Quite a good article in today's Independent; looks like Stonehenge as a healing centre is back on the cards -
"They (Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright) now believe that Stonehenge was initially built as a major healing centre, the prehistoric equivalent of Lourdes or Santiago de Compostela.
"In their re-evaluation of Stonehenge's original purpose, they believe it is far more associated with water sources which traditionally were imbued with healing properties, than has been previously thought. In ancient, medieval and even later times, all over Britain and throughout continental Europe springs were identified with healing. Yet until now, the only water link to Stonehenge was that the monument was connected to the River Avon by a two-mile processional avenue.
"Researchers now believe that, long before the avenue was extended down to the river, its first 500m were constructed specifically to connect Stonehenge with a spring at the head of a valley, known today as Stonehenge Bottom. If true, it would explain for the first time why the processional avenue does not take a direct route to the River Avon, which is just one and a half miles away.
"A six-year research project Professors Darvill and Wainwright mounted in south-west Wales now suggests that, for thousands of years, the Preseli mountain range was home to a series of magical healing centres. Springs bubbled out of the rock in many places in the Preselis and some were enlarged over the millennia by local people and holy men who burrowed into the rock to create dozens of holy wells. The archaeologists now believe that the Preseli Hills have the densest concentration of such healing centres in south-west Britain, an estimated 30 to 40 holy wells. Their work proposes, for the first time, why the builders of Stonehenge went so far afield in 2600 BC to obtain the stones for their great monument, despite much nearer sources of good stone.
"They also argue that Stonehenge's healing role is actually in line with long-lost folklore.
"Arthurian legend, recorded by the medieval writer Geoffrey of Monmouth, has it that Stonehenge was indeed a healing centre where the stones had been imported by the wizard Merlin, precisely for their healing properties. The monument's stones were regarded as having magical healing powers as late as the 18th century, when visitors to the site often chipped bits off to take away as talismans. A further study by the two archaeologists into prehistoric human skeletons buried in the Stonehenge area, is also beginning to suggest that a larger than normal percentage of them suffered from particularly bad health problems.
"This, they argue, would be consistent with Stonehenge having been an ancient healing centre attracting huge numbers of sick Neolithic and Bronze Age pilgrims from all over Britain and continental Europe. They point out the high incidence of small exotic artefacts from prehistoric continental Europe and even the ancient Mediterranean world found in the Stonehenge area."**
* http://www.sho.com/site/announcements/060310smith.do
** http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-secret-of-stonehenge-803113.html
