All language subtitles for HistorysGreatest.Mysteries.S04E16.Unlocking.the.Secrets.of.Stonehenge.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-WhiteHat_track3_[eng]

Tonight, one of the world's
most famous landmarks.

Stonehenge is an amazing place.

SAMI JARROUSH:
These stones are enormous.

Some of the biggest ones
rise up 30 feet

and weigh an estimated 25 tons.

To this day, no one knows
how it was built or why.

CAROLINE CORY: Were people
really that much smarter than us

5,000 years ago?

Now, we'll explore
the top theories

surrounding this mysterious
monument.

It's everything
from a magical feat

by King Arthur's wizard, Merlin,

to a Druid venue
for human sacrifice.

MICHAEL DENNIN: Experts have
found two skulls

that show evidence
of primitive surgery.

This was a place that was
specifically built for the dead.

Can modern technology
unlock its many secrets?

Now, suddenly this opens up
a whole new world of theories

which could actually be true.

What is the true purpose
of Stonehenge?

[music]

Salisbury Plain, England, 2021.

While traveling the UK,
researcher Michael Goff

visits one of the country's
most famous landmarks.

SAMI: Like millions before him,
he goes to see Stonehenge,

the massive, mysterious circle

of giant stones that draws

as many as 9,000 visitors a day.

MARC ARONSON: Stonehenge is like
a letter from the deep past.

It's there, it's physical,

you can't ignore it.

But what does it mean?

LAURENCE: Goff believes
he's finally solved the mystery,

one that begins
hundreds of years ago.

The first written mention
of Stonehenge

is not until 1130

by Archdeacon Henry
of Huntington.

MICHELLE KOONS:
He describes the monument,

but he doesn't actually guess

on what it may have been for.

LAURENCE: But soon after,
someone else does.

In 1136, a British cleric
named Geoffrey of Monmouth

shares the first
documented theory on Stonehenge

in his book "The Histories
of the Kings of Britain."

Monmouth tells of a time
in the fifth century

when the Saxons
are ravaging the land.

Treacherous Saxon leader Hengist

masterminds the betrayal
and murder

of more than 400 British nobles,

leaving a mass grave
in Salisbury Plain.

MICHELLE: The high king
Ambrosius Aurelianus

asks his people to create
a monument to the dead.

But no one feels worthy
of this task,

so he was told
to ask the wizard Merlin.

LAURENCE: According to Geoffrey
of Monmouth,

it's this legendary wizard

who brings the famous
stone circle to England.

Yes, we are talking
about that Merlin,

the famous wizard
from the Arthurian legend.

Merlin is the one
who tells Aurelianus

that in order to bless
this burial site forever,

he needs to build
a stone circle.

Merlin doesn't want
to build one from scratch,

he wants to steal
an existing one from Ireland.

SAMI: Merlin says these
particular stones in Ireland

have healing properties
as well as a kind of magic

that will preserve the memory
of the dead.

LAURENCE: According
to Monmouth's book,

Aurelianus and Merlin bring
a small army to Ireland

to capture the stones.

15,000 men tried to bring
the stones from Ireland,

but they couldn't.

LAURENCE: Legend has it that
Merlin flies through the air

to capture the stones,

then sets them up
on Salisbury Plain.

Monmouth writes that Ambrosius
is eventually buried there

along with his brother,
Uther Pendragon,

father of King Arthur.

This really seems like
a fantastical theory,

especially because we know
that Merlin and King Arthur

were fictional characters.

But this theory persists
for hundreds of years

as the explanation
of Stonehenge.

LAURENCE: Then in the 1620s,

English architect Inigo Jones

uses new tools
to analyze the site.

So, now it's the Renaissance,

and people are less interested
in magic

and more interested in science.

King James I sends Jones
out to Stonehenge

to do a proper survey with
the modern equipment of the day.

What Jones does, is he looks

at the site from the perspective

of a builder's eye,

being an architect.

MICHELLE: So, Jones goes out
to the site

with his student, John Webb,

and he sees many similarities

in the architecture
of Stonehenge

to what we see
in Roman architecture.

And he becomes certain
that's who built it,

which means it's much older
than Monmouth's estimate

of the fourth century A.D.

BRANDON CLIFFORD: And in
some ways this makes sense,

because the Romans

had conquered the British Isles

in 50 B.C.,

and just some 100 years later,

they were treating it
as a colony of Rome.

SAMI: But unlike aqueducts,
and roads, and amphitheaters,

there is no obvious utility
to Stonehenge.

So, Jones and Webb study ancient
Roman architectural plans

to try to understand
what this could be for.

MICHELL: So, they look for any
Roman architectural plans

that might be
similar to Stonehenge.

They find two in a book
from about 30 B.C.

called "De Architectura."

One of these is called
the monopteros,

and the other
is the peripteros,

and they're both Roman temples.

LAURENCE: Jones and Webb
are convinced

they know what Stonehenge is.

In 1644, the researchers
go a step further

to prove their theory.

Jones creates a draft
of a restoration

of what he thinks
the monument of Stonehenge

would have looked like
before it fell into ruins.

According to Jones' drawing,
Stonehenge was laid out

in a precise Roman form

based on four
equilateral triangles

arranged to create a hexagon

surrounded
by a circular colonnade.

JIM: Stonehenge resembles
the layout and proportions

of Vitruvius' designs,

but because it was built
without a roof or enclosure,

Jones concluded
that it was built

to worship the sky god Caelus.

BRANDON: Even the people
of the time

were having trouble
justifying Jones' idea

that this was a Roman
construction,

because you can look
at Roman construction

and understand it
through its refinement

and its pure geometric
expression.

Contrast that against
Stonehenge's megalithic

trilithon assemblies,
even at the time,

it was understood that
this was a far-fetched idea.

LAURENCE: Meanwhile,
around the same time,

renowned English archaeologist
John Aubrey

is in the midst of his own
excavation at Stonehenge.

Aubrey makes a lot
of discoveries at this site,

and one of these
was a ring of pits,

56 of them around the outside
of the main monument,

and these are now known
as the Aubrey holes.

Curiously, these holes were dug
and filled many times over.

MICHAEL: On a hunch,
he does something

no one has ever done before.

He sketches out
the positions of the stones

and then compares them
to the stars.

He realizes something
really important,

that these stones
are placed so precisely,

that on the summer solstice,
the rising sun

appears precisely
between the two largest stones.

LAURENCE: To Aubrey,
this can't be a coincidence.

Aubrey spends over 20 years
analyzing Stonehenge,

and publishes his findings
in 1666.

Like Jones and Webb, he agrees
that Stonehenge is a temple.

But he thinks it predates
the Roman arrival in Britain

by a great deal,
and was instead built

by the Druids.

MICHAEL: The Druids themselves
were active in early Britain

in the third century B.C.

They're an early
mysterious group of priests

that were part
of the Celtic religion.

Druidic law forbade writing
down religious teachings,

so we don't really know
much about them today.

SAMI: Greek and Roman writers,
including Julius Caesar,

judge the Druids
to be extremely knowledgeable,

especially in the fields
of mathematics,

astronomy, and science--

all subjects
that would be useful

in planning and constructing
a massive stone monument

aligned to the sun.

LAURENCE: Over the next
100 years,

additional British scholars
advance Aubrey's research,

including 18th century scientist
William Stukeley.

Stukeley really spends
a lot of time

studying the ancient writings

focusing on the Druids'
ancient religious beliefs.

It was thought that the Druids
worshipped the sun,

held very elaborate ceremonies,

and they potentially even
included human sacrifice.

If that is the case,
Stukeley proposed

that they would need a venue
for these practices,

and Stonehenge is that venue.

SAMI: In fact,
one stone in particular

even becomes known
as the "slaughter stone,"

because the hollows of the stone
turn red

when they fill with rainwater,
which some believe to be stains

from the blood of the victims
of human sacrifice killed there.

LAURENCE: Stukeley is also
one of the first

to try to precisely
date the monument.

BRANDON: So, based on
the construction methods,

and the layout,
and the alignments at that time

with the summer solstice,

Stukeley believes that
it was constructed

in about 460 B.C.

And for the next 100-plus years,

this is the final word
on Stonehenge--

it's a Druid monument from
somewhere around 400-500 B.C.

Case closed.

MICHAEL: This theory
is so pervasive

that many people today
still believe

it was built by the Druids
and used for their ceremonies.

SAMI: But those people
are wrong,

because a new scientist
is about to uncover evidence

that Stonehenge
is much, much older

than we ever believed.

LAURENCE: For hundreds of years,
scientists and visitors

have wondered about
the true purpose of Stonehenge.

SAMI: It's everything from
a magical feat

by King Arthur's wizard Merlin,

to a Roman ruin,

to a Druid venue

for human sacrifice.

MICHELLE: These diverse theories
definitely show

that people have been interested

and curious about Stonehenge

for a very long time.

LAURENCE:
Then, in the late 1700s,

an archaeologist
named William Cunnington

proposes a new theory,

one that starts
with an accident.

In 1797, a large tremor
is felt by the villagers

in Cunnington's home town
of Wiltshire, England.

Shockingly, the cause

of this tremor is actually

some of the massive stones
at Stonehenge falling over.

LAURENCE: The impact
can be heard and felt

at least half a mile
from the site.

SAMI: Sometimes known
as the Great Fall,

this is one of only three times

that stones have collapsed
at the site in modern times.

One of the stones actually
breaks as it hits the ground.

The fall of any of these stones
is really a sad occurrence,

but to lose three of the largest
stones at Stonehenge

was really quite devastating,

considering they have stood
there for thousands of years.

For Cunnington, this was not
only a tragedy,

but it was an opportunity,

because it meant that
he could start to dig

in the place where the stones
previously existed.

LAURENCE: By 1802,
Cunnington digs a pit

that's six feet deep.

BRANDON: And in this pit,
he uncovers animal bones,

charred wood, and antler bones
that were used for digging.

LAURENCE: His early finds
generate excitement.

SAMI: In 1804, nobleman
and fellow archaeologist

Sir Richard Colt Hoare
begins financing

Cunnington's excavations,
enabling him

to do the kind
of detailed work that he wants.

This is perhaps the first
serious and sustained attempt

to understand what Stonehenge
truly is.

MARC: Cunnington figured out
that Stonehenge

actually had two
different kinds of stone.

The large stones are what's
called sarsen, or sandstone.

And there are a set

of smaller standing stones

which are called bluestone,

which are a variety
of kinds of stone

which when wet
can seem bluish.

SAMI: Because there are two
different kinds of stone

in the circle, he believes

that there are probably
two different periods

of activity here,

but he can't conclude
much more than that.

MICHELLE:
For seven years, the pair

conduct many excavations
and investigations on the site,

and they discover areas
where there are burial mounds,

and in these mounds,
there are human remains.

LAURENCE:
This startling discovery

only opens up more questions.

SAMI: So, like the many
who've come before him,

Cunnington feels that
without written records,

he's at a loss.

LAURENCE: After ten years,
in 1807,

Cunnington finally gives up.

MICHAEL: Though Cunnington and
Hoare actually reach a dead-end,

they end up excavating
465 sites at Stonehenge,

and their archaeological studies

are what inspires
the next generation.

LAURENCE: Including a researcher
named John Lubbock,

who picks up the mantle in 1862.

Lubbock comes in
and studies the excavations

of Cunnington and Hoare,

ultimately focusing
on these burial mounds.

BRANDON: For Lubbock,
the burial mounds

are likely the key to unlock
the mystery of Stonehenge.

SAMI: Lubbock spends
over three decades

investigating Stonehenge,

and eventually he makes
a surprising breakthrough.

He's able to determine that
along with the bones

and bone fragments,
there are cremated remains.

LAURENCE: According to Lubbock,
this means Stonehenge

is much older than anyone
has ever considered.

By this time,
archaeologists had realized

that cremation hadn't been
practiced by the local Britons

since the Bronze Age,

which dates back
to about 3000 B.C.

MICHAEL: Lubbock finds proof
that Bronze Age tools

were used to carve the stone
and then bury it

alongside the cremated
remains of the artisans.

Up until this point,
the monument is believed

to be no older
than the fifth century B.C.

Lubbock's claim places it
2,500 years older than that.

The Bronze Age is way, way,
way before the Druids,

the Romans, and the legends
of King Arthur.

There are two ways

that you can feel
about these new revelations.

First, the bad news.

I'm sorry, but yes,
we're back at square one

when it comes to theories
on Stonehenge

and what it was for.

Every previous theory
is now officially wrong.

But the good news--
now, suddenly this opens up

a whole new world of theories
which could actually be true.

Unfortunately, progress
after that isn't immediate.

It's not for another 100 years
after Lubbock

that we get
our next breakthrough.

LAURENCE: In 1961,
a new research team

led by Boston University
astronomer Gerald Hawkins

descends on Stonehenge with
state-of-the-art technology.

SAMI: Hawkins and his team
map out every stone

and every pit at the site,

and they also collect
astronomical data,

plotting out the stars
each day that they're there.

They punch the coordinates
of all those things onto cards

and feed them into a huge
IBM 704 mainframe computer

at Boston University.

MICHAEL: Hawkins is shocked
to discover over 100 alignments

between the stones,
and the sun, moon, and stars.

In the 17th century,
Aubrey thought the stones

might have tracked the sun
one day a year.

Hawkins thinks
it does way more than that.

SAMI: Based on these alignments,

Hawkins decides
that the monument

can track the sun and moon over
a recurring 56-day cycle,

as well as possible eclipses.

Remember when Aubrey found
those 56 small pits

in a circle around the stones?

Hawkins believes that those
once held smaller stone

or wooden markers
that would be moved

around the circle
to track the moon's phases.

LAURENCE: Hawkins publishes
his findings

in the 1965 book
"Stonehenge Decoded."

When Hawkins eventually
publishes his works,

it's a bestseller.

I mean, this book is rewriting

what we understand
from prehistory.

But in doing so, he's getting
quite a bit of backlash

from his contemporary
archaeologists at the same time.

SAMI: In fact, one of Britain's
top archaeologists,

Richard Atkinson,
is scandalized by the idea.

He believes Stonehenge
was built

by, quote, "howling barbarians"

who couldn't possibly have had
the sophistication

to make astronomical
calculations.

LAURENCE: Hawkins is ridiculed
until 1971,

when Oxford professor
Alexander Thom

finally backs up his theory.

Alexander Thom studies

many stone circles
throughout Britain.

He had already studied over 250.

This includes Stonehenge,
and some that are even older.

Thom decides that all
of these sites

had astronomical use,
and that 4,000 years ago,

people had this very
sophisticated knowledge

of engineering, and linking
their stone circles

with the skies.

SAMI: Far from
howling barbarians

or mindless savages,
Thom believes

that the creators of Stonehenge
use the huge stones

in conjunction with
the landmarks on the horizon

to mark the position where
the moon rises or sets.

Thom finds their calculations
to be incredibly precise,

close to what modern astronomers
can do with tools and technology

that would have been unthinkable
5,000 years ago.

We have computers
and the Webb Telescope.

They had antlers to dig with
and very large stones.

It's incredible.

MICHELLE:
But there are many scholars,

archaeologists who just
don't really agree.

As enigmatic and interesting
as this theory is,

it still doesn't explain

why there are so many
human remains

in and around the monument.

So, there has to be even more
to this place.

LAURENCE: In early 1971,
Oxford engineer Alexander Thom

announces a compelling
new theory.

Like other ancient
stone circles,

Stonehenge was built to track
the movement of the heavens.

But this doesn't take
into account one critical fact.

Building this structure
is so dangerous,

it seems inevitable that workers

would die, and for a long time,

this is the primary theory
as to why human remains

are found at the site.

MICHELLE: One of the things that
people always talk about

is just how difficult

it would have been to move

these large stones.

And we can start
with the sarsen stones,

the sandstones.

The closest place
they could be from

is Marlborough Downs,
which is over 20 miles away.

SAMI: Now, to you and I,

20 miles might not sound
that far.

But these folks had no cars.

We don't think they had

wheeled carts, either,

or any large beasts

that could pull them.

And these stones weigh
an average of 25 tons.

The largest stone of all
weighs 45 tons.

That's as much
as an adult humpback whale,

and that's just one stone.

LAURENCE: So, how did
they move them?

MICHAEL: Some believe
the ancients used wooden sleds.

Others postulated that they used
wooden rollers

made from tree trunks.

Those are just
the sarsen stones.

The other stones,
the bluestones,

there's nothing like them

anywhere remotely close
to the site.

The best estimate we have
is that these stones

come from Wales
in the Preseli Mountains,

which are 140 miles away.

We're talking a vast distance
for ancient technology.

LAURENCE: After the haul,
the work is far from over.

At the site,
the stones have to be shaped

with very simple bronze tools,
chipping off small pieces

to taper the stones as needed.

Then, to fit the upright stones
with the lintels, the builders

had to use an intricate
tongue-and-groove system

that was used predominantly
in wood.

And then, using antler picks

and stone tools,

they had to dig out the cavity

in which the stones
could be placed

so that they would stand tall
and not fall.

LAURENCE: Researchers estimate
that it takes

more than 10 million
combined man hours of labor

to construct the monument.

MICHELLE: This would be
equivalent to 1,200 people

working nonstop,
24 hours a day,

for an entire year.

LAURENCE: For almost a century,
the bodies found at Stonehenge

are believed to belong
to the dedicated workforce.

But in 2008,
British archaeologist

Michael Parker Pearson
makes an astonishing discovery

that suggests
something different.

MICHELLE: Michael Parker Pearson
is the head

of the Stonehenge
Riverside Project,

and he goes through
and studies the human remains

found at the site.

SAMI: Interestingly enough,
he discovers something

that nobody else
has realized before.

There are not just
male workers' bodies

buried on the site.

There are also women
and children.

Suddenly, we now realize
that the burials

probably aren't just
from construction accidents.

This was a place
that was specifically built

for the dead.

LAURENCE: To figure out
how old the remains are,

Parker Pearson uses cutting-edge
radiocarbon dating.

MARC: He learns that they're not
just from one period,

but they were deposited there
in an over-500-year period.

LAURENCE: Next, Parker Pearson
tries to figure out

who these people were.

Alongside one of the burials

is a mace that would have been

associated with a form
of nobility at the time.

MICHAEL: Another burial mound
contained a number

of bronze and copper knives,
daggers,

and many of these
had ornamental designs.

These fine objects
actually provide the evidence

that it was the elites that
were buried here at Stonehenge.

BRANDON: This isn't
a mass burial site,

because over the course
of about 500 years,

there are only 240 burials
that took place.

LAURENCE: But where did
these ancient nobles come from?

MICHELLE: While there's evidence
that people

are buried at Stonehenge,
there's no evidence that people

actually lived there full-time.

So, he looks at
the nearest settlement

to figure out
if there are more clues.

LAURENCE: Two miles
north of Stonehenge

is an area known
as Durrington Walls.

SAMI: Durrington Walls contains
nearly 300 dwellings,

making it the largest village
in northern Europe at the time.

And in the middle of it,
Parker Pearson finds the remains

of a giant wooden henge--
Woodhenge, if you will.

Not only do Stonehenge
and the wooden structure

look very similar,
but radiocarbon dating

indicates that it was in use
right around the same time

Stonehenge's largest stones
get installed.

LAURENCE: Why would these
two structures

be built so close together?

Parker Pearson believes
it's because

they're spiritually linked.

MICHELLE: To him, Stonehenge

isn't just an isolated
structure.

Parker Pearson believes that
we're looking at a pairing--

one in timber to represent
the transient nature of life,

and the other in stone
to mark the eternity of death.

What he's suggesting
is that Stonehenge

may represent
the final resting place

both in body and in spirit
of ancient peoples.

The two henges, wood and stone,
represent this journey

both literally
and figuratively.

So, perhaps if one were near
the end of his or her life,

they would come
to the wooden henge to die,

and then be buried
at Stonehenge.

MICHELLE: We really don't have
any way to know

if this is actually the case.

The ancient builders
have left us with a mystery

that will probably
never be solved.

In 2008, a pair
of archaeologists

are granted rights
to the first excavation

of Stonehenge's inner circle
in almost five decades.

What they find suggests
a whole new purpose

for the monument,
one that brings visitors

from all over the world.

During their digs at Stonehenge,

Geoffrey Wainwright
and Timothy Darvill

focus specifically
on the monument's bluestones.

Darvill and Wainwright find

the actual quarry

of the bluestones in Wales,

and it's a site
known as Carn Menyn.

SAMI: They spend six years

surveying the area,

trying to figure out why

the ancient people would have

transported these bluestones

all the way to Stonehenge.

What's so special about them?

One thing they discover is that

the stonecutters who managed

to remove the rocks

also dug manmade springs.

To see this type
of manmade spring

in the ancient world

is extremely rare.

MICHELLE: Darvill and Wainwright
suppose that this

is some kind
of medicinal spring,

and that the bluestones

that were brought to Stonehenge

were brought there
for healing purposes.

LAURENCE: Some of Stonehenge's
earliest theorists

also believed in the site's
healing properties.

SAMI: In 1215 A.D.,
the British poet Layamon

writes that the stones
hold magical healing power.

According to him,
the ancient people

would wash the stone,
and with the water,

quote, "bathe away
their sickness."

This sounds very much like what
Darvill and Wainwright

had found in Wales.

MICHELLE: Perhaps these writers
from the Middle Ages

had heard some world histories

that had been passed down
for generations

that these stones
held some healing powers.

LAURENCE: More evidence
is uncovered

when they take a closer look
at the human remains.

MICHAEL: They find an unusual
number of skeletons in the area

with signs of disease or injury.

About half of them are from
outside the vicinity.

In fact, isotope analysis
of teeth from the remains

at Stonehenge find people
had traveled

from as far away
as Germany, Italy, and France.

Experts have even found
two skulls

that show evidence
of primitive surgery.

It could very well be
that Stonehenge

was some kind of hospital.

LAURENCE: In 2013,
another group of academics

expands on this theory.

SAMI: Researchers at England's
Royal College of Art

make a strange request
to the government.

They ask for permission
to, quote, "whack the henge,"

with rounded quartz hammers.

MICHELLE: They suspect
that the stones

have special acoustic
or sonic healing properties.

SAMI: The government
grants their request,

and the results
are actually pretty cool.

'Cause when struck,
each stone gives off

subtly different sounds
and reverberations.

And the circular arrangement

enhances the sound quality
and volume.

It's like you're sitting in
a sound room, for the most part.

It's as if the stones
are meant to be played.

MICHAEL: The rocks produce
sounds that are so clear

that churches in the area
use them as bells

well into the 1700s.

MICHELLE: One village nearby
is actually named Maenclochog,

which means "ringing stones."

LAURENCE: But can sounds
actually heal?

Many cultures think so.

Ancient Egyptians
believed that sounds

can generate vibrations
with healing abilities.

They even built structures

to amplify
the therapeutic effects

of these beneficial sounds
during religious ceremonies.

CAROLINE CORY: In ancient Greece
it's widely believed

that diseases can be cured

with repetitive sounds.

Sound therapy plays
a very important role

in Greek medicine.

MICHAEL: But of course,
if Stonehenge

actually was a hospital,
the sad thing is,

we only really know about
the people who died there.

This makes it
incredibly difficult

to understand or determine

how successful a hospital
it actually was.

LAURENCE: For centuries,
scholars have debated

why Stonehenge was built.

But equally as puzzling
is how it was built.

SAMI: In 1968, Swiss author
Erich Von Daniken

believes he has simultaneously

answered both of these
questions.

And the answer is aliens.

Von Daniken claims it simply

makes no sense that

ancient people would have been

able to transport
these stones on their own

and build these structures.

And the fact that we still

can't figure out how they did it

is pretty suspicious.

MICHAEL: It forces us
to ask the question,

were people 5,000 years ago
talented, smart enough,

and had the right ability
to build something like this?

Von Daniken believes that
aliens shared their technology

with humans to move
human civilization forward

in the areas of science
and technology.

He feels they did this
at several times

in human history,
and that explains

many different monuments
and structures

all across the globe,

including the ancient
Egyptian pyramids

and the Easter Island
Moai structures.

CAROLINE: So, in the case
of Stonehenge,

the aliens helped teach
the humans about astronomy,

and then helped them move
and arrange the stones

in this particular pattern.

This idea is picked up
in a 2008 book,

"The Gods' Machines: From
Stonehenge to Crop Circles,"

by author Wun Chok Bong.

He suggests Stonehenge
had a dual purpose.

MICHAEL: He believes that
the astronomical orientation

of the site was really
an aid for navigation

so that aliens could
figure out where to land.

CAROLINE: According to Wun,
after a ship landed on top,

the stones could act
as conduits for electricity

pulled out of the Earth.

So, the monument is actually
a combination of landing pad

and charging station.

LAURENCE: In 2013,
an unexpected source

offers proof of UFO activity
in the area.

In June of 2013,
the British Ministry of Defense

declassifies their final
collection of UFO files

after closing the program down.

MICHAEL: One of these files
includes several photos

sent to the ministry
that show a disc-shaped object

hovering over Stonehenge.

LAURENCE: This is just one
of many reports

of unexplained aerial phenomena
at Stonehenge.

In 2019, Philippe Rosset
is taking pictures

of the sunset in Knap Hill,
15 miles from Stonehenge,

and he spots
a bright spherical object

on the horizon.

The ball of light is then
joined by another,

and then several more.

The spheres appear to create
some sort of formation.

They've hovering
silently in the sky.

MICHAEL: In 2020, a couple
driving in Mere, Wiltshire

observe a disc of light

hovering near Stonehenge.

WOMAN: Look at that thing
in the sky.

MAN: Whoa.

WOMAN: What is it?

They capture it on video,
and just as suddenly

as the disc of light appeared,
it vanishes.

LAURENCE: But most modern
scholars are skeptical.

MICHAEL: At the end of the day,
is there anecdotal evidence

of UFO activity near Stonehenge?

Certainly.
But is this evidence

that aliens built Stonehenge?
Not really.

SAMI: Throughout history,
people have wanted to believe

that humanity at the time
of Stonehenge's construction

were savages or barbarians,
but I think that's foolish.

Okay, physically,
they were just like us--

maybe not the exact same DNA,
but similar in most respects.

So, if you're insulting them,

ultimately, you're just
insulting yourself.

LAURENCE: With each new
discovery,

there's hope that
we're one step closer

to figuring out
what Stonehenge is

and why it was built.

SAMI: You think it's a cemetery,

but it also tracks
the sun's position.

How does that detail fit in?

At this point, the more

we study Stonehenge,

in some ways, the less we know.

LAURENCE: But in 2021,
Michael Goff believes

he may have finally
solved the puzzle.

CAROLINE: When researcher
Michael Goff is at Stonehenge,

he already knows about
the monument's alignment

with the heavens, and he thinks

that was a purposeful choice.

But while he's looking around,

he realizes there's a lot more
to it than that.

MICHELLE: Goff starts
by studying how Stonehenge

would have looked
thousands of years ago

before any of the stones

were lost to time.

SAMI: He reconstructs
the entire site

and demonstrates that
the monument's outer circle

originally consisted
of 30 sarsen pillars

and the same number
of connecting lintel stones.

MICHAEL: He also notes that
the four cardinal points--

north, south, east, and west--
line up with the structure.

This means sunlight

is intentionally focused

through the stones,

casting light and shadows.

SAMI: This was all known before,
along with the fact

that Stonehenge tracks
the length of the year,

since the annual solstice

appears in the same spot
every time.

LAURENCE: But Goff believes
that with one extra tool,

Stonehenge could track more
than just the time of year.

Goff figures out that if you add
some smaller markers

in the middle, Stonehenge could
tell the time of day every day,

like a sundial.

According to Goff, Stonehenge
actually had moving parts

that are now missing.

These could have been
little stones,

or maybe even pieces of wood

that have since been lost
to time.

Some small stones
have actually been found

within the monument that
could have served this purpose.

The real trick to this, however,
is that these stones or markers

would have had to have been
moved every year

to keep the clock accurate.

LAURENCE: So, how did they know
where to move them?

Goff believed they used
a particular constellation,

the Southern Cross,
that would appear

prominently right on the horizon
in that area

thousands of years ago.

According to Goff,
every year when the Cross

was centered in the southern gap
at Stonehenge,

the people could just
move the small stones

to calibrate their clock
for the upcoming year.

LAURENCE: Around the same time,
more evidence is uncovered

to support this,
but in a different location

and by a different team.

MICHELLE: Archaeologist
Michael Parker Pearson

goes to Wales with a team
to excavate in the area

where the bluestones were found.

There, they find a dismantled
stone circle

made from bluestones

at a place called Waun Mawn.

SAMI: Researchers start
to wonder

if these Waun Mawn stones
might be related

to the stones at Stonehenge.

MICHELLE: As they search
for evidence

using modern-day
scientific techniques,

they realize that
these two circles

have the same diameter
of 360 feet across,

and both are aligned to
the midsummer solstice sunrise.

LAURENCE: But one small clue
proves the connection

is much bigger.

There is evidence
that Waun Mawn was dismantled,

most of its stones
pulled up and removed.

But in one of the holes,
a stone chip is left behind.

A computerized model
is made of the chip,

and incredibly, that chip
fits perfectly

into one of the stones
at Stonehenge,

one that's called Stone 62.

It's like a key into a lock.

Parker Pearson concluded

that around 3000 B.C.,

most of the stone circle

at Waun Mawn was dismantled,

and the stones were carried

the some 140 miles
to Stonehenge.

LAURENCE: But why go
to such lengths

to excavate and arrange
the huge bluestones,

only to then move them
140 miles away?

Goff believes his clock theory
holds the answer.

Today, the Earth's tilt
has changed so much

that the Southern Cross

is no longer visible at all
from Stonehenge.

This slow movement
was happening back then too.

Goff believes that's precisely
the reason Stonehenge was moved.

MICHAEL: Goff's theory
is that the ancient clock

was first installed
at Waun Mawn,

because that's where
the Southern Cross

is at the horizon,
and you can use it as a clock.

As the Southern Cross
disappeared from that location,

they moved it 140 miles away,
rebuilt it at Stonehenge

where the Southern Cross
is visible at the horizon,

and now you get another
100 years of use

out of your clock.

It's a pretty cool idea,

but you also have
to ask yourself,

scientists and archaeologists

have been studying Stonehenge
for centuries.

How could a clock
not have been discovered before?

LAURENCE: According to Goff,

it's all because
of the number 30.

SAMI: There are 30 pillars
at Stonehenge,

and therefore the clock theory
never worked

with our current
24-hour concept of time.

That's why nobody
ever figured it out.

MICHAEL: Once you try it
with a day that's broken up

into 30 parts--
so a 30-hour day--

Goff's theory works perfectly.

The total length of the day
is the same.

It's just the hours
are now 48 minutes long.

LAURENCE: But if Stonehenge
is a clock,

why are human remains
buried here?

The burials of the elite
or royal people,

the clock doesn't seem
to explain those,

until you think about the fact
that maybe the timekeepers

are also the rulers
of this society.

You can imagine
that type of knowledge

would be quite powerful
at this time.

So, the leaders
would have lived, died,

and be buried with the source
of their power, the clock.

MICHELLE: Look, there's
a popular saying in science,

"correlation does not
equal causation."

Just because
your football team won

when you wore mismatched socks,

doesn't mean this is why
they won.

And unfortunately,
this applies to Goff's theory.

Just because it lines up,

doesn't mean this is why
they did it.

SAMI: And just because
there are bodies,

doesn't mean it's a cemetery.

You can apply this
to pretty much every theory

about Stonehenge.

We'll never have any records
that tell us what this thing is.

These ancient builders
have left us with a mystery

that will probably
never be solved.

Recent dating of charcoal

found at Stonehenge proves

the site has been in use

since 7000 B.C., long before

the stones ever arrived.

This exciting new evidence
gives archaeologists

many more puzzles to solve.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching

"History's Greatest Mysteries."