Stonehenge

While I think that Stonehenge is a valuable site in and of itself, that it's magnificence has inherent value, I think it is doing a disservice to the stones to look at them in isolation. Stonehenge is part of a larger context. Per Professor Jacques, the stones were not new construction--they were a reaction to a larger society, to another monument (the Cursus, perhaps), to changes in seasons. They served a purpose for society, and the larger picture of the landscape (perhaps hunting grounds), with the broad, open plain and the river can help us understand the stones in a better way. After all, while the stones can tell us a lot of interesting things (where they came from, maybe how they got up, how they are oriented, etc.), they are limited by being too specific. A single modern monument, while important and educational, never serves as a complete mirror of the society it is in.