To-day the surfaces of the Sarsens bear undoubted signs of weather, but in the Stonehenge of yesterday the Sarsens were beautifully finished with rough tooling all over their surface. This final finish was achieved by the Quartzite Hammers (Class IV.). A very beautiful piece of this work was discovered by Mr. Gowland in 1901. In the process of raising the upright of the Great Trilithon, a thin slab of that part of the stone which had been buried in the foundation became detached. The tooling upon this fragment is absolutely perfect, and as clean and sharp as it was when it left the hand of the craftsman about four thousand years ago. So remarkable was the workmanship that experiments were made on pieces of Sarsen with various materials to endeavour to secure the same quality of surface, during which it was found that whereas the ordinary masons' chisels of to-day failed to produce the effect, a quartzite pebble used as a tool at once reproduced the character and surface of the original finish on the Trilithon.
The foreign stones appear to have been treated in a very similar manner, but it is not possible to discuss this with the same detail as in the case of the Sarsens, for the body of the rock to be dealt with varied vastly in quality and fracture. The method of dressing by pounding was probably not adopted. Quantities of small chippings from the foreign stones were found in 1901, so many indeed as to justify the claim that these stones were actually dressed on the spot, and not partly shaped before being transported to the circle, as in the case of the Sarsens. This at once disposes of a popular and ingenious suggestion that the foreign stones were originally a temple elsewhere, and that in migrating to Salisbury Plain, the tribe had brought their temple with them.
The Process of Erection
Contrary to another cherished belief, the Sarsen Trilithons were erected first, followed by the foreign stones. The building of the group was continuous and no gap separates the Trilithon from the foreign upright. Of this abundant ocular proof was forthcoming in 1901, when the foundations of the great Trilithon were laid bare, and the leaning upright restored to its original perpendicular position. When the ground was opened it was found that each upright had been differently bedded in the earth—and for a very good reason. The one was twenty-nine feet eight inches long, while the other was only twenty-five feet. Obviously they were the two finest "grey wethers" obtainable in the flock, and because of that, they were set aside for the most prominent place in the enclosure. The master builder decided that the height of this central Trilithon should be the equivalent of twenty-one feet at the present day. Therefore it was necessary to bed one stone deeper than the other, in order that their two summits should be level to receive the lintel, or impost. One stone, therefore, was sunk to a depth of four feet, while the other extended downwards eight feet three inches. To compensate for the lack of depth in the shorter stone, its base was shaped into an irregular projecting boss to give it a greater bearing area. It was decided to raise the larger stone first, and the foundation was dug as follows: A slanting trench was cut with the deer's horn picks through the earth and chalk, having at its deeper end a perpendicular chalk face against which the Sarsen could rest when upright. Rubble and chalk were cleared away, and the stone carefully slid down the plane to its foundation. To raise it, now that its base rested against a solid wall of chalk, was not a great matter. The same ropes of hide and tree trunks which had served for its transport would again have come into play. Slowly it would be levered up, and packings or wedges of wood or stone inserted. Thus inch by inch, probably, it rose higher and higher, strutted up, perhaps, by strong saplings as it reared its head above the busy crowd of builders. Blocks of Sarsens were packed beneath it to equalise the bearing, and then the excavation was filled in with chalk and rubble, which doubtless was well rammed down and consolidated with the big sixty-pound mauls. Among the packing of chalk and rubble were found a considerable number of the rough implements already referred to.
The central Entrance of Stonehenge. Looking S.W.
The shorter upright was next set on end. A shallower excavation had to suffice in this case, but the base of the stone, as has been already intimated, was wider, and to secure greater stability blocks of Sarsen were provided for the stone to rest on, other blocks being packed in carefully as it was raised, and curiously enough among the firm packing were several large stone mauls, fitted in to make the whole mass solid and compact. There is no direct evidence as to the actual method of placing the imposts upon the uprights. It has been suggested, and with every show of reason, that one extremity of the imposts would be raised and packed with timber. The opposite end would then be similarly treated. In this way, by alternately raising and wedging first one side and then the other, the impost could have been brought, in time, level with the summit of its upright, and levered over on to the tenons.
Such a method is employed by primitive races to-day.