Crossword clues for sarsen
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sarsen \Sar"sen\, n. [Etymol. uncertain; perhaps for saracen stone, i.e., a heathen or pagan stone or monument.] One of the large sandstone blocks scattered over the English chalk downs; -- called also sarsen stone, and Druid stone. [Eng.]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"large sandstone boulder," 1640s, properly sarsen stone, i.e. "Saracen stone," from Saracen in the old sense of "pagan, heathen." The same word was applied to the ancient leavings outside Cornish tin mines, also known as Jews' pits, those being the terms that came to mind once to describe any ancient features, based on the Bible.
Wiktionary
n. (usually as “sarcen stone”) one of various blocks of sandstone found in various locations in southern England.
Wikipedia
Sarsen stones are sandstone blocks found in quantity in the United Kingdom on Salisbury Plain, the Marlborough Downs, in Kent, and in smaller quantities in Berkshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Dorset and Hampshire. They are the post-glacial remains of a cap of Cenozoic silcrete that once covered much of southern England – a dense, hard rock created from sand bound by a silica cement, making it a kind of silicified sandstone. This is thought to have formed during Neogene to Quaternary weathering by the silicification of Upper Paleocene Lambeth Group sediments, resulting from acid leaching. The word "sarsen" (pronunciation ['sa:sǝn]) is a shortening of "Saracen stone" which arose in the Wiltshire dialect. " Saracen" was a common name for Muslims, and came by extension to be used for anything regarded as non-Christian, whether Muslim, pagan Celtic, or other.
Usage examples of "sarsen".
The Sarsen Stones are the remains of a cap of Tertiary Sandstone which once covered the plain.
Hence it is not surprising that the number of Sarsen stones to be found on the Plain where Nature placed them is becoming less and less.
Such a theory, however attractive, should be accepted with due caution, for the cavities on the stone are far from the ends, and situated too close together to justify a comparison with the existing Sarsen trilithons of the outer circle.
Just within the area enclosed by the earthwork circle, lies a prostrate Sarsen Stone, to which this name has been given.
The monument proper, consisting of a circle of Sarsen Trilithons, enclosing a circle of upright foreign stones.
The Sarsen stones were obtained from the immediate neighbourhood, the foreign stones must have been imported from a very considerable distance.
Mauls of compact Sarsen weighing between thirty-six and sixty-four pounds.
A shallower excavation had to suffice in this case, but the base of the stone, as has been already intimated, was wider, and to secure greater stability blocks of Sarsen were provided for the stone to rest on, other blocks being packed in carefully as it was raised, and curiously enough among the firm packing were several large stone mauls, fitted in to make the whole mass solid and compact.
It is a question, as yet, if the outer Sarsen Trilithons were erected from the outside or the inside of the circle.
Excavation Q, yielded at a depth of three feet six inches to four feet six inches, ten flint axes, one sandstone axe, nine edged flint hammer-stones, four rounded flint hammer-stones, ten Sarsen hammers, and seven mauls, weighing from thirty-six to fifty-eight and a half pounds.
Sarsen, three edged hammer-stones of flint, one Sarsen and one Diabase hammer-stone, were found at depths varying between two feet and four feet.
The only other trace of metal is the small green stain upon the slab of Sarsen already alluded to.
Formerly comprising some hundreds of unhewn Sarsen stones, barely a score remain in position at the present day.
Sometimes blocks of Sarsen would be built over the body to protect it.
The track proceeds from sarsen to sarsen for a distance of fifteen miles.