some of those who came in the past showed less care
for the stones than those who
come today. We think up to forty per cent could be
missing, taken by those who, seeing
the site abandoned, had little hesitation in taking
stones for either building materials or
souvenirs. Today that would be unthinkable, the more we
understand it the more we
realise how precious its preservation is. Stonehenge is a
forceful symbol of how our
prehistoric forebears, 5000 years ago, imposed their will
on their contemporary society. An
attempt to ensure continuity in what was an uncertain
world. Stonehenge gives us a
unique insight into those far-off times and a sense of
perspective of our place in the history
of human progress, for these stones have outlived many
civilisations, and they may well
outlive ours.
Man
If you would like to hear more about other sites of
interest in the area, press number sixty
seven, six then seven, and the play button. Otherwise,
press number seven when you
reach the marker, then the play button.
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67 Other sites nearby
Woman
About eight hundred metres, half a mile to the north of
Stonehenge lies the cursus, an
enormous earthwork some two point eight kilometres – one
and three quarter miles – long
and ninety metres, one hundred yards wide. On either side
of it was a small bank with a
ditch outside – but much of this has now been ploughed
flat. This type of earthwork was
named cursus by the eighteenth century historian, William
Stukeley, who thought it was
used as a racecourse for chariot races by the ancient
Britons! It dates from the first phase
of Stonehenge and can be visited by following the
way-marked trail from the Stonehenge
car park.
Man
About three kilometres, two miles north of Stonehenge, off
the A345 from the countess
roundabout, are Durrington Walls and Woodhenge – both of
which probably date from a
few hundred years after the first stones came to
Stonehenge. Large amounts of decorated
pottery and animal bones were found during excavations at
Durrington Walls, which point
to some special ceremonies being held there. A grave was
found in the centre of
Woodhenge, which is now marked by a small cairn of
flints. In it was the body of a three
year-old child, whose skull had been split before burial.
This is one of the few pieces of
evidence for human sacrifice in Neolithic Britain.
Woman
And finally, further to the north, to the west of
Marlborough, is Avebury, a megalithic stone
circle that encompasses part of the village.
If you would like to hear more about the wider landscape
of Stonehenge, press number
sixty six, six and six again, then the play button.
Otherwise, press number seven when you
reach the marker, then the play button.
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7 End of tour
Woman
Given to the custody of the nation by Sir Cecil Chubb in
1918, designated by UNESCO as
a world heritage site in 1986, Stonehenge is without
doubt one of the finest and most
mysterious of prehistoric monuments. Turn slowly in a
complete circle and take in all you
can see. Stonehenge isn’t special just because of the
stones. It’s also special for the
plants that grow here. Even those yellow and grey patches
on the stones are unusual.
They’re not stains but tiny slow-growing plants called
lichens. At the last count we found
more than ninety different kinds!
Now take a last look at Stonehenge. Even if we take away
all the stones and all the stories
there’s still something very special about this place,
something secret and hidden. The
great Wessex novelist, Thomas Hardy, felt this, and used
Stonehenge as the setting for
his heroine, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, last night of
freedom. As dawn approached.
Hardy The band of
silver paleness along the east horizon made even the
distant parts of the great plain appear dark and near;
and the whole
enormous landscape bore that impression of reserve,
taciturnity and
hesitation which is usual just before day. The eastward
pillars and
their architraves stood up blackly against the light, and
the great
flame-shaped sun stone beyond them; and the stone of
sacrifice
midway. Presently the night wind died out, and the
quivering little
pools in the cup-like hollows of the stones lay still.
Woman
Thank you for joining us on this audio guide to
Stonehenge. Our custodians are happy to
answer any questions, so please do ask. When you’re
ready, walk back through the tunnel
and place your handset in one of the stands provided.
Please remember to do this as the
handsets contain an alarm that activates as you pass
through the turnstile – and it makes
a horrible noise!
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Man
Once you’ve returned your handset, why not wander around
the shop or take a little
refreshment before you go. In the shop you can buy
souvenir guidebooks. They’re
illustrated and tell you more about Stonehenge. And why
not take this opportunity to join
English Heritage. If you join now, your entrance fee to
this site will be refunded. There’s a
special membership rate for families and senior citizens,
and you’ll be able to visit all the
other English Heritage sites free.
Woman
But again, please return your handset first.
As you leave and walk towards the car park, you’ll see
two large standing stones, though
not as large as those you’ve just visited. One is
bluestone and the other a sarsen. Touch
them and feel the difference. Whatever the weather, the
bluestone is always warmer. Why
this is will always remain a mystery.
Goodbye, safe journey – and do come back sometime, to
walk the wider landscape.
ENG10662 Stonehenge ENG ASREC
Mar 2007
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