Stonehenge was supposed to be a "giant penis": research reveals an interesting fact about one of the most mysterious monuments in the world
New research shows that one of the world's most mysterious monuments, Stonehenge, which was built about 5000 years ago in Wiltshire, England, was, in addition to being a likely center of sun worship, also a fertility temple. A detailed study of a partially buried stone that fell near the monument showed that it may have been sculpted to resemble a giant penis.
Professor Terence Meaden, who has taught physics at universities in France and Canada and archaeology at Oxford, studied the stone in detail and concluded that its shape was deliberately changed to give it a phallic appearance. He estimates that prehistoric craftsmen used tools to remove up to 200,000 cubic centimeters of stone to give the block its shape, the Independent writes.
"Stone 67" Stonehenge, which, according to Professor Meehan, was deliberately shaped to resemble a penis.
Source: Terence Meaden
A study conducted by Terence Meaden shows that if the stone had been standing upright, it would have appeared as a 2.6-meter erect male member with an 80-centimeter head or bulbous tip at the upper end.
Although no other phallic standing stones have ever been discovered in or around Stonehenge, several small carved stone phalluses dating from the same era have been found near the British monument.
According to scientists, standing stones and penis-shaped carvings were important elements of many prehistoric belief systems in much of the world, especially in Europe and Asia. Therefore, Professor Meehan's research shows that the rituals at Stonehenge itself may have had a phallic dimension.
A phallic stone and an altar stone are located on what is probably the most sacred axis of Stonehenge.
Source: Wiki
The newly identified phallus-shaped stone of the monument (still known to archaeologists simply as "stone 67"), which now lies horizontally and is partially buried, once stood upright. It is interesting that it is located in the most important place of Stonehenge, because it was aligned directly with the sunrise in the middle of summer and the sunset in the middle of winter.
The only other stone in the circle on this line is another six-ton rock known as the altar stone. Since, in terms of solar alignment, the altar and phallic stones seem to have been deliberately combined, Terence Meaden suspects that they symbolized female and male fertility.
If the professor is right, then we can assume that the two stones represented the solar and lunar deities. After all, in Europe and Asia, many ancient solar deities were male, while Earth and Moon deities were often female, the researchers say.
Scientists suggest that Stonehenge contained symbols of the masculine and feminine.
Source: Getty
According to historical records, the combination of solar and lunar deities was common in the ancient world, with the Sun often representing virility and the lunar deity sometimes being the Sun's wife.
The phallic stone would have stood as the centerpiece of the monument for hundreds of years, but it was overturned by some kind of natural or human-made disaster. For two huge stones (one weighing more than 20 tons) located behind the phallic stone fell - and seemingly overturned Stone 67, scientists suggest.
Reconstruction of what Stonehenge was supposed to look like.
Source: Wellcome Library, London
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