Sunday, January 17, 2021, 00:03
Stonehenge, located in South England, is one of the megalithic monuments of the world’s most famous stones. It is believed that it was built in six phases during the Neolithic transition to the Bronze Age (3000-1500 BC).
It consists of six concentric circles: two of holes and, within four stones. Two of them, with large stones of about 20 tons, known as ‘Sarses’, brought of 25 kilometers. The outside is a order of vertical stones coupled by lintels. In the inner circle, jambas savings are separated with lintel. The other two circles, with smaller and blue stones, surrounds, interior and external, to the inner circle of ‘Sarses’.
Although there are still many unanswered questions about the construction of the monument and its purpose, two interpretations seem to take the body: one that speaks about a holy and spiritual house of the ancestors and another, who speaks of an astronomical ‘observatory’. Science is fundamentally in this search. From his contributions we look at two: one astronomical and another acoustic.
With regard to astronomical, there are two scientific publications that, based on the orientations of Stonehenge with the sun and the moon and with complex calculations, succeed in building an astronomical clock mathematically. However, this interpretation seems very complex for that time when they did not know the written language. However, it is known that many of the archaeological monuments have been built in search of the orientations of the sun and the moon. It is therefore possible that in Stonehenge the alignment with the sun would be used to observe the sun and the moon and, with those observations, to prepare an agricultural calendar.
This supports the idea that rituals related to seasonal changes were made and in particular, summer and winter solstice. Thus the construction of the monument would also be related to the most important work of that time; Agriculture
Since there are always social events involved, sounds. That is why a deep investigation into the acoustics of the monument was recently carried out. Because it is not complete for the first time in the study of the acoustics of archaeological monuments, a reproduction of 1:12 scale was carried out. To simulate the monument’s environmental conditions, the model was placed in a Semineco room. The reverberation time is close to that of the cathedrals and large concert halls and the reflexes of the stones, strengthen the sound and improve the communication of those in the circle. Moreover, it was found that the monument is pretty well insulated from the sounds that can come abroad.
Although the result is very interesting, the research director thinks that the designers of Stonehenge were less concerned about acoustics than for funeral and holy reasons or with astronomical coordination.
