User:DerFuchs/abuli

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The Abuli fortress (Georgian: აბულის ციხე, romanized: abulis tsikhe) is a Bronze Age megalithic structure formerly located in the first georgian kingdom of Diauehi, now in the Akhalkalaki Municipality in Georgia's southern region of Samtskhe-Javakheti. A cyclopean fort built using a dry masonry technique, it is located on the southern slope of Mount Patara Abuli, at an elevation of 2670 meters above sea level, in the Lesser Caucasus mountains, southwest of Paravani Lake.[1] The fortress is inscribed on the list of the Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance of Georgia.[2]

It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around 13 feet (4.0 m) high, seven feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred tumuli (burial mounds).[3]

Archaeologists believe that Stonehenge was constructed from around 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the first bluestones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC,[4] although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC.[5][6][7]

One of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon.[8] It has been a legally protected scheduled monument since 1882,[9] when legislation to protect historic monuments was first successfully introduced in Britain. The site and its surroundings were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage; the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.[10][11]

Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings.[12] Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, and continued for at least another 500 years.[13]

  1. ^ Berdzenishvili, D. (2002). "ჯავახეთის ძველი სიმაგრეები [Old fortresses of Javakheti]". ჯავახეთი. ისტორია და თანამედროვეობა [Javakheti. History and the Present] (in Georgian). Akhaltsikhe. pp. 181–203.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ "List of Immovable Cultural Monuments" (PDF) (in Georgian). National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia. Retrieved 3 July 2019.
  3. ^ Young, Christopher; Chadburn, Amanda; Bedu, Isabelle (January 2009). "Stonehenge World Heritage Site Management Plan 2009" (PDF). UNESCO: 20–22.
  4. ^ Morgan, James (21 September 2008). "Dig pinpoints Stonehenge origins". BBC. Archived from the original on 22 September 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Guardian was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Independent was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBC News was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Scott, Julie; Selwyn, Tom (2010). Thinking Through Tourism. Berg. p. 191.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference NHE was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ "History of Stonehenge". English Heritage. Archived from the original on 2 June 2016. Retrieved 7 June 2016. The monument remained in private ownership until 1918 when Cecil Chubb, a local man who had purchased Stonehenge from the Antrobus family at an auction three years previously, gave it to the nation. Thereafter, the duty to conserve the monument fell to the state, today a role performed on its behalf by English Heritage.
  11. ^ "Ancient ceremonial landscape of great archaeological and wildlife interest". Stonehenge Landscape. National Trust. Archived from the original on 18 June 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2007.
  12. ^ Pitts, Mike (8 August 2008). "Stonehenge: one of our largest excavations draws to a close". British Archaeology (102): 13. ISSN 1357-4442.
  13. ^ Schmid, Randolph E. (29 May 2008). "Study: Stonehenge was a burial site for centuries". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 4 September 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
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