Stonehenge – A Ritual Battle Place

LONDON: Stonehenge, which is the prehistoric monument built in several construction phases spanning at least 3000 years, was the site where Stone Age battles were fought to death, a leading archaeologist, Dennis Price has claimed. Dennis who is a Stonehenge expert and former archaeologist with Wessex Archaeology, said that he thinks a skeleton discovered in a ditch around the ancient monument in 1978 is proof that the site was used for ritual combat.

The skeleton belonged to a man who had been killed by arrows in 2,300 BC and after being analyzed was give to the Museum of Salisbury. Dennis said these skeletons found at or close to Stonehenge have often been found buried with weapons, which suggest that those close to the mysterious monument could have died violent deaths. “There is firm evidence of a long standing tradition of sentinels at Stonehenge going back to when it was originally built in 2,600 BC and possibly before”, he also added, “The function of these individuals was to symbolically guard the temple, but I think they could only be replaced by someone who physically defeated them in a ritual combat”.