James Nesper

Betrayal at Stonehenge - 1000 B.c. James Nesper

"Stonehenge is just too fascinating to ignore. The word ""Stonehenge"" seems to ignite the imagination of people and arouse their curiosity. That is because the accomplishments of the valiant Stonehenge people is incredible. It is believed that 123 large blue colored stones were quarried, cut to specified rectangular shapes and transported from the Preseli Mountains in Wales. This is a distance of approximately 130 miles as the crow flies and 240 miles when rafting the stones at sea, navigating several rivers upstream and portaging from one river to another. Eighty-two stone uprights weighing up to seven tons and forty-one top stones weighing slightly less were transported. Such an enormous undertaking seems like an impossible task for illiterate prehistoric people, but they did. The stones are there to prove it. Approximately 1000 years later, even greater construction had begun. The five towering rectangular trilithons stones (or archways) arranged in the shape of a horseshoe and facing the direction of the summer solstice, were built. At least 56 other huge stones were brought to Stonehenge probably from Marlborough Downs over 20 miles away. The largest stone weighed 55 tons and the average weighed 26 tons. It is difficult to imagine how stones of such bulk could be cut to size and transported before the practical use of the wheel, modern roads, hydraulic machinery, wire or nylon rope, etc. Moreover, the horses of that time were small, more like the modern Exmore pony, and were not used as a beast of burden. Once the stones were transported, they had to be positioned to allow for twelve perfect astronomical alignments, and the heavy lintels had to be raised to the tops of the pillars presumably by backbreaking human labor. So who were these amazing people who built Stonehenge? How did they do it, and why? Betrayal at Stonehenge-1000 BC breaths life into the people, put flesh and blood on their skeletal remains and creates saints and sinners. It takes place at the mysterious fall of Stonehenge, around 1000 B. C. Murder, lust, loyalty and love are combined with summer solstice and eclipse of the sun and their mystical religious settings. The genre is late bronze age but the setting is definitely STONEHENGE."