Stonehenge 1

[Death]

By Pueros

Chapter 1 - Bladud

(Stonehenge, April 2002 A.D.)

A drive through the rolling hills and downs of the Wiltshire countryside of England brought Pueros to the taunting mystery that is Stonehenge. Construction of the magnificent edifice on Salisbury Plain, about 2 miles to the west of Amesbury, was started about 5000 years ago and the site has since been studied, surveyed, excavated and even x-rayed but no-one seems any closer to establishing its real role. Some have speculated that it was a temple for worship of ancient earth deities, whereas others have suggested that it was an astronomical observatory for calculating important dates on some prehistoric calendar. More fanciful, even farcical, claims link it to King Arthur and Merlin, the Phoenicians, Romans, Vikings and Druids, and even visitors from other worlds.

Modern theory, supported by Pueros, inclines to the view that Stonehenge was a temple, built by various local peoples in three main phases between about 2950 and 1500 B.C., during the Bronze Age. The construction consists basically of concentric banks and ditch, a double circle of 'bluestones', which are spotted dolerite and similar minerals, and a ring of sarsen stones, which are natural sandstone boulders. Some of the latter possess white lintels. The main axis of the whole structure is aligned to the midsummer sunrise, an orientation probably more for ritual than astronomy.

The earliest period of construction, lasting for about 50 years from approximately 2950 B.C., saw the creation of a circular enclosure, outlined by two banks and a ditch, with an entrance to the north-east and a standing heel sarsen stone located nearby outside. The outer bank, about 380 feet in diameter, 8 feet wide and 2 or 3 feet high, was made of earth and is now mostly destroyed. The ditch was not uniform in shape, depth or width, varying from 4.5 to 7 feet deep and from 10 to 20 feet wide. Not much effort was taken in keeping the ditch clean, and a variety of picks, made of red deer antlers, scoops, made of oxen shoulder blades, and pottery fragments have been found near the bottom, helping archaeologists to date its excavation. The inner bank would have been an impressive sight in ancient times, standing at least 6 feet high and about 20 feet wide, with a diameter of 320 feet, and being composed of the solid white chalk that makes up much of the under-surface of the surrounding plain.

The north-east entranceway was about 35 feet wide. It was set so that those standing in the centre of Stonehenge could see the sun rise on midsummer morning, just to the left of the naturally shaped heel stone, which is about 20 feet long and 8 feet wide by 7 feet thick. Its lower 4 feet is buried in the ground and it weighs an estimated 35 tons. Like the other sarsen stones, it is thought to have been dragged into position from Marlborough Downs, roughly 20 miles to the north. It currently leans inward at an angle of about 30 degrees but originally it would have stood upright. Circling the stone, about 12 feet from its base, is a small covered ditch filled with chalk.

Inside the inner bank are 56 Aubrey holes, named after their 17th century discoverer John Aubrey, which vary from 2.5 to 6 feet in width and 2 to 4 feet in depth. They were used for cremation burials and were spaced quite accurately in a 288 feet circle. Standing on the ring of Aubrey holes were four Station Stones, although only two now survive. They formed a rectangle perpendicular to the midsummer sunrise line of the monument. Of the two still standing, one is naturally shaped whilst the other is slightly tooled.

It is unclear how long the first shape of Stonehenge was in use before being altered but it is believed that the Beaker people, named after the shape of their pottery, were responsible for the second wave of building, over a 500 years period from about 2900 B.C.. During this time, post-holes found scattered about the monument suggest the erection of wooden walls to make a narrow triple entrance and a palisade that ran to the west and north of Stonehenge. It is possible that the latter was used to form a sacred space as it did not enclose Stonehenge but instead just created a wall partially blocking it from view. Finally, the old entrance was widened another 25 feet and a 40 feet wide avenue, lined by parallel banks and ditches 47 feet apart, extended outwards for two miles, curving to the right and eventually running to the River Avon.

Stonehenge's third building period, lasting for almost a thousand years from about 2550 B.C. was the longest and included the greatest changes. Bluestones were brought in from the Preseli Mountains in south-west Wales many miles away, transported, in an amazing feat of ingenuity and skill for the time, by way of rafts along the Welsh coast and up local rivers, before finally being dragged overland. They were set up in two concentric circles, made of at least 82 large, rough-hewn, standing slabs called ‘menhirs’. These weighed about 5 tons each and were 6 feet apart and 35 feet from the centre. The altar stone, a large block of green sandstone from south Wales, was also put in place. About 100 years afterwards, the bluestones were temporarily dismantled and the construction we see today began to form.

A 100 foot diameter circle of 30 sarsen stones, weighing up to 50 tons each, capped by a continuous ring of sarsen lintels, was erected in the middle of the site. This surrounded a horseshoe-shaped setting of five great sarsen trilithons, formations in which two uprights support a lintel by means of ball and socket joints, with its opening pointing to the north-east. Some of the bluestones were reshaped and re-erected in two oval structures within the sarsen horseshoe. An additional circle of bluestones was also set up within the outer sarsen circle. The now-fallen altar stone was the focal point of the two circles and horseshoes of sarsen and bluestones.

Around 1900 B.C., Stonehenge was almost complete in the form that we see today. The later finishing phase included two concentric rings of holes, about 20 feet apart and dug around the outside. It is possible that these were dug to take yet another outer setting of stones but, for an unknown reason, this work was never carried out.

No other megalithic structure in north-western Europe displays similar precision and architectural refinement to Stonehenge, where the placement of key stones lines up precisely with certain events such as the solstices and equinoxes.

(Stonehenge, April 1850 B.C.)

Bladud had lived in the environs of Stonehenge ever since, six years previously, his own small nomadic tribe had been attacked and massacred by the much more populous and settled people who controlled the sacred temple. The now 13 years old boy had since been brought up by the all-male priesthood of his captors, for he had survived the culling of his tribe because he had been chosen, primarily as a result of his handsome looks, to become one of their number. He was one of over twenty young priestlings, all captured from other tribes, being prepared to serve the god of the sun and his consort, the goddess of fertility.

Bladud had long straight brown hair and large sensuous similarly hued eyes adorning a very pretty face. His body had been perfectly proportioned for his age when he had been captured and had remained so. Unlike many of his secular contemporaries, the boy was fed and clothed particularly well and kept immaculately clean, as befitted his sacred status.

Textiles were being produced by this time. Males wore knee-length wrap-around woollen bodiced kilt-like skirts with round hats, or occasionally one-piece cloth tunics, sometimes with cloaks. They were also invariably long-haired, with adults clean-shaven. The latter would also often wear stone wrist guards to protect themselves from the sting of the string of the bows they often used for hunting red deer, to supplement their farming and animal husbandry, or for occasional combat with rival tribes. Women wore woollen blouses and long skirts. Many went barefoot, although some sported crude footwear made from animal skin

Like the priests, Bladud wore a plain tunic, dyed red and without cloak, although in winter this attire would be supplemented by a warm sheep’s hide tailored to fit his upper body. The boy lived with the priests and priestlings in one of the communal dwellings set aside for the latter. The priestly accommodation was located just outside the outer bank of the great temple, within the high wooden palisade that hid the activities of the sacred community from the view of the ordinary people, who resided in the bigger village on the other side, itself surrounded by banks and ditches for protection.

Standard housing was a round windowless hut, with low stone wall forming a base that was used to brace wooden poles and rafters, on top of which a conical roof of thatch, turf or hides was laid. There would be a hole at the apex of the roof to enable smoke from a central fire to escape. The innards of the hut would be warm but permanently dark. Bedding comprised straw-filled mattresses covered by animal skins.

Most normal households possessed two huts, one for living in and an outhouse for cooking and textile and other production. However, the priests did not require the second roundhouses because their earthly needs were met by the ordinary populace, under the guidance of their King.

During the Bronze Age, pottery, weapon, tool and jewellery making techniques became quite sophisticated. Metals worked included copper and gold, as well as bronze. However, iron would not be introduced until after about 650 B.C. when the next eponymous age began. The first alcoholic drink into Britain, a form of honey-based mead, had also been introduced. The country has never been the same since.

Society was patriarchal and warlike, with tribes, led by splendidly attired warrior-chiefs or kings, often fighting each other for land, horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and other domesticated animals, as well as slaves. The leaders would wear gold buckles and magnificent sceptres made from precious materials and stones.

Burials were usually made in round barrows, often clustered in family groups and generally filled with grave goods commensurate with the importance of the dead person. In most cases, the corpses were carefully laid with the head to the south, men facing east, women facing west, to allow the dead of each gender to see the sun at particular times of day.

Grain, mainly barley and corn, was grown and stored on drying racks within the outhouses. Shellfish were also collected to supplement the diet.

The environment of the earlier Bronze Age was characterised by weather that was warmer and drier than that of today. However, in the later period, there was a deterioration of climate that continued into the Iron Age, leading to the widespread creation of bogs, assisted by the continued clearance of forests for agriculture and cultivation extending onto higher and marginal land. A side-affect was an increase in birch and ash trees.

Bladud, along with the other priestlings, had been very well cared for by their older brethren. None had been abused or molested despite the boys’ shared physical attractiveness, as all the priests were eunuchs, having donated their scrotums to the sun and fertility deities on one of the equinoxes or solstices when they had risen to the priesthood. This occurred once they had passed through puberty and could demonstrate that they could produce their own seed.

Most of the new gelded priests did not survive their emasculation, often suffering lingering and agonising deaths resulting from infection caused by the use of the unsterilised sacred bronze castration knife and ignorance about how to treat the resultant wounds correctly and hygienically. However, the people merely considered that such loss demonstrated that the deities wanted the new priests to serve them in the afterlife instead of on Earth. The majority who died were buried in their own special barrow. The minority who survived went on to service the various and regular public and private ceremonies that took place within the huge temple.

Bladud had, since the age of 10, and with other similarly aged and older priestlings, been the centre of some of the private ceremonies, taking place on the day before the night of each full moon and with only the priesthood present. He and his young companions would strip, regardless of the weather, and stand in line, in reverse order of age, waiting for their hands and feet to be bound to twine wrapped round the upright altar stone at uplifted wrist height and at the base. Adult priests would then masturbate each boy until he orgasmed to see whether he produced seed.

Lately, such activity had only supplemented the increasing needs of Bladud’s loins, which had caused him to play privately with himself on an almost daily basis. The boy was also now ejaculating semen, an innovation duly noticed by the priests before each recent full moon. When such happenings began to occur, the priestlings were allowed to witness the initiation into the full priesthood of an older neophyte on an equinox or solstice.

Bladud had observed, on the vernal equinox, one of his friends, just turned 14 years of age, being tied naked to the altar stone, this time with members of many of the senior families of the tribe, men, women and children, present to watch the ceremony. The boy was, as before the full moon, masturbated but instead of allowing his sperm to fall wastefully onto the soil, it was collected in a golden dish, which was placed on the ground for the sun to absorb. This was of course through evaporation, leaving a dried cum residue, but the people did not understand the term or process, considering the transformation to be the sun god’s acceptance of the liquid offering.

The high priest, dressed in a red tunic like the rest but additionally wearing a magnificent gold medallion displaying a large round orb representing the sun, then knelt in front of the boy. He placed the sacred and very sharp bronze castration knife against the lovely twin orbs of the 14 years old’s nicely dangling and completely smooth ball sac whilst loud chanting from the whole priesthood commenced.

The boy’s terror could clearly be perceived in his damp eyes but he bravely tried to restrain sobs and tears, and fruitless pleading, whilst the high priest waited for the prescribed part of the incantation that would induce him to sever the 14 years old scrotum. The moment duly arrived and the priestling could no longer refrain from uttering a loud scream and becoming lachrymose as he felt the knife agonisingly cut through the base of his scrotum to unman him.

The boy’s tears now joined his blood in dripping onto the soil underneath him, already stained red as a result of the four castrations per year carried out at this very spot over many centuries. Meanwhile, the 14 years old’s testicles were extracted from his severed ball sac to be placed alongside his now empty scrotum in another golden dish on the ground in front of him, adjacent to the one containing his last ejaculate.

Unlike most of the watchers, especially it seemed the gawking children, Bladud had not enjoyed the ceremonial spectacle, of which the vision of the concluding cauterisation of the terrible wound was probably as bad, if not worse, for the 13 years old as what had previously occurred. Nor did the priestling appreciate the sight of his friend meeting a lingering and agonising death as a result of infection or, as the people believed, the desire of the sun god and his consort to be served by his latest servant in the afterlife.

The fevered 14 years old had taken almost 20 days to die. The deeply saddened 13 years old waited to observe the funeral rituals, as his friend joined others in the newest of the priestly burial mounds, before making his attempt to escape a similar fate, which he already knew was scheduled for midsummer’s day.

Bladud had remembered the more kindly deities worshipped by his own tribe and did not consider himself obliged to honour those of his captors. The boy therefore crept out of his roundhouse in the middle of the night of the full moon, having as usual been masturbated earlier at the sacred altar, and set out across the surrounding plain. The 13 years old did not really have a proper idea of where he was going or what he could expect to encounter in the surrounding countryside. He just intended to flee as far as possible from the great temple to safety, perhaps as far as the great sea to the south, of which he had heard people speak.

Moonlight helped illuminate Bladud’s way as he made for the great bog to the south, aspiring to reach the mire by dawn. The boy hoped that the cover of the tall reeds to be found there would help him escape the hounds that would undoubtedly be sent after him once his disappearance had been discovered.

Bladud intended to keep off the main paths that traversed the bog, instead proposing to follow some of the more dangerous subsidiary routes in the hope that the dogs would thereby be discouraged from tracking him. The boy achieved his initial aim late because it was mid-morning by the time he started crossing the mire. He also found that progress along the barely used by-ways was very slow, particularly as he regularly had to hack his way through reeds with his hands.

Bladud’s advance to safety eventually came into trouble when he somehow lost the pathway. The boy was searching for the route when progress suddenly came to a complete halt as his bare feet became stuck in deep mud. The appalled 14 years old could not raise his legs from the thick clinging ooze. Instead, he felt himself slowly sinking into the morass, known to absorb without trace the largest horses and cattle, let alone young humans.

Bladud, panic beginning to set in, only seemed to be making matters worse with his struggles. It was when he felt the mud encase his genitals, bare under his tunic, that the boy started shouting for help, not now worrying whether it was his undoubted pursuers who assisted him or not, as long as someone did.

Bladud’s yelling became intense as the gooey slime began to cover his belly and the boy began to scream and cry profusely when it eventually reached his nipples.

(To be continued in chapter 2 – ‘Mudlarks’)