Next stop, Stonehenge!

After leaving behind Coggydubs (if that was really his name...) and his alleged palace, Mirko and I then rushed toward our next stop, Stonehenge. Although it really has very little to do with the Romans, seeing that it was on the way to our next major Roman site, Bath (Aquae Sulis), we made a slight detour. I mean, really, who can go through Wessex (land of the West Saxons) and not stop by this amazing stone age monument shrouded in mystery? I think Clark W. Griswold put it best...

But, I digress. Anyway, due to unforeseen weather and traffic delays, we arrived with only just barely enough time to visit --just under twenty minutes. Which meant that most of my burning questions would have to wait until after I had seen it. Of course, foremost among my questions was: “What did the Romans think about this mysterious place? What did they have to say about it?”

Map of Roman Britain with Aquae Sulis
and Stonehenge indicated in yellow.

Sadly, nothing. Or at least, as far as we know. That is, no mentions of the place survive in the Roman historical record. Not one. Which should be surprising considering that the Romans were in Britain for nearly 400 years and they had heavily colonized the southern part of the island. They must have been aware of it. Although it is not directly on any Roman road, it does lie just eight miles from the Roman fort at Salisbury (Sorviodunum), (which, by the way Cambridge Latin fans, would have likely been on route for Cogidubnus, Quintus and Salvius from Fishbourne to Aquae Sulis).

Stonehenge about two miles away in the background...

Furthermore, excavators have recently uncovered a relatively large Roman cemetery at Boscombe down, just five miles away from the stone circle. And finally, sitting atop a sizable hill crest, Stonehenge is visible from some distance away, as this recycled, stock “driving on the left photo” shows. Therefore, the Romans certainly knew about it.

However, this is when it is important for us to remember that less than 1% of everything written down by the Romans is extant. So they very likely did, at some point, write about Stonehenge, it merely does not survive. Also, we do have some archeological evidence that seems to show that, indeed, the Romans did visit Stonehenge. These recent excavations have turned up a handful of Roman coins and at least one piece of Roman pottery. So, at the very least, they visited it as we do.

Image of a giant placing the lintels at Stonehenge from a 

manuscript of the Roman de Brut, by Wace, who in turn 

had borrowed his tale from Geoffrey of Monmouth.  

Image shamelessly stolen from the Wikipedia article.

However, it would be about 700 years after the Romans left Britain before Stonehenge appeared in the surviving written historical record. The first known textual reference is in Henry of Huntingdon, one of the first great historians of Norman England, who briefly refers to the spot in his medieval Latin chronicle. Sadly, I have not been able to find the Latin quotation because not one of the articles cites the chapter and verse of Henry's chronicle (tsk, tsk), and despite about an hour of painstakingly manually perusing a pdf of the Latin text, I was unable to locate it. So for now, you all will have to settle for an English translation. I know, I’m sad too. :(

“Stanenges, where stones of wonderful size have been erected after the manner of doorways, so that doorway appears to have been raised upon doorway; and no one can conceive how such great stones have been so raised aloft, or why they were built there.” (From the English Heritage website).

The next writer to have taken on Stonehenge was the incredibly inventive Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Latin history entitled Historia Regum Britanniae. It is to Geoffrey and his fantastical imagination that we owe the King Arthur stories. In fact, Geoffrey would have us believe that Stonehenge was built by Merlin and that Arthur’s grandfather and father were both buried there, among many other creative lies!

Drawing of stonehenge as a Roman temple
of Caelus from a 17th century manuscript.

Legends of its construction by giants, Merlin, Arthur, and even the devil continued to be told up into early modern times, but then, the site slowly became the subject of increasingly frequent inquiries by antiquarians.  These men were basically proto-historian/archeologists in the 16th through 19th centuries who, in a manner not much different than Geoffrey of Monmouth, often relied on their own ideas and imagination as much as fact or evidence. From their “research,” came one popular early theory that suggested that Stonehenge was actually a Roman built temple to the the sky!

While modern research has demonstrated the absurdity of the Merlin story and theories involving the Romans, much mystery still surrounds the site as to when it was built, by whom and, probably most importantly, why. It certainly seems to have something to with astronomy and astrological observations, but beyond that, we simply don't know. As usual, I’m sure that I’m leaving you with just as many questions as answers, but that’s what’s fun about this, right?!? So feel free to do your own research and leave your thoughts below, just whatever you do, don't cite Giorgio Tsoukalos as a source! And before we leave it behind, enjoy some silly photos of me and Mirko during our rainy visit to Stonehenge!

Photo for my debut solo album of 90's grunge covers...

Mirko approves.