All language subtitles for PBS.NOVA.Secrets.Of.Lost.Empires.S01E01.Stonehenge.DivX6

Secrets Of Lost Empire - 1x01

It's one of the most mysterious
places in the world.

A strange set of stones,

arranged like no other,

stands silently above
the plains of southern England.

Stonehenge.

For centuries,
no one knew who built it.

According to medieval legend,

it was the work of Merlin,
the wizard of King Arthur�s court.

Later, credit for the construction
went to the Romans,

And then to an ancient
pagan cult, the Druids.

Only in recent years

have archaeologists finally
begun to discover

who really built Stonehenge -

and when.

Scientists now believe

that these stones were erected
almost 4,500 years ago -

long before King Arthur
or the Romans

at the end
of the Stone Age.

It was an amazing achievement.

Each of the colossal uprights

weighs between 50,000
and 80,000 pounds.

The stones are harder
than granite.

But most were carefully
shaped and joined together -

as if they were made
of wood.

And although the monument stands
on sloping ground,

a line of the horizontal stones -

called lintels -

runs almost perfectly level.

All this was done
in an age without machinery,

without writing,

and without any metal tools.

Even after 15 years of studying
the area around Stonehenge,

archeologist Julian Richards
is still impressed by this ancient wonder.

This is the biggest stone
at Stonehenge.

It's absolutely enormous.

It towers over 20 feet
above me,

and there's eight feet of it
buried in the ground.

I get really fed up when
people come to Stonehenge

and say it's smaller
than they expected.

I mean this is
a massive stone.

It used to have a pair
standing there as well.

That one,

unfortunately only
buried four feet in the ground,

fell over a couple
of centuries ago.

And these two stones,
these two massive uprights

with a great lintel on top,
form a trilithon,

one of the most...

the biggest and most impressive
elements of Stonehenge.

The use of massive blocks,
weighing up to 40 tons,

is all the more remarkable,

because there is no natural
source for large stones

anywhere near Stonehenge.

In the Middle Ages,

the mystery inspired reports

that the rocks were brought
from Africa

by an army of giants.

Today, archaeologists have
come up with a less romantic,

but still impressive, explanation.

20 miles north of Stonehenge
stands another stone circle,

not as elaborate,
but much larger.

It's nearly a mile
in circumference

and now encloses
part of a town.

(Richards:) This is Avebury,

incredibly huge stone circle,
built before Stonehenge,

but what it�s got
in common with Stonehenge,

is some of the rocks
that it was made of �

sarsens,

an incredibly hard sandstone,
cemented together with silica,

one of the hardest rocks
that we know of in this part of England.

Around Avebury, the valleys are
littered with sarsen boulders.

A few on the scale
of Stonehenge

still lie half buried
in the ground.

Obviously, this is where they came
to get the stones for Stonehenge.

The only place around here
where there's a supply

of stones of the right
sort of size.

Well, this is just the random...

Roger Hopkins is a stonemason
from Massachusetts

who specializes in moving
and shaping granite.

For years, he's been amazed

by the Stonehenge builders'
mastery of hard stone.

You know, looking at this site,
with all these stones in the way,

it must have been
a real chore

to get these on a sled
and get �em out of these fields.

I mean, they weren't
using it as...

I mean, it wasn't quarried.

You didn't have to dig
into solid rock to get this out,

it would have just lain
around all over the place.

(Hopkins) What's the contour,

the terrain like
between here and there?

It varies quite a lot.

There's a fairly
flat river valley,

and then a very steep hill
to get you up onto Salisbury Plain,

from whereon
it just undulates gently

until you get
all the way to Stonehenge.

If Avebury was the source
for the massive sarsens,

how did the ancient builders

transport them across
20 miles of rolling hills

and erect them in
the shape of Stonehenge?

After centuries of mystery
and debate,

Julian and Roger
are determined to find out.

Their plan is to reconstruct
the Great Trilithon of Stonehenge.

But to pull it off,

they'll need a little help.

This small army of volunteers
will provide the labor

in an historic attempt
to move and raise blocks

exactly like those in Stonehenge,

using Stone Age technology.

(Whitby) We'll have to ... We'll have
to lift the end when we're going to do it

Yeah, yeah.

Along with Julian and Roger,

the team will be led
by engineer Mark Whitby.

The reality of taking
two 40-ton stones

and turn them on their ends

without using
any machine power whatsoever,

it's quite a...
quite a daunting task.

I don't think people
have really stopped to think

about the problem
at Stonehenge in a realistic way.

All the theories are put
together by people

who haven't actually been faced
with the practical task of doing it.

Here, Swap that...

One of the old theories

is that the stones were moved
on top of large rollers

made of tree trunks.

One, two, three!

(all grunt)

One, two, three!
It's going!

Keep going!

And tests performed
with concrete blocks -

like this one
weighing nine tons -

have shown that
rollers can work.

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, stop!

But the biggest stones
at Stonehenge

were more than
four times as heavy.

This is a concrete replica

of the largest stone
at the ancient site.

It's almost 30 feet long
and weighs over 40 tons.

So what are you going to do?
Try and lift it?

You're just gonna try
and lift the front? One at the front...

Mark is convinced that such
a huge weight would crush

and flatten even
the hardest wooden rollers.

(Whitby) I watched people drag
a boat up a beach,

and they had rollers there,
but the rollers didn't rotate.

They actually
had grooves in them

where the keel of the boat
went over the top of them.

And, lo and behold, they were
putting grease on that groove

to, uh... to make it slide.

And it's quite obvious
things would rather slide,

and if you get it greased,

it's easier to make it slide
than it is to make it roll.

So instead of rollers

Mark has constructed
a simple track

made of two parallel lines
of timbers set into the ground.

The 40-ton megalith
sits on a wooden sled.

The bottom of the sled
is equipped with a keel

which keeps it
centered on the track

and prevents it
from going off course.

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

To make it easier
for the stone to slide

Mark has the rails of the track
slathered with grease.

In ancient times, the workers
could have used animal fat

Known as tallow.

The team will attempt to pull
the stone up a slight incline,

typical of the terrain
surrounding Stonehenge.

It's going to be very hard
work getting up the slope.

We've got everybody
lined up here to pull

and it's going to be...

you know, very interesting to see
whether they can do it.

It's not going to be easy.

In true engineering fashion,

Mark has done some
elaborate calculations.

He's determined

that it will take a minimum
of 220 people to pull the weight uphill.

Unfortunately,
only 130 volunteers showed up.

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

Despite their efforts,

the stone hasn't moved an inch.

It's actually almost
touching the edge...

The liberal application of grease
appears to have backfired

and the 40-ton stone
is glued to the track.

Take the strain of the rope!

(Whitby) We've got a real,

sort of, static friction
as they'd call it,

it's stuck down
with all the grease underneath it.

And you've got to break
that first for it to move.

Once you've broken that,
We'll be off... Hopefully.

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three...

Mark will try
just about anything

to get the stone unstuck.

That's all, baby, ok...

No, but it's gonna be...

... with that pulling...

...when they're pulling...

How many people have we got
hanging around the back here?

Why don't we all just
get on the ropes up there?

Roger Hopkins is on hand
to provide practical advice.

He's the only one on the team

with any firsthand experience
moving large stones.

He recommends
breaking the suction

by lifting the stone
with levers.

That's great,
beautiful.

Get the wedges in.

I think this'll work.

I think this'll lift it up.

That'll unstick it
and we should be away.

But it's gonna be... It's the job
of unsticking it which we've got to do now.

We need to get it in further.

Drop it!
Drop this one here!

This one here,
Drop It!

(Whitby)Get them to pass
the rope over...

Get them to move more
in a straight line. Yeah.

In order to get things moving,
project manager Mike O'Rorke

has to get the pullers
and the levers to work together.

Pull!

(banging, counting
and yelling)

Suddenly, the levers do the trick.

Pull!

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

It's going.

(workers cheering)

Perfect, absolutely brilliant.

I mean, if anything,
quite fast.

I mean, you think
how far that would go in a day

on that basis.

In the end, Mark's system worked
better than even he expected.

But is there any evidence

that the Stonehenge builders
used a wooden trackway like this one?

(Hopkins) The method seems
to be workable,

but I just wonder, you know,

if they would have bothered
to build a trackway all the way from...

where? Marlborough Downs?
There's...

25 miles.

25 miles?
Yeah.

Well, I think the effort

that you put into doing
something like this

certainly makes it
a lot easier.

I mean, the thing
that bothers me is

is having demonstrated
that this works, you know,

and would, would we be able to find
any trace of it in the ground?

I don't think we would.

As a result of weather and soil conditions
in this part of England,

combined with centuries
of farming,

very few of the tools
and materials

used in the construction
of Stonehenge have survived.

But we do know that parts
of the countryside were once heavily wooded

providing plenty of timber
for the Stonehenge builders.

Jake Keen has spent years investigating
Stone Age tools and technology.

He believes that the ancient
builders were extremely resourceful

and exploited the forest
for much more than timber.

Using only stone
and wooden tools

Jake carefully removes the bark
from a common tree of the region -

the small leaf lime.

He then submerges the strips
in a nearby stream

and leaves them there
for several weeks.

(Keen) After being in the mud
for about six weeks,

this is the smelly end product,

which, of course,
is the inner bark.

And the layers...

bast layers have separated off.

Uh... The little
microorganisms have...

nibbled away
at the gummy material

and, uh, this is
broken down into...

something like ten or twelve
separate ribbon like layers.

Which is what we make
the string from,

and, uh, if we twist
these together,

they're very, very strong.

I don't think there's probably
any stronger plant fiber

native to this island.

Strong rope was essential
for moving heavy stones,

and with fibers like this,

the ancient builders could
easily have made rope

capable of pulling
the giant blocks of Stonehenge.

But why did they bother
to drag the stones

over 20 miles
to this shallow valley?

No one knows
why it was chosen,

but there's evidence that
this site was considered sacred

centuries before
Stonehenge was built.

After excavating the area
and radiocarbon dating

the pieces of bone
and charcoal found here,

archeologists have retraced
a unique sequence of construction.

The first monument was built
over 5,000 years ago

and contained no stones at all.

It was a simple
earthwork enclosure,

consisting of a circular
ditch, a bank,

and 56 wooden posts
dug into the ground.

Over the next 400 years,

a series of wooden buildings
occupied the center of this circle.

Tiny fragments
of the foundations remain.

The first stones arrived
around 2600 BC,

when the buildings were replaced

by a double crescent
of small pillars, called "bluestones".

Just 100 years later,

the monument took
on its final form.

Thirty giant sarsens,

each weighing about 25 tons,

were neatly arranged in a ring,

about 100 feet across.

Along their tops
were placed 30 lintels,

forming a true circle,

16 feet above the ground.

Within the circle
stood the largest stones.

Five massive trilithons
formed a horseshoe.

The tallest towered 25 feet
above the ground.

The builders had never
before attempted

to raise stones
on such a colossal scale.

How did they manage to do it?

Archaeologists discovered important clues

when they excavated the soil
around the largest stone.

They found that it stood
in a giant hole,

with almost a third
of it underground.

One side of the pit was slanted,

indicating that the stone had been
lowered into the ground at a steep angle.

Remnants of deer antler revealed

how the hole was dug out
of the hard chalk.

It would certainly have been
possible to have dug a hole

with an antler pick like this.

It would take,

perhaps, two people three days,
maybe, to dig a hole of this size.

With the 40-ton stone
poised over the pit,

can the team replicate
the ancient feat of standing it upright?

Mark Whitby has a plan.

What we've got is
one of the 40-ton uprights.

And it's been dragged
to a position

where it's now ready
to be toppled

into the hole that
we have in the ground.

And the hole
is pretty precise

because it's exactly the same
as the hole that they've got at Stonehenge.

The basic concept is
we've put 6 tons now

on the back of the stone
by dragging it up these ramps.

We've tied it together
as a bundle.

We've put it on
a little greased chariot here,

rather like we had
for the big stone.

And that's running
on a very simple bearing down here.

It's not nearly
as heavy as the big stone,

and we've got it tied back

with a, with a rope,

which is lassoed right
around the back here.

And that rope's gonna mean

that when it travels a certain distance
along this stone, it's gonna stop.

However, before it reaches
that point,

it will have passed this magic point
of the center of gravity.

We'll be inducing the force which
will make the whole stone start to turn.

It will happen slowly
to begin with,

and then it will just go.

Instead of moving the stone,

the volunteers will pull
a heavy weight that will tip the block.

This is a good example
of modern man

trying to over-engineer
ancient techniques.

This is a bit over elaborate,

but it...

I'm hoping it works.

It would save us
a lot of work in the long run.

Alright. This is
what we've been waiting for.

There's one very,
very important thing.

When next stone starts
to stand,

do not rush to the stone.

You must all stay back until the engineers
have checked to see if it's safe.

We can crawl all
over it once it's safe,

but you mustn't, under any circumstances,
come forward of where you are now.

The safety of the workers
is foremost in everyone's mind,

but there are also fears
for the stone itself.

Three, pull!

One, two,
three, pull!

One, two...

The megalith could tumble
out of control, (Pull!)

or even break apart
from the force of impact.

Yes!

I'm excited in one sense

and in another sense
I wish I was a long way away.

You know... it's...

we'll see... you know...

something's going to happen.

Mark realizes he's got just
one chance to get it right.

It's now or never.

Slow.

Slow!

Slow!

Slow, slow, slow!

(creaking)
There we go! Slow!...

(cheering)Yeah!

Ah...!

Brilliant!

It's OK!
One! Two!

Well, let's have a look...

It literally just dropped
just as we planned it to drop.

And the only thing that is slightly different
is it's kicked out the back here,

but that's, uh,

that's just better
than we expected.

That means it's more upright

and we've got
less work to do,

you know, tomorrow.

Well, this...

this really worked
a lot better than we...

had hoped for...
I think better than we both hoped for, right?

...better than I hoped...

... and I was hoping
the most probably.

I think it was probably
one of the most spectacular ways

that one can think of getting
a stone this size

into a stone hole.

Whether that was possibly
a way that they did it,

we shall honestly never know.

Um...

I've heard comments
that it was...

uhm, a perhaps
an over-engineered approach.

Um...

I'm not convinced about that.

I mean, the people who built Stonehenge
were very sophisticated,

were obviously capable of...

thinking out grand schemes like that
and carrying them through.

And I don't see why,

especially after you'd perhaps had
a go with some smaller stones

that somebody wouldn't have come up
with an idea like this:

"Let's use the weight of some smaller stones
to help us move a bigger one."

So, I don't find it
completely implausible -

we shall never know
is the answer, of course.

I think we can all go home
to a nice rest �

yeah! -

and a little relief.

Mark chose this method
for tipping the stones

because it required
the least number of people.

No one really knows
how many workers were used

in the construction
of Stonehenge,

because there's
so little evidence.

There are no written records
from this period.

The houses and farms
that once supported the workforce

have by now completely vanished.

All that's left for archaeologists
to find and study

are pieces of pottery,

stone tools and bones.

But this meager evidence
can give us some idea

of what life was like
in Stone Age England,

4,500 years ago.

The people were farmers,

moving from place to place
in search of fertile soil.

They herded sheep and cattle

and hunted for wild deer.

Gradually, as farming techniques
improved, the population grew,

providing the labor force
for ambitious construction projects.

Centuries before Stonehenge,

communities started coming
together to build large tombs.

One of the most impressive
is over 340 feet long

and has an entrance constructed
of massive sarsens.

We've got one
of the earliest examples here

of the ability to construct
with huge stones.

Massive sarsens dragged
from he surrounding downs,

some placed upright,

others,

like this one here,

placed on top of it
as cap stones,

almost giving an idea
of what Stonehenge was going to be like

when it was built with uprights
and horizontal lintels.

But here, these massive
stones forming,

effectively boxes,
parts of a chambered tomb.

It's effectively
the house of the dead.

Five stone chambers lie
on either side of this passage

and in these were found
the remains of 47 individuals

buried over a period
of perhaps 25 generations.

What's very interesting is the way
that the bodies came into this tomb.

Not all of them as...

as completely fleshed bodies,

but some of them just
as collections of bones

with hints that they might been
buried elsewhere for a while,

they might have been exposed

for animals and the elements
to remove the flesh from the corpses,

brought in here as a bundle of bones
when the tomb was opened up.

And we get hints as well,

that there was
a rearrangement of the bones �

skulls placed in one corner,
long bones in another �

the other bit and bob
tidied off to one side.

And one thing
I find fascinating is that

there are some bits
that aren't all there.

There aren't quite enough
heads to go around.

Around the time
that Stonehenge was built,

burial practices were changing.

Abandoning the large
communal tombs,

important individuals
were buried alone,

under circular mounds
of earth, called round barrows.

Over three hundred of these tombs
still remain within two miles of Stonehenge.

Inside each one
is a single body,

surrounded by
a few prized possessions.

It's obvious society's changing
at the time

that the Stonehenge
that we know today was built.

I mean, there aren't
the communal burials

with lots of people put
into one burial mound.

Instead, every hill top around here is covered
with individual burial mounds, round barrows.

And each one of those

is the burial place
of somebody rich and powerful.

They had to be,

to be buried this close
to Stonehenge.

And of all these barrows,

the most important,
the richest person of the lot,

appears to be buried
in this one.

Excavated about 180 years ago,

I mean, he's still...

he's still in there.

The bones were recorded as being
of a tall and robust man,

but the excavators at that time
weren't interested in the bones themselves.

They left the burial
where it was.

What they were interested
in was the objects

and that's
what gives us a clue

as to just how powerful
this person was.

This person was buried

with some absolutely
incredible gold objects.

A breastplate.

A belt buckle.

Pure gold,

finely hammered and etched.

Other graves revealed
more treasures:

gold earrings and buttons,

bronze daggers and spears.

4,000 years ago, these objects adorned
the richest and most powerful people.

And these ancient lords
and ladies chose one location,

above all others,
as their final resting place:

the hills surrounding Stonehenge.

In the midst
of this enormous cemetery,

the circle of stones was
like a great cathedral,

standing guard over the graves
of its wealthiest patrons.

Back at the construction site,

the crew is contemplating
its next major task.

The enormous concrete block
is standing in the hole

at a steep angle
of 70 degrees.

The team now has to pull it
just 20 more degrees to vertical.

But this will turn out to be a much greater
challenge than Mark Whitby ever expected.

Well, this would have been
a distinct problem �

getting these things
perfectly vertical.

Well, we've not solved
that one, have we?

No.

I've got to weigh this one.

To maximize the workers' efforts,

Mark has erected
two huge timber poles,

attached by ropes
to the top of the stone.

That's fine,

they won't slip down now.

This is the bit
we've been waiting for.

Can you all come over here please?
All volunteers...

The ninety volunteers will pull
on another set of ropes

that is tied
to the top of the timbers.

With this arrangement,

Mark hopes the poles will act
like giant levers,

multiplying the force
of the pull,

and making it much easier
to move the stone upright.

One, two, three, pull!

Pull!

One, two...

Mark put a lot of thought
into his plan,

but apparently not quite enough.

...while these teams keep steady.
There's still...

That team's got
to take up some slack...

The upright poles
are dangerously unstable,

and more time and energy is spent struggling
to avoid a catastrophic collapse

than actually moving the stone.
One, two...

... three, pull - hold t.

Mike!

You've got to get your team to the front
to slack it off and these teams put it back.

(One, two, three, pull!)

That team's not pulling
hard enough ...

that team ...

right, that team.

Mark is forced to admit
that his plan is flawed

and agrees to tie the poles
into a giant A-frame,

a much more stable arrangement.

But I think...

get it into a bit
of an A-frame and would be

and we might be able
to make something of it,

but it proves there's
some value in that.

We should have an A-frame.

Perfect!

Right!

Now lash it together.

That is simple like...

Simple as that.
(men laugh)

Why have you decided
to use an A-frame now?

Because we should have always
had an A-frame, basically.

It's fairly obvious
that an A-frame is more stable,

and what we've got is a problem
of them all falling down sideways,

and we're having
to use too much energy

or effort in terms
of these people

to hold the thing up
on the left and the right flanks.

So we could maybe,
by making it an A-frame,

concentrate our efforts
on pulling it forward.

Why didn't you think
of that before?

I probably did, but somehow it got
lost in the translation somewhere.

I know we've had
all sorts of ideas,

and this is one of those ones
that we should have stuck with,

but we... somehow thought that things
might be better than they really would be.

But an entire day
has been lost.

Mark and the team will have
to wait until tomorrow

to see if the A-frame works.

The original builders of Stonehenge
experienced their own share of setbacks.

Along with moving
and raising the stones,

every block had
to be carefully shaped.

The horizontal lintels
were secured to the supporting stones

by unusual mortise-and-tenon joints.

A large projection
on top of each upright

had to fit precisely into a hole

on the underside of the lintel.

With only stone tools,

pounding out the holes must have been
an excruciatingly slow and tedious job.

I think it's likely

that the uprights would
have been in place

with the tenons worked
on the top of them

before the fine work took
place on the lintel.

That would have involved pounding out
these massive mortise holes.

I mean, this would have taken
weeks to do, I would imagine.

The biggest of them holds
about 18 gallons of water.

But clearly they didn't
always get it right

because on this side,

there is the start of a couple
of other mortise holes.

So, clearly, they started here,

turned it over

and worked them on this side.

And I would have hated
to be the person

who told the workers
that they got it wrong

and they've got to turn it over
and start all over again.

I don't think he'd have
been very popular.

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

Hold it � let's just leave it, leave.

We let it go?

Yeah. Let it go.

Seems a shame to let it go
now that it's up there.

I know. I know.
It's all right...

After yesterday's disappointments,

Mark's own popularity
is suffering a bit.

We were close!

I'd like to try putting stones up,
not timbers up.

Yeah.

Stones are a lot easier. Just...

Today, he's hoping to redeem himself
with a new and improved A-frame.

I reckon that we should
really just get

another means of getting
these poles up, otherwise people get...

He uses a model to calculate
how many people will be needed

to finally get the stone vertical.

I've got the stone to 70 degrees as far as
I'm concerned is the most difficult bit.

All we've got to do now

is just get it through
the next 20 degrees to vertical.

And what I'm going to do
is gonna use this A-frame.

We've made the A-frame

so it's strong in this direction.
It's not going to fall over this way.

But we've made it

so it's an A-frame

which is a lever,

a great big lever

and it's pivoting in a point
of the ground here �

we're pulling with all we've got
on the top of the frame here.

Attach the ropes
that are pulling from the stone

to the A-frame

to the point about a quarter
of the way up �

the height, the over-all
height of the lever.

The effect of that is that
when the people pull here,

I can multiply the pulling force
that they achieve by a factor of four.

Now, let's just look at how many people
may be required to do the job.

I've got weights
on the end of here.

This is a 50 gram weight �

that's approximately equivalent
to 50 people pulling.

And now I am going
to add another 20 to this team �

that's 70.

And then another...

five to that �
that 75 in total.

And I've got
my stone to vertical.

But what if there
were no A-frame?

Okay.

Let's imagine we were to do
the brute force approach.

Let's imagine we're
to pull this thing

to vertical without the A-frame.

I've got 75 on here.

Let's just add
a few people to this.

Let's just add two 200
more people to this team �

I haven't got two hundred people,

let's just add them, though,

let's imagine we've got them,

and see if we can do the job

with 275 �

no, we can't.

Let's add another 50.

This is 325 people pulling now.

They're still not managing.

Let's add another 10
to that, that's 335 people �

and away it goes.

That's the amount we would have needed
to pull and we just haven't got them.

The full-size A-frame is up
and ready to go.

But as usual, Roger Hopkins
isn't satisfied with the construction.

A proper A-frame should be built
with a cross member at one third of the way up

lashed in securely
to keep it from racking.

Uh, I don't think you're out
of the woods yet.

And I think the A-frame,

you know, probably should be
in a lot closer

so that we have a little bit
more leverage with it.

And then we would just run
the rope right over the top

and the pull the sucker over.

I think this is a great example
of engineering learning some field experience.

Well, I think
you're absolutely right.

There's no doubt we did a lot
of things wrong yesterday.

We should have planned the A-frame to begin with -
it's absolutely absurd that we haven't.

We still haven't � I agree with you �
it's not the best A-frame in the world,

but we've got something of an A-frame
and I believe that's going to work.

Well, I wish you luck.

I just don't think that A-frame's going
to hold together the way she's rigged.

Right! Let's see if we can
shift that stone.

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

Go on! One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!
It's moving!

Keep going, keep going,
Keep going, come on!

Come on!

It's moving! Yes!

One, two, three, pull!

Try and get
it in flush.

One, two, three, pull!

Stop!

Go on!

Keep it up!

Yeah. It's all right to say
"go on" � they're pulling!

Though the proper way to have done
this right from the beginning

was that when we had the motion
to just keep on pulling.

Whenever we tipped up large stones,

we always try to keep
the momentum going

because it's a lot
of work any other way.

I've got a feeling these neolithical
people were probably

a lot handier with these tools
than we are.

I am sure of that.

Certainly, A-frames.

Yeah. (they laugh)

Remind me to get you
the boy scout manual �

you might want to read it.

Despite Roger's concerns,
Mark forges ahead with the operation.

And Roger has nothing to do,
but retreat to the sidelines.

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

It's going! It's going!

Is that coming up here?
All right.

That's it.

Slowly.

Brilliant!

Come on! Come on!

The A-frame -

although a bit precarious �

makes a difference,

and the monolith inches
its way to vertical.

Slow and steady.

(Cheering)

4,000 years ago,

the Stonehenge builders
had to raise

and precisely position
40 of these huge blocks.

The whole monument
was symmetrically arranged

around a central axis
that runs through the entrance

and down the middle
of a processional avenue.

It points directly
to the spot on the horizon

where the sun first
appears on June 21st,

the summer solstice.

Every year on this day,

the sun rises
above the Heel Stone,

a sarsen boulder
that stands near the entrance.

Six months later,

on December 21st,
the shortest day of the year,

the sun sets on the opposite
side of the circle,

between two uprights
of the now-fallen central trilithon.

Some people believe that Stonehenge is
also aligned with the moon and the stars,

and can help predict eclipses,

but none of these
theories are proven.

It is possible that the circle of stones
served as a kind of crude calendar,

alerting farmers to important events
in the annual growing season.

But most likely,
Stonehenge was built as a temple,

a special place
for the community to gather,

to perform sacred rituals,

and to honor their gods.

In the 20th century,

a modern cult of Druids
adopted the temple as their own,

and used it as a stage
for elaborate solstice ceremonies.

But in the 1970's and 80's,

their pagan services were
gradually overwhelmed by hippies,

drugs,

and the international press.

To protect the monument,

British authorities now close
Stonehenge on the summer solstice.

Barbed wire and armed guards

keep everyone away
from the ancient stones,

including archaeologists.

It's June 21st,
the summer solstice,

which should, I suppose,
be a beautiful day

with the sun rising up
over the heel stone, but it's raining.

It's actually quite cold
and miserable now.

It's...

it's a place that
I wanted to be at the midsummer.

Um...

I feel somebody
really ought to be here,

but it's not
a very spiritual experience.

Um...

I think it could be and it obviously
was to the people who built it.

I mean, forget all the engineering and forget
the calculations and the big stones.

I mean...

this is the culmination
of all that effort.

This is why people dragged those stones
those great distances and put them up.

They were building a temple

and they were building
a temple that is important,

but certainly at this time
of the year,

possibly at another time
of the year in the winter.

Clearly, there was a tremendous
amount of feeling on most peoples' part...

The ancient builders
needed this motivation

when they faced
their final challenge:

raising the nine ton lintel

23 feet to the top
of the uprights.

The traditional idea

is that the smaller stone was raised slowly

with large wooden levers
and a timber crib.

Roger is eager to show
how well this can work.

Of course we're going
to get those out.

Then we can maneuver it around.

Lift, lift, lift, all right.

With each lift,

thick pieces of timber
are slid underneath the stone.

Comin through.

OK?

Yeah, that's good.

Ease off.

Yes!

Little by little,
the pile of timber grows,

and, according to the theory,

will gradually lift the stone
to the top of the uprights.

(Hopkins) A little more...

Good.

Relax, relax, relax.

Whoa! Yeah!

I think it's clear

it would be a perfectly feasible
way of getting the lintel up

which is the nice thing
about it.

I mean, when it really �

this is the text book way

and bigger timbers
would be useful,

and maybe they wouldn't have been
quite so regular in size,

which might have been
a bit of a problem.

Mark thinks the operation is too slow

and, at a height of 20 feet,
would become too precarious.

He wanted to raise the lintel up
a large ramp made out of earth,

but unfortunately,

British safety officers insisted
that he use steel scaffolding instead.

Underneath all the scaffolding,
stands the 40-ton stone.

The second identical upright
has been raised beside it,

and together, the two stones
will form the base of the trilithon.

Is this... Is this how you think that they did it
then at the time they built Stonehenge?

Well, Julian,
it's quite simple.

If you look over there,

you'll see
my big pile of earth �

you know, do you see it?

Chalk everywhere?
It's a pile of earth.

I've just put
some timbers on it

and we're walking up
the pile of earth,

we're dragging the stone
up the pile of earth.

So, you know, that's
what it is Julian, it's...

you know...

it's ancient technology �
can't you see?

Well, yeah. Perhaps it's
the scaffolding that confuses me a bit.

Well, you've got to put your blinkers
on at this point, Julian. (It's...)

I must admit, I find this

a 20th century engineer's approach
to how to get the lintel up.

I mean, personally,
I am happier with a timber crib.

It seems less intrusive

into... into the monument at the time.

Um...

And it seems a lot less elaborate
than this somehow.

You know, perhaps
4,000 years ago �

yes, I'm still...

I still think a lot of preparation
went into things �

but there would have been a willingness to accept

that, perhaps, that stone would have inched
it's way up over a period of a week.

We tried one method,

we can see that.
Yep.

Let's try another method and see
how it goes. (To see how it works.)

Ready...

rope!

Since the A-frame worked so well
in raising the stone to vertical,

Mark will use it again
to drag the lintel up the ramp.

... two, three, pull!

One, two...

One, two, three...

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

One, two, three, pull!

To allow the volunteers
to rest between pulls,

the top of the ramp
is equipped with a log

that's supposed
to act as a brake,

preventing the lintel
from sliding backwards.

No, don't you...

Look!

But they can't. They'll
pull the scaffold over.

But after a couple
of big pulls,

it's clear that
the brake is not working.

Okay, hold it!

Hold it there.

Right!

We've got to release
these back down.

This isn't working, at all.

Yeah.

Look, just let
these ropes right off, okay?

As soon as the volunteers
stop pulling,

the lintel descends
to the bottom of the ramp.

Ready!

Put up!

It turns out that the riggers have wound
the rope the wrong way around the log.

Thankfully, the problem
is easily fixed.

One, two...

And when the volunteers
renew their efforts,

the lintel starts
to make its way up the ramp.

One, two, three, pull!

Like the ancient stones,

the bottom of the lintel is equipped
with two large mortise holes,

which must fit exactly
over the projections �

or tenons � on top
of the uprights.

To ensure that the stones
are properly aligned,

the final phase of the operation
must be performed slowly and precisely.

Nice and easy. Nice and easy.

Hey!

Whoa!

Whoa!

That was quite frightening.

My heart is still pumping!

The volunteers are thrilled,

but Mark is in no mood
to celebrate.

It needs about three inches
this way...

As he feared,

the mortises and tenons
are not lined up.

Whoa!

Look, look.
Why don't we just walk this in?

I'm sure we're almost there.

The lintel must somehow
be repositioned.

It'S going!

(Hopkins:) It'S going.

Luckily, Roger brought along
his levers.

Keep that up, and we'll, you know,
slowly but surely we'll make it.

It's going, it'S going,
come on!

Yes, yes, yes!

It takes some time,

but finally, the lintel
slides down into position.

That's it. Whoa!

The trilithon is complete.

I think these Stone Age men
were pretty ingenious.

We learned an awful lot
of respect for them

as a result of being handed

two 40-ton stones
and one 9-ton stone

and asked to sort of stand them
on their ends and put the nine ton on top.

And I think I probably
got nearer to thinking

like he might have thought
at the time

than anybody has
for a long time,

and that's very nice.

It's a very nice feeling
that gives you to...

enter into the,
sort of, soul of somebody

as the result of seeing
what they've built.

They were pushing the envelope
of their technology.

They were taking things
that they had seen work

and applying them
to a massive job

that was advancing
their technology

and, by doing so,

probably advancing their status
in their community.

We haven't got the final answer.

You know, we can't say
"this is how it was done".

What we've demonstrated
is how it could be done.

And we've tried
to be as real

to the time that Stonehenge
was built as possible.

Archaeology can answer
some questions about Stonehenge,

when it was built,

something about the society
that built it.

And this has answered some
of the questions about the task �

the engineering,

how you motivate people,
how you organize people, but...

there is always going to be
a mystique about Stonehenge.

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