Four and a half millennia ago, neighboring tribes in prehistoric southwest England decided to construct one of the most iconic monuments of all time. Without the aid of pulleys or wheels, this nascent culture figured out how to transport massive stones, each weighing 2 to 30 tons, over as many as 150 miles of rough terrain to create the site known as Stonehenge.
These sandstone blocks were aligned explicitly to solar and lunar events, particularly the summer solstice, leading historians to believe it served as an astronomical observatory. Whoever they were, Stonehenge proved these people had an advanced understanding of celestial patterns. The construction itself indicated the existence of an extraordinary social organization, capable of long-term planning, collaboration, and resource mobilization.
