Stonehenge: a view from medicine

Abstract

Stonehenge, with its stone circles and awe-inspiring arches, the trilithons, has stood over Salisbury Plain, in the centre of southern England, for over 4000 years (Figure 1); it is said to be the largest and most complete megalithic monument in Europe, and is probably older than the Great Pyramid of Egypt1,2,3. For most of the past thousand years it has been a centre of mystery, and at least three kings and two notable physicians have taken serious interest in it and the lost people who built it. Here we offer a theory based on the resemblance of the henge to the human vulva, with the birth canal at its centre. Figure 1 Stonehenge: a general view (Photo, EA Wakefield, reproduced with permission from ‘Science and Stonehenge’, Proceedings of the British Academy—see Ref 17)