Stonehenge: Who Built It?

In 1620, architect Inigo Jones convinced King James I that Stonehenge was a Roman temple. In 1740, William Stukeley called it a Druid sanctuary. Both were wrong by thousands of years.

We now know Stonehenge was built in phases between 3000 and 1500 BCE — by Neolithic and Bronze Age peoples who left no written records. The sarsens average about 25 tonnes, with the largest — the great trilithon uprights — weighing around 40 tonnes, and some estimates run past 45. They came from the Marlborough Downs, about 20 miles north. The smaller bluestones came from the Preseli Hills in Wales, 150 miles away. These builders had no metal tools, no wheeled transport, and no writing — yet they coordinated the largest construction project in Neolithic Europe.