Stonehenge | World Heritage Site | Why was Stonehenge built? | 10-Minute Talks | The British Academy

Where did Stonehenge come from? In this talk Mike Parker Pearson investigates the origins of Stonehenge, its stones and their transportation as well as speculating on the motives behind the creation of this unique prehistoric monument.
Speaker: Professor Mike Parker Pearson FBA, Professor of British Later Prehistory, University College London
Find out more:
Is Stonehenge a rebuilt Welsh stone circle? www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/b...
The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.239
Stonehenge: The Lost Circle Revealed www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...
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www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/p...
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[@haconbyandstainfieldparish8297]

Brilliant. A wonderful interlude - tank you.

[@gd3653]

Thank you so much for this fascinating, intriguing and accessible talk and the wonderful BBC documentary.

[@beverlyfletcher4458]

Great video and complements the tv programme recently. Thank you for making the Neolithic so understandable but please give measurements in Imperial as well. Your Welsh pronunciation is good also; da iawn.

[@Julian-1111]

Thanks so much Professor for sharing this, obviously you know what you are talking about, very nicely done Sir. Would you make a video on the various excavations , 1950’s and earlier (early 1900’s?). Most people don’t know about that. Cheers from San Diego

[@barriejones15]

An excellent piece, very thought provoking. Thank you.

[@pennypark9070]

Thank you so much. A fascinating talk made accessible to the likes of a non-academic like me!

[@Spedley_2142]

Super! Would love to see the evidence proving exact location stones were from. Moving stones 250km seems like hard work to us with steel tools but it's probably easier if you only have stone tools.

[@the_mystery_of_stonehenge]

Top Story! Professor Pearson, Alice Roberts you are Invited! The age of saying, "We just don't know" is soundly over. ~ How They Built Stonehenge? The Mystery is Solved! ~ Reiterated dogma would have us imagine compulsory physical jeopardy in a losing battle with gravity (stone dragging). Instead we realize a thrill ride of forest engineering, spectacular athletic maneuvers and narrow escapes culminating in a triumphant procession across the Salisbury Plain. A majestic stone in the center of an immense wooden wheel. Want to see it in action? Create two identical small scale mockups of Stonehenge. Fuse them at the heads of the triathalons. Stand it up and it is a carrying nook on wheels. Place a block of wood in the truss, bungee it in and roll it across the lawn. The mystery of how they built Stonehenge is solved. Soar through time with the "Stonehenge Code". Learn the real truth about Neolithic Britain. Click the logo. ~

[@andrewwhelan7311]

Well said. The age of the establishment echo chamber is slowly getting challenged and discredited.

[@eos7595]

There is a book coming to truly explain what stonehenge is.

[@kerryburns6041]

Whoever built Stonehenge obviously had excellent understanding of astronomy, maths, stone quarrying and transporting and doubtless other skills, yet we are often told that they lived in hovels made of wood, skins and earth, and were simple hunter gatherers. I find that difficult to take seriously, obviously they were quite capable of building stone houses. Upon invading, the Romans found a people who had apparently made little or no architectural progress -- in three thousand years ? No -- sorry, that sounds like a load of hooey too. More likely perhaps, that a civilisation preceded Stonehenge, rose and fell during that three thousand years, leaving ruined stone buildings which the Romans used to make the three thousand miles of Roman roads, and Hadrian´s 80 mile wall with its 80 forts -- I find it hard to believe they quarried such a massive amount of stone. If Stonehenge has a message for us, it is that we know nothing.

[@duggiebader1798]

Disclaimer... Armchair expert here watching in my pyjamas with a mug of Yorkshire tea. The original circle, in Wales, I'll assume had been there for many generations and had was known far and wide. The locals being the custodians and proud. Knowing how the locals have behaved over the last 1000 years on these isles, I would bet my money that a rival tribe (Wiltshire Massive) had a bust up the Welsh Blues. To signify the victory, the massive did a Edward I and took their prized blue stones. No evidence for this what so ever, only 1000 years of humans being cunts to one another. Academia isn't my strong point.