What Love Is Like A Puzzle - 793 Words

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Drug Trafficking - 1134 Words

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A Financial Analysis of Next Free Essays

string(117) " and so the business will not have to pay interest on amounts borrowed that are temporarily surplus to requirements\." A Financial Analysis of NEXT By Tingyu WANG AC2407 Shakil Iqbal Patel Tuesday, 1st November, 2011 CONTENTS 1. Introduction3 2. Roles of Accounting and Finance3 3. We will write a custom essay sample on A Financial Analysis of Next or any similar topic only for you Order Now Financial Analysis4 3. 1. Discussion of NEXT4 3. 2. Finance of NEXT5 3. 3. Ratio Analysis6 3. 4. Application of roles to NEXT9 4. Conclusion10 5. References10 6. Appendices11 1. Introduction ‘Accounting is the process of recording, classifying, and reporting and interpreting the financial data. ’ (Johal et al, 2010:2). Accounting provides a key source of information about a business to those who need it, such as managers or owners. The framework makes cash and profit can be monitored, planned and controlled. It is essential to the running of any business or organization. (Jones, 2006:3). ‘Finance exists to help users to make better decisions and is concerned with the financing and investing activities of the business. ’ (Eddie et al, 2005:21). This essay will discuss the roles of accounting and finance within an organization and include a financial analysis of NEXT, which through the following structure: the next section identifies the roles of accounting and finance to NEXT. Section three makes some financial analysis, including the discussion of NEXT, evaluation of its finance, and ratio analysis. The fourth section is to examine the application of roles to NEXT. The final section is to make conclusion. 2. Roles of Accounting and Finance There are three main roles of accounting and finance within an organization. * Financial Accounting: Deals with the mechanistic bookkeeping progress and the preparation and interpretation of the financial accounts. For companies, it also includes the preparation of the annual report. It concludes measuring and reporting financial position, financial performance and anlaysing and interpreting financial statements. (Jones, 2006:13). * Financial Management: It is about managing the sources of finance of an organization which involves ‘managing the working capital (that is, short-term assets and liabilities) of a company or finding the cheapest form of borrowing. ’ (Jones, 2006:14) * Management Accounting: Covers the internal accounting of an organization. It consists of costing, budgeting, standard costing, short-term decision making, strategic management accounting, capital investment appraisal and discounted cash flow. IBID). 3. Financial Analysis 4. 1. Discussion of NEXT NEXT plc is a UK based retailer offering exciting, beautifully designed, excellent quality fashion and accessories for men, women and children together with home products. The company was founded by Joseph Hepworth in Leeds in 1864. The first NEXT shop opened on 12 February 1982. In 1986, Davies moved the headquarters from Leeds to Leicester, to be closer to the main garment manufacturers. In autumn 2009, NEXT plc launched an online catalogue for the United States offering clothing, shoes and accessories. It distributes through three main channels: Next Retail, a chain of more than 500 stores in the UK and Eire; NEXT Directory, a home shopping catalogue and website with nearly 3 million active customers; and NEXT International, with more than 180 stores around the world. NEXT also has a growing website capability in more than 30 countries worldwide. (Next Corporate, 2011). In UK, there are three analogous brand companies like Top shop, Monsoon, and Aquascutum. They all operate as similar home products as NEXT, like clothing, footwear, and accessories for men, women and children and have online services and various strategies. It is obvious to increase competition to NEXT. While for NEXT, they use their influence to promote good practice and raise awareness, believe working together in partnership is the best way they can make a positive difference. Using approach to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy use, minimize waste produced and increase the quality recycled, increase the efficiency of their delivery fleet help NEXT to increase revenues, profits, earnings per share and dividends per share from 2010 to 2011. It is believed that NEXT will have a brighter future. (IBID). According to the report in Financial Times (2011), FTSE 100 drops to fortnight-low, while NEXT was up 2. 9 percent to ? 26. 14, which plans to launch a fixed-odds sports book next year could boost group profit by 50 percent. The fact claims that NEXT have a specific operating strategy make brilliant finance performance. 4. 2. Finance of NEXT The sources of finance of NEXT were used include following: * Use of funds: According to NEXT report (2010), the company use funds for registered charities, groups or organizations and purchased a further ? 1. 4million shares at a cost of ? 28million. * Internal Sources of Finance: 1) Short-term: ? Delay payment to creditors: For NEXT, the business has more trade payables in 2011 than 2010, it delays payment to creditors can keep cash longer. ‘Suppliers are in effect offering a business an interest-free loan, the period of the ‘loan’ is extended and funds can be retained within the business. ’ (Peter et al, 2008:395). ?T ighter credit control: ‘All customers who wish to trade on credit terms are subject to credit verification procedures. ’ (NEXT plc, report of 2010:79). It is possible for the business to reduce the proportion of assets held in this form and so release funds for other purposes. 2) Long-term: Retained profit: From 2009 to 2011, the profit earnings have been increasing from ? 1523. 2, ? 1615. 2, to ? 1782. 6. (NEXT, 2010: 46) The profits are retained within the business rather than being distributed to shareholders in the form of dividends, the funds of business are increased. * External Sources of Finance: (1) Long-term: ? Ordinary shares: For NEXT, the ordinary shares were changed several time at different time because of the high risks associated with this form of investment, the ordinary shareholders also required a comparatively high rate of return. Loans: The unsecured bank loans in 2010 is ? 75million and ? 115million in 2011. Their interest rate are ? 22. 7million and ? 24. 3million. (NEXT, 2010:47). ‘The company’s medium term borrowing facilities may be subject to early repayment if a majority of lending banks gave written to notice to the company within 30 days of the change of control. In addition, there are some security social costs. ’ (NEXT, 2010:24). This means interest will be paid only on amounts drawn and so the business will not have to pay interest on amounts borrowed that are temporarily surplus to requirements. You read "A Financial Analysis of Next" in category "Papers" Term loans tend to be cheap to set up and can be quite flexible as to conditions. Besides, corporate bonds are a type of long-term loans. In 2010, it is ? 520. 9million and ? 471. 2million in 2011. The decreased gearing ratio states the company has the lower risk to pay the interests on its loans. (Peter et al, 2008:399) (2) Short-term: ? Bank overdrafts: The bank overdrafts in 2010 is ? 4. 7million and ? 10. 2 million in 2011. It represents a very flexible form of borrows and easy to arrange as the size of bank overdraft can be increased or decreased. Debt factoring: Take over NEXT’s debt collection agencies. ‘It can result in savings in credit management and create more certainty with the cash flows. It can also release the time of key personnel for more profitable activities. ’(IBID:425) 4. 3. Ratio Analysis Profitability | Year 2011| Year 2010| Gross Profit Margin| 29. 21%| 29. 26%| Net Profit Margin| 16. 67%| 15. 58%| Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)| 60. 01 %| 56. 72%| Asset Turnover| 3. 60| 3. 64| The gross profit margin was decreased 0. 05% from 2010 to 2011. The lower the gross profit margin, the worse for the company. The decline in this ratio is because of the change in the cost of goods sold, the stock sell more expensive; this year more inventory wastage and fewer products selling than last year. The net profit margin increased 1. 09% due to the expenses being controlled very well. The business can make more profit, means the bigger, the better. The ROCE ratio increased 3. 29%, which comes from the returns from the bank. It measures high efficiency the assets are used to generate profit, the bigger ratio, the better return. The asset turnover decreased 0. 04. This result is affected by the increased ROCE. The smaller, the worse for the company. Efficiency | Year 2011| Year 2010| Inventories Turnover| 55. 0 days| 46. 8 days| Trade Receivables Turnover| 56. 4 days| 55. 7 days| Trade Payables Turnover| 29. 2 days| 26. 5 days| The inventories turnover increased 8. 2 days. The more frequently stock is turned over the better. The reason of the improvement is the more inventories and lower cost of sales in 2011 than 2010. The trade receivables turnover has a slight increase as at 0. 7 days. It means more cash was tied up in trade receivables for each ? 1 of sales revenue in 2011 than in 2010. Therefore, it is bad for the company. It may because of incurring lower expenses, such as discounts allowed to customers who pay quickly in 2010. The trade payable turnover increased 2. 7 days, in the average length of time that elapsed between buying inventories and services and paying for them. This result depends on the length of credit period agreed with trade creditors. It is beneficial because the business is using free finance provided by suppliers. Liquidity | Year 2011| Year 2010| Current Ratio| 1. 28:1| 1. 37:1| Quick Assets Ratio| 0. 84:1| 0. 97:1| The two current ratios are between 1 and 2. A range from 1 to 2 is considered optimum. ’ (Patel, 2010:11). It decreased 0. 09 because of the type of the business of NEXT, the higher the ratio, the more liquid the business is considered to be, the decline is good for the company. The quick assets ratio decreased 0. 13 due to stocks removed from the numerator. ‘The optimum range is usually considered to be in the rang e 0. 75-1. 00. ’ (Patel, 2010:12). It is obvious to see that the ‘liquid’ current assets do not quite cover the current liabilities, so the business may be experiencing some liquidity problems. With the decline of the quick assets ratio, it is beneficial for the company. Capital Structure | Year 2011| Year 2010| Gearing| 49. 1%| 55. 7%| Interest Cover| 23. 7 times| 21. 0 times| ‘Broadly, the gearing range 30% – 60% is considered OK. ’ (Patel, 2010:2). The gearing decreased 6. 6%, because it has borrowed more in 2010 than 2011. ‘The higher the gearing, the higher the risk that the business will be unable to pay the interest on its loans or make repayments in times of economic recession. ’ (Jill et al, 2007:197) So, this is good for the company. The interest cover increased 2. times, because the decreasing long-term debts. ‘Generally, a figure over 2 is needed to be on the safe side. ’ (Patel, 2010:4). It is positive for the company, the higher the level of operating profit coverage, the smaller the risk to the shareholders. Investor | Year 2011| Year 2010| Earnings per share (EPS)| 221. 9p| 188. 5p| Dividend Cover| 3. 1 times| 3. 4 times| Return on Equity (ROE)| 2. 7| 1. 7| The latest price earnings ratio (PE) is = 11. 44 (Financial Times @ 24/10/2011) The latest dividend yield is = 3. 32% (Financial Times @ 24/10/2011) The EPS increased 33. p because of particular business over time. The bigger, the better for the company. The dividend cover decreased 0. 3 times because of the proportion of earnings have been paid out as dividend is changed. ‘The more usual situation of a high value, greater than 1, shows only a proportion of the profits being paid out as dividend. The higher the figure the more profits have been retained in the business. ’ (Patel, 2010:7). The ROE was increased 1. 0. It is a very big improvement, because the company put much profit on equity holders than shareholders’ equity. For the company, the bigger, the better. 4. 4. Application of roles to NEXT Based on the annual report and accounts of NEXT in January 2011, it is one part of financial accounting. The financial statements such as Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement show evidence of financial accounting, because all of the finance information and financial ratios can help assessing the financial health of NEXT, and examine various aspects of financial position and performance. They are helpful to plan and control operating purposes for NEXT. By considering the main sources of finance of NEXT to examine various aspects of the capital markets and identifying the factors that must be taken into account when managing the working capital of NEXT, the business can make financing decisions on investment and new objectives and so on. These evidences can be the role of financial management. Because of the management accounting consists of costing, budgeting, standard costing, short-term decision making, strategic management accounting, capital investment appraisal and discounted cash flow. There is no evidence in this case, therefore, For NEXT, it has no management accounting. . Conclusion In order to make a financial analysis of NEXT plc, the essay was first to identify the three main roles of accounting and finance to an organization, they are financial accounting, financial management and management accounting. After that, it discussed some issues of NEXT, such as the history, size, future, economic climate and topical informa tion and so on. Based on the NEXT annual report and accounts in January 2011, to understand how the company is financed, the report was listed some sources of finance which NEXT used, added the changes and the reasons as well. Following was the ratio analysis for NEXT, including profitability, efficiency, liquidity, capital structure and investment ratios. Through the results, it was clear to see the trend and effects on NEXT. Finally, by examining the annual report and accounts, it has applied the roles of accounting and finance to NEXT. In this case, NEXT plc applied the financial accounting and financial management. To sum up, financial analysis is the important basis for evaluating financial position and operating performance. It also realizes financial goals and the important steps to implement correct investment decisions. . References 1. Johal et al, (2010) in Patel, S. ,(2011), What is Accounting, University of Central Lancashire. 2. Jones, M. (2006), Accounting, John Wiley, Chichester. 3. Eddie McLaney, Peter Antrill (2005) Accounting: An Introduction, FT Prentice Hall. 4. Peter Atrill, Eddie McLaney, (2008), Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists, FT Prentice Hall. 5. Jill Collis and Roger Hu ssey, (2007), Business Accounting, Palgrave Macmillan 6. Patel, S. , (2010), A Ratio Analysis Worksheet (Part 1and 2), University of Central Lancashire. 7. Financial Times, (2011), FTSE 100 Drops to Fortnight-low, p4, 20 October 2011. 8. Financial Times, (2011), Companies Markets: Retailers: NEXT plc, 24th October 2011. 9. NEXT plc, (2010), Annual Report and Accounts. 10. Next Corporate, (2011), About Next. Available at: http://www. nextplc. co. uk/about-next. aspx. Accessed: 25th October 2011 6. Appendices 1) Profitability Ratios: Gross Profit Margin = Gross ProfitSales * 100% FY 2010: Gross Profit Margin = 996. 93406. 5 * 100% = 29. 26% 2011: Gross Profit Margin = 1008. 73453. 7 * 100% = 29. 21% Net Profit Margin = Profit before Taxation and InterestSales *100% FY 2010: Net Profit Margin = 505. 3+25. 33406. 5 * 100% = 15. 58% 2011: Net Profit Margin = 551. 4+24. 33453. 7 * 100% = 16. 67% Return on Capital Employed = Profit before Taxation and InterestTotal Assets less Current Liabilities * 100% FY 2010: ROCE = 505. 3+25. 31693. 5-758. 1 * 100% = 56. 72% 2011: ROCE = 551. 4+24. 31792. 3-832. 9 * 100% = 60. 01% Asset Turnover = SalesTotal Assest less Current Liabilities FY 2010: Asset Turnover = 3406. 51693. 5-758. 1 = 3. 64 2011: Asset Turnover = 3453. 71792. 3-832. = 3. 60 2) Efficiency Ratios: Inventories Turnover = InventoriesCost of Sales * 365 FY 2010: Inventories Turnover = 309. 02409. 6 * 365 = 46. 8 days 2011: Inventories Turnover = 368. 32445. 0 * 365 = 55. 0 days Trade Receivables Turnover = Trade ReceivableSales * 365 FY 2010: Trade Receivables Turnover = 520. 23406. 5 * 365 = 55. 7 days 2011: Trade Receivables Turnover = 533. 33453. 7 * 365 = 56. 4 days Trade Paya bles Turnover = Trade PayablesCost of Sales * 365 FY 2010: Trade Payables Turnover = 175. 02409. 6 * 365 = 26. 5 days 2011: Trade Payables Turnover = 195. 52445. * 365 = 29. 2 days 3) Liquidity Ratios: Current Ratio = Current AssetsCurrent Liabilities FY 2010: Current Ratio = 1041. 2758. 1 = 1. 37:1 2011: Current Ratio = 1067. 3832. 9 = 1. 28:1 Quick Assets Ratio = Current Assets-InventoriesCurrent Liabilities FY 2010: Quick Assets Ratio = 1041. 2-309. 0758. 1 = 0. 97:1 2011: Quick Assets Ratio = 1067. 3-368. 3832. 9 = 0. 84:1 4) Capital Structure: Gearing = Long-termnon-currentloansTotal Assets less Current Liabilities * 100% FY 2010: Gearing = 520. 91693. 5-758. 1 * 100% = 55. 7% 2011: Gearing = 471. 21792. 3-832. 9 * 100% = 49. % Interest Cover = Profit before Taxation and InterestInterest Payable FY 2010: Interest Cover = 505. 3 +25. 325. 3 = 21. 0 times 2011: Interest Cover = 551. 4+24. 324. 3 = 23. 7 times 5) Investment Ratios: Dividend Cover = Profit on ordinary activities af ter taxationOrdinary equitydividends FY 2010: Dividend Cover = 364. 1108. 5 = 3. 4 times 2011: Dividend Cover = 401. 1129. 6 = 3. 1 times Return on Equity (ROE) = Profit on ordinary activities after taxationEquity Shareholders’Funds * 100% FY 2010: ROE = 364. 1133. 6 * 100% = 2. 7 2011: ROE = 401. 1232. 3 * 100% = 1. 7 How to cite A Financial Analysis of Next, Papers

None Provided Essay Thesis Example For Students

None Provided Essay Thesis Stonehenge, one of the great Seven Wonders of the World, but what do we really know about it. What was its purpose, how was it built and by whom. Many different answers come up when asking the question What is Stonehenge?† Behind every great structure in the world, there are the people who made them, and who took the time and effort to design them. Those who made Stonehenge succeeded in creating an incredibly complex and mysterious structure that lived on long after its creators were dead. The many aspects of Stonehenge and the processes by which it was built reveal much about the intelligence and sophistication of the civilizations that designed and built the monument, despite the fact that it is difficult to find out who exactly these people were. They have left very little evidence behind with which we could get a better idea of their everyday lives, their culture, their surroundings, and their affairs with other peoples. The technology and wisdom that are inevitably require d in constructing such a monument show that these prehistoric peoples had had more expertise than expected. The planning and assembling of Stonehenge took a very long time (about one thousand years, from 2800 BC to 1500 BC*), and not one but many different groups of people were involved in the process. How they came about plays an important role in understanding them. Some of the first men to come to England that are connected to the Stonehenge builders came when the ice blocking Britain and France melted around 10,000 BC. After them, many more groups of people came from the mainland, and had great influence on those already living there. The first group involved in the building of Stonehenge was the Windmill Hill people. These people were semi nomadic farmers, mainly just keeping their flocks of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and dogs, and growing wheat, who had arrived as some of the last Neolithic (or New Stone Age, 4300 – 2200 BC) newcomers in England. Not only were they far mers they also hunted, mined flint, made and traded axes, and could almost be called industrialists. The Windmill Hill people had a very strong religion with a great respect for their dead and their ancestors. They have exceptional collective graves, in the form of long barrows, or long manmade piles of dirt, sometimes 300 feet long. Many riches such as food, tools, and pottery were buried with the dead. The next group to contribute to Stonehenge was the Beaker people; known for the beaker-like pottery they would frequently bury with their dead. These people did not practice the ritual of collective burials, rather single or double burials, and the dead were accompanied by more weapons such as daggers and axes. These single burials were in the form of round barrows. The Beaker people were well organized, active, and powerful, and also probably more territorial. They practiced commerce with other cultures, and their graves give an impression of there being an aristocracy in the socie ty. The last major group to put time into the construction of Stonehenge was the Wessex culture group. They arrived on Salisbury plain around 1400 BC, and were involved in building the most prominent part of Stonehenge- the great stone circles. These people were well organized, and probably less aggressive than their predecessors, while more industrious. The people of Wessex were less concerned with war than they were with art, peace, and trade. In the graves of their chieftains (the only members of society who were preserved for afterlife), were goods such as daggers, bows, and various other ornaments. Their access to such treasures can perhaps be attributed to their great international traders who probably traded with people from the Mediterranean Sea area. They built the final phase of Stonehenge, and perhaps brought about many cultural changes to the monument such as giving the monument visual magnificence and more astronomical precision. It is necessary, in order to understand the complexity involved in the assembling of Stonehenge, to know the process by which and the environment in which the monument was built. By the time Stonehenge was built, the landscape around the area on Salisbury Plain was rather open with more farmland and grazing land, and less forest. Underneath the first few feet of soil on Salisbury Plain there was a substantial layer of hard chalk, which made building rudimentary structures somewhat easier for the people of the era. The first phase in building Stonehenge was that of the earth monument, which consisted of a circular bank of dirt (originally about 6 feet tall, now barely 2 feet tall) with a ditch running along the outside of the bank. There are two breaks in the ditch and bank, forming two entrances, and in addition there are 56 Aubrey Holes, named for John Aubrey, their discoverer, in a circle just inside the earth bank. This first phase, Stonehenge I, built by the Windmill Hill people, took from about 2950 to 2900 BC to con struct. Slightly more detailed than the first, the second phase of building Stonehenge involved the creation of a wooden monument. The postholes scattered about the floor of the monument are evidence for this stage. There seem to have been a roughly corridor shaped structure at the southern entrance of the earth monument, and a more detailed setting around the northeastern entrance. The Avenue, made up of a pair of long, straight, and parallel ditches, was also said to have been part of this second phase of Stonehenge. Stonehenge II could be credited to the Beaker people, approximately between the years 2800 and 2300 BC. The third and most impressive stage of the monument is that of the stone monument. Since the building of this phase extended from about 2500 to 1600 BC, it was the longest and most complex of the three, and was so divided up into six sub phases. First in the sequence was the arrival of the bluestones (the first, and smaller, type of stone involved in Stonehenge III) , and then the arrival of the sarsen stones (the larger, bulkier stones in Stonehenge III), followed by a possible bluestone arrangement. Then the stones were erected to their final settings (after a little rearranging), and finally small holes called the X and Y holes were dug around the outside of the stone circles. The builders of Stonehenge III were the people of the Wessex Culture, most likely in alliance with other peoples. It is understandable, through all of the complexity shown in the monument, that it many long hours to build and much patience and persistence to complete the construction. The bluestones had to be carried 200 to 250 miles from their source in the Prescelly Mountains back to the Stonehenge site. They were probably carried by waterways for most of the route because waterways are safer, quicker, and less difficult. One probable route was that the stones would be dragged to the coast nearest the Prescelly Mountains, then along the coast of the Bristol Channel, and then into the river systems of England, up the Stonehenge Avenue, and toward the monument. The most simple was to transport the stones over land is by having a crew of men to haul the stones on rollers. Similar transport methods were used for the sarsen stones, however their location was much closer as the source of the sarsen stone was in the Marlborough Downs, only about 20 miles north of Stonehenge. There was somewhat of a clear land path for these stones to be carried on, so water transport was at a minimum. But, these stones weighed about 30 tons each, and hauling these stones over 20 miles of hills could have easily used a total of 1,000 men and 7 years to be completed. The sarsen stones were put into large holes in the ground, and joined to their lintels by a mortise-and-tenon joint, and the lintels joined to each other (in the outer circle) with a tongue-and-groove joint. Much organization skills are needed to coordinate such a large number of men to perform the physical labor of constructing such a monument. The effort put into fabricating this monument is incomparable to anything that would be done today. When all of the constructing, refining, and arranging was finished, the resulting structure was extraordinary. There is an outermost circle (still considerably inside the ditch and bank) of 30 of the sarsen stones, each averaging 13 feet 6 inches tall, and each connected by a lintel stone to each stone on either side. Just inside that circle of sarsens is a circle of bluestones, smaller stones which are usually not taller than 6 feet. Inside of the bluestone circle is the trilithon horseshoe, or a horseshoe-shaped setting of sarsens in trilithons, or two sarsens standing next to each other with one lintel across the top. The open end of the horseshoe faces the northeast. Inside the trilithon horseshoe is a bluestone horseshoe. Inside the bluestone horseshoe, somewhat towards the center, is the altar stone, which might not have been used for that purpose. At the entrance to the monument, the heel stone stands just south of the line that runs down the center of the avenue, and not far off lies the slaughter stone, lying on the ground in the break of the circular bank. There are four station stones just inside the earth bank- one that points north, one that points to the south, and two that together make a line perpendicular to the axis of the avenue. The faces of all of the sarsen stones were dressed and shaped, and they were mostly given a convex shape to exaggerate the impression of grandeur one gets when looking up at the monuments. Being that there is little evidence for what Stonehenge could have been created for, other than the people buried there and what we directly observe about the monument, there have been many hypotheses about its purpose, and many of these hypotheses seem to be appropriate. Among the most accepted of these conjectures is that the stone monument was meant to be a temple, a burial ground, and, see mingly the most apparent of these, a solar/lunar observatory. The main entrance of Stonehenge that has the Avenue’s opening, towards which the entire stone monument is situated, points directly at the sunrise on the summer solstice. When standing in the center of the monument, on the longest day of the year, one can see the sun rise directly over the heel stone. This seems to force a viewer to notice the sunrise on the longest day of the year. The original four â€Å"station stones† placed around the circle make many alignments to point to rise and set points of the sun and moon on winter and summer solstices. Noteworthy is that the combination of sun and moon solstice rise and set points could only be collectively arranged in a perfect rectangle at the latitude at which Stonehenge is situated. A few miles north or south and the combination would have to be a parallelogram. In addition to the station stone alignments, each trilithon in the center horseshoe corresponds to certain alignments, as there are two sunset trilithons, a sunrise trilithon, and two for lunar alignments. Not only does this show that the builders and planners of Stonehenge had a great regard for the heavens, but also that they had great knowledge of geometry and science to be able to find exact angle measurements and proportions. It can also be seen that the Aubrey Holes could be used as a system of predicting eclipses. The 56 Aubrey Holes correspond to 3 cycles of the moon’s orbital wobble (The moon’s orbit wobbles in cycles of 18.66 years) and these could be used to line up with various solar alignments in Stonehenge to predict when the sun and moon would be at the same point in the sky. By a system of moving three markers around the 56 positions of the Aubrey holes, when all three were in the same spot, an eclipse was to occur. Within places in Stonehenge, such as the Aubrey Holes and the outer ditch, cremation remains of hundreds of people were found. This i nfers that Stonehenge was used as a primary burial site in the Stone and Bronze Ages. Remarkable is that a great amount of cremations were found on the southeast side of the circle, which is where the moon rises at its most southerly point. The many cultures of the Neolithic and Bronze ages seemed to have a preoccupation with death and the afterlife, and consequently took great regard to having the dead buried properly. In addition, since it is not possible to give each member of a society a proper burial in such a small area, the people must have had a hierarchical society in which some individuals had precedence over others for a glorious afterlife. As a place of worship, Stonehenge shows much detail and substance. Many of the celestial alignments put focus on things that are greater and more eternal than human beings, and these things could very well be the basis of the religion of the prehistoric cultures in the area. When seen from above, the lintels on the outer sarsen circle form a perfect circle that is impeccably level with the ground. Since this cannot be appreciated by people standing on the ground, it seems as if it is meant to be seen by someone above. The fixation with death and the afterlife among the peoples of Salisbury Plain seems to be a religion in itself. Perhaps the sun and moon gods, in being born and dying within their own cycles of rising and setting (and especially the moon’s cycle of growing dark and then bright again), could aid the soul of the human in being reborn in the afterlife. . The strategy for showing their gods of their worth was clearly well thought-out and well planned by the builders and peoples of the Stone Age. The complexity and intelligence of the peoples of Stonehenge can also be seen in surrounding monuments created by them and their neighbors. Most of the enclosures and round barrows in the vicinity of Stonehenge were created for burial purposes, with one or two people buried within them, usually accompani ed by valuables such as daggers, pottery, and in some cases, gold ornaments. These treasures often represent high status or high political position, indicating a structured government and system of beliefs that the cultures of Salisbury Plain possessed. Stonehenge represents the evolving and changing society of prehistoric times that gradually changed into a well-developed society with rulers, priests, and a working and farming class, as well as relations with other cultures from far away with which to engage in trade and associate. The idea that men from the Stone Age were unintelligent, ill-mannered barbarians is far from the truth in the case of Stonehenge. The cultures of Windmill Hill, the Beaker people, and Wessex all thoroughly demonstrate organized systems and communities of the Stone and Bronze Ages. Daniel Defoe EssayBIBLIOGRAPHYAncient Voices: The Secret of Stonehenge. Dir. Jean-Claude Bragard. Narrator Mark Hammil.Videocassette. BBC/Time Life, 1998. Cohen, I.L. The Secret of Stonehenge. Greenvale, NY: New Research Publications, Inc., 1977. Dimitrakopoulos, Sandra. (2000). Mystic Places: Stonehenge, Online}. Available HTTP: http://exn.ca/mysticplaces/stonehenge.cfm. Hawkins, Gerald S. Stonehenge Decoded. New York: Doubleday, 1965. Mackie, Euan. The Megalith Builders. Oxford: Phaidon Press Ltd., 1977. Niel, Fernand. The Mysteries of Stonehenge. New York: Avon Books, 1975. Service, Alastair, and Jean Bradbery. Megaliths and Their Mysteries. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1979. Souden, David. 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