Who built the mysterious Stonehenge, and why?
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Hey, Smarty Pants, it's so funny running into you out here in the English countryside. I'm just backpacking through the fields looking for a scenic backdrop for my next selfie. Ooh, there's a cool looking spot up ahead. Let's head over there and... Is that what I think it is? See if you can guess what it is, Smarty Pants. It's a large circle of giant rectangular stones standing up on end with other giant stones lying flat on top of them.

It certainly doesn't seem random. What do you think it is, Smarty Pants? If I didn't know better, Smarty Pants, I'd say we just happened upon the world-famous monument known as Stonehenge. I guess that would make sense. Stonehenge is in England. Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, to be exact. Ugh!

do you hear that, Smarty Pants? It's coming from right behind this enormous stone. Oh, hi. Don't mind me. Oh, hi. I'm the trusty narrator. And you are? Dr. Cheryl Middleworth, archaeologist at your service. I'm just doing a little research on this amazing monument. Really? What kind of research involves pulling a gigantic stone across a bunch of logs? The kind that might finally help us understand...

How whoever built Stonehenge transported all these massive stones here? One guess is they pulled them on top of rolling logs, like this. Of course, they probably had a hundred people pulling it once, not just one lonesome archaeologist. I was going to say, here, let me help you with that. Dr. Middleworth.

If you're an expert on Stonehenge, perhaps you can answer some questions for me and the Smarty Pants today. Sure. What do you want to know? For starters, what is Stonehenge? And who built it? And when? And for what purpose? Hey, you're helping me. Least I can do is help you. Great. Get ready to rock and roll, Smarty Pants. Let's go.

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Okay, smarty pants. Looks like we're on a Stonehenge fact-finding adventure. My first question is, I know what stones are, and clearly Stonehenge is made of them, but what is a henge?

A henge is a prehistoric monument made up of a circle of stone or wooden objects in a vertical or upright position. Ah, of course. Now, you said prehistoric, which means Stonehenge must be pretty old. What are we talking here, Doc? 500 years old? 1,000? 2,000? More? Try 5,000 years old.

In fact, they started building Stonehenge about 500 years before the first pyramids in Egypt were built. Whoa. It's literally from the Stone Age. Whoa, that is old. Now, when you say they started building Stonehenge, who exactly are they? They?

That, trusty narrator, is a tricky question. You see, we experts believe there were actually several groups of people who worked on Stonehenge over a thousand year period. The first group was known as the Windmill Hill People. Then came the Bell Beaker Culture.

And finally, the Wessex people. Each group added, removed, or moved around the giant stones. But we're still not 100% sure who the original creators were. I heard that Stonehenge was built by the Druids. In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history...

Who do you think the druids were, smarty pants? Were they A. Aliens from another planet, B. Ancient religious leaders, or C. Highly intelligent giant insects? The answer is B. Ancient religious leaders.

Yes, the idea that the druids built Stonehenge was a common belief for a while, trustee narrator. But the druids actually lived centuries after Stonehenge was completed, so it's impossible they were behind it. Well, whoever built it must have been pretty strong, because these stones are big and heavy. Indeed they are, and there are a lot of them. Here, walk with me, trustee. I'll give you a tour.

First, we have what we call the outer ring, a big circle of stones standing on end. These stones are called sarsens and are about 13 feet tall and 7 feet wide. They clock in around 25 tons, which means these babies weigh the same as four elephants, each 1.

I believe it. Lying flat across the top of the vertical sarsens, all the way around the circle are other sarsen stones called lintels. They're also super heavy, so it took some might to get them up there. Hate to nitpick, Dr. Middleworth, but these sarsen stones don't make a full circle. Right you are, trustee. There were originally 80 sarsen stones, but today only 52 are left.

Where'd the missing stones go? Most likely, people took them over the years and used them to build other things like walls or roads. You must remember, it's only recently humans have cared about preserving ancient monuments. In the old days, folks didn't think twice about borrowing building materials from an abandoned place if they needed them for something. Makes sense, but it's also too bad. It certainly makes my work more challenging.

Now we've reached the inner ring of stones. Ooh, it's shaped like a horseshoe. Yep. And as you can see, the horseshoe shape is made up of five trilithons. Did you say trilithon? That sounds like a big number. Or a dinosaur. Right, Smarty Pants? Or a...

Yeah, but a trilithon is actually what we call a separate standalone set of two sarsens topped by a lintel. It kind of looks like the symbol for the Greek letter pi. Oh, or a pair of big stone pants. Oh, stony pants!

The middle trilithon would be the tallest structure in all of Stonehenge, about 23 feet high, if the lintel and one of the sarsens hadn't fallen down hundreds of years ago. That's why they call it the Great Trilithon.

Okay, so that covers all the giant stones. But what are all these smaller stones? Those are blue stones. They don't look blue to me. Not now, but they do look blue when they're wet.

They weigh about five tons each. Yikes! That's the weight of two cars! Nothing here is light. Nope. Unfortunately, a lot of bluestones are missing today. They used to be arranged in a circle outside the inner ring and in another circle inside the inner ring. Got it. But I gotta say, Doc, I'm confused. All I see around here are fields. Where the heck did they find all these stones? Great question.

From what we can tell, the giant sarsen stones came from rock quarries 25 miles away. Those would have been hard enough to get here. But the blue stones, believe it or not, have been traced all the way to the Purcelli Hills in Wales, which are 200 miles away. Whoa. How they got all those stones here is a mystery.

Ah, so that's why you were testing whether you could pull a stone on top of rolling logs. Yep, that's one way they might have moved both kinds of stones here. But there are other theories. Hey, smarty pants, which of these other methods do you think might have been used to transport these massive stones? A. Pulling them along tracks greased with animal fat. B. Pulling them over balls placed in grooved wooden rails.

or C. By rolling them in giant wicker baskets? Believe it or not, the answer is all three. They're all possibilities, and probably more likely than the legend that a magic wizard did it. True. Wait, did you say wizard? According to an ancient legend, giants brought the Stonehenge stones from Africa to a mountain in Ireland.

where they formed a big circle called the Giant's Dance. However, a certain king wanted the stones brought to England, so he sent 15,000 soldiers to get them. Unfortunately, the soldiers weren't able to move the stones. Shocking! Instead, they got the legendary wizard named Merlin to use magic to transport the stones.

so they could recreate the giant's dance as the Stonehenge we know today. No expert believes that story, right? No, but incredibly, it may have at least some truth to it. Really? How so? Archaeologists recently discovered there was once a big circle of blue stones like these at a site called Wanmon in Wales. But after 400 years, the circle mysteriously disappeared.

at exactly the same time the Stonehenge first appeared right here. ♪

Hold the phone. Are you saying they might have moved the circle of stones after all? Just like Merlin, minus the magic. Hmm. However they got all these stones here, constructing Stonehenge was obviously no easy feat, which raises the ultimate question, smarty pants. Why is it here in the first place? I thought you'd never ask. The answer to the riddle is right after this quick break. ♪

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Why did whoever built Stonehenge build it? And the answer is? I don't know. What? Sorry, trustee. I told you, there's a lot of things about Stonehenge that we still don't know, and one of those is what its original purpose was. However, we do have theories. I'm listening. Theory one. It may have been a calendar based on the stars.

You see, in addition to all those other stones we talked about, Stonehenge has four station stones located outside its outer ring. One of those is called the Heel Stone. And each year on the longest day of the year, also known as the Summer Solstice, something interesting happens just above the Heel Stone. What do you think happens, Smarty Pants? Does the sun rise? No.

Does the moon double in size? Or do stars disappear?

If you said the sun rises, you're stone cold correct. Not only that, on the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, the sun sets over the heel stone. So those ancient peoples clearly knew something about the stars. I see. So what are the other theories? Some believe it may have been a memorial used to worship and maybe even connect spiritually with distant ancestors.

Or it could have been a destination for religious pilgrimages. Or it may have been thought of as a place of healing because bluestones were once believed to cure illnesses. In all of these theories, Stonehenge attracted people from all over hoping to gain something from its magic powers. Exactly. Which leads us to our strongest theory. Which is? That it was a ceremonial burial ground.

We found thousands of bones, and we can tell people were buried here over hundreds, if not thousands of years.

So that's one thing we know Stonehenge was used for. But whether that was the main thing or the only thing remains to be seen. How do we even go about trying to learn more? Well, for one thing, Stonehenge isn't the only stone circle in town. There are several other smaller ones right in this part of town that were built in the same time period and are just as mysterious. ♪

Ooh, and if one of those circles happens to give you some clues... We may one day unlock the mysteries of Stonehenge.

A big shout out to Smarty fan and fellow New Yorker, Felix in Astoria, Queens. I hear Who Smarted helps your brain learn and helps you relax before bedtime. Sounds like a win-win or a win-sleep situation. Thanks for smarting with us, Felix. This episode's Stonehenge was written by Steve Mystery Melcher and voiced by Kim Druid-Davis and Jerry Colburn. Technical direction and sound design by Josh Heelstone-Hahn. Who Smarted is recorded and mixed at the Relic Room Studios.

Our associate producer is monolithic Max Kamaski. The theme song is by Brian Solstice Suarez with lyrics written and performed by Adam Rocks Davis. Who Smarted was created and produced by Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Colbert. This has been an Atomic Entertainment production. Who Smarted?

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