Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/401

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
CHAP. X.]
TEMPLES OF BRONZE AGE.
373

blocks of sarsen stone, 12 feet 7 inches high, bearing imposts dovetailed into each other, so as to form a continuous architrave (see Fig. 143).

Fig. 143.—Ground-plan of Stonehenge as it probably was. (Stevens.)

Nine feet within this was a circle of small foreign stones, b of figure, and within this five great trilithons of sarsen stone, c, forming a horseshoe; then, d, a horseshoe of foreign stones, eight feet high, and in the centre a slab of micaceous sandstone called the altar-stone, e. When perfect it probably formed a temple like the restoration (Fig. 144) made by Mr. Brown. At a distance of 100 feet from the outer line a small ramp, with a ditch outside, formed the outer circle, 300 feet in diameter, which cuts a low barrow and in-