Stonehenge was 'Lourdes of prehistoric Europe', claim archaelogists

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The Guardian's online site, in its Archaeology section, has a very interesting article written by Maev Kennedy about new evidence found in Stonehenge. Said evidence could mean that this iconic site used to be a healing place to which people from all over the continent were drawn as early as 7,000BC.

Kennedy reports that archaeologists Tim Darvil and Geoffrey Wainwright discovered some scraps of charred wood and a little pile of stone chips that would be, according to them, evidence to prove that people around that time used to believe in the healing power of "bluestones", which are big pieces of spotted dolomite, making Stonehenge not only a giant calendar to mark the solstices as well as a site of ancestor worship, but a place to search for health.

Darvil and Wainwright believe that the bluestones, which are roughly the size of a man, are actually the centrepiece of Stonehenge, and that the much more impressive sarsens (the bigger pieces of stone that surround them) are just an architectural framework for them. The theory that supports this is that, according to their excavation results, the bluestones would have been brought to Stonehenge from North Wales (250km away) using just human effort because of the belief that they had strong healing powers, and in an effort to add more significance to a place that was already of ancient nature. They have also found evidence of people being buried with small fragments of bluestone, many of them bearing signs of pain or illness, which would reinforce their theory of the beliefs of the ancient inhabitants of the area. The significance of the charred wood mentioned earlier is that it was the only organic remain linked to the bluestone chips, thus, it was the only mean of dating the site.

If correctly interpreted, the findings of these two archaeologists would certainly change a great deal of the theories made earlier by other researchers, implying a much more complex story that previously thought, even involving Romans seeking the healing magic of this site. Still, Mr. Wainwright claims that the investigation is a work in progress and that there's much more to be found.

I think this theory is really interesting, and it gives me the hope that there's still lots of work to be done by us, aspiring archaeologists, in the future. Nevertheless, I would like to look for more information about this subject before considering it to be a plausible theory because I think it's assumptions are a bit of a stretch, considering the evidence they provide.

I recommend you to check out the whole article (and the Guardian's Archaeology section) if you want to learn more about this fascinating (at least for me!) subject.
Here's the URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/sep/22/archaeology