Name: 科学对巨石阵的教导（What Science Has Taught Us About Stonehenge）
Uploaded: 2021-05-19T12:17:31.000Z
Duration: 12 min 50 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

轉承詞

Thanks to Skillshare for supporting this episode of SciShow.

程度副詞

{ ♪INTRO }  Even if you don't know much about ancient

情態副詞

history and prehistoric monuments, you've probably heard of Stonehenge.

The story of this incredible structure goes back more than 5000 years, and while it was

certainly important to the people who built it, those architects would have had no way

of knowing that their creation would become world-famous.

These days, Stonehenge is featured everywhere, from popular movies to your friend's vacation

But if there's one thing that everyone seems to know about Stonehenge... it's that there's

a lot that nobody seems to know about Stonehenge.

The monument is surrounded by famously puzzling questions, like who built it?

And especially: How did ancient people manage to move and erect those huge stones?

Over the years, lots of explanations have been proposed, including lost technologies,

outright magic, and — of course — aliens.

But while speculation is fun and all, Stonehenge doesn't need any help from myths and legends

After all, just because you understand something doesn't make it any less fascinating — and

there is a lot about Stonehenge we understand.

Archaeologists have been intensely studying this structure for more than a century, and

while many mysteries still remain, modern science has taught us quite a lot.

For centuries, visitors to Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England have marveled at Stonehenge

and tried to guess at the identity of its builders.

One of the earliest written suggestions came from Geoffrey of Monmouth, a bishop famous

for his fanciful writings on British history.

In the 1100s, he claimed that the monument was built by Merlin.

The story goes that Merlin used magic to construct Stonehenge as a monument for fallen soldiers,

using huge rocks that were originally carried out of Africa by giants.

And for a while, this was actually a pretty popular story.

Later scholars got more realistic, though, and proposed a list of non-fictional suspects,

including the Romans and the Mycenaeans from Greece.

And while artifacts found at Stonehenge indicate that some of those cultures did use or visit

the monument in its later years, recent evidence has ruled them out as its builders.

A lot of that evidence has come from radiocarbon dating.

This method is one of the most useful tools archaeologists have, because it mostly just

In nature, carbon atoms come in a few different forms, or isotopes, which have different numbers

Some of these isotopes — like a key one called carbon-14 — are radioactive, so they

break down over time at really predictable rates.

By figuring out how much radioactive carbon has decayed in a material, scientists can

calculate how long ago the material formed.

And that means they can place a date on all sorts of organic substances.

Radiocarbon dating of human remains and artifacts has revealed that the monument's history

Which is definitely too old to have been built by the Romans or Mycenaeans… or Merlin!

Unfortunately, whatever group made Stonehenge didn't leave behind much evidence about

who they were, so their identity remains a mystery.

And the story is complicated even more by the fact that, like many ancient landmarks,

Stonehenge wasn't built in a day… or even in a century.4

Archaeologists have identified multiple phases of construction at the site over a period

of about 1500 years, possibly by different groups of people.

The earliest construction happened around 5000 years ago, and it involved the digging

of the circular ditch that still surrounds the monument.

This formation is very similar to a type of earthwork called a henge.

We know this partly from carbon dating pieces of tools that were left behind.

But we've also found cremated human remains from this period, hiding in pits within the

It's possible that some early stones were also put up around this time, but based on

other evidence, it's most likely that the famous, giant standing stones didn't arrive

So, even if there isn't enough evidence to say exactly who did the heavy lifting,

archaeology has been able to help us understand when it happened, which has ruled out some

Science has also been able to help us figure out how Stonehenge was built.

And one thing is for sure: Getting all these rocks into place was no easy task.

There are two major categories of stones — also called megaliths — at Stonehenge.

The enormous sarsens typically weigh around 22 metric tons each, while the smaller bluestones

Today, there are around three dozen stones at the site, arranged into two outer circles

But based on the holes dug into the ground, there likely used to be more.

From what we can tell, workers first dug holes for the rocks to sit in, and then hauled them

upright, probably with the help of ropes, A-frames, and lots and lots of people.

The standing stones were then capped with horizontal beams to form what architects call

lintels, like the beam over the top of a doorway.

These were probably lifted up there on wooden platforms that were dismantled after construction.

But these lintels weren't just plopped down.

Holes, tabs, and joints were carved into the rocks so that the architects could insert

Tab A into Slot B and fit them all together, like a very heavy piece of IKEA furniture.

Admittedly, this is some very advanced engineering for that time period, but unlike what a lot

of Internet forums say, it's not impossible.

The builders might have lived a few thousand years before cranes and power tools, but they

still had that good old fashioned human ingenuity… which we tend to overlook.

Also, never underestimate the power of a good ramp and pulley system.

Archaeologists think major work on Stonehenge continued until around 1500 BCE, and that

in that time, more earthwork features were dug, and the bluestones were rearranged multiple

But who built the structure and how actually aren't the biggest questions scientists

Instead, the real mystery is how the stones got there.

See, the big sarsens are made of sandstone, and the bluestones are variously formed from

rhyolite, dolerite, and other types of rock.

But none of them match the geology of the nearby area.

Thankfully, no matter how far a stone has traveled, it still has the same geologic age

字幕列表影片播放

科学对巨石阵的教导（What Science Has Taught Us About Stonehenge）

material

multiple

technique

evidence