This evening I watched yet another TV program about Stonehenge, and again the artist impressions and animations show how in history it was a full circle of stones all with capping stones. This idea that the circle was completed doesn’t ring true to me, I have read and seen that in certain circumstances the stones from ancient monuments have been stolen, quarried away to be recycled into local buildings, it happens lots, where a castle or fortification is used as simply gained building supplies, but at Stonehenge, some of the largest stones are missing totally, and then in some cases the topping stones are missing totally from the still standing large stones, if the site was used as a source of stone by some local family, they surely would have started their stealing, by removing the smaller stones first, yet a large number of the smaller blue stones still exist, so why would anyone ever start by breaking apart and carrying off the largest stones? or by removing the capping stones from the top of existing standing stones, and leave the similar sized Blue stones.
If your building a barn, or your building a wall, and your seriously considering whether to open your own quarry, or bring your own stone from 25 miles away, or.. should i steal a few of those large stones from that old circle of stones, why would you then start by removing the larger or harder gained stone…. you would just use the smaller blue stones first, and when they were totally used up, built into walls or your new house, then you might then consider how to get the other larger stones broken up and into useable sizes…
I think Stonehenge was never finished, it has never been a full circle of stones, as always suggested.