Station Stones
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Stonehenge_DSC_6768.jpg/220px-Stonehenge_DSC_6768.jpg)
TheStation Stonesare elements of the prehistoric monument ofStonehenge.
Originally there were four stones, resembling the four corners of a rectangle that straddles the innersarsencircle, set just inside Stonehenge's surrounding bank. Two stood on earth mounds at opposing corners, one corner broadly in the north of the site and one in the south. The mounds are called the North and Southbarrowsalthough they never contained burials. Thering ditchessurrounding these barrows respect the presence of Stonehenge's encircling bank indicating that they postdate this feature.
The other two corners of the rectangle are occupied by the two surviving stones which are undressed sarsens. Their installation at the monument dates to sometime inStonehenge phase 3,perhaps around 4,000 years ago.
Various astronomical alignments have been suggested for the stones, all involving other features at the site. As they cannot be said with certainty to have been contemporaneous with other stones or posts at Stonehenge,archaeoastronomicaltheories regarding their function have been treated with scepticism by mainstreamarchaeology.Although described as forming a rectangle, the two stones and the two stone settings can also be described as representing two opposite facets of an octagon. This suggests that they were laid out to a geometric plan and challenges the theory that the positions were astronomically determined.
References
[edit]Bibliography
[edit]- Johnson, Anthony (2008).Solving Stonehenge: The New Key to an Ancient Enigma.Thames & Hudson.ISBN978-0500051559.
- Mike Pitts,Hengeworld,London: Arrow, 2001,ISBN978-0-09-927875-7
- John Edwin Wood,Sun, Moon and Standing Stones.Oxford University Press, 1980,ISBN0-19-211443-3
51°10′44.351651″N1°49′35.638103″W/ 51.17898656972°N 1.82656613972°W