Stonehenge lesson 1 slides with teacher's notes

Lesson 1 Slide 1When starting to look at Stonehenge, it's useful to know what ideas other people have had about why it was built.

Image creditBy Me haridas (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Stonehenge lesson 1 slides with teacher's notes

Lesson 1 Slide 2The yellow dot shows the location of Stonehenge ni south central England. Because it was close to a river that flowed into the channel, the people who built it may have had good contacts with the continent.

Image creditBy Mschlindwein. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Subject to disclaimers.

Stonehenge lesson 1 slides with teacher's notes

Lesson 1 Slide 3This shows two upright posts with a lintel between them, similar to the sarsen stone settings at Stonehenge. We're not sure if Anglo-Saxons hanged their criminals upside down!

Image creditThe Hanged Man, 15th century. By Anonymous (Visconti-Sforza tarot deck) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Stonehenge lesson 1 slides with teacher's notes

Lesson 1 Slide 4This is a later drawing of Geoffrey of Monmouth's idea that giants first built Stonehenge.

Image creditFrom Egerton 3028 Folio 30, British Library. This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:

Stonehenge lesson 1 slides with teacher's notes

Lesson 1 Slide 5Stukeley was not the first to excavate at Stonehenge, but his work was very important. He looked at the layers in the soil and could therefore tell that Stonehenge was older than the Roman period, which an earlier theorist, Inigo Jones, had suggested.

Image creditWilliam Stukeley, 1740. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Stonehenge lesson 1 slides with teacher's notes

Lesson 1 Slide 6Most archaeologists dismissed Hawkin's claims as being too complex. But the main alignment on the midwinter sunrise and sunset is important. Midwinter may have been a time of worry, and ceremonies may have been conducted to ensure the spring came.

Image creditStonehenge on midsummer, 1700 BC. Nordisk familjebok (1918), vol.27, p.115 [1]. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Stonehenge lesson 1 slides with teacher's notes

Lesson 1 Slide 7Today there are several theories about why Stonehenge was built. Parker Pearson's ideas are not accepted by all.

Image creditStonehenge by John Constable. This work is in the public domain in the United States, and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years or less.