1 00:00:00,489 --> 00:00:07,493 This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. 2 00:00:07,493 --> 00:00:17,499 The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations but not necessarily the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. 3 00:00:20,501 --> 00:00:25,504 Thousands of years ago, a great work was begun on a barren landscape. 4 00:00:25,504 --> 00:00:31,507 The people behind the project erected a ring of colossal stones according to precise calculations. 5 00:00:31,507 --> 00:00:37,511 When the job was finished, a complex machine stood in the middle of no place. 6 00:00:38,511 --> 00:00:40,513 Then, they disappeared. 7 00:00:41,513 --> 00:00:43,514 But their monument is almost intact. 8 00:00:44,515 --> 00:00:46,516 It is called Stonehenge. 9 00:00:48,517 --> 00:00:54,521 The glow of ancient knowledge has faded, but a strange power still seems to linger over the stones. 10 00:00:55,521 --> 00:01:01,525 It beckons some men to worship, others to search for the magic of Stonehenge. 11 00:01:07,528 --> 00:01:15,533 It is among the classic mysteries of the world, an immense circle of stones that stands on the Salisbury Plain in southern England. 12 00:01:15,533 --> 00:01:20,536 For centuries, men have called it Stonehenge and wondered at its purpose. 13 00:01:21,537 --> 00:01:26,540 The mystery of Stonehenge is twofold. Who built it and why? 14 00:01:26,540 --> 00:01:31,543 Archaeologists normally have the answer to one of those questions and can deduce the rest. 15 00:01:31,543 --> 00:01:36,545 But until now, we've known very little about Stonehenge and understood less. 16 00:01:36,545 --> 00:01:42,549 Only recently has evidence come to light that points to Stonehenge being an exceedingly complex machine. 17 00:01:42,549 --> 00:01:46,551 Yet with a purpose so simple, it was overlooked for centuries. 18 00:01:47,552 --> 00:01:53,555 But finding the why of Stonehenge only increases the mystery of who built it. 19 00:01:54,556 --> 00:01:59,559 Stonehenge is a puzzle that seems to defy the usual methods of archaeology. 20 00:01:59,559 --> 00:02:02,561 There are no written clues to explain it. 21 00:02:02,561 --> 00:02:10,565 Theories that it was a city of the dead or a pagan temple of sacrifice have been based as much on pure speculation as on evidence. 22 00:02:11,566 --> 00:02:18,570 The first breakthrough in understanding came in the mid-1960s when a young astronomer entered the search. 23 00:02:18,570 --> 00:02:25,574 It was a solution based on pure numbers and pure directions. 24 00:02:25,574 --> 00:02:31,578 His name is Gerald Hawkins, author of Beyond Stonehenge. 25 00:02:31,578 --> 00:02:38,582 And strangely, it did require a new look. 26 00:02:38,582 --> 00:02:41,584 It required perhaps an astronomer to look at it as I did. 27 00:02:41,584 --> 00:02:48,588 And just looking through the archways, I felt that it must be more than a temple. 28 00:02:48,588 --> 00:02:54,591 The idea of doors in an open plain didn't make sense to me. 29 00:02:54,591 --> 00:02:58,594 And I felt I should see something through these archways. 30 00:02:59,594 --> 00:03:05,598 So began the quest for a solution to the riddle of Stonehenge. 31 00:03:05,598 --> 00:03:09,600 Hawkins began by investigating the few known facts. 32 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:18,605 The earliest holes in the ground seem to date now to 2500, 2700 BC. 33 00:03:18,605 --> 00:03:23,608 Roughly the time of the Egyptian pyramids may be a few centuries ahead. 34 00:03:24,609 --> 00:03:29,612 Then the Stonehenge proper was built approximately 2000 BC. 35 00:03:29,612 --> 00:03:34,615 They were working there for centuries, perhaps even a thousand years. 36 00:03:35,615 --> 00:03:41,619 The world at 2500 BC was dotted by no more than a handful of civilizations. 37 00:03:41,619 --> 00:03:45,621 Much of the world's population lived in caves. 38 00:03:45,621 --> 00:03:51,625 Man was learning how to forge crude tools out of bronze. 39 00:03:51,625 --> 00:03:56,628 In Egypt, the slaves were still toiling over the great pyramids. 40 00:04:00,630 --> 00:04:04,633 The walls of Jericho were yet unbreached. 41 00:04:06,634 --> 00:04:11,637 In Mesopotamia, the Sumerians were just beginning to use a new tool called writing 42 00:04:11,637 --> 00:04:15,639 to record their history and legends. 43 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:22,643 It would be centuries before the Jews would hide the Dead Sea Scrolls in the caves of Qumran. 44 00:04:25,645 --> 00:04:31,648 From the tiny island of Crete, the Minoan Empire ruled the Mediterranean world. 45 00:04:31,648 --> 00:04:37,652 Their ancient sea kings had not yet sailed their ships beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. 46 00:04:38,653 --> 00:04:43,655 No explorer had touched the shore of North America, 47 00:04:43,655 --> 00:04:48,658 crossed its wide expanses, or glimpsed any of its wonders. 48 00:04:52,661 --> 00:04:59,665 Yet in that remote time, an army of men was mobilized on the Salisbury Plain to build Stonehenge. 49 00:04:59,665 --> 00:05:01,666 Why? 50 00:05:08,670 --> 00:05:12,673 At one time, the suggestion was the stones came down by glaciers, 51 00:05:12,673 --> 00:05:16,675 but it seems that the stone was indeed quarried. 52 00:05:16,675 --> 00:05:19,677 We have pretty well proved that it was quarried, 53 00:05:19,677 --> 00:05:27,681 because recently a museum replicas went there and found a stone with an actual drill hole. 54 00:05:27,681 --> 00:05:29,683 We have a sample of it here. 55 00:05:29,683 --> 00:05:33,685 It was cut into and shows the two halves. 56 00:05:34,685 --> 00:05:38,688 This stone is so tough it takes half an hour to cut with a diamond saw, 57 00:05:38,688 --> 00:05:43,691 yet they drilled in with no equipment except perhaps some flint chips and a piece of wood. 58 00:05:45,692 --> 00:05:51,695 Why did the ancient engineers select blue stones that can be found in only one place in the world, 59 00:05:51,695 --> 00:05:53,697 the Presley Mountains? 60 00:05:55,698 --> 00:05:59,700 Rocks so hard they dull modern cutting tools. 61 00:06:04,703 --> 00:06:14,709 This is one of the inner circle of blue stones which theologists have found were brought all the way from the Presley Mountains in Wales, 62 00:06:14,709 --> 00:06:19,712 and it does seem that there is really only one place in the world where they could have come from, 63 00:06:19,712 --> 00:06:21,713 but there is also a theory that... 64 00:06:21,713 --> 00:06:26,716 Another investigator, Francis Hitching, has been probing the legends of Stonehenge, 65 00:06:26,716 --> 00:06:29,718 roping for a key to unlock its mystery. 66 00:06:29,718 --> 00:06:32,720 There are still a lot of unanswered questions. 67 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:37,723 The main one being, why on earth did they bother to put up these as opposed to those? 68 00:06:37,723 --> 00:06:41,725 What special kind of power did these stones contain? 69 00:06:43,726 --> 00:06:49,730 Hitching believes that for the ancient Britons the countryside was alive with supernatural spirits, 70 00:06:49,730 --> 00:06:52,731 and that even the rocks were endowed with magical powers. 71 00:06:52,731 --> 00:06:57,734 Local folklore is rich with tales like that of the Devil's heel. 72 00:06:57,734 --> 00:07:03,738 It is said that the Devil stalked the woods one night and left his mark in stone. 73 00:07:03,738 --> 00:07:12,743 According to another legend, nine maidens were frozen into stone when the morning light caught them frolicking on the moors. 74 00:07:13,744 --> 00:07:17,746 Other rocks were thought to dance on Midsummer's Mourn. 75 00:07:19,747 --> 00:07:25,751 It was a matter of firm belief that evil spirits presided over certain boulders, 76 00:07:25,751 --> 00:07:29,753 like the hunchback gnome that lurked under a roof of stone, 77 00:07:32,755 --> 00:07:38,758 or the witch who cast a spell over tingle stone making it unsafe to touch after dark. 78 00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:43,761 Positive powers were attributed to other monoliths, 79 00:07:43,761 --> 00:07:49,765 like the one called Stanton Drew, which could supposedly cure a sick child of the pox, 80 00:07:50,765 --> 00:07:57,770 or the fairy stone, which was believed to emit a strange energy, like an electrical charge. 81 00:07:59,771 --> 00:08:07,776 What all these legends add up to, seems to me, is that a certain kind of power existed in them 82 00:08:07,776 --> 00:08:09,777 and was known to the people at that time. 83 00:08:09,777 --> 00:08:16,781 And as recently as a couple of years ago, there were reports of witchcraft ceremonies taking place 84 00:08:17,781 --> 00:08:21,784 in a series of stones called the Rollwright Stones in the Midlands. 85 00:08:22,784 --> 00:08:25,786 From the Presley Mountains, where the stonehenge rocks were quarried, 86 00:08:25,786 --> 00:08:30,789 they were hauled some 240 miles across the landscape of England. 87 00:08:33,791 --> 00:08:35,792 No powered vehicles existed. 88 00:08:35,792 --> 00:08:40,795 Forests and narrow streams clotted the path between the quarry and the final site. 89 00:08:41,796 --> 00:08:43,797 How were the stones moved? 90 00:08:46,798 --> 00:08:51,801 In 1954, the British Broadcasting Company recruited 40 schoolboys 91 00:08:51,801 --> 00:08:54,803 to retrace the steps their ancestors might have taken. 92 00:08:55,804 --> 00:09:00,807 The purpose of the experiment was to determine the likely methods used to transport the stones. 93 00:09:01,807 --> 00:09:06,810 A concrete slab, only one-fiftieth, the weight of a blue stone was used. 94 00:09:08,811 --> 00:09:15,816 Nothing like this astonishing feat of transportation was ever attempted by any other people in prehistoric Europe. 95 00:09:17,817 --> 00:09:25,821 Their task was so arduous that later generations believed the builders must have been aided by the magician Merlin. 96 00:09:26,822 --> 00:09:31,825 According to legend, Merlin made the stones so light that they could float on water, 97 00:09:32,826 --> 00:09:35,827 but there were still casualties along the way. 98 00:09:38,829 --> 00:09:42,831 If magic is excluded as a source of power for the stonehengers, 99 00:09:42,831 --> 00:09:48,835 then most of the population of southern Britain must have been involved in hauling the stones to Salisbury. 100 00:09:49,836 --> 00:09:51,837 We're speaking very glibly about it. 101 00:09:51,837 --> 00:10:00,842 I estimate one and a half million man days of work and many broken legs and so on. 102 00:10:01,843 --> 00:10:09,847 A drive, an effort, an achievement that they got a great satisfaction out of as to what was in their minds. 103 00:10:09,847 --> 00:10:21,854 At least I have uncovered certain very hard facts, numerical relationships, an interest in precision, an interest in time patterns. 104 00:10:22,855 --> 00:10:28,858 And this means something very fundamental to their psychological basis and to their beliefs. 105 00:10:29,859 --> 00:10:32,861 What they were doing was a complete entity to them. 106 00:10:33,861 --> 00:10:34,862 They must have been extremely satisfying. 107 00:10:35,863 --> 00:10:38,864 They did not do it by being driven as slaves. 108 00:10:38,864 --> 00:10:41,866 They did not do it for money because there wasn't a monetary system. 109 00:10:41,866 --> 00:10:43,867 They did it because they wanted to. 110 00:10:43,867 --> 00:10:52,873 And here we have perhaps the beginning of our civilization, the essence of civilization, a community with a common purpose and a common set of ideas. 111 00:10:53,873 --> 00:11:04,880 Surely the masterminds of Stonehenge could not have inspired an army of workers unless the people were held in the spell of a great, perhaps even magical idea. 112 00:11:08,882 --> 00:11:14,886 A religious sect called Druids claims spiritual descent from the architects of Stonehenge. 113 00:11:15,886 --> 00:11:17,887 There is little evidence to support their claim. 114 00:11:17,887 --> 00:11:25,892 Their ritual reenactments on the site are of little help in solving the puzzle, for the Druids were apparently latecomers. 115 00:11:26,893 --> 00:11:31,896 The people who put up Stonehenge came from a time before people could read and write. 116 00:11:31,896 --> 00:11:35,898 And really this is one of the big mysteries about Stonehenge. 117 00:11:35,898 --> 00:11:46,904 How they came later on to have a mathematical, geometrical, astronomical knowledge which seems quite beyond the conceptions of primitive and barbarian people. 118 00:11:47,905 --> 00:11:59,912 Perhaps more remarkable than that is the fact that scattered all over Britain are some 300 other circles, some of them still intact, which can do the same job. 119 00:11:59,912 --> 00:12:07,917 And the man who has discovered this, spent half a lifetime doing it, is Professor Alexander Tom. 120 00:12:09,918 --> 00:12:17,923 An engineer by training, Tom was convinced that there was a calculated design behind what appeared to be a random arrangement of stones. 121 00:12:18,923 --> 00:12:28,929 Using advanced mathematics, Tom was able to prove that the stones were aligned both to one another and to the movement of the planets in the night sky. 122 00:12:29,930 --> 00:12:33,932 The implications of his discovery are staggering. 123 00:12:35,933 --> 00:12:44,938 It now seems possible that the whole of prehistoric Britain was landscaped according to a deliberate and far-reaching plan. 124 00:12:45,939 --> 00:12:55,945 There are a number of theories as to whether there is any reality to legends about the magic power of megaliths. 125 00:12:56,946 --> 00:13:07,952 And perhaps the one which has been most widely written about is that the whole of Britain is crisscrossed with a network of invisible straight lines called lay lines. 126 00:13:08,953 --> 00:13:16,957 These are supposed to link all ancient sacred sites like some unimaginably complicated spiders web. 127 00:13:17,958 --> 00:13:30,966 And the stones, all the sites, burial mounds, tombs, they're supposed to have been put on certain key places which were chosen because they had some kind of power. 128 00:13:31,966 --> 00:13:38,970 Fortresses were built atop sacred mounds as if to absorb the power of old ruins. 129 00:13:39,971 --> 00:13:46,975 And monks erected churches on sites where pagan priests once gathered to recite magical incantations. 130 00:13:48,976 --> 00:13:54,980 In folklore, some key sites retained their magic long after the builders disappeared. 131 00:13:55,980 --> 00:14:04,986 It is known that around some of these sites, underneath tombs, around the standing stones, there are anomalies in the Earth's magnetic field. 132 00:14:05,986 --> 00:14:13,991 And here I think may lie the secret to the power in these megaliths. 133 00:14:14,991 --> 00:14:26,998 If Francis Hitching's theory is correct, what prehistoric man called magic may have been akin to 20th century electromagnetic energy. 134 00:14:27,999 --> 00:14:38,005 Is it just possible that people in those times somehow knew how to tap the electromagnetic anomalies that are in these stones and use them in their healing? 135 00:14:39,006 --> 00:14:44,008 Is it perhaps also possible that they used it as birds do and as dogs seem to? 136 00:14:45,009 --> 00:14:51,013 Intellipathy. They could find their way by these stones. They could perhaps communicate from one stone to another. 137 00:14:52,013 --> 00:14:57,016 They were like a giant psychic grid which could be used for telepathic purposes. 138 00:14:58,017 --> 00:15:04,020 Like the animals of the forest, the inhabitants of prehistoric Britain may have been attuned to the Earth's signals. 139 00:15:04,020 --> 00:15:10,024 Some have theorized that electromagnetic energy may be the basis of extrasensory perception. 140 00:15:11,024 --> 00:15:18,028 If this is true, perhaps the Stonehengers used that psychic energy on a level never achieved since. 141 00:15:19,029 --> 00:15:25,033 At the very center of this hypothetical communications network stood Stonehenge. 142 00:15:25,033 --> 00:15:33,037 As a quantitative scientist, I saw a fundamental pattern that intrigued me and reached my brain and mind. 143 00:15:34,038 --> 00:15:46,045 And so with calculations, I was able to go back in time to 2000 BC and as though it were stand there and watch the sunrise and moonrise and planets and stars. 144 00:15:46,045 --> 00:15:56,051 And with the computer, very quickly, we could see that the pattern of stones matched the pattern of the sky. 145 00:15:57,051 --> 00:16:07,057 Therefore, a ritualistic temple became a much more fundamental device. It had at least some purpose and that purpose reached out to the stars. 146 00:16:08,058 --> 00:16:15,062 With the aid of a computer, Dr. Gerald Hawkins was able to do what no man before him had done. 147 00:16:16,063 --> 00:16:20,065 Proved that Stonehenge was in part a calendar and an observatory. 148 00:16:21,066 --> 00:16:28,070 Each giant block points to a specific position of a planet or star as it moves in its journey across the heavens. 149 00:16:29,070 --> 00:16:35,074 In such a way, sky and Earth were inextricably bound through a stone age machine. 150 00:16:36,074 --> 00:16:42,078 The most celebrated alignment is the Heelstone that points to the rising sun on Midsummer's Mourn. 151 00:16:43,078 --> 00:16:49,082 The popular assumption is that the Druids used this site for rituals of incantation and human sacrifice. 152 00:16:50,083 --> 00:16:53,084 But were they the designers of Stonehenge? 153 00:16:55,086 --> 00:17:02,090 Archaeologists and antiquarians have argued for centuries about who put up this great erection of stones here. 154 00:17:02,090 --> 00:17:12,096 The best bet seemed to be the Druids because the Druids were known to have existed here in Britain before Caesar arrived. 155 00:17:13,096 --> 00:17:14,097 In fact, Caesar described the Druids. 156 00:17:15,097 --> 00:17:28,105 So, 18th century antiquarians such as William Stucley used to draw fanciful pictures of the Druids as they thought taking part in ceremonies around Stonehenge and similar kinds of circles. 157 00:17:28,105 --> 00:17:33,108 Now, we're almost certain today that this conception is absolutely wrong. 158 00:17:34,108 --> 00:17:44,114 And the kind of people who you see taking part in Druid ceremonies here on Midsummer morning are nothing more than a 19th century invention. 159 00:17:45,115 --> 00:17:57,122 Druids, in fact, what we do know about them, they had a strong priestly class who used to gather on the whole in oak groves where their secret ceremonies took place. 160 00:17:58,123 --> 00:18:04,126 They were a bloodthirsty race. Caesar describes them as hanging people up in baskets and burning them. 161 00:18:05,127 --> 00:18:09,129 Otherwise, we know that they were indeed expert astronomers. 162 00:18:10,130 --> 00:18:19,135 If, as hitching and other investigators have concluded, the architects of Stonehenge were not the Druids, then who did design and build it? 163 00:18:19,135 --> 00:18:30,141 Far from being mere hunters or cave dwellers, the prehistoric Stonehengers seemed suddenly to have become possessed of a superior, highly sophisticated intelligence. 164 00:18:31,142 --> 00:18:39,147 Otherwise, they could never have devoted their total energies to a grid that covered all England and focused on the axis of Stonehenge. 165 00:18:40,147 --> 00:18:47,151 One must wonder from where did they get this incredible spurt of knowledge, a spurt that was 5,000 years ahead of its time. 166 00:18:47,151 --> 00:19:00,159 The answer may never be known, but the Stones still have a power for many who worship in the manner of the Druids, and Stonehenge still intrigues men who seek to understand the workings of an ancient machine. 167 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:06,163 I wonder if they were not worshiping a new type of God to us, a God of time. 168 00:19:06,163 --> 00:19:25,174 The idea just comes to me now that perhaps the repetitive security of time following time was of value to them, and perhaps even Stonehenge itself was built to perhaps defeat the ravages of time in that time had a concept to them. 169 00:19:25,174 --> 00:19:35,180 If ever we can find out an idea that explains what they did, it will be really dramatic. I don't feel that we've come close to any idea yet, but you can imagine a God of time. 170 00:19:36,180 --> 00:19:39,182 We don't have it. We hate time, but maybe they look forward to it. 171 00:19:39,182 --> 00:20:00,194 What were the Stonehenges looking forward to? Was it merely the observations of the cycles of time, or the predictions of eclipses? Or did they expect some even more magical communication from the outer cosmos, where time has no limits? 172 00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:25,209 Stonehenge is not alone as a riddle of ancient design. In the thick jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula, an ancient observatory called the Caracol charted the phases of Venus as accurately as 20th century telescopes. 173 00:20:26,210 --> 00:20:40,218 Buried deep within the same jungle, a Mayan pyramid was aligned to the Midsummer's Sun. 6,000 miles away, Egyptian pyramids mapped the rising and the setting sun on the same day. 174 00:20:41,218 --> 00:20:51,224 And in the distant past of India, holy men gathered to watch the sky. For what were they waiting? 175 00:20:52,225 --> 00:21:01,230 We have some understanding now of the possible explanation for Stonehenge and the other monuments around the world that have puzzled investigators for so long. 176 00:21:01,230 --> 00:21:10,236 The question which still eludes us is who erected these working monuments? Clearly, they were the work of people more advanced than we had thought possible for that time. 177 00:21:11,236 --> 00:21:20,241 We can speculate that our ancestors were possessed of knowledge that was somehow lost to succeeding generations. Or perhaps they had help. 178 00:21:20,241 --> 00:21:28,246 Coming up next, in search of continues with an exploration of an African tribe's amazing understanding of astronomy. 179 00:21:29,247 --> 00:21:38,252 Then 20th century with Mike Wallace reports on gang violence in America. And later tonight, Jesse James Body, the Iwo Jima flag and other extraordinary things with stories to tell on histories lost and found. 180 00:21:38,252 --> 00:21:49,258 At 8, here on the History Channel, where the past comes alive. 181 00:21:58,264 --> 00:22:03,267 .