The tools used in prehistory were rudimentary because the production means and know how did not existed as they exist today. Therefore the solutions that have been found had to be simpler but having higher effectiveness because even today they surprise us with monuments that cannot be fully understood. Some of our today sophisticated techniques can become obsolete if we apply and use the same technology with already several thousands years.

This way Henges were composed normaly by two structures, a fixed structure that could be a circular ditch or a stone circle and an hanging circular nutating structure, certainly constructed in wood. The henges could also have an axle structure, normaly a standing stone that worked as the structure to hang the circular nutating structure where could be hanged a shaft. The Henges were design to pull high loads with ropes, this way ropes were tied to the hanging circular nutating structures and rolled arround the structure in zigzag. If a central shaft were used than the rope could be rolled in this shaft with higher torque results.

Why this technology was lost?

This question is quite difficult to answer and only with investigation and hard work we can reach closer to the answer.

The lose of the technology can explain why nobody else could understand what Henges were build for. Probably the circular wood structures have been destroyed by vandalism and/or burnt due to wood necessity, for heating, casting, or any other reason or could also be lost by degradation over long time. Those wood circular structures could also be carried from one side to the other, to places where other fixed structures of henges already existed, this would depend of their necessities, for this reason it will be difficult to find vestiges, therefore they would be necessary in inferior number compared to fixed structures.

Stonehenge is a set of several Henge mechanisms, each one constructed in different phases and replaced or added by more efficient ones. Most of them were build with gearing technology. Stonehenge is the most known Henge of all time and is located in England, surely because of its dimensions and construction technique. It certainly had an intensive use at that time due to the stones degradation. It is a notable work of mechanic engineering, not only because of the dimensions and finishing quality of the stones that it has but also because of its efficient working principle that exceeds all the mechanics technology that existed until the Ninetieth or Twentieth Century. As we see it now, the circular sarsen stones correspond to a fixed circular gear with 30 teeths that may have geared with a circular nutating wood gear, probably with 29 teeths. Some evidences can be observed in the next figure.

The lines in the figure represent the most used rope directions (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) that are tangent to the main circular Sarsen Stones (1). The ditch (9) corresponds to an intial Henge, we can also observe smaller Henges (10, 11, 12). Notice the filled ditch (9) zones in the tangent directions of the ropes as well as the ditch Avenue directions. The first phase of Stonehenge could work only with the external big ditch (9) and a large circular wood structure that was oscillated by hand or by animals, it could be hanged by a central stone but no evidences were found. In the next figure we can see a red rope that could be rolled in zigzag arround the wood structure, going in from one side and out in the other. Many walked distance arround the ditch would be necessary to have a slow rotation in the structure.

Looking at the Sarsen stones, in the next figure, we can see how the circular wood structure (in red) worked inside the stones, and having ropes in the tangent red line directions. Take a closer look at the degraded stones at the lower right corner where the ropes usually scraped. The red structure has 29 teeths, the yellow structure is another smaller henge with fewer teeths. The blue line represents another henge, external to the Sarsen stones.

Notice the lower right stones abrassion due to the red traction ropes.

The stones degradation due to the traction ropes can be seen in the tangential directions where the loads where transported. The type of nutating motion of the structure produced a movement of the rope up and down resulting in a wide stone abrasion.

This drawing make things clear, identifing several henges as well as the stones positions.

An old ballon photo, before any land works took place at Stonehenge, reveals many more positions where Henges where used, but many of them with the same circular nutating structure, represented here with the same color. Some of them used maybe for its own construction.

Here we can see a computer model of the Sarsen stones and Bluestones with its internal circular nutating wood structure. A box In red represents one or more people or animals that walk arround the nutating structure, pushing it to the floor and forcing it to rotate. The circular nutating structure gears with the stones having a difference of one teeth.

The rope drawn in red could go inside the stone structure from one side and go out in the other side, but it could also be just attached to the wood nutating structured and rolled arround it. Note the rotating directions of the structure, because of the minus one teeth, walking in the clock direction results in inverse clock rotation of the structure. The Henge can work in both directions.

The reduction ratio of Stonehenge is 1:30 because the fixed structure has 30 teeths and the internal should have 29 teeths. This means that 30 turns arround the henge will result in a full rotation of the nutating structure.

Considering the new definition of Henge, the Barrows are another type of Henges that are build with a land mount with or whithout a ditch arround it. These figures describe how a circular wood structure could describe a nutating motion supported by the land mount. There are many ways to make a structure oscillate, the key is to find a support to hang the structure with ropes that is higher then the position where the structure makes contact with the fixed structure.

At the bottom of the hill is drawn a nutating structure (5) where people (4) (or heavy animals) could walk, pushing it to the floor. The traction rope could be connected to the top shaft (2) or to the the nutating structure (5). The nutating structure (5) is hanged with ropes (3) to the shaft (2). The scale of the drawn items are not correctly scaled and is merely exemplificative.

The woodhenge has its fixed structure made of wood, fixed in the floor or attached to circular drilled stones. In this model the circular base was made in wood. The teeth difference of the fixed structure and the nutating structure is one, resulting in 1:20 ratio.

In the left side several persons walk over the nutating wood structure while in the right side people hold it in the air. One person could move the rope with a bacle to roll it in zigzag along the structure. The internal circles could be used for smaller nutating structures and for smaller reduction ratios. High loads need higher diameters with higher number of teeths and higher distances of walk to nutate the structure.

The stone circles are the fixed structure of Henges with gearing technology. Stones were aligned in a opened or closed circle where the nutating wood structure probably with one tooth less would gear. A central hanging axle could be used in stone or maybe in wood to nutate the structure.

Click the next image to see an animated small scale model animation of a Henge Stone Circle.

The animation of this Henge model shows the the motion of the circular structure as well as the way ropes could have beed rolled arround the structure. The motion was certainly done by hand with several people at the same time. The type of motion looks like the "dance" of the "giant" structure. Take a look at the left stone that has been broken while oscilating the internal structure. This could happen when the loads were too high for the fixed structure contruction.

Stones circles could be very large, and it is difficul to imagine their corresponding nutating structures and how they could be moved. In this figure we see one stone of Avebury. The stone is in a position that can help the nutating structure to slip over the stone (1) making a vertical down force and then fixing it in the lower position (2). The direction of rotation of the nutating structure would be the one of the arrow (3).

The stone circles in the sea are called Seahenges. This one was found with a tree root in the middle. Further investigation should be done in order to discover if the root was used has a central shaft of the Henge.

The linear stones could work as a fixed structure of a linear gear where a circular and vertical wood gear with closer teeths than the distance between the stones could gear. The traction ropes in red would be rolled in zigzag arround the vertical gear, then walking inside the wood structure and goind down the hill would roll the rope more than the lenght of the walked distance, producing a high traction force up the hill. Several structures could work together in paralel in the left linear line of stones. This would work just has the other circular henges, but this time in a linear manner. What could be pulled in the end of the two paralel traction ropes is a mistery. The ropes could also work outside the stones, this way it would be easier to roll the ropes arround it. Only with an experiment it will be possible to say if it works.

The hole in this stone has some abrassion sugesting that it was used to guide ropes when the traction direction needed to be changed. The two stones near it could be used to hold the ropes in position while there was changes from one henge to another one, or when the ropes needed to be changed.

The following analysis of the rock art drawings are a new type of reading adapt to the henge theory proposed here. Further investigation must be done in order to prove the following propositions.

The Cromeleque of Almendres has a drawing in one of its stones with the map of the henges that used to work there. Notice the center stones used to hang the nutating structures.

The technology used in Stonehenge was also discovered in the Eastern Island where the famous statues were transported over long distances to the places where they are standing now. The principle used in the transportation was the same but using a different approach. The theory of Eastern Island was firstly proposed by Prof. Silvestre Dias Antunes.

A conical base (1) is cuted in the stone to allow a nutating motion of the statue (2). A circular sequence of forces is produced in the statue with several ropes in radial shape (3, 4) or by hand forcing the conical region (6, 7) to touch the floor. A traction rope (8) is attached to the statue and fixed in the other side to a tree or stone. As a result of the nutating motion the statue will rotate and the rope will be rolled arround the statue forcing it to move. As the legend says, the statues walked alone while dancing. Some of the hills of Eastern Island seam to have a circular shape that could be used with circular structures as Henges and that could help the transport of the statues.

New Arqueology questions emerge with this new theory, one of them is why this technology has been forgotten? Other question is what kind of high loads did these civilizations transported to need such big technological monuments? Further studies should be taken by experts to find more information and conclusions.