Sarsen
Sarsen are blocks of sandstone found in large numbers in England, on the Salisbury plateau , in the rolling hills of Marlborough Downs, in Kent, and to a lesser extent in Berkshire , Essex , Oxfordshire , Dorset and Hampshire .
They are the postglacial remnants of an upper layer of silcretes from the Cenozoic era that once covered a large part of southern England. It is a dense, hard rock formed from sand that has been bound by a cement made of silicon dioxide , creating a kind of silicified sandstone. It is believed that this is due to weathering by silicification of sediments from the Paleocene during the Neogene to the Quaternary , as a result of acid leaching.
The English word sarsen (pronunciation ['sa: sǝn]) is an abbreviation of Saracen stone , where "Saracen" is to be equated with "pagan". In this respect, sarsen means something like "Heidenstein", "Stone of the Gentiles".
The builders of Stonehenge used sarsen stones. Even Avebury and other megalithic monuments in the south of England, like the Medway tombs were built with stones Sars.
Individual evidence
- ^ Sarsen Stones in Winchester . City of Winchester website , March 2, 2011, accessed April 12, 2018.
- ↑ J. Stewart Ullyot, Nash DJ, Whiteman CA & Mortimore RN: Distribution, petrology and mode of development of silcretes (sarsens and puddingstones) on the eastern South Downs, UK . In: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms . 29, No. 12, 2004. bibcode : 2004ESPL ... 29.1509U . doi : 10.1002 / esp.1136 .
- ^ Definition of sarsen . Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary , accessed April 12, 2018.
- ↑ Bruce Bedlam: The Stones… . stonehenge.tv, August 30, 2014, accessed April 12, 2018 (English).
- ↑ Martin Gray: Avebury . In: Sacred Sites: Places of Peace and Power, accessed April 12, 2018.