When people talk about ancient civilizations, they tend to... make things up. Stonehenge, in particular, due to its recent cultural significance, has lots of ridiculous stories told about it. There's this narrative about primitivism, which generates interpretations centered on religion and ritual.<p>A more informative view, I think, is to assume it's practical. When I look at pictures of Stonehenge, it looks to me like motte and bailey. A <i>literal</i> motte and bailey, the military fortification, not the logical fallacy by the same name. A motte and bailey is a military structure that was extremely common in the middle ages.<p>There's a ditch around the outside, which is for defense against small groups of invaders. There's a big stone structure in the middle, which you can climb up on if attackers get past the ditch, using a structure that was removed some time later. The graves, cooking pits, and other things at the site are just signs of habitation.