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{{Short description|Ancient monument in England}} | |||
:''For other meanings of '''Stonehenge''', see: ]'' | |||
{{Other uses}} | |||
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{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}} | |||
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}} | |||
{{Infobox ancient site | |||
|name = Stonehenge | |||
|image = File:Stonehenge2007 07 30.jpg | |||
|alt = | |||
|caption = Stonehenge in July 2007 | |||
|map_type = United Kingdom Wiltshire | |||
|map_size = | |||
|relief = | |||
|map_caption = Map of Wiltshire showing the location of Stonehenge | |||
|coordinates = {{coord|51|10|44|N|1|49|34|W|type:landmark_region:GB-WIL|display=inline,title}} | |||
|location = <!--near ], -->], England | |||
|region = ] | |||
|type = ] | |||
|part_of = | |||
|length = | |||
|width = | |||
|area = | |||
<!--|altitude_m = 101--> | |||
|height = Each standing stone was around {{cvt|13|ft}} high | |||
|builder = | |||
|material = ], ] | |||
|built = ] and ] | |||
|abandoned = | |||
|epochs = | |||
|cultures = | |||
|dependency_of = | |||
|occupants = | |||
|event = | |||
|excavations = ] | |||
|archaeologists = | |||
|condition = | |||
|ownership = ] | |||
|management = ] | |||
|public_access = | |||
|website = {{URL|https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/stonehenge}} | |||
|designation1 = WHS | |||
|designation1_date = 1986 <small>(10th ])</small> | |||
|designation1_number = | |||
|designation1_criteria = i, ii, iii | |||
|designation1_type = Cultural | |||
|designation1_partof = ] | |||
|designation1_free1name = Region | |||
|designation1_free1value = ] | |||
| designation2 = Scheduled monument | |||
| designation2_offname= Stonehenge, the Avenue, and three barrows adjacent to the Avenue forming part of a round barrow cemetery on Countess Farm<ref name="NHE">{{National Heritage List for England|num=1010140|desc=Stonehenge, the Avenue, and three barrows adjacent to the Avenue forming part of a round barrow cemetery on Countess Farm |access-date=13 Dec 2023}}</ref> | |||
| designation2_date = {{Start date and age|1882|08|18|df=yes}} | |||
| designation2_number = 1010140<ref name="NHE"/> | |||
| notes = | |||
}} | |||
'''Stonehenge''' is a ] ] on ] in ], England, {{convert|2|mi|sigfig=1|spell=in}} west of ]. It consists of an outer ring of vertical ] ], each around {{convert|13|ft}} high, {{convert|7|ft|spell=in}} wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal ] stones, held in place with ] joints, a feature unique among contemporary monuments.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/stonehenge/what_is_it.php |title=Stonehenge : Wiltshire England What is it? |last=Anon |work=Megalithic Europe |publisher=The Bradshaw Foundation |access-date=6 November 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090530224959/http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/stonehenge/what_is_it.php |archive-date= 30 May 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/stonehenge/alexander-text |title=If the Stones Could Speak: Searching for the Meaning of Stonehenge |last=Alexander |first=Caroline |work=National Geographic Magazine |publisher=National Geographic Society |access-date=6 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090928062520/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/stonehenge/alexander-text |archive-date=28 September 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Inside is a ring of smaller ]s. Inside these are free-standing ]s, two bulkier vertical sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is aligned towards the sunrise on the ] and sunset on the ]. The stones are set within ] in the middle of the densest complex of ] and ] monuments in England, including several hundred '']'' (burial mounds).<ref>{{cite journal |author=Young |first1=Christopher |last2=Chadburn |first2=Amanda |last3=Bedu |first3=Isabelle |date=January 2009 |title=Stonehenge World Heritage Site Management Plan 2009 |url=http://www.stonehengeandaveburywhs.org/assets/Full-MP-2009-low-res-pdf.pdf |journal=UNESCO |pages=20–22}}</ref> | |||
Stonehenge was constructed in several phases beginning about 3100 BC and continuing until about 1600 BC. The famous circle of large sarsen stones were placed between 2600 BC and 2400 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. ] suggests that the ]s were given their current positions between 2400 and 2200 BC,<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">{{cite news |title=Dig pinpoints Stonehenge origins |work=BBC |date=21 September 2008 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7625145.stm |access-date=22 September 2008 |first=James |last=Morgan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080922111534/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7625145.stm |archive-date=22 September 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC.<ref name="Guardian"/><ref name="Independent"/><ref name="BBC News"/> | |||
] | |||
{{GBthumb|113|217|SU123422}} | |||
One of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Julie |last2=Selwyn |first2=Tom |title=Thinking Through Tourism |date=2010 |publisher=Berg |page=191}}</ref> It has been a legally protected ] since the ] was passed.<ref name="NHE"/> The ] were added to ]'s list of ]s in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by ] and managed by ]; the ] is owned by the ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history/ |title=History of Stonehenge |website=] |access-date = 7 June 2016 |quote=The monument remained in private ownership until 1918 when Cecil Chubb, a local man who had purchased Stonehenge from the Antrobus family at an auction three years previously, gave it to the nation. Thereafter, the duty to conserve the monument fell to the state, today a role performed on its behalf by English Heritage. |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160602140112/http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history |archive-date = 2 June 2016 |url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Ancient ceremonial landscape of great archaeological and wildlife interest |website=Stonehenge Landscape |publisher=] |url=http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stonehengelandscape |access-date=17 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618014200/http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stonehengelandscape/ |archive-date=18 June 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
'''Stonehenge''' is a ] and ] ]ic ] located near ] in the ] county of ], about 8 miles (13 km) north of ]. Its geographical location is 51°10′44,85″N, 1°49′35,13″W . | |||
It is composed of ] surrounding a circular setting of large ] and is one of the most famous ] sites in the world. ] think that the standing stones were erected between ] and ] although the surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about ]. | |||
Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pitts |first=Mike |date=8 August 2008 |title=Stonehenge: one of our largest excavations draws to a close |journal=British Archaeology |issue=102 |page=13 |issn=1357-4442}}</ref> Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, and continued for at least another 500 years.<ref name="burial">{{cite news |first=Randolph E. |last=Schmid |title=Study: Stonehenge was a burial site for centuries |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/topstories/2008-05-29-1711958402_x.htm |agency=Associated Press |date=29 May 2008 |access-date=2 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904020558/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/topstories/2008-05-29-1711958402_x.htm |archive-date=4 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
The site and its surroundings were added to the ]'s list of ] in 1986 in a co-listing with ] henge monument, and it is also a legally protected ]. Stonehenge itself is owned and managed by ] while the surrounding land is owned by the ]. | |||
==Etymology== | ==Etymology== | ||
]s by ] between 1573 and 1575]] | |||
]'s ''Stonehenge Complete'' gives the derivation of Stonehenge as coming from the ] words "stān" meaning "stone", and either "hencg" meaning "]" (because the stone lintels hinge on the upright stones) or "hen(c)en" meaning "]" or "instrument of torture". Medieval gallows consisted of two uprights with a lintel joining them, resembling Stonehenge's ]s, rather than looking like the inverted L-shape more familiar today. | |||
The '']'' cites ]'s 10th-century glossary, in which ''henge-cliff'' is given the meaning {{gloss|precipice}}, or stone; thus, the ''stanenges'' or ''Stanheng'' "not far from ]" recorded by 11th-century writers are "stones supported in the air". In 1740, ] notes: "Pendulous rocks are now called henges in Yorkshire ... I doubt not, Stonehenge in Saxon signifies the hanging stones."<ref name="OEDhenge">{{cite book |title=] |chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/oxfordenglishdic0008unse |chapter-url-access = registration |publisher=] |date=1989 |edition=2nd |chapter=Stonehenge; henge<sup>2</sup>}}</ref> ]'s ''Stonehenge Complete'' gives the derivation of the name ''Stonehenge'' as coming from the ] words {{lang|ang|stān}} {{gloss|stone}}, and either {{lang|ang|hencg}} {{gloss|]}} (because the stone ]s hinge on the upright stones) or {{lang|ang|hen(c)en}} {{gloss|]}} or {{gloss|]}} or {{gloss|instrument of torture}} (though elsewhere in his book, Chippindale cites the {{gloss|suspended stones}} etymology).<ref>{{cite book |last=Chippindale |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Chippindale |title=Stonehenge Complete |publisher=Thames and Hudson |location=London |date=2004 |isbn=0-500-28467-9}}</ref> | |||
The "henge" portion has given its name to a class of monuments known as ]s. Archaeologists define henges as earthworks consisting of a circular banked enclosure with an internal ditch. |
The "henge" portion has given its name to a class of monuments known as ]s.<ref name="OEDhenge" /> Archaeologists define henges as earthworks consisting of a circular banked enclosure with an internal ditch.<ref>{{cite web |title=Henges |at=1: Definition |work=Monument Class Descriptions |publisher=] |date=2000 |url= http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/mpp/mcd/sub/henges1.htm |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121116081132/http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/mpp/mcd/sub/henges1.htm |archive-date=16 November 2012}}</ref> As often happens in archaeological terminology, this is a holdover from ] use. | ||
==Early history== | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
], leader of the ] based around ], noted that Stonehenge appears to have been associated with burial from the earliest period of its existence: | |||
==Development of Stonehenge== | |||
{{blockquote|Stonehenge was a place of burial from its beginning to its zenith in the mid third millennium B.C. The cremation burial dating to Stonehenge's sarsen stones phase is likely just one of many from this later period of the monument's use and demonstrates that it was still very much a domain of the dead.<ref name="burial" />}} | |||
The Stonehenge complex was built in several construction phases spanning 2,000 years, although there is evidence for activity both before and afterwards on the site. | |||
Stonehenge evolved in several construction phases spanning at least 1500 years. There is evidence of large-scale construction on and around the monument that perhaps extends the landscape's time frame to 6500 years. Dating and understanding the various phases of activity are complicated by ] of the natural ] by ] effects and animal burrowing, poor quality early ] records, and a lack of accurate, scientifically verified dates. The modern phasing most generally agreed to by archaeologists is detailed below. Features mentioned in the text are numbered and shown on the plan, right. | |||
===Before the monument=== | ===Before the monument (from 8000 BC)=== | ||
Archaeologists have found four, or possibly five, large ] ]s (one may have been a natural ]), which date to around 8000 BC, beneath the nearby old tourist car park in use until 2013. These held pine posts around {{convert|0.75|m|order=flip|spell=in}} in diameter, which were erected and eventually rotted in place. Three of the posts (and possibly four) were in an east–west alignment which may have had ] significance.<ref>Exon, 30–31; Southern, Patricia, ''The Story of Stonehenge'', {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180407053434/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4myoAwAAQBAJ&pg=PP15|date=7 April 2018 }}, 2012, Amberley Publishing Limited, {{ISBN|1-4456-1587-8|978-1-4456-1587-5}}</ref> Another Mesolithic astronomical site in Britain is ] in ], which is considered the world's oldest ], corrected yearly by observing the ].<ref>{{cite journal |author=V. Gaffney |display-authors=etal |title=Time and a Place: A luni-solar 'time-reckoner' from 8th millennium BC Scotland |url=http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue34/gaffney_index.html |url-status=live |journal=] |doi=10.11141/ia.34.1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718145814/http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue34/gaffney_index.html |archive-date=18 July 2013 |access-date=16 July 2013|doi-access=free }}</ref> Similar but later sites have been found in ].<ref>Exon, 30</ref> A settlement that may have been contemporaneous with the posts has been found at ], a reliable year-round spring {{convert|1|mi|spell=in}} from Stonehenge.<ref name="UB"/><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-cradle-of-stonehenge-blick-mead-a-mesolithic-site-in-the-stonehenge-landscape |title='The Cradle of Stonehenge'? Blick Mead – a Mesolithic Site in the Stonehenge Landscape – Lecture Transcript |last=Professor David Jacques FSA |date=21 September 2016 |website=www.gresham.ac.uk |publisher=Gresham College |access-date=15 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116170229/https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-cradle-of-stonehenge-blick-mead-a-mesolithic-site-in-the-stonehenge-landscape |archive-date=16 January 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Archaeologists have found four (or possibly five, although one may have been a natural ]) large ] ]s which date to around ] nearby, beneath the modern tourist car-park. These held ] posts around 0.75m (2.4ft) in diameter which were erected and left to rot ''in situ''. Three of the posts (and possibly four) were in an east-west alignment and may have had ] significance; no parallels are known from Britain at the time but similar sites have been found in ]. At this time, ] was still wooded but four thousand years later, during the earlier Neolithic, a ] monument was built 600m north of the site as the first farmers began to clear the forest and exploit the area. Several other early Neolithic sites, a ] at ] and ] tombs were built in the surrounding landscape. | |||
] was then still wooded, but, 4,000 years later, during the earlier Neolithic, people built a ] at ], and ] tombs in the surrounding landscape. In approximately 3500 BC, a ] was built {{convert|700|m|ft|order=flip}} north of the site as the first farmers began to clear the trees and develop the area. Other previously overlooked stone or wooden structures and burial mounds may date as far back as 4000 BC.<ref name=webb>{{cite book |last=Webb |first=John |title=Stone-Henge Restored with Observations on Rules of Architecture |date=1665 |publisher=Tho. Bassett |location=London |page=17 |oclc=650116061}}</ref><ref name=Charlton>{{cite book |last=Charlton |first=Dr. Walter |title=The Chorea Gigantum, Or, Stone-Heng Restored to the Danes |date=1715 |publisher=James Bettenham |location=London |page=45 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZRg4nQAACAAJ |access-date=22 August 2020 |archive-date=26 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426231306/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZRg4nQAACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Charcoal from the 'Blick Mead' camp {{convert|2.4|km|order=flip}} from Stonehenge (near the ] site) has been dated to 4000 BC.<ref name=sarah>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/archaeology/11303127/Stonehenge-discovery-could-rewrite-British-pre-history.html |title=Stonehenge discovery could rewrite British pre-history |work=Daily Telegraph |author=Sarah Knapton |date=19 December 2014 |access-date=19 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141219192353/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/archaeology/11303127/Stonehenge-discovery-could-rewrite-British-pre-history.html |archive-date=19 December 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> The ]'s Humanities Research Institute believes that the community who built Stonehenge lived here for several millennia, making it potentially "one of the pivotal places in the history of the Stonehenge landscape."<ref name=UB>{{cite web |url=http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/research/hri/blickmead |work=University of Buckingham |title=The New Discoveries at Blick Mead: the Key to the Stonehenge Landscape |access-date=26 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227095402/http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/research/hri/blickmead |archive-date=27 December 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
===Stonehenge 1=== | |||
] | |||
The first monument consisted of a circular bank and ditch enclosure ''(7 and 8)'' measuring around 110 m (360 feet) in diameter with a large entrance to the north east and a smaller one to the south ''(14)''. It stood in open ] on a slightly sloping but not especially remarkable spot. The builders placed the bones of ] and ]en in the bottom of the ditch as well as some worked ] tools. The bones were considerably older than the antler picks used to dig the ditch and the people who buried them had looked after them for some time prior to burial. The ditch itself was continuous but had been dug in sections, like the ditches of the earlier causewayed enclosures in the area. The chalk dug from the ditch was piled up to form the bank. This first stage is dated to around ] after which the ditch began to silt up naturally and was not cleared out by the builders. Within the outer edge of the enclosed area was dug a circle of 56 pits, each around 1m in diameter ''(13)'', known as the ] after ], the seventeenth century ] who was thought to have first identified them. The pits may have contained standing timbers, creating a ] although there is no excavated evidence of them. A small outer bank beyond the ditch could also date to this period ''(9)''.. | |||
===Stonehenge |
===Stonehenge 1 (c. 3100 BC)=== | ||
] | |||
Evidence of the second phase is no longer visible. It appears from the number of postholes dating to this period that some form of timber structure was built within the enclosure during the early ]. Further standing timbers were placed at the northeast entrance and a parallel alignment of posts ran inwards from the southern entrance. The postholes are smaller than the Aubrey Holes, being only around 0.4m in diameter and are much less regularly spaced. The bank was purposely reduced in height and the ditch continued to silt up. At least twenty-five of the Aubrey Holes are known to have contained later, intrusive, ] burials dating to the two centuries after the monument's inception. It seems that whatever the holes' initial function, it changed to become a funerary one during Phase 2. Thirty further cremations were placed in the enclosure's ditch and at other points within the monument, mostly in the eastern half. Stonehenge is therefore interpreted as functioning as an ] at this time, the earliest known cremation ] in the British Isles. Fragments of unburnt human bone have also been found in the ditch fill. Late Neolithic ] pottery has been found in connection with the features from this phase providing dating evidence. | |||
The first monument consisted of a circular bank and ditch ] made of ] (] Age) Seaford ], measuring about {{convert|110|m|order=flip}} in diameter, with a large entrance to the north east and a smaller one to the south. It stood in open ] on a slightly sloping spot.<ref name="field2010" /> The builders placed the bones of ] and ]en in the bottom of the ditch, as well as some worked ] tools. The bones were considerably older than the antler picks used to dig the ditch, and the people who buried them had looked after them for some time prior to burial. The ditch was continuous but had been dug in sections, like the ditches of the earlier causewayed enclosures in the area. The chalk dug from the ditch was piled up to form the bank. This first stage is dated to around 3100 BC, after which the ditch began to silt up naturally. Within the outer edge of the enclosed area is a circle of 56 pits, each about {{convert|1|m|ft|order=flip}} in diameter, known as the ] after ], the 17th-century ] who was thought to have first identified them. These pits and the bank and ditch together are known as the Palisade or Gate Ditch.<ref>Cleal et al, 1996. Antiquity, 1996 Jun, Vol.70(268), pp.463–465</ref> The pits may have contained standing timbers creating a ], although there is no excavated evidence of them. A recent excavation has suggested that the Aubrey Holes may have originally been used to erect a ] circle.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Parker Pearson |first1=Mike |first2=Julian |last2=Richards |first3=Mike |last3=Pitts |title=Stonehenge 'older than believed' |work=BBC News |date=9 October 2008 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/7660860.stm |access-date=14 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012100802/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/7660860.stm |archive-date=12 October 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> If this were the case, it would advance the earliest known stone structure at the monument by some 500 years. | |||
===Stonehenge 3 I=== | |||
Archaeological excavation has indicated that around ], timber was abandoned in favour of stone and two concentric crescents of holes (called the Q and R Holes) were dug in the centre of the site. Again, there is little firm dating evidence for this phase. The holes held up to 80 standing stones (shown blue on the plan) 43 of which were derived from the ], 250 km away in modern day ] in ]. Other standing stones may well have been small sarsens, used later as lintels. The far-travelled stones, which weighed about four tons, consisted mostly of spotted ] but included examples of ], ] and volcanic and calcareous ash. Each measures around 2m in height, between 1m and 1.5m wide and around 0.8m thick. What was to become known as the ] ''(1)'', a six-ton specimen of green micaceous ], twice the height of the bluestones, is derived from either South Pembrokeshire or the ] and may have stood as a single large ]. | |||
In 2013, a team of archaeologists, led by ], excavated more than 50,000 cremated bone fragments, from 63 individuals, buried at Stonehenge.<ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |first=Maev |last=Kennedy |title=Stonehenge may have been burial site for Stone Age elite, say archaeologists |date=9 March 2013 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/mar/09/archaeology-stonehenge-bones-burial-ground |work=] |access-date = 11 March 2013 |location=London |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130909210109/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/mar/09/archaeology-stonehenge-bones-burial-ground |archive-date = 9 September 2013 |url-status = live}}</ref><ref name="Independent">{{cite news |first=James |last=Legge |title=Stonehenge: new study suggests landmark started life as a graveyard for the 'prehistoric elite' |date=9 March 2012 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/stonehenge-new-study-suggests-landmark-started-life-as-a-graveyard-for-the-prehistoric-elite-8527686.html |work=] |access-date = 11 March 2013 |location=London |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130312031243/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/stonehenge-new-study-suggests-landmark-started-life-as-a-graveyard-for-the-prehistoric-elite-8527686.html |archive-date = 12 March 2013 |url-status = live}}</ref> These remains were originally buried individually in the Aubrey holes, but were exhumed in 1920 during an excavation by ], who considered them unimportant and in 1935 re-buried them together in one hole, Aubrey Hole 7.<ref name="Sheffield Uni">{{cite web |author=Mike Parker Pearson |title=The Stonehenge Riverside Project |publisher=Sheffield University |date=20 August 2008 |url=http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/research/stonehenge |access-date=22 September 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081026122920/http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/research/stonehenge |archive-date= 26 October 2008}}</ref> Physical and chemical analysis of the remains has shown that the cremated were almost equally men and women, and included some children.<ref name="Guardian"/><ref name="Independent"/> There is evidence that the underlying chalk beneath the graves was crushed by substantial weight, so the team concluded that the first bluestones brought from Wales were probably used as grave markers.<ref name="Guardian"/><ref name="Independent"/> ] of the remains has put the date of the site 500 years earlier than previously estimated, to around 3000 BC.<ref name="Guardian"/><ref name="Independent"/> A 2018 study of the ] content of the bones found that many of the individuals buried there around the time of construction had probably come from near the source of the bluestone in Wales and had not extensively lived in the area of Stonehenge before death.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Strontium isotope analysis on cremated human remains from Stonehenge support links with west Wales |author=Christophe Snoeck|display-authors=etal |journal=Scientific Reports |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=10790 |date=2 August 2018 |doi=10.1038/s41598-018-28969-8 |pmid=30072719 |pmc=6072783 |bibcode=2018NatSR...810790S | issn = 2045-2322 }}</ref> | |||
The north eastern entrance was also widened at this time with the result that it precisely matched the direction of the ] ] and ] ] of the period. This phase of the monument was abandoned unfinished however, the small standing stones were apparently removed and the Q and R holes purposefully backfilled. Even so, the monument appears to have eclipsed the site at ] in importance towards the end of this phase and the ], found in ] three miles (5 km) to the south, would have seen the site in this state. | |||
Between 2017 and 2021, studies by Professor Parker Pearson (UCL) and his team ] that the ]s used in Stonehenge had been moved there following dismantling of a stone circle of identical size to the first known Stonehenge circle (110m) at the Welsh site of ] in the ].<ref name=Pearson-Pollard-etal-2021-02-12/><ref name=Curry-2021-02-11/> It had contained bluestones, one of which showed evidence of having been reused in Stonehenge. The stone was identified by its unusual pentagonal shape and by ] from the filled-in sockets which showed the circle had been erected around 3400–3200 BC, and dismantled around 300–400 years later, consistent with the dates attributed to the creation of Stonehenge.<ref name=Pearson-Pollard-etal-2021-02-12/><ref name=Curry-2021-02-11/> The cessation of human activity in that area at the same time suggested migration as a reason, but it is believed that other stones may have come from other sources.<ref name=Pearson-Pollard-etal-2021-02-12/><ref name=Curry-2021-02-11/> | |||
The ] ''(5)'' may also have been erected outside the north eastern entrance during this period although it cannot be securely dated and may have been installed at any time in phase 3. At first, a second stone, now no longer visible, joined it. Two, or possibly three, large portal stones were set up just inside the northeastern entrance of which only one, the fallen Slaughter Stone ''(4)'', 16 ft (4.9 m) long, now remains. Other features loosely dated to phase 3 include the four ] ''(6)'', two of which stood atop mounds ''(2 and 3)''. The mounds are known as 'barrows' although they do not contain burials. The ], ''(10)'', a parallel pair of ditches and banks leading 3 km to the ] was also added. Ditches were later dug around the Station Stones and the Heelstone, which was by then reduced to a single monolith. | |||
===Stonehenge |
===Stonehenge 2 (c. 2900 BC)=== | ||
The next major phase of activity at the tail end of the ] saw 30 enormous ] stones ''(shown grey on the plan)'' brought from a quarry around 24 miles (40 km) north to the site on the ]. The stones were dressed and fashioned with ] joints before 30 were erected as a 33 m (108 ft) diameter circle of standing stones with a 'lintel' of 30 stones resting on top. The lintels were joined to one another using another woodworking method, the ]. Each standing stone was around 4.1 m (13.5 feet) high, 2.1 m (7.5 feet) wide and weighed around 25 tons. Each had clearly been worked with the final effect in mind; the ]s widen slightly towards the top in order that their perspective remains constant as they rise up from the ground while the lintel stones curve slightly to continue the circular appearance of the earlier monument. The sides of the stones that face inwards are smoother and more finely worked than the sides that face outwards. The average thickness of these stones is 1.1 m (3.75 feet) and the average distance between them is 1 m (3.5 feet). A total of 74 stones would have been needed to complete the circle and unless some of the sarsens were removed from the site, it would seem that the ring was left incomplete. Of the lintel stones, they are each around 3.2 m long (10.5 feet), 1 m (3.5 feet) wide and 0.8 m (2.75 feet) thick. The tops of the lintels are 4.9 m (16 feet) above the ground. | |||
The second phase of construction occurred approximately between 2900 and 2600 BC.<ref name="Burns">{{cite book |last1=Burns |first1=William E. |title=Science and Technology in World History |date=2020 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=100}}</ref> The number of postholes dating to the early third millennium BC suggests that some form of timber structure was built within the enclosure during this period. Further standing timbers were placed at the northeast entrance, and a parallel alignment of posts ran inwards from the southern entrance. The postholes are smaller than the Aubrey Holes, being only around {{convert|0.4|m|in|order=flip}} in diameter, and are much less regularly spaced. The bank was purposely reduced in height and the ditch continued to silt up. At least twenty-five of the Aubrey Holes are known to have contained later, intrusive, ] burials dating to the two centuries after the monument's inception. It seems that whatever the holes' initial function, it changed to become a funerary one during Phase two. Thirty further cremations were placed in the enclosure's ditch and at other points within the monument, mostly in the eastern half. Stonehenge is therefore interpreted as functioning as an ] at this time,<ref name="Burns"/> the earliest known cremation cemetery in the British Isles. Fragments of unburnt human bone have also been found in the ditch-fill. Dating evidence is provided by the late Neolithic ] pottery that has been found in connection with the features from this phase. | |||
Within this circle stood five ]s of dressed ] stone arranged in a horseshoe shape 13.7 m (45 feet) across with its open end facing north east. These huge stones, ten uprights and five lintels, weigh up to 50 tons each and were again linked using complex jointings. They are arranged symmetrically; the smallest pair of trilithons were around 6 m (20 feet) tall, the next pair a little higher and the largest, single trilithon in the south west corner would have been 7.3 m (24 feet) tall. Only one upright from the Great Trilithon still stands; 6.7 m (22 ft) is visible and a further 2.4 m (8 feet) is below ground. | |||
===Stonehenge 3 I (c. 2600 BC)=== | |||
The images of a 'dagger' and 14 'axe-heads' have been recorded carved on one of the sarsens, known as stone 53. Further axe-head carvings have been seen on the outer faces of stones known as numbers 3, 4, and 5. They are difficult to date but are morphologically similar to later Bronze Age weapons; ] supports this interpretation. The pair of trilithons in north east are smallest, measuring around 6 m (20 feet) in height and the largest is the trilithon in the south west of the horseshoe is almost 7.5 m (24 feet) tall. | |||
] on the sarsen stones include ancient ] of a dagger and an axe.]] | |||
Archaeological excavation has indicated that around 2600 BC, the builders abandoned timber in favour of stone and dug two concentric arrays of holes (the ]) in the centre of the site. These stone sockets are only partly known (hence on present evidence are sometimes described as forming 'crescents'); however, they could be the remains of a double ring. Again, there is little firm dating evidence for this phase. The holes held up to 80 standing stones (shown blue on the plan), only 43 of which can be traced today. It is generally accepted that the ]s (some of which are made of ], an igneous rock), were transported by the builders from the ], {{convert|150|mi}} away in modern-day ] in Wales. Another theory is that they were brought much nearer to the site as ] by the ]<ref>{{cite press release |title=Stonehenge: glacial transport of bluestones now confirmed? |publisher=University of Leicester |last=John |first=Brian|author-link=Brian John |date=26 February 2011 |url=http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/pdf-files/uploaded-to-ebulletin-2011/Bluestones%20press%20release.pdf |access-date=22 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120904112857/http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/pdf-files/uploaded-to-ebulletin-2011/Bluestones%20press%20release.pdf |archive-date=4 September 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> although there is no evidence of glacial deposition within southern central England.<ref name="Antiquity">{{cite journal |last1=Parker Pearson |first1=Michael|display-authors=etal |date=December 2015 |title=Craig Rhos-y-felin: a Welsh bluestone megalith quarry for Stonehenge |journal=Antiquity |volume=89 |issue=348 |pages=1331–1352 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2015.177|doi-access=free}}</ref> A 2019 publication announced that evidence of Megalithic quarrying had been found at quarries in Wales identified as a source of Stonehenge's bluestone, indicating that the bluestone was quarried by human agency and not transported by glacial action.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Megalith quarries for Stonehenge's bluestones |year=2019 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2018.111 |last1=Pearson |first1=Mike Parker |last2=Pollard |first2=Josh |last3=Richards |first3=Colin |last4=Welham |first4=Kate |last5=Casswell |first5=Chris |last6=French |first6=Charles |last7=Schlee |first7=Duncan |last8=Shaw |first8=Dave |last9=Simmons |first9=Ellen |last10=Stanford |first10=Adam |last11=Bevins |first11=Richard |last12=Ixer |first12=Rob |journal=Antiquity |volume=93 |issue=367 |pages=45–62 |s2cid=166415345 |doi-access=free }}</ref> | |||
This ambitious phase is ] to between ] and ]. | |||
The long-distance human transport theory was bolstered in 2011 by the discovery of a megalithic bluestone quarry at ], near ] in Pembrokeshire, which is the most likely place for some of the stones to have been obtained.<ref name="Antiquity"/> Other standing stones may well have been small ]s (sandstone), used later as lintels. The stones, which weighed about two tons, could have been moved by lifting and carrying them on rows of poles and rectangular frameworks of poles, as recorded in China, Japan and India. It is not known whether the stones were taken directly from their quarries to Salisbury Plain or were the result of the removal of a venerated stone circle from Preseli to Salisbury Plain to "merge two sacred centres into one, to unify two politically separate regions, or to legitimise the ancestral identity of migrants moving from one region to another".<ref name="Antiquity"/> Evidence of a {{convert|110|m|ft|adj=on}} stone circle at ] near Preseli, which could have contained some or all of the stones in Stonehenge, has been found, including a hole from a rock that matches the unusual cross-section of a Stonehenge bluestone "like a key in a lock".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Alberge |first=Dalya |date=2021-02-12 |title=Dramatic discovery links Stonehenge to its original site – in Wales |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/12/dramatic-discovery-links-stonehenge-to-its-original-site-in-wales |access-date=2021-02-12 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=12 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212220821/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/12/dramatic-discovery-links-stonehenge-to-its-original-site-in-wales |url-status=live }}</ref> Each monolith measures around {{convert|2|m|ft|order=flip}} in height, between {{convert|1|and|1.5|m|ft|abbr=on|order=flip}} wide and around {{convert|0.8|m|ft|order=flip}} thick. | |||
===Stonehenge 3 III=== | |||
Later in the Bronze Age, the bluestones appear to have been re-erected for the first time, although the precise details of this period are still unclear. They were placed within the outer sarsen circle and at this time may have been trimmed in some way. A few have timber working-style cuts in them like the sarsens themselves, suggesting they may have been linked with lintels and part of a larger structure during this phase. | |||
What was to become known as the ] was believed to have been derived from the ], perhaps from {{convert|50|mi|km|abbr=off}} east of the Preseli Hills in the Brecon Beacons.<ref name="Antiquity"/> Work announced in 2024 by a team from ], who analysed the chemical composition of fragments of rock that had fallen off the Altar Stone, and dated them, found that the best match was with rocks in the ] (which includes ], ], and the ] regions of north-eastern Scotland). The researchers stated that this implies the stone was transported some {{convert|430|mile}}, and thus demonstrates cultural links between Southern England and Northern Scotland.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clarke |first1=Anthony J. I. |last2=Kirkland |first2=Christopher L. |last3=Bevins |first3=Richard E. |last4=Pearce |first4=Nick J. G. |last5=Glorie |first5=Stijn |last6=Ixer |first6=Rob A. |title=A Scottish provenance for the Altar Stone of Stonehenge |journal=] |date=15 August 2024 |volume=632 |issue=8025 |pages=570–575 |doi=10.1038/s41586-024-07652-1|pmid=39143341 |pmc=11324516 }}</ref> | |||
===Stonehenge 3 IV=== | |||
This phase saw further rearrangement of the bluestones as they were placed in a circle between the two settings of sarsens and in an oval in the very centre. Some archaeologists argue that some of the bluestones in this period were part of a second group brought from Wales. All the stones were well-spaced uprights without any of the linking lintels inferred in Stonehenge 3 III. The Altar Stone may have been moved within the oval and stood vertically. Although this would seem the most impressive phase of work, Stonehenge 3 IV was rather shabbily built compared to its immediate predecessors, the newly re-installed bluestones were not at all well founded and began to fall over. However, only minor changes were made after this phase. Stonehenge 3 IV dates from ] to ]. | |||
The north-eastern entrance was widened at this time, with the result that it precisely matched the direction of the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset of the period. This phase of the monument was abandoned unfinished, however; the small standing stones were apparently removed and the Q and R holes purposefully backfilled. | |||
===Stonehenge 3 V=== | |||
Soon afterwards, the north eastern section of the Phase 3 IV Bluestone circle was removed, creating a horseshoe-shaped setting termed the Bluestone Horseshoe. This mirrored the shape of the central sarsen Trilithons and dates from ] to ]. This phase is contemporary with the famous ] site in ]. | |||
The ], a ] sandstone, may also have been erected outside the north-eastern entrance during this period. It cannot be accurately dated and may have been installed at any time during phase 3. At first, it was accompanied by a second stone, which is no longer visible. Two, or possibly three, large ] were set up just inside the north-eastern entrance, of which only one, the fallen Slaughter Stone, {{convert|4.9|m|order=flip}} long, now remains. Other features, loosely dated to phase 3, include the four ], two of which stood atop mounds. The mounds are known as "]" although they do not contain burials. ], a parallel pair of ditches and banks leading {{convert|2|mi|km|0|spell=in}} to the ], was also added. | |||
===Stonehenge 3 VI=== | |||
Two further rings of pits were dug outside the outermost sarsen circle, called the Y and Z Holes ''(11 and 12)''. The Z holes were about 2m outside the outermost sarsen circle and the Y holes about 5m further out. These were each of thirty pits and each seems to match with one of the uprights in the outer sarsen circle. They were never filled with stones however and were permitted to silt up over the next few centuries; their upper fills contain ] and ] material. Monument building at Stonehenge appears to have ended around ]. | |||
===Stonehenge 3 II (2600 BC to 2400 BC)=== | |||
===After the monument=== | |||
] and ] joints used in the outer ] circle]] | |||
Even though the last known construction of Stonehenge was about ], and the last known usage of Stonehenge was during the ] (if not as late as the ]), where Roman coins, prehistoric pottery, an unusual bone point and a skeleton of a young male (780-410 cal BC) were found, we have no idea if Stonehenge was in continuous use or exactly how it was used. The burial of a decapitated ] man has also been excavated from Stonehenge, dated to the 7th century. The site was known by scholars during the ] and since then it has been studied and adopted by numerous different groups. For further details of Stonehenge's historical role, see below. | |||
] | |||
During the next major phase of activity, 30 enormous ]–] sarsen stones (shown grey on the plan) were brought to the site. They came from a quarry around {{convert|16|mi}} north of Stonehenge, in ], ].<ref name="Nash">{{cite journal |last1=Nash |first1=David |last2=Ciborowski |first2=T. Jake R. |last3=Ullyott |first3=J. Stewart |last4=Pearson |first4=Mick Parker |title=Origins of the sarsen megaliths at Stonehenge |journal=Science Advances |date=29 Jul 2020 |volume=5 |issue=31 |pages=eabc0133 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.abc0133 |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science |pmid=32832694 |pmc=7439454 |bibcode= 2020SciA....6..133N|s2cid=220937543 |language=en|doi-access=free}}</ref> The stones were ] and fashioned with ] joints before 30 sarsens were erected in a circle of standing stones approximately {{convert|30|m|order=flip}} in diameter, with a ring of 30 lintel stones resting on top. The lintels were fitted to one another using ] joints – a woodworking method, again.<ref name=pearsonchap>Pearson ''et al.'' 2013</ref> Each standing stone was around {{convert|4.11|m|ft|order=flip}} high, {{convert|2.13|m|ft|order=flip}} wide, and {{convert|1.06|m|ft|order=flip}} deep, weighing around 26 tons. Each had clearly been worked with the final visual effect in mind: The ]s widen slightly towards the top in order that their perspective remains constant when viewed from the ground, while the lintel stones curve slightly to continue the circular appearance of the earlier monument.<ref name=fernie>Fernie 1994</ref> | |||
==Theories about Stonehenge== | |||
The inward-facing surfaces of the stones are smoother and more finely worked than the outer surfaces. The average thickness of the stones is {{convert|1.1|m|ft|order=flip}} and the average distance between them is {{convert|1|m|ft|order=flip}}. A total of 75 stones would have been needed to complete the circle (60 stones) and the trilithon horseshoe (15 stones). It was thought the ring might have been left incomplete, but an exceptionally dry summer in 2013 revealed patches of parched grass which may correspond to the location of missing sarsens.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Patchmarks at Stonehenge |journal=Antiquity |date=July 2013 |first1=Simon |last1=Banton |first2=Mark |last2=Bowden |first3=Tim |last3=Daw |first4=Damian |last4=Grady |first5=Sharon |last5=Soutar |volume=88 |issue=341 |pages=733–739 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00050651 |s2cid=162412146}}</ref> The lintel stones are each around {{convert|3.2|m|ft|order=flip}} long, {{convert|1|m|ft|order=flip}} wide and {{convert|0.8|m|ft|order=flip}} thick. The tops of the lintels are {{convert|4.9|m|ft|order=flip}} above the ground.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stonehenge |url=http://arthistoryresources.net/stonehenge/stonehenge.html |access-date=2024-04-06 |website=arthistoryresources.net}}</ref> | |||
===Early interpretations=== | |||
] | |||
Many early historians were influenced by supernatural ] in their explanations. Some legends held that ] had a giant build the structure for him or that he had magically transported it from ] in ], while others held the ] responsible. ] was the first to write of the monument around 1130 soon followed by ] who was the first to record fanciful associations with ] which led the monument to be incorporated into the wider cycle of European medieval romance. | |||
Within this circle stood five ]s of dressed ] stone arranged in a horseshoe shape {{convert|13.7|m|ft|order=flip}} across, with its open end facing northeast. These huge stones, ten uprights and five lintels, weigh up to 50 tons each. They were linked using complex jointing. They are arranged symmetrically. The smallest pair of trilithons were around {{convert|6|m|ft|order=flip}} tall, the next pair a little higher, and the largest, single trilithon in the south-west corner would have been {{convert|7.3|m|ft|order=flip}} tall. Only one upright from the Great Trilithon still stands, of which {{convert|6.7|m|ft|order=flip}} is visible and a further {{convert|2.4|m|ft|order=flip}} is below ground. The images of a 'dagger' and 14 'axeheads' have been carved on one of the sarsens, known as stone 53; further carvings of axeheads have been seen on the outer faces of stones 3, 4, and 5. The carvings are difficult to date but are morphologically similar to late Bronze Age weapons. ] supports this interpretation. The pair of trilithons in the north east are smallest, measuring around {{convert|6|m|ft|order=flip}} in height; the largest, which is in the south-west of the horseshoe, is almost {{convert|7.5|m|ft|order=flip}} tall.{{dubious|Semi-protected edit request on 20 October 2019|reason=inconsistent with previously stated height of 2.4 m|date=October 2019}} | |||
In ], ] argued that Stonehenge was a ], dedicated to ], (a Latin name for the Greek sky-god ]), and built following the ]. Later commentators maintained that the ] erected it. Indeed, up until the late nineteenth century, the site was commonly attributed to the Saxons or other relatively recent societies. | |||
This ambitious phase has been ] to between 2600 and 2400 BC,<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Mike |last1=Pearson |first2=Ros |last2=Cleal |first3=Peter |last3=Marshall |first4=Stuart |last4=Needham |first5=Josh |last5=Pollard |first6=Colin |last6=Richards |first7=Clive |last7=Ruggles |first8=Alison |last8=Sheridan |first9=Julian |last9=Thomas |author-link9=Julian Thomas |first10=Chris |last10=Tilley |first11=Kate |last11=Welham |first12=Andrew |last12=Chamberlain |first13=Carolyn |last13=Chenery |first14=Jane |last14=Evans |first15=Chris |last15=Knüsel |display-authors=6 |date=September 2007 |title=The age of Stonehenge |journal=Antiquity |volume=811 |issue=313 |pages=617–639 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00095624 |s2cid=162960418 |url=http://dro.dur.ac.uk/5811/1/5811.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=20 March 2020 |archive-date=7 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807153859/http://dro.dur.ac.uk/5811/1/5811.pdf}}</ref> slightly earlier than the ], discovered in the outer ditch of the monument in 1978, and the two sets of burials, known as the ] and the ], discovered {{convert|3|mi|km|0|spell=in}} to the west. Analysis of animal teeth found {{convert|2|mi|km|0|spell=in}} away at ], thought by Parker Pearson to be the 'builders camp', suggests that, during some period between 2600 and 2400 BC, as many as 4,000 people gathered at the site for the mid-winter and mid-summer festivals; the evidence showed that the animals had been slaughtered around nine months or 15 months after their spring birth. ] ] of the animal teeth showed that some had been brought from as far afield as the Scottish Highlands for the celebrations.<ref name=Independent/><ref name="BBC News">{{cite news |title=Stonehenge builders travelled from far, say researchers |date=9 March 2013 |website=] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21724084 |url-status = live |access-date = 11 March 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130310171730/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21724084 |archive-date = 10 March 2013}}</ref> | |||
The first academic effort to survey and understand the monument was made around ] by ]. He declared Stonehenge the work of ]s. This view was greatly popularised by ]. Aubrey also contributed the first measured drawings of the site, which permitted greater analysis of its form and significance. From this work, he was able to demonstrate an astronomical or calendrical role in the stones' placement. | |||
At about the same time, a large ] and a second avenue were constructed at ] overlooking the ]. The timber circle was oriented towards the rising Sun on the ], opposing the solar alignments at Stonehenge. The avenue was aligned with the setting Sun on the ] and led from the river to the timber circle. Evidence of huge fires on the banks of the Avon between the two avenues also suggests that both circles were linked. They were perhaps used as a procession route on the longest and shortest days of the year. Parker Pearson speculates that the wooden circle at Durrington Walls was the centre of a 'land of the living', whilst the stone circle represented a 'land of the dead', with the Avon serving as a journey between the two.<ref name=Pearson-2005>{{cite book |last=Pearson |first=M. Parker |date=2005 |title=Bronze Age Britain |pages=63–67 |publisher=B.T. Batsford |isbn=978-0-7134-8849-4}}</ref> | |||
By the turn of the nineteenth century, ] was able to attribute the site to the ] based on the bronze objects found in the nearby ]. | |||
=== Stonehenge 3 III (2400 BC to 2280 BC) === | |||
The early attempts to figure out the people who had undertaken this colossal project have since been debunked. While there have been precious few in the way of real theories to explain who built the site, or why, there can be an assessment of what we know to be fact and what has been proven false. | |||
Later in the ], although the exact details of activities during this period are still unclear, the bluestones appear to have been re-erected. They were placed within the outer sarsen circle and may have been trimmed in some way. Like the sarsens, a few have timber-working style cuts in them suggesting that, during this phase, they may have been linked with lintels and were part of a larger structure.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} | |||
===Stonehenge 3 IV (2280 BC to 1930 BC)=== | |||
First there is the matter of radio carbon dating the construction of the site itself. As has been already stated in the construction outlines above, the monument building of the site began around the year 3100 BC and ended around the year 1600 BC. This allows the elimination of a few of the theories that have been presented. The original theory that the Druids were the ones who built the site can be discounted first since it is the more popular one. The Celtic society that spawned the Druid priesthood came into being only after the year 300 BC. In addition to this, the theory that the Druids using the site for sacrifices is thin, considering that the Druids were pagans and performed the majority of their rituals in the woods or mountains, areas better suited for “earth rituals” than an open field. | |||
This phase saw further rearrangement of the bluestones. They were arranged in a circle between the two rings of sarsens and in an oval at the centre of the inner ring. Some archaeologists argue that some of these bluestones were from a second group brought from Wales. All the stones formed well-spaced uprights without any of the linking lintels inferred in Stonehenge 3 III. The Altar Stone may have been moved within the oval at this time and re-erected vertically. Although this would seem the most impressive phase of work, Stonehenge 3 IV was rather shabbily built compared to its immediate predecessors, as the newly re-installed bluestones were not well-founded and began to fall over. However, only minor changes were made after this phase.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}] | |||
As to the other theory relating to the Romans, this is more ludicrous yet. The Romans never even came to the British Isles until they conquered the land in 43 AD. The theories of Inigo Jones and others that Stonehenge was built as a Roman temple have been long dismissed. They were early theories, and when the actual dates of construction came out, any talk of merely early Saxon or Roman workers building the site are no longer considered. Other popular notions mentioned, aliens coming to Earth to build primitive man a map to the stars were dismissed out of hand, since besides being utterly impractical (why would aliens give a species that could barely write such a gift?), there is absolutely no physical evidence to back it up, save unsupported supposition about the frequency of these sites in the area. The problem with this is that who we do not know who originally started building it or the purpose behind it. It is difficult to imagine it being built for uses only one or two days in the year. And since it appears that it was built in three or four distinct stages, it is virtually impossible to tell what the purpose might have been since it was obviously worked on by a number of different cultures. | |||
Other theories that have been taken out of consideration were the idea that Egyptian or Mycenaean or even Greek cultures, which coincided with the popular belief that these cultures infused Europe with Bronze Age culture. After the testing showed that the megalithic structures in both England and France predate these cultures, they were removed. Also mentioned on this site are the findings of John Lubbock at the turn of the 19th century that point to this site being a Bronze Age creation, based on axe heads and daggers and other artifacts that have been found. However, a number of carvings that were also thought to point to Bronze Age origin have since been refuted as being put in later, raising the serious question of whether or not the artifacts were used in the site or buried there at a later date in some sort of funerary rites. | |||
===Stonehenge 3 V (1930 BC to 1600 BC)=== | |||
The question that dominates the debate as to what Stonehenge was used for can be easily divided into those that believe it to be a religious or a scientific observatory. The scientific idea carries more weight. As outlined in the theories section below, Gerald Hawkins noted 165 key sites that he stated correlated very strongly with the rising and setting points of the sun and moon. He believed that because of this, the site could be used to anticipate interstellar phenomena. There have been odd occurrences, like the Hale-Bopp comet passing directly over this site at the turn of the millennium to support this theory. This has sparked the idea that the site was created in order to help commemorate the solstices, as the alignment with the sun and moon would seem to indicate. | |||
Soon afterwards, the northeastern section of the Phase 3 IV bluestone circle was removed, creating a horseshoe-shaped setting (the Bluestone Horseshoe) which mirrored the shape of the central sarsen Trilithons. This phase is contemporary with the ] site in Norfolk.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} | |||
===After the monument (1600 BC on)=== | |||
Further supporting this line of evidence is the fact that the site’s alignment is focused along the lunar lines in a way that increases the accuracy of procession, which is the amount that the Earth’s slight tilt on its axis, or “wobble” will eventually change the timing of lunar events. In short, this site could have been set up to more accurately predict events taking place in the heavens above. While there is still no conclusive evidence that this site was indeed intended for use as an observatory, the fact also that much of the support for the religious use for this has come from a purely political standpoint. The modern Celts, who were for a long time believed to be the creators of the site, have moved quickly to claim the site as their own. They now hold festivals and ceremonies at different times during the year. The problem with this has been outlined above, with the carbon dating refuting their hand in the site’s creation. There are a number of assumptions that have supported this theory, however. It is known that on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, the sun shines directly through the center of the structure, which given many of the cultural attitudes of sun worship that were rampant at the time, seems to indicate a religious purpose. In addition, much of what survives from the distant past, buildings, etc., have all been religious in nature. | |||
{{main|Y and Z Holes}} | |||
The Y and Z Holes are the last known construction at Stonehenge, built about 1600 BC, and the last usage of it was probably during the ]. ] and ] artefacts have all been found in or around the monument but it is unknown whether the monument was in continuous use throughout ] and beyond, or exactly how it would have been used. Notable is the massive Iron Age ] known as ] (despite its name, not a Roman site) built alongside the Avenue near the Avon. A decapitated seventh-century ] man was excavated from Stonehenge in 1923.<ref> {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100630102958/http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/000109.html|date=30 June 2010 }}, BBC News (9 June 2000), ABCE News (13 June 2000), Fox News (14 June 2000), ''New Scientist'' (17 June 2000), Archeo News (2 July 2000)</ref> The site was known to scholars during the ] and since then it has been studied and adopted by numerous groups.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Research on Stonehenge |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history-and-stories/history/research/ |access-date=2022-12-09 |website=English Heritage}}</ref> | |||
Again, much of the early interpretations as to the nature of this site and the reason for its construction can be theorized and speculated upon, but there is no bulk of hard evidence to point us in one direction or the other. There are portions of the site that have not been excavated, such as the West portion, so there remain possible hard facts out there. All we can say for certain at this point is when it was built and the mathematical facts stated above that go along with it. | |||
== |
==Function and construction== | ||
{{ |
{{Main|Theories about Stonehenge}} | ||
{{See also|Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge}} | |||
Stonehenge is aligned northeast–southwest, and it has been suggested that particular significance was placed by its builders on the ] and ] points, so for example on a midsummer's morning, the sun rose close to the Heelstone, and the sun's first rays went directly into the centre of the monument between the horseshoe arrangement. It is unlikely that such an alignment could have been merely accidental. | |||
Stonehenge was produced by a culture that left no written records. Many aspects of Stonehenge, such as how it was built and for what purposes it was used, remain subject to debate. A number of myths surround the stones.<ref name="CBS News 2012">{{cite news |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57459053/stonehenge-a-monument-to-unity-new-theory-claims/ |work=CBS News |title=Stonehenge a monument to unity, new theory claims – CBS News |access-date=24 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624101715/http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57459053/stonehenge-a-monument-to-unity-new-theory-claims/ |archive-date=24 June 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The site, specifically the great trilithon, the encompassing horseshoe arrangement of the five central trilithons, the heel stone, and the embanked avenue, are aligned to the sunset of the winter solstice and the opposing sunrise of the summer solstice.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/stonehenge-two-explanations-121012.htm |title=Understanding Stonehenge: Two Explanations |work=DNews |access-date=27 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928151514/http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/stonehenge-two-explanations-121012.htm |archive-date=28 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Schombert |url=http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/stonehenge.html |title=Stonehenge revealed: Why Stones Were a "Special Place" |website=University of Oregon |access-date=26 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150424023904/http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/stonehenge.html |archive-date=24 April 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> A natural landform at the monument's location followed this line, and may have inspired its construction.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/sep/08/stonehenge-ice-age-solstice-axis |last1=Alberge |first1=Dalya |title=Stonehenge was built on solstice axis, dig confirms |newspaper=The Guardian |date=8 September 2013 |access-date=13 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201172625/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/sep/08/stonehenge-ice-age-solstice-axis |archive-date=1 December 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> It has been conjectured that the design of the monument included a celestial observatory function, which might allow prediction of eclipse, solstice, equinox and other celestial events important to the builders' belief system.<ref name=Hawkins>{{cite book |first1=GS |last1=Hawkins |year=1966 |title=Stonehenge Decoded |publisher=Dorset Press |isbn=978-0-88029-147-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/stonehengedecode00gera}}</ref> The excavated remains of culled animal bones suggest that people may have gathered at the site for the winter rather than the summer.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pearson |url=http://blog.stonehenge-stone-circle.co.uk/2013/06/22/stonehenge-revealed-why-stones-were-a-special-place/ |title=Stonehenge |date=2013-06-22 |access-date=26 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526193253/http://blog.stonehenge-stone-circle.co.uk/2013/06/22/stonehenge-revealed-why-stones-were-a-special-place/ |archive-date=26 May 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
A huge debate was triggered by the ] publication of ''Stonehenge Decoded'', by British born astronomer ], who claimed to see a large number of astronomical alignments, both lunar and solar, at the site and argued that Stonehenge could have been used to predict ]s. Hawkins' book received wide publicity, partly because he used a computer in his calculations, then a rarity. Further contributions to the debate came from British astronomer C. A. Newham and Sir ], the famous Cambridge cosmologist, as well as by ], a retired professor of engineering, who had been studying stone circles for more than 20 years. Their theories have faced criticism in recent decades from ] and others who have suggested impracticalities in the 'Stone Age calculator' interpretative approach. | |||
Today, the consensus is that most of the astronomical case, although not all, was overstated. | |||
There is little or no direct evidence revealing the construction techniques used by the Stonehenge builders. Over the years, various authors have suggested that supernatural or anachronistic methods were used, usually asserting that the stones were impossible to move otherwise due to their massive size. However, conventional techniques, using Neolithic technology as basic as ], have been demonstrably effective at moving and placing stones of a similar size.<ref>{{citation |pages=76–77 |title=Archaeology by Experiment |author=John Coles |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=9781317606086}}</ref> The most common theory of how prehistoric people moved megaliths has them creating a track of logs along which the large stones were rolled.<ref name="Author not listed 2003">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Stonehenge.aspx#1 |title=Stonehenge |encyclopedia=Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained |location=US |publisher=] |access-date=11 November 2015 |date=2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151107105321/http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Stonehenge.aspx#1 |archive-date=7 November 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Another megalith transport theory involves the use of a type of sleigh running on a track greased with animal fat.<ref name="Author not listed 2003"/> An experiment with a sleigh carrying a 40-ton slab of stone was successfully conducted near Stonehenge in 1995; a team of more than 100 workers managed to push and pull the slab along the {{convert|18|mi|km|adj=on}} journey from the ].<ref name="Author not listed 2003"/> | |||
===The bluestones=== | |||
{{main|Bluestone}} | |||
Proposed functions for the site include usage as an astronomical observatory or as a religious site. In the 1960s, ] described in detail how the site was apparently set out to observe the Sun and Moon over a recurring 56-year cycle.<ref name=Hawkins/> More recently, two major new theories have been proposed. ], president of the ], and ], of ], have suggested that Stonehenge was a place of healing—the primeval equivalent of ].<ref>{{cite news |last=Satter |first=Raphael |title=UK experts say Stonehenge was place of healing |newspaper=] |date=27 September 2008 |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-09-22-1046484398_x.htm |access-date=1 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006154618/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-09-22-1046484398_x.htm |archive-date=6 October 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> They argue that this accounts for the high number of burials in the area and for the evidence of trauma deformity in some of the graves. However, they do concede that the site was probably multifunctional and used for ancestor worship as well.<ref>{{cite news |author=Maev Kennedy |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/sep/23/archaeology.heritage |title=The magic of Stonehenge: new dig finds clues to power of bluestones |work=Guardian |location=UK |access-date=1 May 2011 |date=23 September 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002210210/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/sep/23/archaeology.heritage |archive-date=2 October 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> Isotope analysis indicates that some of the buried individuals were from other regions. A teenage boy buried approximately 1550 BC was raised near the Mediterranean Sea; a metal worker from 2300 BC dubbed the "]" grew up near the Alpine foothills of Germany; and the "]" probably arrived from Wales or Brittany, France.<ref name="medit">{{cite news |title=Stonehenge boy 'was from the Med' |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11421593 |work=BBC News |date=28 September 2010 |access-date=28 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100929043730/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11421593 |archive-date=29 September 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
] has observed that the bluestones are incongruously finely worked and has suggested that they were transferred to Salisbury Plain from an as yet unlocated earlier monument in ]. ] felt that a Bluestone monument had earlier stood near the nearby Stonehenge cursus and been moved to their current site from there. If Mercer's theory is correct then the bluestones may have been transplanted to cement an alliance or display superiority over a conquered enemy although this can only be speculation. Oval shaped settings of bluestones similar to those at Stonehenge 3iv are also known at the sites of ] in the Preseli Hills and at ] off the southwest coast of Pembrokeshire. Some archaeologists have suggested that the ] bluestones and ] sarsens had some symbolism, of a union between two cultures from different landscapes and therefore from different backgrounds. | |||
On the other hand, Mike Parker Pearson of ] has suggested that Stonehenge was part of a ] and was joined to ] by their corresponding avenues and the River Avon. He suggests that the area around Durrington Walls henge was a place of the living, whilst Stonehenge was a domain of the dead. A journey along the Avon to reach Stonehenge was part of a ritual passage from life to death, to celebrate past ancestors and the recently deceased.<ref name=Pearson-2005/> Both explanations were first mooted in the twelfth century by ], who extolled the curative properties of the stones and was also the first to advance the idea that Stonehenge was constructed as a funerary monument. | |||
Recent analysis of contemporary burials found nearby known as the ], has indicated that at least some of the individuals associated with Stonehenge 3 came either from Wales or from some other European area of ancient rocks. ] analysis of the stones themselves has verified that they could only have come from the Preseli Hills and it is tempting to connect the two. | |||
There are other hypotheses and theories. According to a team of British researchers led by Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield, Stonehenge may have been built as a symbol of "peace and unity", indicated in part by the fact that at the time of its construction, Britain's Neolithic people were experiencing a period of cultural unification.<ref name="CBS News 2012" /><ref>{{cite journal |title=Interview with Mike Parker Pearson |journal=Papers from the Institute of Archaeology |year=2012 |first1=Thomas |last1=Williams |first2=Hana |last2=Koriech |volume=22 |pages=39–47 |doi=10.5334/pia.401|doi-access=free}}</ref> | |||
The main source of the bluestones is now identified with the dolerite outcrops around ] although work led by Olwen Williams-Thorpe of the ] has shown that other bluestones came from outcrops up to 10 km away. | |||
Stonehenge megaliths include smaller ]s and larger ]s (a term for silicified sandstone boulders found in the chalk downs of southern England). The bluestones are composed of dolerite, tuff, rhyolite, or sandstone. The igneous bluestones appear to have originated in the ] of southwestern Wales, about {{convert|140|mi|km}} from the monument.<ref name="Antiquity"/> The sandstone Altar Stone may have originated in east Wales. Analysis published in 2020 indicates the sarsens came from ], about {{convert|16|mi|km}} from the monument.<ref name="Nash" /> | |||
] and a number of geologists and geomorphologists contend that the bluestones were not transported by human agency at all and were instead brought by ]s at least part of the way from Wales during the ]. There is good ] and glaciological evidence that glacier ice did move across Preseli and did reach the Somerset coast. However, it is uncertain that it reached Salisbury Plain, and no further specimens of the unusual dolerite stone have so far been found in the vicinity. One current view is that glacier ice transported the stones as far as Somerset, and that they were collected from there by the builders of Stonehenge.. | |||
Researchers from the Royal College of Art in London have discovered that the monument's igneous bluestones possess "unusual acoustic properties" – when struck they respond with a "loud clanging noise". Rocks with such acoustic properties are frequent in the Carn Melyn ridge of Presili; the Presili village of ] (Welsh for bell or ringing stones) used local bluestones as church bells until the 18th century. According to the team, these acoustic properties could explain why certain bluestones were hauled such a long distance, a major technical accomplishment at the time. In certain ancient cultures, rocks that ring out, known as ]s, were believed to contain mystic or healing powers, and Stonehenge has a history of association with rituals. The presence of these "ringing rocks" seems to support the hypothesis that Stonehenge was a "place for healing" put forward by Darvill, who consulted with the researchers.<ref>{{cite web |title=RCA Research Team Uncovers Stonehenge's Sonic Secrets |url=https://www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/sonic-stones/ |publisher=Royal College of Art |access-date=4 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171205042110/https://www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/sonic-stones/ |archive-date=5 December 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
===Stonehenge as part of a ritual landscape=== | |||
] | |||
Many archaeologists believe Stonehenge was an attempt to render in permanent stone the more common timber structures that dotted Salisbury Plain at the time, such as those that stood at ]. Modern ] evidence has been used by ] and the ] archaeologist ] to suggest that timber was associated with the living and stone with the ancestral dead amongst prehistoric peoples. They have argued that Stonehenge was the terminus of a long, ritualised funerary procession for treating the dead, which began in the east, during sunrise at ] and ], moved down the Avon and then along the Avenue reaching Stonehenge in the west at sunset. The journey from wood to stone via water was, they consider, a symbolic journey from life to death. There is no satisfactory evidence to suggest that Stonehenge's astronomical alignments were anything more than symbolic and current interpretations favour a ritual role for the monument that takes into account its numerous burials and its presence within a wider landscape of ] sites. Many also believe that the site may have had ]/] significance attached to it. | |||
== Stonehenge-builders and DNA studies== | |||
Support for this view also comes from the historian of religions, ], who compares the site to other ] constructions around the world devoted to the cult of the dead (anscestors). "Like other similar English monuments ], ], ], and ]] the Stonehenge ] was situated in the middle of a field of funeral barrows. This famous ceremonial center constituted, at least in its primitive form, a sanctuary built to insure relations with the ancestors. In terms of structure, Stonehenge can be compared with certain megalithic complexes developed, in other cultures, from a sacred area: temples or cities. We have the same valorization of the sacred space as "center of the world," the privileged place that affords communication with heaven and the underworld, that is, with the gods, the chtonian goddesses, and the spirits of the dead." <ref>], ''A History of Religious Ideas, vol. I, From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries'', p. 118, translated: W. Trask, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1978</ref>. In addition to the English sites, Eliade identifies, among others, the megalithic architecture of ], which represents a "spectacular expression" of the cult of the dead and worship of a Great Goddess. <ref>Id., see also, Id., pp. 114 - 138 for other examples of megalithic constructions.</ref> | |||
{{See also|Neolithic Europe|Chalcolithic Europe|Genetic history of Europe}} | |||
There is evidence to suggest that despite the introduction of farming in the British Isles, the practice of cereal cultivation fell out of favor between 3300 and 1500 BC, with much of the population reverting to a ] ] focused on hazelnut gathering and pig and cattle rearing. A majority of the major phases of Stonehenge's construction took place during such a period where evidence of large-scale agriculture is equivocal. Similar associations between non-cereal farming subsistence patterns and monumental construction are also seen at ] and ].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stevens |first1=Chris |last2=Fuller |first2=Dorian |title=Did Neolithic farming fail? The case for a Bronze Age agricultural revolution in the British Isles |journal=Antiquity |date=2015 |volume=86 |issue=333 |pages=707–722 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00047864|s2cid=162740064 }}</ref> | |||
===Construction techniques and design=== | |||
] | |||
] | |||
===Stonehenge I and II=== | |||
Much speculation has surrounded the ] feats required to build Stonehenge. Assuming the bluestones were brought from Wales by hand, and not transported by glaciers as ] has claimed, various methods of moving them relying only on timber and ] have been suggested. In a ] exercise in ], an attempt was made to transport a large stone along a land and sea route from Wales to Stonehenge. Volunteers pulled it for some miles (with great difficulty) on a wooden sledge over land, using modern roads and low-friction netting to assist sliding, but once transferred to a replica prehistoric boat, the stone sank in ], before it even reached the rough seas of the ]. | |||
] originating from Anatolia who brought agriculture to Europe.<ref>{{cite news |first=Andrew |last=Curry |title=The first Europeans weren't who you might think |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/first-europeans-immigrants-genetic-testing-feature |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319032852/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/first-europeans-immigrants-genetic-testing-feature |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 March 2021 |work=National Geographic |date=August 2019}}</ref>]] | |||
Researchers studying DNA extracted from Neolithic human remains across Britain determined that the people who built Stonehenge I and II were closely related to Iberian and Central European Early and Middle Neolithic populations, modelled as having about 75% ancestry from ] who came from the Eastern Mediterranean, travelling west from there, and 25% ancestry coming from ] from western Europe.{{sfn|Brace et al.|2019}} These farmers moved to ] before heading north, reaching Britain in about 4,000 BC. Most of the ancestry of British Neolithic farmers came from the people who followed this route, with a minor contribution from groups who followed the ] into Central and Western Europe.<ref name="bbc.com">Paul Rincon, {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905205630/https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47938188|date=5 September 2019 }} BBC News website, 16 April 2019</ref>{{sfn|Brace et al.|2019}} Their agricultural techniques seem to have come originally from ],<ref name="bbc.com"/> and their mixture appears to have happened primarily on the continent before the Neolithic farmers migrated to Britain.<ref name="bbc.com" />{{sfn|Brace et al.|2019}} | |||
As far as positioning the stones, it has been suggested that timber ]s were erected to raise the stones, and that teams of people then hauled them upright using ropes. The topmost stones may have been raised up incrementally on timber platforms and slid into place or pushed up ramps. The carpentry-type joints used on the stones imply a people well skilled in woodworking and they could easily have had the knowledge to erect the monument using such methods. In ] retired construction worker ] demonstrated ingenious techniques based on fundamental principles of levers, fulcrums and counterweights to show that a single man can rotate, walk, lift and tip a ten-ton cast-concrete monolith into an upright position. He is progressing with his plan to construct a simulated Stonehenge comprising of eight uprights and two lintels. | |||
At the time of their arrival, Britain was inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers who were the first inhabitants of the island after the ] ended about 11,700 years ago.<ref name="nhm.ac.uk"/> The farmers replaced most of the hunter-gatherer population in the British Isles without mixing much with them.{{sfn|Patterson|2022}}{{efn|{{harvtxt|Patterson|2022}}: "Whole genome ancient DNA studies have shown that the first Neolithic farmers of the island of Great Britain who lived 3950–2450 BCE derived roughly 80% of their ancestry from Early European Farmers (EEF) who originated in Anatolia more than two millennia earlier, and 20% from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (Western European Hunter-Gatherers: WHG) with whom they mixed in continental Europe, indicating that local WHG in Britain contributed negligibly to later populations."}} | |||
] was of the opinion that the site was laid out with the necessary precision using his ]. | |||
Despite their mostly Aegean ancestry, the ] of Neolithic farmers in Britain were almost exclusively of Western Hunter-Gatherer origin.{{sfn|Olalde|2018}}{{efn|{{harvtxt|Olalde|2018}}: "Another striking observation is the haplogroup composition of Neolithic males in Britain (n<nowiki>=</nowiki>34), who displayed entirely I2a2 and I2a1b haplogroups. There is no evidence at all for a contribution to Neolithic farmers in Britain of the Y chromosome haplogroups (e.g., G2) that were predominant in Anatolian farmers and in Linearbandkeramik central European farmers."}} This was also the case among other megalithic-building populations in northwest Europe,{{sfn|Sánchez-Quinto|2019}}{{efn|{{harvtxt|Sánchez-Quinto|2019}}: "Whereas mtDNA lineages from megalith burials harbor haplogroups K, H, HV, V, U5b, T, and J (among others), males from megalith burials belong almost exclusively to YDNA haplogroup I, more specifically to the I2a sublineage, which has a time to most recent common ancestor of ~15000 BCE. This pattern of uniparental marker diversity is found not only among individuals buried in megaliths, but also in other farmer groups from the fourth millennium BCE, which display similar patterns of uniparental marker diversity ... The high frequency of the hunter-gatherer-derived I2a male lineages among megalith as well as nonmegalith individuals suggests a male sex-biased admixture process between the farmer and the hunter-gatherer groups. ... The I2 YDNA lineages that are very common among European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers are distinctly different from the YDNA lineages of the European Early Neolithic farmer groups, but frequent in the farmer groups of the fourth millennium BCE, suggesting a male hunter-gatherer admixture over time."}}{{sfn|Cassidy|2020}}{{efn|{{harvtxt|Cassidy|2020}}: "... the predominance of a single Y haplogroup (I-M284) across the Irish and British Neolithic population. ... provides further evidence of the importance of patrilineal ancestry in these societies."}} meaning that these populations were descended from a mixture of hunter-gatherer males and farmer females.{{efn|{{harvtxt|Sánchez-Quinto|2019}}: "Whereas mtDNA lineages from megalith burials harbor haplogroups K, H, HV, V, U5b, T, and J (among others), males from megalith burials belong almost exclusively to YDNA haplogroup I, more specifically to the I2a sublineage, which has a time to most recent common ancestor of ~15000 BCE. This pattern of uniparental marker diversity is found not only among individuals buried in megaliths, but also in other farmer groups from the fourth millennium BCE, which display similar patterns of uniparental marker diversity ... The high frequency of the hunter-gatherer-derived I2a male lineages among megalith as well as nonmegalith individuals suggests a male sex-biased admixture process between the farmer and the hunter-gatherer groups. ... The I2 YDNA lineages that are very common among European Mesolithic HGs are distinctly different from the YDNA lineages of the European Early Neolithic farmer groups, but frequent in the farmer groups of the fourth millennium BCE, suggesting a male hunter-gatherer admixture over time."}} The dominance of Western Hunter-Gatherer male lineages in Britain and northwest Europe is also reflected in a general 'resurgence' of hunter-gatherer ancestry, predominantly from males, across western and central Europe in the Middle Neolithic.{{sfn|Mathieson|2018 }}{{efn|{{harvtxt|Mathieson|2018}}: "We provide the first evidence for sex-biased admixture between hunter-gatherers and farmers in Europe, showing that the Middle Neolithic "resurgence" of hunter-gatherer-related ancestry in central Europe and Iberia was driven more by males than by females."}} | |||
The engraved weapons on the sarsens are unique in megalithic art in the British Isles, where more abstract designs were invariably favoured. Similarly, the horseshoe arrangements of stones are unusual in a culture that otherwise arranged stones in circles. The axe motif is, however, common to the peoples of ] at the time, and it has been suggested at least two stages of Stonehenge were built under continental influence. This would go some way towards explaining the monument's atypical design, but overall, Stonehenge is still inexplicably unusual in the context of any prehistoric European culture. | |||
===Stonehenge III (megalithic structure)=== | |||
Estimates of the manpower needed to build Stonehenge put the total effort involved at millions of hours of work. Stonehenge 1 probably needed around 11,000 ]s (or 460 ]s) of work, Stonehenge 2 around 360,000 (15,000 man-days or 41 years) and the various parts of Stonehenge 3 may have involved up to 1.75 million hours (73 000 days or 200 years) of work. The working of the stones is estimated to have required around 20 million hours (830 000 days or 2300 years) of work using the primitive tools available at the time. Certainly, the will to produce such a site must have been strong, and it is considered that advanced social organisation would have been necessary to build and maintain it. | |||
At the time the megalithic Stonehenge 3 II was constructed (2600–2400 BC) by Neolithic people, the ] arrived, around 2,500 BC, ] from mainland Europe.<ref name="NHM">National History Museum (2021), </ref> They lived side by side for ca. 500 years, with the Bell Beaker people probably incorporating the henge-structures into their belief-system.<ref name="NHM"/> | |||
The earliest British individuals associated with the Beaker culture, most likely speakers of ] whose ancestors migrated from the Pontic–Caspian steppe,<ref name="nhm.ac.uk">{{cite news |first=James |last=McNish |title=The Beaker people: a new population for ancient Britain |url=https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2018/february/the-beaker-people-a-new-population-for-ancient-britain.html |work=] |date=22 February 2018}}</ref> were similar to those from the Rhine.<ref name="Needham 2005">{{cite journal |last1=Needham |first1=S. |year=2005 |title=Transforming Beaker Culture in North-West Europe: processes of fusion and fission |journal=Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society |volume=71 |pages=171–217 |doi=10.1017/s0079497x00001006 |s2cid=193226917}}</ref> Eventually, there was again a large population replacement in Britain.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Barras |first1=Colin |title=Story of most murderous people of all time revealed in ancient DNA |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132230-200-story-of-most-murderous-people-of-all-time-revealed-in-ancient-dna/ |work=] |date=27 March 2019}}</ref> More than 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool was replaced with the arrival of the Bell Beaker people,<ref></ref> who had approximately 50% ] ancestry.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Bianca Preda |date=2020-05-06|title=Yamnaya – Corded Ware – Bell Beakers: How to conceptualise events of 5000 years ago |url=https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/news/language-culture/yamnaya-corded-ware-bell-beakers-how-to-conceptualise-events-of-5000-years-ago |website=The Yamnaya Impact On Prehistoric Europe |publisher=University of Helsinki}}</ref> | |||
===Alternative views=== | |||
Stonehenge's fame comes not only from its archaeological significance or potential early astronomical role but also in its less tangible effect on visitors, what ] describes as "the physical sensation of the place", something that transcends the rational, scientific view of the monument. This manifests itself in the spiritual role of the site for many different groups and a belief that no single scientific explanation can do justice to it as a symbol of the great achievement of the ancient Britons and as a symbol of something that continues to confound mainstream archaeology. | |||
==Modern history== | |||
Some people claim to have seen ] in the area, perhaps connected with the military installations around ], that has led to ideas over it being an ] landing site. ] found three ]s running through the site and others have employed ] ] or ] to reach diverse conclusions regarding the site's power and purpose. ] and ] beliefs might see Stonehenge as a sacred place of worship which can conflict with its more mainstream role as an ], tourist attraction, or marketing tool. ] archaeologists might consider that treating Stonehenge as a computer or ] is to apply modern concepts from our own technology-driven era back into the past. Even the role of ]s in archaeology, rarely applied in Western Europe, has created a new function for the site as a symbol of ]. | |||
===Archaeological research and restoration=== | |||
The significance of the 'ownership' of Stonehenge in terms of the differing meanings and interpretations held by the many orthodox and unorthodox ]s in the site has been increasingly apparent in recent decades. Researchers Jenny Blain and Robert J. Wallis (''Sacred Sites, Contested Rites/Rights'' project, http://www.sacredsites.org.uk) have pointed to the huge variety of views which show the continued and growing importance of Stonehenge today, as symbol and 'Icon of Britishness'; and indicate also the increased awareness of pasts by many people with no training in archaeology or heritage. For many, Stonehenge and other ancient monuments form part of the 'living landscape' which holds its own stories and which is there to be engaged with as people mark the seasons of the year. Today's mythology around Stonehenge includes the recent history of the ] and the previous ]s. Stonehenge has not one meaning but many. Today, curators ] facilitate 'managed open access' at ]s and ]es, with some disputes over the days on which these fall. Blain and Wallis argue that issues over access relate not only to physical presence at the stones but to interpretations of past and validity of 'new-indigenous' and pagan usages in the present and such 'alternative' views have been central in alerting public awareness to the issues of roads, tunnels and landscape, noted below. | |||
]'']] | |||
====1600–1900==== | |||
==Excavations at Stonehenge== | |||
Throughout recorded history, Stonehenge and its surrounding monuments have attracted attention from ] and ]. ] was one of the first to examine the site with a scientific eye in 1666, and, in his plan of the monument, he recorded the pits that now bear his name, the ]. ] continued Aubrey's work in the early eighteenth century, but took an interest in the surrounding monuments as well, identifying (somewhat incorrectly) the Cursus and the Avenue. He also began the excavation of many of the barrows in the area, and it was his interpretation of the landscape that associated it with the ].<ref>Stukeley, William, 1740, ''Stonehenge A Temple Restor'd to the British Druids''. London</ref> Stukeley was so fascinated with Druids that he originally named ] as Druids' Barrows. | |||
{{main|Excavations at Stonehenge}} | |||
The first recorded excavations at Stonehenge were carried out by ] and ]. In 1798, Cunnington investigated the pit beneath a recently fallen trilithon and in 1810, both men dug beneath the fallen Slaughter Stone and concluded that it had once stood up. They may have also excavated one of the Aubrey Holes beneath it. In 1900 ] undertook the first extensive work, establishing that antler picks had been used to dig the stone holes and that the stones themselves had been worked to shape on site. | |||
], 1835]] | |||
The most accurate early plan of Stonehenge was that made by Bath architect ] in 1740.<ref>Wood, John, 1747, ''Choir Guare, Vulgarly called Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain''. Oxford</ref> His original annotated survey has now been computer-redrawn and published.<ref name="Johnson, Anthony 2008">{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Anthony |date=2008 |title=Solving Stonehenge: The New Key to an Ancient Enigma |publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=978-0-500-05155-9}}</ref>{{rp|195}} Importantly Wood's plan was made before the collapse of the southwest trilithon, which fell in 1797 and was restored in 1958.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Greaney |first=Susan |date=2018-05-29 |title=Excavation and Restoration: Stonehenge in the 1950s and 60s |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/blog/blog-posts/excavation-restoration-stonehenge-1950s-60s/ |access-date=2023-10-01 |website=English Heritage}}</ref> | |||
] was the next to tackle the area in the early nineteenth century. He excavated some 24 barrows before digging in and around the stones and discovered charred wood, animal bones, pottery and urns. He also identified the hole in which the Slaughter Stone once stood. ] supported Cunnington's work and excavated some 379 barrows on ] including on some 200 in the area around the Stones, some excavated in conjunction with ]. To alert future diggers to their work, they were careful to leave initialled metal tokens in each barrow they opened. Cunnington's finds are displayed at the ]. In 1877, ] dabbled in archaeology at the stones, experimenting with the rate at which remains sink into the earth, for his book '']''.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} | |||
The largest excavation at Stonehenge was undertaken by Lieutenant-Colonel ] and ] after the site had come into state hands. Their work, initially focusing on righting fallen stones, began in ] following the transfer of land and continued until ]. It was funded by the ]. The two men excavated many portions of the features at Stonehenge and were the first to establish that it was a multi-phase site. | |||
Stone 22 fell during a fierce storm on 31 December 1900.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.silentearth.org/restorations-at-stonehenge-2/ |title=Silent Earth: Restorations at Stonehenge |website=www.silentearth.org |access-date=30 July 2020 |archive-date=7 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807135801/http://www.silentearth.org/restorations-at-stonehenge-2/ |url-status=usurped }}</ref> | |||
In ] the ] commissioned ], ] and ] to carry out further excavations. They recovered many cremations and developed the phasing that still dominates much of what is written about Stonehenge. In ] and ] Mike Pitts led two smaller investigations as part of service trenching, close by the ], finding ] chalk and evidence for its neighbour. | |||
] | |||
==Myths and legends== | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
==="Friar's Heel" or the "Sunday Stone"=== | |||
The ] was once known as "Friar's Heel." A folk tale, which cannot be dated earlier than the seventeenth century, relates the origin of the name of this stone: | |||
====1901–2000==== | |||
''The ] bought the stones from a woman in Ireland, wrapped them up, and brought them to Salisbury plain. One of the stones fell into the ], the rest were carried to the plain. The Devil then cried out, "No-one will ever find out how these stones came here." A friar replied, "That's what you think!," whereupon the Devil threw one of the stones at him and struck him on the heel. The stone stuck in the ground and is still there.'' | |||
] | |||
] oversaw the first major restoration of the monument in 1901, which involved the straightening and concrete setting of sarsen stone number 56 which was in danger of falling. In straightening the stone he moved it about half a metre from its original position.<ref name="Johnson, Anthony 2008"/> Gowland also took the opportunity to further excavate the monument in what was the most scientific dig to date, revealing more about the erection of the stones than the previous 100 years of work had done. During the 1920 restoration, ], who had excavated nearby ], excavated the base of six stones and the outer ditch. He also located a bottle of ] in the Slaughter Stone socket left by Cunnington, helped to rediscover Aubrey's pits inside the bank and located the concentric circular holes outside the Sarsen Circle called the ].<ref name="SiiL">{{cite web |last=Cleal |first=Rosamund |title=Y and Z holes |work=Archaeometry and Stonehenge |publisher=English Heritage |year=1995 |url=http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/stoneh/yz.htm |access-date=4 April 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090228211449/http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/stoneh/yz.htm |archive-date= 28 February 2009|display-authors=etal}}</ref> | |||
Some claim "Friar's Heel" is a corruption of "Freyja's He-ol" or "Freyja Sul", from the Nordic goddess ] and (allegedly) the Welsh words for "way" and "Friday" respectively. | |||
], ] and ] re-excavated much of Hawley's work in the 1940s and 1950s, and discovered the carved axes and daggers on the Sarsen Stones. Atkinson's work was instrumental in furthering the understanding of the three major phases of the monument's construction. | |||
===Arthurian legend=== | |||
Stonehenge is also mentioned within ]. ] said that ] the wizard directed its removal from ], where it had been constructed on ] by ]s, who brought the stones from ]. After it had been rebuilt near Amesbury, Geoffrey further narrates how first ], then ], and finally ], were buried inside the ring of stones. In many places in his '']'' Geoffrey mixes British legend and his own imagination; it is intriguing that he connects Ambrosius Aurelianus with this prehistoric monument, seeing how there is place-name evidence to connect Ambrosius with nearby Amesbury. | |||
In 1958, the stones were restored again, when three of the standing sarsens were re-erected and set in concrete bases. The last restoration was carried out in 1963 after stone 23 of the Sarsen Circle fell over. It was again re-erected, and the opportunity was taken to concrete three more stones. Later archaeologists, including ] of the ] and Brian Edwards of the ], campaigned to give the public more knowledge of the various restorations and, in 2004, English Heritage included pictures of the work in progress in its book ''Stonehenge: A History in Photographs''.<ref name="emmayoung">{{cite magazine |last=Young |first=Emma |title=Concrete Evidence |magazine=] |issue=9 January 2001 |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn310-concrete-evidence.html |access-date=3 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100923160924/https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn310-concrete-evidence.html |archive-date=23 September 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Taverner |first=Roger |title=How they rebuilt Stonehenge |work=], quoted in Cosmic Conspiracies: How they rebuilt Stonehenge |date=8 January 2001 |url=http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicstonehenge.htm |access-date=3 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080309014637/http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicstonehenge.htm |archive-date=9 March 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Richards |first=Julian C.|author-link = Julian C. Richards |title=Stonehenge: A History in Photographs |publisher=English Heritage |year=2004 |location=London |isbn=978-1-85074-895-3}}</ref> | |||
In ''World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics'' (3rd ed.), by Donna Rosenburg, on pp. 428-30, she summarizes the Stonehenge story of the definitive Arthur legend. By this the reader learns that, according to the legend of King Arthur, the rocks of Stonehenge were paganistic healing rocks from Africa. Giants brought them from Africa to Ireland for their demonic healing properties. The second King of Britain, Aurelius Ambrosias (5th Century), wished to erect a memorial to the nobles who had died in battle with the Saxons. Those nobles were buried near Salisbury. With the help of Merlin, Aurelius made Stonehenge that monument. So the King sent Merlin, Uther Pendragon (Arthur's father), and 15,000 knights to Ireland to retrieve the rocks. They slew 7,000 Irish. As the knights tried to move the rocks with ropes and force, they failed. Then Merlin whispered witchcraft incantations over the rocks and they became as light as pebbles. Then Stonehenge was dedicated in Britain. Shortly after, Aurelius died and was buried within the Stonehenge monument, or "The Giants' Ring of Stonehenge". | |||
In 1966 and 1967, in advance of a new car park being built at the site, the area of land immediately northwest of the stones was excavated by Faith and Lance Vatcher. They discovered the Mesolithic postholes dating from between 7000 and 8000 BC, as well as a {{convert|10|m|adj=on}} length of a ] ditch – a V-cut ditch into which timber posts had been inserted that remained there until they rotted away. Subsequent ] suggests that this ditch runs from the west to the north of Stonehenge, near the avenue.<ref name="SiiL" /> | |||
==Recent history== | |||
] (]).]] | |||
{{main|Recent history of Stonehenge}} | |||
By the beginning of the ] a number of the stones had fallen or were leaning precariously, probably due to the increase in curious visitors clambering on them during the nineteenth century. Three phases of conservation work were undertaken which righted some unstable or fallen stones and carefully replaced them in their original positions using information from antiquarian drawings. | |||
Excavations were once again carried out in 1978 by Atkinson and John Evans, during which they discovered the remains of the ] in the outer ditch,<ref>{{cite news |title=Stonehenge execution revealed |work=BBC News |date=9 June 2000 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/784348.stm |access-date=4 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080413233350/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/784348.stm |archive-date=13 April 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> and in 1979 ] was needed alongside the Heel Stone after a cable-laying ditch was mistakenly dug on the roadside, revealing a new stone hole next to the Heel Stone. | |||
Stonehenge is a place of pilgrimage for ]s and those following ] or ] beliefs. The midsummer sunrise began attracting modern visitors in 1870s, with the first record of recreated Druidic practices dating to 1905 when the ] enacted a ceremony. Despite efforts by archaeologists and historians to stress the differences between the Iron Age Druidic religion, the much older monument and modern Druidry, Stonehenge has become increasingly, almost inextricably, associated with British Druidism, Neo Paganism and New Age philosophy. | |||
In the early 1980s, ] led the Stonehenge Environs Project, a detailed study of the surrounding landscape. The project was able to successfully date such features as the ], ] and several other smaller features. | |||
The earlier rituals were augmented by the ], held between ] and ], and loosely organised by the ]. However, in ] the site was closed to festivalgoers by English Heritage and the National Trust by which time the number of midsummer visitors had risen from 500 to 30,000. A consequence of the end of the festival was the violent confrontation between the police and new age travellers that became known as the ] when police blockaded a convoy of travellers to prevent them from approaching Stonehenge. There was then no midsummer access for almost fifteen years until limited opening was negotiated in 2000. | |||
In 1993, the way that Stonehenge was presented to the public was called 'a national disgrace' by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. Part of English Heritage's response to this criticism was to commission research to collate and bring together all the archaeological work conducted at the monument up to this date. This two-year research project resulted in the publication in 1995 of the monograph '']'', which was the first publication presenting the complex stratigraphy and the finds recovered from the site. It presented a rephasing of the monument.<ref name=Whitt>{{cite journal |last=Whittle |first=Alasdair |year=1996 |title=Eternal stones: Stonehenge completed |journal=Antiquity |volume=70 |issue=268 |pages=463–465 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00083459|s2cid=163697929 }}</ref> | |||
In more recent years, the setting of the monument has been affected by the proximity of the ] between Amesbury and Winterbourne Stoke, and the ]. In early ], the ] announced that the A303 would be upgraded, including the construction of the ]. The controversial plans have not yet been finalised by the government. | |||
====21st century==== | |||
Also announced has been a new heritage centre, which was intended to be open in ]. Current provision for visitors has often been criticised; in ] Stonehenge's presentation was condemned by the Public Accounts Committee of the ] as 'a national disgrace'. English Heritage proposes a new purpose-built facility 3km from the stones at Countess Road in Amesbury, on the edge of the World Heritage Site boundary. Locals in Amesbury have complained that the scheme would shift traffic congestion from Stonehenge to their own village. They have also suggested that the necessary time that the public would now have to spend travelling to and from Stonehenge would likely dissuade many visitors, especially ] and ] tourists on whistle-stop tours of England, from visiting at all. | |||
More recent excavations include a series of digs held between 2003 and 2008 known as the ], led by Mike Parker Pearson. This project mainly investigated other monuments in the landscape and their relationship to the stones—notably, Durrington Walls, where another "Avenue" leading to the River Avon was discovered. The point where the Stonehenge Avenue meets the river was also excavated and revealed a previously unknown circular area which probably housed four further stones, most likely as a marker for the starting point of the avenue. | |||
In April 2008, ] of the University of Bournemouth and ] of the Society of Antiquaries began another dig inside the stone circle to retrieve datable fragments of the original bluestone pillars. They were able to date the erection of some bluestones to 2300 BC,<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk"/> although this may not reflect the earliest erection of stones at Stonehenge. They also discovered organic material from 7000 BC, which, along with the Mesolithic postholes, adds support for the site having been in use at least 4,000 years before Stonehenge was started. In August and September 2008, as part of the Riverside Project, ] and ] excavated Aubrey Hole 7, removing the cremated remains from several Aubrey Holes that had been excavated by Hawley in the 1920s, and re-interred in 1935.<ref name="Sheffield Uni"/> A licence for the removal of human remains at Stonehenge had been granted by the ] in May 2008, in accordance with the ''Statement on burial law and archaeology'' issued in May 2008. One of the conditions of the licence was that the remains should be reinterred within two years and that in the intervening period they should be kept safely, privately and decently.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20787 |title=StonehengeBones – epetition response |last=Anon |date=29 September 2009 |work=The prime minister's office epetitions |publisher=Crown copyright:Ministry of Justice |access-date=6 November 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091002212133/http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20787 |archive-date= 2 October 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/docs/burial-law-archaeology-statementii.pdf |title=Statement on burial law and archaeology |last=Anon |date=April 2008 |work=Review of Burial Legislation |publisher=Crown copyright:Ministry of Justice |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091111115334/http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/docs/burial-law-archaeology-statementii.pdf |archive-date=11 November 2009 |url-status=dead |access-date=6 November 2009}}</ref> | |||
In July 2005 the plans were thrown into uncertainty following refusal of planning permission for the visitors' centre by Salisbury District Council while the British government placed the rising costs of the road scheme under review. | |||
A new landscape investigation was conducted in April 2009. A shallow mound, rising to about {{convert|40|cm|in|0|abbr=in|order=flip}} was identified between stones 54 (inner circle) and 10 (outer circle), clearly separated from the natural slope. It has not been dated but speculation that it represents careless backfilling following earlier excavations seems disproved by its representation in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century illustrations. There is some evidence that, as an uncommon geological feature, it could have been deliberately incorporated into the monument at the outset.<ref name="field2010" /> A circular, shallow bank, little more than {{convert|10|cm|in|0|spell=in|order=flip}} high, was found between the Y and Z hole circles, with a further bank lying inside the "Z" circle. These are interpreted as the spread of spoil from the original Y and Z holes, or more speculatively as hedge banks from vegetation deliberately planted to screen the activities within.<ref name=field2010>{{cite journal |last=Field |first=David |date=March 2010 |title=Introducing 'Stonehedge' |journal=British Archaeology |issue=111 |pages=32–35 |issn=1357-4442|display-authors=etal}}</ref> | |||
==Replicas and derivative names== | |||
], a Stonehenge replica constructed from vintage American cars.]] | |||
{{main|List of Stonehenge replicas and derivatives}} | |||
There is a full-size replica of Stonehenge as it would have been before decay at ] in ], built by ] as a war memorial. ] in the ] region of ] is a modern adaptation aligned with the astronomy seen from the ]; it was built by the from wood and sprayed concrete. The ] at ] has a half-scale replica located on campus, . , in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, has a small replica on its campus dubbed ]. | |||
In 2010, the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project discovered a "henge-like" monument less than {{cvt|1|km||order=flip}} away from the main site.<ref name=IAA>{{cite web |url=http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/iaa/departments/archaeology/news/2010/new-henge.aspx |title=A new 'henge' discovered at Stonehenge |publisher=] |date=22 July 2010 |access-date=22 July 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711182439/https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/iaa/departments/archaeology/news/2010/new-henge.aspx |archive-date=11 July 2012}}</ref> This new hengiform monument was subsequently revealed to be located "at the site of Amesbury 50", a round barrow in the ] group.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1002/arp.1422 |title=The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project |journal=Archaeological Prospection |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=147 |year=2012 |last1=Gaffney |first1=C. |last2=Gaffney |first2=V. |last3=Neubauer |first3=W. |last4=Baldwin |first4=E. |last5=Chapman |first5=H. |last6=Garwood |first6=P. |last7=Moulden |first7=H. |last8=Sparrow |first8=T. |last9=Bates |first9=R.|last10 = Löcker|first10 = K. |last11=Hinterleitner |first11=A. |last12=Trinks |first12=I. |last13=Nau |first13=E. |last14=Zitz |first14=T. |last15=Floery |first15=S. |last16=Verhoeven |first16=G. |last17=Doneus |first17=M.|bibcode=2012ArchP..19..147G |s2cid=128595153 }}</ref> | |||
] was constructed from vintage American cars near ] by the artist Jim Reynolds in 1987. Another replica, called ], in ] is constructed from an adobe-like material. Tankhenge existed in the border zone of ] in the early 1990s after the collapse of the ]. Tankhenge was constructed from three ex-Soviet armoured personnel carriers. | |||
In November 2011, archaeologists from University of Birmingham announced the discovery of evidence of two huge pits positioned within the ] pathway, aligned in celestial position towards midsummer sunrise and sunset when viewed from the Heel Stone.<ref>Boyle, Alan, , ''msnbc.com Cosmic Log'', 28 November 2011</ref><ref name=UBdiscovery> {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118223219/http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/latest/2011/11/25Nov-Discoveries-provide-evidence-of-a-celestial-procession-at-Stonehenge.aspx|date=18 January 2012 }}, ''University of Birmingham Press Release'', 26 November 2011</ref> The new discovery was made as part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project which began in the summer of 2010.<ref> {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118151324/http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/latest/2010/07/5july-hengesearch.aspx|date=18 January 2012 }}, ''University of Birmingham Press Release'', 5 July 2010</ref> The project uses non-invasive geophysical imaging technique to reveal and visually recreate the landscape. According to team leader Vince Gaffney, this discovery may provide a direct link between the rituals and astronomical events to activities within the Cursus at Stonehenge.<ref name=UBdiscovery/> | |||
A full-size Stonehenge made out of ] — and inevitably called ] — stands near ] . | |||
In December 2011, geologists from University of Leicester and the National Museum of Wales announced the discovery of the source of some of the ] fragments found in the Stonehenge ]. These fragments do not seem to match any of the standing stones or bluestone stumps. The researchers have identified the source as a {{convert|70|m|adj=on|order=flip}} long rock outcrop called ] ({{coord|51|59|30|N|4|44|41|W|type:mountain_scale:1000_region:GB|name=Craig Rhos-y-Felin|display=inline}}), near Pont Saeson in north ], located {{convert|220|km|order=flip}} from Stonehenge.<ref>{{cite news |last=Keys |first=David |title=Scientists discover source of rock used in Stonehenge's first circle |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/news/scientists-discover-source-of-rock-used-in-stonehenges-first-circle-6278894.html |access-date=20 December 2011 |newspaper=The Independent |date=18 December 2011 |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160210214611/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/news/scientists-discover-source-of-rock-used-in-stonehenges-first-circle-6278894.html |archive-date=10 February 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=New Discovery in Stonehenge Bluestone Mystery |url=http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/1823/?article_id=642 |work=National Museum of Wales |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130620114843/http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/1823/?article_id=642 |archive-date=20 June 2013 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> | |||
Another modern take on Stonehenge exists outside of Sante Fe, New Mexico, constructed out of junked refrigerators, known as 'Fridgehenge'. The site was created by the artist Adam Jonas Horowitz. | |||
In 2014, the ] announced findings including evidence of adjacent stone and wooden structures and burial mounds near ], overlooked previously, that may date as far back as 4000 BC.<ref name=Tele>{{Cite web |author=Siciliano, Leon |date=10 September 2014 |title=Technology unearths 17 new monuments at Stonehenge |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/11086508/Technology-unearths-17-new-monuments-at-Stonehenge.html |website=The Telegraph |access-date = 20 May 2015|display-authors = etal |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150215161120/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/11086508/Technology-unearths-17-new-monuments-at-Stonehenge.html |archive-date = 15 February 2015 |url-status = dead}}</ref> An area extending to {{convert|12|km2|sqmi|order=flip}} was studied to a depth of three metres with ] equipment. As many as seventeen new monuments, revealed nearby, may be Late Neolithic monuments that resemble Stonehenge. The interpretation suggests a complex of numerous related monuments. Also included in the discovery is that the ] is terminated by two {{convert|5|m|ft|adj=on|order=flip}} wide, extremely deep pits,<ref name="MyUser_Smithsonianmag.com_October_20_2014c">{{cite web |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-lies-beneath-Stonehenge-180952437/ |title=What Lies Beneath Stonehenge? |newspaper=Smithsonianmag.com |access-date=20 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141019134138/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-lies-beneath-Stonehenge-180952437/ |archive-date=19 October 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> whose purpose is still a mystery. | |||
Another full-size exact replica of what Stonehenge would have looked like 4000 years ago, also made of foam, was constructed and erected just 10 mi (16 km) southwest of the actual Stonehenge. It was used for scientific and archaeological studies and was removed after. | |||
===Origin of sarsens, bluestones and other modern developments=== | |||
The rock band ] featured a Stonehenge stage set for the 1983-1984 Born Again tour that ended up being too large to fit in most venues. This was parodied in the movie '']'', when the band orders a Stonehenge set but it arrives in miniature due to a confusion between feet and inches. There was also a Chicago based heavy metal band named Stonehenge that actually owned the trademark to the name. Stonehenge met with underground success in the 1990's - 2000's performing with acts such as Pantera, Iced Earth, Trouble and Manowar. | |||
] | |||
In July 2020, a study led by David Nash of the ] concluded that the large sarsen stones were "a direct chemical match" to those found at ] near ], some 15 miles (25 km) north of Stonehenge.<ref name="BBC53580339">{{cite news |title=Mystery of origin of Stonehenge megaliths solved |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-53580339# |access-date=29 July 2020 |work=] |date=29 July 2020 |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729182329/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-53580339 |url-status=live }}</ref> A core sample, originally extracted in 1958, had recently been returned. First the fifty-two sarsens were analysed using methods including ] to determine their chemical composition which revealed they were mostly similar. Then the core was destructively analysed and compared with stone samples from various locations in southern Britain. Fifty of the fifty-two megaliths were found to match sarsens in West Woods, thereby identifying the probable origin of the stones.<ref name="BBC53580339" /><ref name="ITVMarlborough">{{cite news |last1=Evelyn |first1=Rupert |title=Origin of Stonehenge's huge standing stones discovered after part of monument found in US |url=https://www.itv.com/news/2020-07-29/origin-of-stonehenges-huge-standing-stones-discovered-after-part-of-monument-found-in-us |access-date=29 July 2020 |work=ITV News |date=29 July 2020 |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729182050/https://www.itv.com/news/2020-07-29/origin-of-stonehenges-huge-standing-stones-discovered-after-part-of-monument-found-in-us |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2250287-weve-finally-figured-out-where-stonehenges-giant-boulders-came-from/# |title=We've Finally Figured Out Where Stonehenge's Giant Boulders Came From |first1=Donna |last1=Lu |work=] |date=July 30, 2020 |access-date=30 July 2020 |archive-date=30 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730112044/https://www.newscientist.com/article/2250287-weve-finally-figured-out-where-stonehenges-giant-boulders-came-from/ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
In the MMORPG Runescape, there is a Stonehenge look-alike sometimes refered to as "Runehenge (rune being taken from the name of the game) | |||
During 2017 and 2018, excavations by professor ] team at ], a large stone circle site in the Preseli Hills, suggested that the site had originally housed a {{convert|110|m|adj=on}} diameter stone circle of the same size as Stonehenge's original bluestone circle, also orientated towards the midsummer solstice.<ref name=Pearson-Pollard-etal-2021-02-12> | |||
Aside from modern replicas, several other ]s have had Stonehenge's name partially or fully incorporated into their own names. ] is an unusual and controversial site in ]. A henge near Stonehenge containing concentric rings of postholes for standing timbers, discovered in 1922, was named ] by its excavators because of similarities with Stonehenge. The timber ] in ] was named as such by journalists writing about its discovery in ]. | |||
{{cite journal | |||
|last1=Pearson |first1=Mike Parker |author-link1=Mike Parker Pearson | |||
|last2=Pollard |first2=Josh |last3=Richards |first3=Colin | |||
|last4=Welham |first4=Kate |last5=Kinnaird |first5=Timothy | |||
|last6=Shaw |first6=Dave |last7=Simmons |first7=Ellen | |||
|last8=Stanford |first8=Adam |last9=Bevins |first9=Richard | |||
|last10=Ixer |first10=Rob |last11=Ruggles |first11=Clive | |||
|last12=Rylatt |first12=Jim |last13=Edinborough |first13=Kevan | |||
|display-authors=6 | |||
|date=2021-02-12 | |||
|title=The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales | |||
|journal=Antiquity | |||
|volume=95 |issue=379 |pages=85–103 | |||
|doi=10.15184/aqy.2020.239 |doi-access=free | |||
|quote=Waun Mawn is the third largest of Britain's great stone circles with diameters over 100 m. | |||
}} | |||
</ref><ref name=Curry-2021-02-11> | |||
{{cite news | |||
|first=Andrew |last=Curry | |||
|date=11 Feb 2021 | |||
|title=England's Stonehenge was erected in Wales first | |||
|journal=] | |||
|url=https://www.science.org/content/article/england-s-stonehenge-was-erected-wales-first | |||
|url-status=live |access-date=13 February 2021 | |||
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213005049/https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/england-s-stonehenge-was-erected-wales-first | |||
|archive-date=13 February 2021 | |||
}} | |||
</ref> | |||
The circle at Waun Mawn also contained a hole from one stone which had a distinctive pentagonal shape, very closely matching the one pentagonal stone at Stonehenge (stonehole 91 at Waun Mawn / stone 62 at Stonehenge).<ref name="Pearson-Pollard-etal-2021-02-12" /><ref name="Curry-2021-02-11" /> ] of the sediments within the revealed stone holes, via ] (OSL), suggested the absent stones at Waun Mawn had been erected around 3400–3200 BC, and removed around 300–400 years later, a date consistent with theories that the same stones were moved and used at Stonehenge, before later being reorganised into their present locations and supplemented with local ]s as was already understood.<ref name="Pearson-Pollard-etal-2021-02-12" /><ref name="Curry-2021-02-11" /> Human activity at Waun Mawn ceased around the same time which has suggested that some people may have migrated to Stonehenge.<ref name="Pearson-Pollard-etal-2021-02-12" /><ref name="Curry-2021-02-11" /> It has also been suggested that stones from other sources may have been added to Stonehenge, perhaps from other dismantled circles in the region.<ref name="Pearson-Pollard-etal-2021-02-12" /><ref name="Curry-2021-02-11" /> | |||
In ], emerged of an "]" ], 390 kilometres from ], the capital of ] state, near ]'s border with ]. It is comprised of 127 stones, possibly forming astronomical observing points. | |||
Further work in 2021 by Parker Pearson's team concluded that the Waun Mawn circle had never been completed, and of the stones which might once have stood at the site, no more than 13 had been removed in antiquity.<ref name=Pearson-Casswell-2022-01-12> | |||
refers to an astronomical event in which the sun directly lines up with the ] of the ]. These are the only evenings in which the entire corridor is illuminated by direct sunlight. | |||
{{cite web | |||
| last1 = Pearson | first1 = Mike Parker |author1-link=Mike Parker Pearson | |||
| last2 = Casswell | first2 = Chris | last3 = Rylatt | first3 = Jim | |||
| last4 = Stanford | first4 = Adam | last5 = Welham | first5 = Kate | |||
| last6 = Pollard | first6 = Josh | |||
| date = 2022-01-12 | |||
| title = Waun Mawn and Gernos-fach: The Welsh origins of Stonehenge project Interim report of the 2021 season | |||
| website = sarsen.org | |||
| series = Musings and bookmarks about Stonehenge and related stuff. | |||
| publisher = | |||
| url =http://www.sarsen.org/2022/01/waun-mawn-and-gernos-fach-welsh-origins.html | |||
| access-date = 2022-01-30 | |||
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220113075127/http://www.sarsen.org/2022/01/waun-mawn-and-gernos-fach-welsh-origins.html | |||
| archive-date = 2022-01-13 | |||
}} | |||
</ref>{{efn| | |||
"In summary, the 2021 excavations provide evidence that only 30% of Waun Mawn's stone circle was ever completed, leaving large gaps on the west and south sides. if Waun Mawn provided some of the bluestones for Stonehenge, these can only have been a small portion of the total."<ref name=Pearson-Casswell-2022-01-12/> | |||
}} | |||
In February 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of "vast troves of Neolithic and Bronze Age artifacts"<ref name="Art News"/> while conducting excavations for the proposed highway tunnel near Stonehenge. The find included Bronze Age graves, late neolithic pottery and C-shaped enclosure on the intended site of the ]. Remains also contained a shale object in one of the graves, burnt flint in C-shaped enclosure and the final resting place of a baby.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Morris |first=Steven |date=2021-02-04 |title=Archaeologists unearth bronze age graves at Stonehenge tunnel site |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/04/archaeologist-unearth-bronze-age-graves-stonehenge-a303-tunnel-site |access-date=2021-02-05 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=5 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205144522/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/04/archaeologist-unearth-bronze-age-graves-stonehenge-a303-tunnel-site |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
==Stonehenge in popular culture== | |||
In the film ] (1990), Creedence claims that her druid ancestors came from Stonehenge. | |||
In January 2022, archaeologists announced the discovery of thousands of ] pits during an electromagnetic induction ] around Stonehenge. Based on the shape of the pits and the artifacts found inside, the study's lead author, Philippe De Smedt, assumed that six of the 9 large pits excavated were made by prehistoric humans. One of the oldest was about 10000 years old and contained hunting tools.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=De Smedt |first1=Philippe |last2=Garwood |first2=Paul |last3=Chapman |first3=Henry |last4=Deforce |first4=Koen |last5=De Grave |first5=Johan |last6=Hanssens |first6=Daan |last7=Vandenberghe |first7=Dimitri |date=2022 |title=Novel insights into prehistoric land use at Stonehenge by combining electromagnetic and invasive methods with a semi-automated interpretation scheme |url= http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/160422299/Pages_from_accepted.pdf|journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=143|page=105557 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2022.105557 |bibcode=2022JArSc.143j5557D |s2cid=248688037 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author1=Owen Jarus |date=2022-05-19 |title=Thousands of prehistoric pits discovered around Stonehenge |url=https://www.livescience.com/thousands-pits-found-around-stonehenge |access-date=2022-08-13 |website=livescience.com |language=en}}</ref> | |||
In the film ] they crash onto Stonehenge in a car. | |||
In August 2024, the journal ] published research from a team at ] in Australia identifying the origin of the Altar Stone, which is partially buried by a collapsed sarsen stone, as having come from the Orcadian Basin in northeast Scotland, some 700 km away.<ref name=Curtin-2024-08> | |||
In the video game ], Stonehenge houses an alien facility underneath it. | |||
{{cite journal | |||
| last1 = Bates | first1 = Emily |author1-link=Emily Bates | |||
| date = 2024-08-14 | |||
| title = A Scottish origin for Stonehenge's Altar Stone | |||
| journal = Nature | |||
| series = Nature Video | |||
| publisher = Springer Nature Limited | |||
| doi = 10.1038/d41586-024-02651-8 | pmid = 39143289 | url = https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02651-8 | |||
| access-date = 2024-08-14 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
===Folklore=== | |||
In the video game ], Stonehenge was used as a long range anti-air artillery. | |||
] | |||
===="Heel Stone", "Friar's Heel", or "Sun-Stone"==== | |||
Stonehenge is a venue in the video game ]. | |||
] on the ], shortly after sunrise]] | |||
The ] lies northeast of the sarsen circle, beside the end portion of Stonehenge Avenue.<ref name="Stanford">{{cite book |last1=Stanford |first1=Peter |title=The Extra Mile: A 21st century Pilgrimage |date=2011 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |page=20}}</ref> It is a rough stone, {{convert|16|ft|m}} above ground, leaning inwards towards the stone circle.<ref name="Stanford"/> It has been known by many names in the past, including "Friar's Heel" and "Sun-stone".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Stevens |first=Edward |date=July 1866 |title=Stonehenge and Abury |magazine=The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review |publisher=Bradbury, Evans & Co |location=London |volume=11 |page=69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z_UIAAAAIAAJ&q=Stonehenge+%22Friar%27s+Heel%22&pg=PA69 |access-date=5 March 2015 |archive-date=27 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427082830/https://books.google.com/books?id=z_UIAAAAIAAJ&q=Stonehenge+%22Friar%27s+Heel%22&pg=PA69 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Measuring Time: Teacher's Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r5QrAAAAYAAJ&q=Stonehenge+%22Sun+stone%22&pg=PA173 |access-date=5 March 2015 |year=1994 |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |location=Burlington, NC |isbn=978-0-89278-707-4 |page=173 |archive-date=27 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427031944/https://books.google.com/books?id=r5QrAAAAYAAJ&q=Stonehenge+%22Sun+stone%22&pg=PA173 |url-status=live }}</ref> At the ] an observer standing within the stone circle, looking northeast through the entrance, would see the Sun rise in the approximate direction of the Heel Stone, and the Sun has often been photographed over it. | |||
A miniature Stonehenge was featured in the mockumentary ]. | |||
A folk tale relates the origin of the Friar's Heel reference.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Andrew Oliver |title=The Journal of Samuel Curwen, loyalist |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3QY4EDSaA0EC |access-date=6 March 2015 |volume=1 |year=1972 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-48380-4 |page=190 |chapter=July 1776 |archive-date=26 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426223642/https://books.google.com/books?id=3QY4EDSaA0EC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A Description of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NytRAAAAcAAJ |access-date=6 March 2015 |year=1809 |publisher=J Easton |location=Salisbury |page=5 |chapter=Jeffery of Monmouth's Account of Stonehenge |archive-date=27 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427075153/https://books.google.com/books?id=NytRAAAAcAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
English comic ] discusses Stonehenge in his stand-up Dress to Kill. | |||
{{blockquote|The ] bought the stones from a woman in Ireland, wrapped them up, and brought them to Salisbury plain. One of the stones fell into the ], the rest were carried to the plain. The Devil then cried out, "No-one will ever find out how these stones came here!" A friar replied, "That's what you think!", whereupon the Devil threw one of the stones at him and struck him on the heel. The stone stuck in the ground and is still there.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brewer |first=Ebenezer Cobham|author-link=E. Cobham Brewer |title=Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable |url=https://archive.org/details/brewersdictionar000544mbp |access-date=5 March 2015 |publisher=Harper and Brothers |location=New York |page= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150408132005/https://archive.org/details/brewersdictionar000544mbp |archive-date=8 April 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>}} | |||
== See also == | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
'']'' attributes this tale to ], but though book eight of Geoffrey's '']'' does describe how Stonehenge was built, the two stories are entirely different. | |||
==Notes== | |||
<references/> | |||
The name is not unique; there was a monolith with the same name recorded in the nineteenth century by antiquarian ] at ] in Dorset.<ref>], 1872, ''Ancient Dorset''. Bournemouth.</ref> | |||
====Arthurian legend==== | |||
==Bibliography== | |||
] build Stonehenge. From a manuscript of the '']'' by ] in the ] (Egerton 3028).]] | |||
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{{Col-begin}} | |||
The twelfth-century '']'' ("History of the Kings of Britain"), by ], includes a legend of Stonehenge's origin, describing how Stonehenge was brought from Ireland with the help of the wizard ].<ref>]</ref> Geoffrey's story spread widely, with variations of it appearing in adaptations of his work, such as ]'s Norman French '']'', ]'s Middle English '']'', and the Welsh '']''. | |||
{{Col-1-of-2}} | |||
According to the tale, the stones of Stonehenge were healing stones, which ]s had brought from Africa to Ireland. They had been raised on ] to form a stone circle, known as the Giant's Ring or Giant's Round. The fifth-century king ] wished to build a great memorial to the British Celtic nobles slain by the Saxons at Salisbury. Merlin advised him to use the Giant's Ring. The king sent Merlin and ] (]'s father) with 15,000 men to bring it from Ireland. They defeated an Irish army led by Gillomanius, but were unable to move the huge stones. With Merlin's help, they transported the stones to Britain and re-erected them as they had stood.<ref>Ring, Trudy (editor). ''International Dictionary of Historic Places, Volume 2: Northern Europe''. Routledge, 1995. pp.34–35</ref> Mount Killaraus may refer to the ].<ref>Dames, Michael. ''Ireland: A Sacred Journey''. Element Books, 2000. p.190</ref> Although the tale is fiction, archaeologist ] suggests it may hold a "grain of truth", as evidence suggests the Stonehenge bluestones were brought from the ] stone circle on the Irish Sea coast of Wales.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210216033057/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/dramatic-stonehenge-discovery-boosts-irish-account-of-its-origins-1.4483067 |date=16 February 2021 }}. '']'', 12 February 2021.</ref> | |||
* ], R J C, ''Stonehenge'' (Penguin Books, 1956) | |||
* Bender, B, ''Stonehenge: Making Space'' (Berg Publishers, 1998) | |||
* ], ''Prehistoric Stone Circles'' (Shire, 2001) | |||
* ], ''Stonehenge Complete'' (Thames and Hudson, London, 2004) | |||
* Chippindale, C, et al, ''Who owns Stonehenge?'' (B T Batsford Ltd, 1990) | |||
* Cleal, R. M. J., Walker, K. E. & Montague, R., ''Stonehenge in its Landscape'' (English Heritage, London, 1995) | |||
* ], & ], ''Science and Stonehenge'' (The British Academy 92, Oxford University Press, 1997) | |||
* Hall, R, Leather, K, & Dobson, G, ''Stonehenge Aotearoa'' (Awa Press, 2005) | |||
* ], ''Report on the Excavations at Stonehenge during the season of 1923'' (The Antiquaries Journal 5, Oxford University Press, 1925) | |||
Another legend tells how the invading Saxon king ] invited British Celtic warriors to a feast but treacherously ordered his men to massacre the guests, killing 420 of them. Hengist erected Stonehenge on the site to show his remorse for the deed.<ref>Drawing on the writings of ], the tale is noted in ]'s ''Faerie Queene'', and given further circulation in ]'s ''Monasticon Anglicanum'' of 1655. Source: {{cite book |title=The illustrated guide to Old Sarum and Stonehenge |publisher=Brown and Company |location=Salisbury, England |year=1868 |pages=35–39 |oclc=181860648}}</ref> | |||
{{Col-2-of-2}} | |||
===Sixteenth century to present=== | |||
* ], ''From Universal Bond to Public Free For All'' (British Archaeology 83, 2005) | |||
Stonehenge has changed ownership several times since ] acquired ] and its surrounding lands. In 1540 Henry gave the estate to the ]. It subsequently passed to ] and then the ]. The ] of Cheshire bought the estate in 1824. | |||
* Mooney, J, ''Encyclopedia of the Bizarre'' (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2002) | |||
* Newall, R S, ''Stonehenge, Wiltshire (Ancient monuments and historic buildings)'' (Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1959) | |||
* North, J, ''Stonehenge: Ritual Origins and Astronomy'' (HarperCollins, 1997) | |||
* Pitts, M, ''Hengeworld'' (Arrow, London, 2001) | |||
* Pitts, M W, ''On the Road to Stonehenge: Report on Investigations beside the A344 in 1968, 1979 and 1980'' (Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 48, 1982) | |||
* ], ''English Heritage Book of Stonehenge'' (B T Batsford Ltd, 1991) | |||
* ] ''Stonehenge: A History in Photographs'' (English Heritage, London, 2004) | |||
* ], ''Wessex Before the Celts'' (Frederick A Praeger Publishers, 1958) | |||
* Worthington, A, ''Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion'' (Alternative Albion, 2004) | |||
====Acquisition for the nation==== | |||
{{Col-end}} | |||
Stonehenge was one of several lots put up for auction in 1915 by ], soon after he had inherited the estate from his brother.{{citation needed |date=September 2021}} The auction by ] estate agents in Salisbury was held on 21 September 1915 and included "Lot 15. Stonehenge with about 30 acres, 2 rods, 37 perches of adjoining downland."<ref name=Amesbury>{{cite web |url=http://www.this-is-amesbury.co.uk/stonehenge.html |title=The man who bought Stonehenge |last=Heffernan |first=T.H.J. |website=This is Amesbury |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625160447/http://www.this-is-amesbury.co.uk/stonehenge.html |archive-date=25 June 2009}}</ref> | |||
] bought the site for £6,600 (£{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|6600|1915|r=-2}}}} in {{CURRENTYEAR}}) and gave it to the nation three years later, with certain conditions attached. Although it has been speculated that he purchased it at the suggestion of – or even as a present for – his wife, in fact he bought it on a whim, as he believed a local man should be the new owner.<ref name=Amesbury/> | |||
==External links== | |||
{{Commons|Stonehenge}} | |||
{{Wikiquote|Stonehenge}} | |||
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* Wally Wallington's techniques for moving massive cast-concrete blocks easily. | |||
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* - Druid activist group dedicated to protection of the circle. | |||
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* - Pagan views of Stonehenge. | |||
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* - New Archaeological Information On the Mysteries of Stonehenge | |||
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* - a full-scale working adaptation of Stonehenge based in New Zealand. | |||
* The Bluestone Enigma | |||
* , by Frank Stevens, 1916, from ] | |||
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* - Diagrams and maps with explanations | |||
* - 90 photos | |||
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* - see Stonehenge section. | |||
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* - supposed astronomical alignments at the monument. | |||
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* , a New Theory based in Engineering Nutating Gears | |||
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* - The Aubrey Circuit and the Sabbatical Law and Calendar | |||
====Saving the skyline==== | |||
{{coor title dms|51|10|44|N|1|49|35|W|type:landmark_scale:2000_region:GB}} | |||
] | |||
The plot bought by Chubb and gifted to the nation was only {{Convert | 30 | acre}} in size, and various buildings stood within clear sight of the monument, the most prominent being ]. Some {{convert|300|m|ft}} from the stones, the aerodrome was built during the ] for the ]<ref>Francis Stewart Briggs, S. H. Harris, {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101133622/https://books.google.com/books/about/Joysticks_and_Fiddlesticks.html?id=KyNXNQAACAAJ&redir_esc=y|date=1 January 2016 }}, ''Hutchinson & Company Limited'', 1938. Retrieved 11 June 2014.</ref> and its large stone and brick hangars dominated the skyline.<ref>{{cite book|title=Stonehenge and its environs: monuments and land use|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|author=Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England)|year=1979|isbn=978-0-85224-379-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/stonehengeitsenv0000roya/page/n5/mode/2up?q=%22stonehenge+aerodrome%22}}</ref><ref name=aero>{{cite book|last=Barber|first=Martyn|title=Stonehenge Aerodrome and the Stonehenge landscape|publisher=English Heritage|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/research/results/reports/redirect/15239|year=2015}}</ref> | |||
In the dry valley at Stonehenge Bottom, a main road junction was built between what would later be designated as the ] and ] roads, along with several cottages and a cafe. | |||
] | |||
In 1927 the land around Stonehenge was put up for auction in three plots. Plot A lay immediately west of the monument and included the (by now disused) Stonehenge Aerodrome, Plot B was to the south on the other side of the main road, and Plot C on the north side included part of the ].<ref name=plots>{{Cite news |date=23 March 1929 |title=Save Stonehenge! The "Frontispiece to English history" in peril |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001578/19290323/052/0014 |work=The Illustrated London News |pages=481}}</ref><ref>The London Mercury Vol. XVII No. 98 1927</ref> | |||
There was interest from developers, and in August 1927 a subscription fund was launched in order to "save the skyline" of the monument.<ref>{{Cite news |date=28 September 1934 |title=Donor of Stonehenge |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000407/19340928/129/0016 |work=The Western Gazette |pages=16}}</ref> The subscription made rapid progress, with ] as the lead subscriber, and by October 1927 £8,000 had been raised, which was enough to purchase Plot A and start the demolition of the aerodrome.<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 November 1927 |title=Funds wanted to save Stonehenge |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000563/19271109/084/0005 |work=The Dundee Evening Telegraph |pages=5}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=5 August 1927 |title=Stonehenge – Fund to save the skyline |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000337/19270805/015/0001 |work=The Midland Daily Telegraph |pages=1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=JC |first=Squire |date=8 October 1927 |title=Stonehenge |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001557/19271008/167/0008 |work=The Wiltshire Times |pages=8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=10 November 1927 |title=To Save Stonehenge |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005049/19271110/109/0008 |work=The Daily Chronicle |pages=8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Preservation of Stonehenge |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000527/19271116/124/0011 |work=Taunton Courier |pages=11}}</ref> The fund continued for a number of years to secure the remaining land around the henge for the nation, with fundraising for Plot C continuing through 1929.<ref name=plots/> | |||
The land was taken into the management of the ] to preserve. The last large aircraft hangar was removed in 1930,<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 August 1930 |title=Preservation of Stonehenge – Progress towards isolation |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001557/19300809/163/0008 |work=The Wiltshire Times |pages=8}}</ref> and by the middle of the 1930s the aerodrome site was cleared.<ref name="vch">{{Cite book |author-last1=Baggs |author-first1=A. P. |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol15/pp13-55 |title=A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 15 |author-last2=Freeman |author-first2=Jane |author-last3=Stevenson |author-first3=Janet H. |date=1995 |publisher=University of London |editor-last=Crowley |editor-first=D. A. |series=] |pages=13–55 |chapter=Amesbury |access-date=29 May 2024 |via=British History Online}}</ref> | |||
More recently the land has been part of a grassland reversion scheme, returning the surrounding fields to native ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stonehengeconsultation.org/Stonehenge_Consultation_Booklet.pdf |title=The Future of Stonehenge: Public consultation |year=2008 |publisher=English Heritage |page=2 |access-date=18 July 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111202210539/http://www.stonehengeconsultation.org/Stonehenge_Consultation_Booklet.pdf |archive-date= 2 December 2011}}</ref> This process continued in 2022 when the National Heritage Lottery Fund (NHLF) gave a grant to the National Trust to acquire another 170 hectares of the Stonehenge Landscape.<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Trust acquires land of exceptional archaeological importance around Stonehenge {{!}} National Heritage Memorial Fund |url=https://www.nhmf.org.uk/news/national-trust-acquires-land-exceptional-archaeological-importance-around-stonehenge |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=www.nhmf.org.uk}}</ref> | |||
====Neopaganism==== | |||
], 21 June 2005]] | |||
During the twentieth century, Stonehenge began to revive as a place of religious significance, this time by adherents of ]ism and ] beliefs, particularly the ]. The historian ] would later remark that "it was a great, and potentially uncomfortable, irony that modern Druids had arrived at Stonehenge just as archaeologists were evicting the ancient Druids from it."<ref>]. p. 323.</ref> The first such Neo-druidic group to make use of the megalithic monument was the ], who performed a mass initiation ceremony there in August 1905, in which they admitted 259 new members into their organisation. This assembly was largely ridiculed in the press, who mocked the fact that the Neo-druids were dressed up in costumes consisting of white robes and fake beards.<ref>]. pp. 321–322.</ref> | |||
]]] | |||
The earlier rituals were complemented by the ], loosely organised by the ], held between 1972 and 1984, during which time the number of midsummer visitors had risen to around 30,000.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rivers |first1=Julian |title=The Law of Organized Religions: Between Establishment and Secularism |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=231}}</ref> However, in 1985, the site was closed to festivalgoers by a ] injunction.<ref name="Hallett 2014">{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-27405147 |title=The battle scars of Stonehenge |last=Hallett |first=Emma |date=2014-06-20 |work=BBC News |access-date=2018-08-02 |language=en-GB |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180721151620/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-27405147 |archive-date=21 July 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> A consequence of the end of the festival in 1985 was the violent confrontation between the police and ] that became known as the ], when police blockaded a convoy of travellers to prevent them from approaching Stonehenge. Beginning in 1985, the year of the Battle, no access was allowed into the stones at Stonehenge for any religious reason. This "exclusion-zone" policy continued for almost fifteen years: until just before the arrival of the twenty-first century, visitors were not allowed to go into the stones at times of religious significance, the ] and ] ]s, and the vernal and autumnal ]es.<ref name="bbc-faded">{{cite news |last=Hallett |first=Emma |title=Summer solstice: How the Stonehenge battles faded |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27405147 |access-date=19 January 2015 |work=BBC News |date=20 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150228101804/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-27405147 |archive-date=28 February 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
However, following a ] ruling obtained by campaigners such as ], the restrictions were lifted.<ref name="Hallett 2014" /> The ruling recognized that members of any genuine religion have a right to worship in their own church, and Stonehenge is a place of ] to ], ] and other "Earth based' or 'old' religions.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Guide_Art_9_ENG.pdf |title=Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion |access-date=25 June 2020 |archive-date=30 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630132911/https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Guide_Art_9_ENG.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Meetings were organised by the ] and others to discuss the arrangements.{{r|English}} In 1998, a party of 100 people was allowed access and these included astronomers, archaeologists, Druids, locals, pagans and travellers.{{r|English}} In 2000, an open summer solstice event was held and about seven thousand people attended.{{r|English}} In 2001, the numbers increased to about 10,000.<ref name="English">{{Cite journal |last=English |first=Penny |date=2002-06-01 |title=Disputing stonehenge: Law and access to a national symbol |journal=Entertainment Law |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=1–22 |doi=10.1080/14730980210001730401 }}</ref> | |||
{| class="wikitable sortable" | |||
|+ Stonehenge summer solstice table of access | |||
|- | |||
! Year !! Sunrise report !! Notes / Attendance figures in brackets | |||
|- | |||
| 2000 || Wednesday morning || First year of Managed Open Access, entry times to the stones 23:30 on the 20th to 07:30 on the 21st (6,000) | |||
|- | |||
| 2001 || Initially cloudy || Access times extended to eleven hours running from 22:00 to 09:00 | |||
|- | |||
| 2002 || Raining || Many leave early to watch England play Brazil in the FIFA World Cup (22,000) <ref>{{Cite news |date=2002-06-21 |title=Brazil end England's dream |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/matches_wallchart/england_v_brazil/newsid_2049000/2049924.stm |access-date=2024-11-13 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=22,000 at Stonehenge for solstice - eFestivals |url=https://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/stonehenge/2002/review1.shtml |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=www.efestivals.co.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2003 || Clear || First modern MOA on a Friday night record crowd in attendance (30,000) <ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC - Birmingham Features - |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/features/2003/06/solstice/stonehenge_solstice.shtml |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2004 || Misty sunrise || Transit of Venus earlier in the month on the 8th June (21,000) <ref>{{Cite web |title=NASA - 2004 Transit of Venus |url=https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/transit04.html |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2005 || Clear || Monday night, Tuesday morning (23,000) | |||
|- | |||
| 2006 || Rain and cloud cover || England vs Sweden in the FIFA World Cup on the evening of the 20th <ref>{{Cite news |date=2006-06-20 |title=Sweden 2-2 England |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/4853282.stm |access-date=2024-11-13 |language=en-GB}}</ref> results in many arriving late and heavy rain leads to a lower attendance (18,700) | |||
|- | |||
| 2007 || Cloudy, brighter later || Access times altered to 20:30 to 08:00. Glastonbury Festival starts the next day <ref>{{Cite web |title=Glastonbury Festival 2007 · Festivals |url=https://www.glastopedia.com/festivals/2007 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=www.glastopedia.com}}</ref> (24,093) | |||
|- | |||
| 2008 || Cloudy with some rain || Access time brought forward to 20:00 (36,290) <ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=BBC - Wiltshire - In Pictures - Stonehenge Summer Solstice 2008 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/image_galleries/stonehenge_summer_solstice_2008_gallery.shtml |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=www.bbc.co.uk |language=en-gb}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2009 || Cloudy brighter later || Access time brough forward again to 19:30 (36,500) <ref>{{Cite web |last=BBC |title=BBC - Wiltshire - In Pictures - Stonehenge Summer Solstice 2009 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/image_galleries/stonehenge_summer_solstice_2009_gallery.shtml |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=www.bbc.co.uk |language=en-gb}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2010 || Reasonably clear || A 6.7m high metal sculpture called 'The Ancestor' was displayed (22,000) <ref>{{Cite news |date=2010-06-19 |title=Stonehenge's 20ft Giant Ancestor |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/wiltshire/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8694000/8694004.stm |access-date=2024-11-13 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=A 360 degree panoramic view at the 2010 summer solstice at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. |url=https://www.360panoramas.co.uk/23/188/Stonehenge_Summer_Solstice_2010 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=www.360panoramas.co.uk}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2011 || Rain and cloud || Heavy rain dampens the proceedings (18,000) <ref>{{Cite web |title=Summer Solstice 2011 |url=https://blog.stonehenge-stone-circle.co.uk/category/summer-solstice-2011/?theme_preview=true |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Stonehenge Stone Circle News and Information |language=en}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2012 || Heavy rain || Transit of Venus earlier in the month on 6th June (14,500) <ref>{{Cite news |date=2012-04-17 |title=Venus makes rare trek across Sun |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17745366 |access-date=2024-11-13 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2013 || Grey cloud || films a 'Solstice Special' during the celebrations (21,000) <ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR2XSOU7zC8&t=37s |title=Stonehenge and The Sky at Night 2013 |date=2013-07-12 |last=kevandfee |access-date=2024-11-13 |via=YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2013-06-21 |title=Summer solstice draws thousands to Stonehenge |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-22999367 |access-date=2024-11-13 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2014 || Reasonably clear || BBC Culture Show broadcast a 'Battle for Stonehenge' special featuring the new visitor centre and a history of open access (37,500) <ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC News - The Culture Show, The Battle for Stonehenge |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/n3csw9s8 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last= |title=with a mighty cheer the Summer Solstice arrived at Stonehenge - eFestivals |url=https://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/stonehenge/2014/review-Solstice.shtml |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=www.efestivals.co.uk |language=en-GB}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2015 || Clear || Thousands mark the summer solstice at Stonehenge (23,000) <ref>{{Cite news |date=2015-06-21 |title=In pictures: Thousands mark summer solstice at Stonehenge |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-33215047 |access-date=2024-11-13 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2016 || Clear || Alcohol ban and car parking charges introduced <ref>{{Cite news |date=2016-04-07 |title='Drunken behaviour' prompts Stonehenge solstice alcohol ban |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-35990687 |access-date=2024-11-13 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> Full Strawberry moon in conjunction with the night of the celebrations (12,000) <ref>{{Cite web |title=Full Moon (Jun 20, 2016) - New Moon (Jun 5, 2016) |url=https://www.moongiant.com/moonphases/June/2016/ |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=www.moongiant.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Summer Solstice 2016 at Stonehenge |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about-us/search-news/summer-solstice-2016 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=English Heritage}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2017 || Reasonably clear || Extra security due to the Manchester Arena bombing a month earlier (13,000) <ref>{{Cite news |date=2017-05-23 |title=Manchester attack: 22 dead and 59 hurt in suicide bombing |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-40010124 |access-date=2024-11-13 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-06-21 |title=Thousands gather at Stonehenge to mark the Summer Solstice |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/summer-solstice-2017-first-day-of-summer-stonehenge-google-doodle-a7800711.html |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2018 || Clear sunrise || Centenary of the gifting of Stonehenge to the nation by local barrister Cecil Chubb (9,500) <ref>{{Cite web |title=9500 people celebrate at Stonehenge for longest day of the year |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about-us/search-news/summer-solstice-2018 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=English Heritage}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2019 || Clear || Weekend solstice Friday night, sunrise on Saturday morning (10,000) <ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-06-21 |title=Stonehenge summer solstice: Thousands gather to cheer sunrise |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-48703632 |access-date=2024-11-13 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2020 || Sunday morning || Solstice gathering cancelled due to lockdown restrictions <ref>https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2020-05-12/summer-solstice-celebrations-at-stonehenge-cancelled-due-to-coronavirus-pandemic</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2021 || Cloudy || Despite solstice access being officially cancelled due to on-going lockdown restrictions, a couple of hundred people still managed to enter the site <ref>{{Cite news |date=2021-06-21 |title=Stonehenge summer solstice: In pictures |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-57552777 |access-date=2024-11-13 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2022 || Cloudy || First official gathering since lockdown (6,000) <ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-06-21 |title=Stonehenge summer solstice: Thousands welcome back celebrations |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-61876944 |access-date=2024-11-13 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2023 || Misty morning || Thousands gather for the summer solstice. (10,000) <ref>{{Cite news |date=2021-06-21 |title=Stonehenge summer solstice: In pictures |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-57552777 |access-date=2024-11-13 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2024 || Clear sunrise || The gathering passed off peacefully despite a Just Stop Oil protest a few days earlier (15,000) <ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-06-20 |title=Just Stop Oil: Paint sprayed on Stonehenge removed ahead of summer solstice |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crgg0683e7po |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-06-21 |title=Stonehenge summer solstice sunrise attracts about 15,000 visitors |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7224qlenmeo |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| 2025 || || TBC access usually on the night of the 20th / morning of the 21st June | |||
|} | |||
====Setting and access==== | |||
] | |||
When Stonehenge was first opened to the public it was possible to walk among and even climb on the stones, but the stones were roped off in 1977 as a result of serious erosion.<ref> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515200510/https://www.worldarchaeologicalcongress.org/site/news_rece_ston.php|date=15 May 2008 }}. ''The World Archaeological Congress''</ref> Visitors are no longer permitted to touch the stones but are able to walk around the monument from a short distance away. English Heritage does, however, permit access during the summer and winter solstice, and the spring and autumn equinox. Additionally, visitors can make special bookings to access the stones throughout the year.<ref> {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080210044652/http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.877|date=10 February 2008 }}. English Heritage</ref> Approximately 30,000 local residents are entitled to free admission to Stonehenge under an agreement dating back to 1921.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/plan-your-visit/stonehenge-local-residents-pass/ |title=Local Residents Pass |website=English Heritage |access-date=14 February 2021 |archive-date=27 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210427082831/https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/plan-your-visit/stonehenge-local-residents-pass/ |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
The access situation and the proximity of the two roads have drawn widespread criticism, highlighted by a 2006 ] survey. In the survey of conditions at 94 leading World Heritage Sites, 400 conservation and tourism experts ranked Stonehenge 75th in the list of destinations, declaring it to be "in moderate trouble".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/troubled-stonehenge-lacks-magic-422736.html |title=Troubled Stonehenge 'lacks magic' |work=The Independent |location=UK |access-date=11 April 2009 |first=Cahal |last=Milmo |date=3 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091220094235/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/troubled-stonehenge-lacks-magic-422736.html |archive-date=20 December 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
As motorised traffic increased, the setting of the monument began to be affected by the proximity of the two roads on either side—the ] to ] on the north side, and the ] to ] to the south. Plans to upgrade the A303 and close the A344 to restore the vista from the stones have been considered since the monument became a World Heritage Site. However, the controversy surrounding expensive re-routing of the roads led to the scheme being cancelled on multiple occasions. On 6 December 2007, it was announced that extensive plans to build ] under the landscape and create a permanent visitors' centre had been cancelled.<ref> {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171120093753/https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm071206/debtext/71206-0003.htm#07120645000002|date=20 November 2017 }} ] report of proceedings in the ] 6 December 2007</ref> | |||
] | |||
In 2009, the government gave approval for a £25 million scheme to create a smaller visitors' centre and close the A344, although this was dependent on funding and local authority planning consent.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/8047968.stm |title=Stonehenge Centre gets Go-Ahead |date=13 May 2009 |work=BBC News |access-date=19 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090518021733/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/8047968.stm |archive-date=18 May 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2010, Wiltshire Council granted planning permission for a centre {{convert|1.5|mi|km|abbr=in}} to the west, and English Heritage confirmed that funds to build it would be available, supported by a £10m grant from the ].<ref>{{cite news |title=Stonehenge development saved by lottery's £10m |last=Morris |first=Steven |date=19 November 2010 |work=The Guardian |location=UK |page=14}}</ref> In June 2013 the A344 was closed to begin the work of removing the section of road and replacing it with grass.<ref>{{cite news |publisher=BBC |date=24 June 2013 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-23026522 |title=Stonehenge permanent road closure work begins |location=UK |access-date=24 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628045725/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-23026522 |archive-date=28 June 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite press release |title=End in sight after 'decades of dithering' as Government steps in to help secure future for Stonehenge |publisher=] |date=4 April 2011 |url=http://www.dcms.gov.uk/news/media_releases/8019.aspx |access-date=5 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006090552/http://www.dcms.gov.uk/news/media_releases/8019.aspx |archive-date=6 October 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> The centre, designed by ], opened to the public in December 2013.<ref>{{cite web |title=Stonehenge Visitor Centre by Denton Corker Marshall opens tomorrow |url=http://www.dezeen.com/2013/12/17/stonehenge-visitor-centre-by-denton-corker-marshall-opens-tomorrow/ |work=dezeen |date=17 December 2013 |access-date=18 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131217173447/http://www.dezeen.com/2013/12/17/stonehenge-visitor-centre-by-denton-corker-marshall-opens-tomorrow/ |archive-date=17 December 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
An announcement in November 2020 stated that a plan to construct a ] for traffic below the site had been approved. This was intended to eliminate the section of the A303 that runs close to the circle. The plan had received opposition from a group of "archaeologists, environmentalists and modern-day druids" according to '']'' but was supported by others who wanted to "restore the landscape to its original setting and improve the experience for visitors". Opponents of the plan were concerned that artifacts that are underground in the area would be lost or that excavation in the area could de-stabilize the stones, leading to their sinking, shifting or perhaps falling.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/11/controversial-tunnel-under-stonehenge-approved-over-archaeologists-objections/ |title=Controversial tunnel under Stonehenge approved over archaeologists' objections |date=12 November 2020 |work=National Geographic |access-date=1 December 2020 |quote=Supporters say the highway tunnel will relieve traffic congestion ... Opponents fear the loss of ancient artifacts still hidden underground. |archive-date=12 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212172109/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/controversial-tunnel-under-stonehenge-approved-over-archaeologists-objections?cmpid=org%253Dngp%253A%253Amc%253Dcrm-email%253A%253Asrc%253Dngp%253A%253Acmp%253Deditorial%253A%253Aadd%253DHistory_20201130&rid=D3C472AF93F8A8BCEE95284AEEFA77AA |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Art News">{{cite web |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/highway-tunnel-stonehenge-new-discoveries-1942259/amp-page |title=Archaeological Excavations Near Stonehenge Have Turned Up Ancient Graves and Scores of Other Fascinating Discoveries |date=8 February 2021 |work=Art News |access-date=10 February 2021 |quote= |archive-date=9 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209020457/https://news.artnet.com/art-world/highway-tunnel-stonehenge-new-discoveries-1942259/amp-page |url-status=live }}</ref> In July 2023, the ] announced that, despite the original planning application having been overturned by the High Court in 2021, the Transport Secretary, ], had approved plans for a {{Convert|2|mile|adj=on}} road tunnel.<ref>{{cite web |last=Jenkins |first= Sammy |title=Stonehenge tunnel is approved by government |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-66201424 |date=14 July 2023 |website=BBC News |access-date=14 July 2023}}</ref> | |||
In February 2024, the High Court in London rejected a fresh bid by campaigners to stop construction of the road tunnel.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stonehenge: Campaigners lose court challenge to tunnel plans – DW – 02/20/2024 |url=https://www.dw.com/en/stonehenge-campaigners-lose-court-challenge-to-tunnel-plans/a-68302773 |access-date=2024-02-20 |website=dw.com |language=en}}</ref> A further legal challenge was made in the High Court in July 2024.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Topham |first1=Gwyn |title=Ministers 'inadequately briefed' on alternatives to Stonehenge tunnel plan, lawyers argue|date=15 July 2024 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/15/stonehenge-tunnel-plan-alternatives-high-court |website=theguardian.com |publisher=Guardian |access-date=17 July 2024}}</ref> Although this action was dismissed by the High Court in October 2024,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-10-17 |title=Campaigners 'would have lost Stonehenge legal challenge' |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjwd5z9ppxno |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> the ] had already announced that the tunnel would 'not move forward' on 29 July.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-07-29 |title=Stonehenge tunnel scheme cancelled by government |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0jq8pxg0weo |access-date=2024-10-26 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Hakimian |first=Rob |date=2024-07-29 |title=Stonehenge Tunnel among infrastructure projects axed by government in budget overhaul |url=https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/stonehenge-tunnel-among-infrastructure-projects-axed-by-government-in-budget-overhaul-29-07-2024/ |access-date=2024-10-26 |magazine=New Civil Engineer |language=en}}</ref> | |||
== Vandalism == | |||
{{See also|Just Stop Oil#Stonehenge}} | |||
The site has suffered vandalism intermittently for centuries. Until the 17th century, stones disappeared from the site, to be employed at building sites.<ref>{{cite journal |access-date=3 July 2024 |archive-date=7 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707013904/http://www.worldarchaeologicalcongress.org/site/news_rece_ston.php |author1=Robert Layton |author2=Julian Thomas |date=1999 |language=en |periodical=] |quote=Up until the 17th century stones occasionally went missing to help build bridges or houses |title=Proposals for a tunnel at Stonehenge: an assessment of the alternatives |url=http://www.worldarchaeologicalcongress.org/site/news_rece_ston.php}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> In the 19th century, tourists employed chisels to cut rock chips off the megaliths as souvenirs.<ref name=BBC>{{cite news |access-date=3 July 2024 |date=22 May 2008 |language=en |quote=At one time, chisels would be handed to people visiting Stonehenge, so they could chip away at the ancient monument to get their own souvenirs. But the practice has been outlawed since 1900 |title=Chisels once given at Stonehenge |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/7414750.stm |work=]}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> | |||
Although the first years of the ''Free Festival'' (annual, from 1975 onwards) saw "very little vandalism", Stonehenge had to be fenced off from 1978 onwards.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Barbara Bender |author2=Mark Edmonds |date=December 1992 |title=Stonehenge: whose past? What past? |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/026151779290001N |language=en |publisher=] |volume=13 |pages=356–357 |doi=10.1016/0261-5177(92)90001-N |issn=0261-5177 |access-date=3 July 2024 |quote=In the early years of the Free Festival the authorities remained tolerant. After 1978 they roped off the stones inner sanctum towards the Heel There was very little vandalism |number=4 |periodical=Tourism Management}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> Later, repeated vandalism in the 1980s and 1990s led the authorities to deploy up to hundreds of police, erect barriers around Stonehenge, and impose exclusion zones up to six kilometres from the archaeological monument.<ref name="TCR">{{cite journal |author1=Humphrys, Geoffrey |date=June 1994 |title=Stonehenge – June's flashpoint |language=en |volume=264 |page=309 |issn=0010-7565 |quote=Repeated vandalism has led to a barrier being erected around the stones, and during the past four years a four-mile exclusion zone has been enforced from June 11 to June 24 |number=1541 |periodical=]}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref><ref name="Numen">{{cite journal |author1=Carole M. Cusack |date=2012 |title=Charmed Circle: Stonehenge, Contemporary Paganism, and Alternative Archaeology |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23244956 |language=en |publisher=] |volume=59 |pages=148–149 |issn=0029-5973 |access-date=2 July 2024 |quote=in 1984 Vandalism occurred |number=2 y 3 |periodical=]|jstor=23244956 }}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The vandalism of 1984 included defacing the monument with purple spray paint.<ref>{{cite magazine |author1=LAURA MILLER |date=21 April 2014 |title=Romancing The Stones |language=en |volume=90 |page=48 |issn=0028-792X |quote=archeologists tolerated Druid rituals at Stonehenge By 1984 vandalism: "People were climbing all over the stones and spray-painting them purple." |number=9 |magazine=]}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The government went so far as to close Stonehenge to protect it from vandalism, but in the face of public outcry the government opted to re-open it.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Patricia Monaghan |date=1 November 2008 |title=Stonehenge by Rosemary Hill |publisher=] |volume=105 |page=13 |issn=0006-7385 |quote=it was built several millennia before the Celts with their druid priests arrived on British shores? For several hundred years, people have believed that Stonehenge is connected to the druids, so ardently that public outcry eventually drove the government, which had closed the monument to keep it from vandalism and other deterioration, reopened it |number=5 |periodical=]}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> | |||
In 2008, two men used a hammer and a screwdriver to take a small chip the size of a ] from the side of the Heel Stone, in what authorities described as "the first vandalism in decades".<ref>{{cite news |date=22 May 2008 |title=Souvenir hunters vandalise Stonehenge |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/may/22/conservation.archaeology |access-date=3 July 2024 |work=] |language=en |agency=Press Association}}</ref> | |||
In 2020, the British transport minister was accused of vandalism when he decided that the road through the Stonehenge area would be converted into a tunnel that would pass in the immediate vicinity.<ref>{{cite news |title=Stonehenge tunnel: Campaigners raise funds for legal challenge |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-55485482 |access-date=3 July 2024 |work=] |date=31 December 2020 |language=en |quote=«wanton vandalism of one of the world's most iconic heritage sites»}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=13 November 2020 |language=en |page=19 |quote=The road past Stonehenge will be put in a tunnel, the Transport Secretary has decreed, enraging those who declare it vandalism |title=Under Stonehenge |work=]}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The project was decades old, but had repeatedly been delayed because of its cost or the effects on archaeological remains.<ref>{{cite news |author1=PHILIP JOHNSTON |date=19 July 2023 |language=en |page=16 |quote=the Government gave the go-ahead for a project that has been talked about for decades but has been rejected as archaeological vandalism or just too costly |title=The scandalous Stonehenge tunnel is a very British waste of taxpayer money |work=]}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The historian ] opined that "To inflict this act of vandalism on this landscape seems unbelievable."<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Craig Simpson |date=18 February 2021 |language=en |page=10 |periodical=] |quote=Tom Holland, the historian and president of the alliance, told The Daily Telegraph: "To inflict this act of vandalism on this landscape seems unbelievable |title=Stonehenge campaigners to take tunnel project to court}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> Tunnel opponents considered it "state-sponsored vandalism" even as their case was defeated in court in 2024.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Mark Hallam |title=Stonehenge: Campaigners lose court challenge to tunnel plans |url=https://www.dw.com/en/stonehenge-campaigners-lose-court-challenge-to-tunnel-plans/a-68302773 |access-date=3 July 2024 |work=] |date=2024-02-20 |language=en |quote=this judgement is a huge blow and exposes the site to National Highway's state-sponsored vandalism}}</ref> | |||
] protestors vandalising Stonehenge]] | |||
On 19 June 2024, ] from ] vandalised three of the ] by spraying orange cornflour powder paint onto them. Wiltshire Police arrested student Niamh Lynch from Oxford and Rajan Naidu from Birmingham.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stonehenge covered in powder paint by Just Stop Oil protesters |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw44mdee0zzo |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240620192101/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw44mdee0zzo |archive-date=20 June 2024 |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}}</ref> Prime Minister ] called it a "disgraceful act of vandalism" to one of the UK's and the world's oldest and most significant monuments, and called on anyone associated with Just Stop Oil or who donated to them to condemn the act. ] Sir ] called the vandalism "outrageous" while deeming Just Stop Oil as "pathetic", demanding that the activists and anyone else involved with the act "face the full force of the law".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Stavrou |first=Athena |date=2024-06-19 |title=Just Stop Oil protesters cover Stonehenge in orange paint ahead of summer solstice |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/stonehenge-just-stop-oil-protest-paint-jso-b2565295.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240620001655/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/stonehenge-just-stop-oil-protest-paint-jso-b2565295.html |archive-date=2024-06-20 |access-date=2024-06-20 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref> The archaeologist ] said the impact of the protest was "potentially quite concerning", and said that the ]s were fenced off and guarded to protect their surfaces, which were entirely covered in prehistoric markings that have not been fully analysed. He also expressed concern about possible damage to the diverse ] patterns on the megalith surfaces.<ref name="bbcstone">{{cite news |last1=Boobyer |first1=Leigh |date=19 June 2024 |title=Stonehenge covered in powder paint by Just Stop Oil protesters |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw44mdee0zzo |access-date=22 June 2024 |work=BBC News}}</ref> ] called the defacement "extremely upsetting" and began an investigation to assess the damage caused by the paint,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ott |first=Haley |date=2024-06-19 |title=Stonehenge sprayed with orange paint by Just Stop Oil activists demanding U.K. "phase out fossil fuels" |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stonehenge-just-stop-oil-protest-activists-spray-orange-paint-demand-uk-stop-fossil-fuel/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240619135458/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stonehenge-just-stop-oil-protest-activists-spray-orange-paint-demand-uk-stop-fossil-fuel/ |archive-date=2024-06-19 |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=CBS News |language=en-US}}</ref> before removing it with blown air and reporting that there was "no visible damage" to the stones.<ref name="bbcstone" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Stonehenge – Just Stop Oil protest |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about-us/search-news/pr-stonehenge--just-stop-oil-protest/ |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=English Heritage}}</ref> The English Heritage webpage for Stonehenge calls for visitors to respect the stones since they form a ], a ], and a place sacred to many.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Please respect the stones |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/things-to-do/solstice/respect-the-stones/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240620001804/https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/things-to-do/solstice/respect-the-stones/ |archive-date=2024-06-20 |access-date=2024-06-20 |website=English Heritage}}</ref> Conversely, ], a lecturer in archaeology at ], noted that the ] pose a much greater threat to Stonehenge and other British heritage sites than Just Stop Oil's protest, which was washed away without causing damage.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kerr |first=Sarah |date=2024-06-21 |title=Stonehenge protest: if you worry about damage to British heritage you should listen to Just Stop Oil |url=http://theconversation.com/stonehenge-protest-if-you-worry-about-damage-to-british-heritage-you-should-listen-to-just-stop-oil-232934 |access-date=2024-07-04 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
==In popular culture== | |||
{{main|Cultural depictions of Stonehenge}} | |||
==See also== | |||
{{col-float}} | |||
'''Historical context''' | |||
* {{annotated link|Prehistoric Britain}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Neolithic British Isles}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Bell Beaker culture}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Bronze Age Britain}} | |||
'''Other monuments in the Stonehenge ritual landscape''' | |||
* {{annotated link|Bluestonehenge}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Bush Barrow}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Cuckoo Stone}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Durrington Walls}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Normanton Down Barrows}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Stonehenge Avenue}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Stonehenge Cursus}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Woodhenge}} | |||
'''About Stonehenge and replicas of Stonehenge''' | |||
* {{annotated link|Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Cultural depictions of Stonehenge}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Excavations at Stonehenge}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Stonehenge replicas and derivatives}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Stonehenge Free Festival}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Stonehenge Landscape}} | |||
'''Fiction''' | |||
* '']'', novel | |||
{{col-float-break}} | |||
'''Similar sites''' | |||
* {{annotated link|Astronomical complex}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Stonehenge replicas and derivatives}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Almendres Cromlech}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Arkaim}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Avebury}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Cahokia}} | |||
* ] – replica of Stonehenge near the city of Alliance, Nebraska | |||
* {{annotated link|Göbekli Tepe}} | |||
* ] – ancient earthworks near Koblenz, Germany | |||
* {{annotated link|Goseck circle}} – Calendar circle built circa 4900 BC in Germany | |||
* {{annotated link|List of largest monoliths}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Maryhill Stonehenge}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Medicine wheel}} | |||
* ] – Calendar circle built circa 5000 BC in Egypt | |||
* {{annotated link|Newgrange}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Ring of Brodgar}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Carahunge}} | |||
'''Sites with similar sunrise or sunset alignments''' | |||
* {{annotated link|Manhattanhenge}} | |||
* {{annotated link|MIThenge}} | |||
'''Museums with collections from the World Heritage Site''' | |||
* {{annotated link|The Salisbury Museum}} | |||
* {{annotated link|Wiltshire Museum}} | |||
{{col-float-end}} | |||
==Footnotes== | |||
{{notelist}} | |||
==References== | |||
{{reflist|25em}} | |||
==Sources== | |||
<!-- CambArchaeolJ16:191. --> | |||
<!-- See http://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags --> | |||
{{refbegin|colwidth=30em}} | |||
<!-- A --> | |||
* ], ''Stonehenge'' (Penguin Books, 1956) | |||
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* Bender, B, ''Stonehenge: Making Space'' (Berg Publishers, 1998) | |||
* ], ''Great Stone Circles'' (Yale University Press, 1999) | |||
* {{cite journal | last1 =Brace | first1 =Selina | year =2019 | last2 =Diekmann |first2=Yoan |last3=Booth |first3=Thomas J. |last4=van Dorp |first4=Lucy |last5=Faltyskova |first5=Zuzana |last6=Rohland |first6=Nadin |last7=Mallick |first7=Swapan |last8=Olalde |first8=Iñigo |last9=Ferry |first9=Matthew|last10=Michel|first10=Megan |last11=Oppenheimer |first11=Jonas |last12=Broomandkhoshbacht |first12=Nasreen |last13=Stewardson |first13=Kristin |last14=Martiniano |first14=Rui |last15=Walsh |first15=Susan |last16=Kayser |first16=Manfred |last17=Charlton |first17=Sophy |last18=Hellenthal |first18=Garrett |last19=Armit |first19=Ian|last20=Schulting|first20=Rick |last21=Craig |first21=Oliver E. |last22=Sheridan |first22=Alison |last23=Parker Pearson |first23=Mike |last24=Stringer |first24=Chris |last25=Reich |first25=David |last26=Thomas |first26=Mark G. |last27=Barnes |first27=Ian |title=Ancient genomes indicate population replacement in Early Neolithic Britain |journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution |volume=3 |issue=5 |pages=765–771 |issn=2397-334X |doi=10.1038/s41559-019-0871-9 |pmid=30988490 |pmc=6520225|bibcode=2019NatEE...3..765B | ref={{harvid|Brace et al.|2019}} }} | |||
* Aubrey Burl, ''Prehistoric Stone Circles'' (Shire, 2001) (In Burl's ''Stonehenge'' (Constable, 2006), he notes, cf. the meaning of the name in paragraph two above, that "the Saxons called the ring 'the hanging stones', as though they were gibbets.") | |||
<!-- C --> | |||
* {{cite journal |last=Cassidy |first=Lara |date=2020 |title=A dynastic elite in monumental Neolithic society |journal=Nature | |||
|volume=582 |issue=7812 |pages=384–388 |doi=10.1038/s41586-020-2378-6 |pmid=32555485 |pmc=7116870 |bibcode=2020Natur.582..384C }} | |||
* ], ''Stonehenge Complete'' (Thames and Hudson, London, 2004) {{ISBN|0-500-28467-9}} | |||
* Chippindale, C, et al., ''Who owns Stonehenge?'' (B T Batsford Ltd, 1990) | |||
* Cleal, R. M. J., Walker, K. E. & Montague, R., '']'' (English Heritage, London, 1995) | |||
* ], & ], ''Science and Stonehenge'' (The British Academy 92, Oxford University Press, 1997) | |||
<!-- E --> | |||
* Exon et al., Sally Exon, Vincent Gaffney, Ann Woodward, Ron Yortson, ''Stonehenge Landscapes: Journeys Through Real-and-imagined Worlds'', 2000, Archaeopress, {{ISBN|0-9539923-0-6|978-0-9539923-0-0}}, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180407054053/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nCTXQfJASx8C&pg=PA31 |date=7 April 2018 }} | |||
<!-- F --> | |||
* Fernie, E.C. (1994). "Stonehenge as Architecture". ''Art History''. '''17'' (2): 147–159. {{doi|10.1111/j.1467-8365.1994.tb00570.x}} | |||
<!-- G --> | |||
* ] "Stonehenge: Older Than the Centuries" in "Legends of British History" (2008) | |||
<!-- H --> | |||
* Hall, R, Leather, K., & Dobson, G., ''Stonehenge Aotearoa'' (Awa Press, 2005) | |||
* ], ''The Excavations at Stonehenge.'' (The Antiquaries Journal 1, Oxford University Press, 19–41). 1921. | |||
* Hawley, Lt-Col W., ''Second Report on the Excavations at Stonehenge.'' (The Antiquaries Journal 2, Oxford University Press, 1922) | |||
* Hawley, Lt-Col W., ''Third Report on the Excavations at Stonehenge.'' (The Antiquaries Journal 3, Oxford University Press, 1923) | |||
* Hawley, Lt-Col W, ''Fourth Report on the Excavations at Stonehenge.'' (The Antiquaries Journal 4, Oxford University Press, 1923) | |||
* Hawley, Lt-Col W., ''Report on the Excavations at Stonehenge during the season of 1923.'' (The Antiquaries Journal 5, Oxford University Press, 1925) | |||
* Hawley, Lt-Col W., ''Report on the Excavations at Stonehenge during the season of 1924.'' (The Antiquaries Journal 6, Oxford University Press, 1926) | |||
* Hawley, Lt-Col W., ''Report on the Excavations at Stonehenge during 1925 and 1926.'' (The Antiquaries Journal 8, Oxford University Press, 1928) | |||
* ], ''From Universal Bond to Public Free For All'' (British Archaeology 83, 2005) | |||
* Hutton, Ronald, ''Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain'' (Yale University Press, London, 2009 | |||
<!-- J --> | |||
* John, Brian, "The Bluestone Enigma: Stonehenge, Preseli and the Ice Age" (Greencroft Books, 2008) {{ISBN|978-0-905559-89-6}} | |||
* Johnson, Anthony, ''Solving Stonehenge: The New Key to an Ancient Enigma'' (Thames & Hudson, 2008) {{ISBN|978-0-500-05155-9}} | |||
<!-- L --> | |||
* Legg, Rodney, "Stonehenge Antiquaries" (Dorset Publishing Company, 1986) | |||
<!-- M --> | |||
* {{cite journal |last=Mathieson |first=Ian |date=2018 |title=The genomic history of south eastern Europe |journal=Nature |volume=555 |issue=7695 |pages=197–203 |doi=10.1038/nature25778 |pmid=29466330 |pmc=6091220|bibcode=2018Natur.555..197M }} | |||
* Mooney, J., ''Encyclopedia of the Bizarre'' (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2002) | |||
<!-- N --> | |||
* Newall, R. S., ''Stonehenge, Wiltshire – Ancient monuments and historic buildings'' (Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1959) | |||
* North, J., ''Stonehenge: Ritual Origins and Astronomy'' (HarperCollins, 1997) | |||
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* {{cite journal | last =Olalde | first =Inigo | date =2018 | title =The Beaker Phenomenon and the Genomic Transformation of Northwest Europe | journal =Nature | volume =555 | issue =7695 | doi =10.1038/nature25738 | pages =190–196 | pmid =29466337 | pmc =5973796 | bibcode =2018Natur.555..190O}} | |||
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* {{cite journal |journal=Nature |volume=601 |issue=7894 |date=2022 |pages=588–594 |title=Large-Scale Migration into Britain During the Middle to Late Bronze Age |last1=Patterson |first1=Nick |display-authors=etal |doi=10.1038/s41586-021-04287-4 |pmid=34937049 |pmc=8889665 |bibcode=2022Natur.601..588P}} | |||
* Pearson, M. P.; Marshall, P.; Pollard, J.; Richards, C.; Thomas, J.; Welham, K. (2013). "Stonehenge", in Fokkens, H.; Harding, A. (eds.) ''The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age''. Oxford University Press. {{doi|10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199572861.013.0009}} | |||
* Pitts, M., ''Hengeworld'' (Arrow, London, 2001) | |||
* Pitts, M. W., "On the Road to Stonehenge: Report on Investigations beside the A344 in 1968, 1979 and 1980" (''Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society'' 48, 1982) | |||
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* ], ''English Heritage Book of Stonehenge'' (B T Batsford Ltd, 1991) | |||
* Julian Richards ''Stonehenge: A History in Photographs'' (English Heritage, London, 2004) | |||
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* {{cite journal |last=Sánchez-Quinto |first=Federico |date=2019 |title=Megalithic tombs in western and northern Neolithic Europe were linked to a kindred society |journal=PNAS |volume=116 |issue=19 |pages=9469–9474 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1818037116 |doi-access=free |pmid=30988179 |pmc=6511028 |bibcode=2019PNAS..116.9469S }} | |||
* ], ''Wessex Before the Celts'' (Frederick A Praeger Publishers, 1958) | |||
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* Worthington, A., ''Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion'' (Alternative Albion, 2004) | |||
* English Heritage: ''Stonehenge: Historical Background'' | |||
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==Videography== | |||
* Spencer, Christopher (dir.) "Stonehenge decoded", New York City : National Geographic, 2008 | |||
==External links== | |||
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* English Heritage official site: access and visiting information; research; future plans | |||
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* English Heritage: interactive view from the centre | |||
* ] – information about the surrounding area. | |||
* – Frank Stevens (1916), via ]. | |||
* – William Stukeley (1740), via Project Gutenberg. | |||
* – Norman Lockyer (1906), via Project Gutenberg. | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120418231820/http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba45/ba45int.html |date=18 April 2012 }} British Archaeology essay about the bluestones as glacial deposits. | |||
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Latest revision as of 21:40, 21 December 2024
Ancient monument in England For other uses, see Stonehenge (disambiguation).
Stonehenge in July 2007 | |
Map of Wiltshire showing the location of Stonehenge | |
Location | Wiltshire, England |
---|---|
Region | Salisbury Plain |
Coordinates | 51°10′44″N 1°49′34″W / 51.17889°N 1.82611°W / 51.17889; -1.82611 |
Type | Monument |
Height | Each standing stone was around 13 ft (4.0 m) high |
History | |
Material | Sarsen, Bluestone |
Founded | Neolithic and Bronze Age |
Site notes | |
Excavation dates | Multiple |
Ownership | The Crown |
Management | English Heritage |
Website | www |
UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
Type | Cultural |
Criteria | i, ii, iii |
Designated | 1986 (10th session) |
Part of | Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites |
Reference no. | 373 |
Region | Europe and North America |
Scheduled monument | |
Official name | Stonehenge, the Avenue, and three barrows adjacent to the Avenue forming part of a round barrow cemetery on Countess Farm |
Designated | 18 August 1882; 142 years ago (1882-08-18) |
Reference no. | 1010140 |
Stonehenge is a prehistoric megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around 13 feet (4.0 m) high, seven feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones, held in place with mortise and tenon joints, a feature unique among contemporary monuments. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred tumuli (burial mounds).
Stonehenge was constructed in several phases beginning about 3100 BC and continuing until about 1600 BC. The famous circle of large sarsen stones were placed between 2600 BC and 2400 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the bluestones were given their current positions between 2400 and 2200 BC, although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC.
One of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon. It has been a legally protected scheduled monument since the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882 was passed. The site and its surroundings were added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage; the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.
Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings. Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, and continued for at least another 500 years.
Etymology
The Oxford English Dictionary cites Ælfric's 10th-century glossary, in which henge-cliff is given the meaning 'precipice', or stone; thus, the stanenges or Stanheng "not far from Salisbury" recorded by 11th-century writers are "stones supported in the air". In 1740, William Stukeley notes: "Pendulous rocks are now called henges in Yorkshire ... I doubt not, Stonehenge in Saxon signifies the hanging stones." Christopher Chippindale's Stonehenge Complete gives the derivation of the name Stonehenge as coming from the Old English words stān 'stone', and either hencg 'hinge' (because the stone lintels hinge on the upright stones) or hen(c)en 'to hang' or 'gallows' or 'instrument of torture' (though elsewhere in his book, Chippindale cites the 'suspended stones' etymology).
The "henge" portion has given its name to a class of monuments known as henges. Archaeologists define henges as earthworks consisting of a circular banked enclosure with an internal ditch. As often happens in archaeological terminology, this is a holdover from antiquarian use.
Early history
Mike Parker Pearson, leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project based around Durrington Walls, noted that Stonehenge appears to have been associated with burial from the earliest period of its existence:
Stonehenge was a place of burial from its beginning to its zenith in the mid third millennium B.C. The cremation burial dating to Stonehenge's sarsen stones phase is likely just one of many from this later period of the monument's use and demonstrates that it was still very much a domain of the dead.
Stonehenge evolved in several construction phases spanning at least 1500 years. There is evidence of large-scale construction on and around the monument that perhaps extends the landscape's time frame to 6500 years. Dating and understanding the various phases of activity are complicated by disturbance of the natural chalk by periglacial effects and animal burrowing, poor quality early excavation records, and a lack of accurate, scientifically verified dates. The modern phasing most generally agreed to by archaeologists is detailed below. Features mentioned in the text are numbered and shown on the plan, right.
Before the monument (from 8000 BC)
Archaeologists have found four, or possibly five, large Mesolithic postholes (one may have been a natural tree throw), which date to around 8000 BC, beneath the nearby old tourist car park in use until 2013. These held pine posts around two feet six inches (0.75 m) in diameter, which were erected and eventually rotted in place. Three of the posts (and possibly four) were in an east–west alignment which may have had ritual significance. Another Mesolithic astronomical site in Britain is Warren Field in Aberdeenshire, which is considered the world's oldest lunisolar calendar, corrected yearly by observing the midwinter solstice. Similar but later sites have been found in Scandinavia. A settlement that may have been contemporaneous with the posts has been found at Blick Mead, a reliable year-round spring one mile (1.6 km) from Stonehenge.
Salisbury Plain was then still wooded, but, 4,000 years later, during the earlier Neolithic, people built a causewayed enclosure at Robin Hood's Ball, and long barrow tombs in the surrounding landscape. In approximately 3500 BC, a Stonehenge Cursus was built 2,300 feet (700 m) north of the site as the first farmers began to clear the trees and develop the area. Other previously overlooked stone or wooden structures and burial mounds may date as far back as 4000 BC. Charcoal from the 'Blick Mead' camp 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from Stonehenge (near the Vespasian's Camp site) has been dated to 4000 BC. The University of Buckingham's Humanities Research Institute believes that the community who built Stonehenge lived here for several millennia, making it potentially "one of the pivotal places in the history of the Stonehenge landscape."
Stonehenge 1 (c. 3100 BC)
The first monument consisted of a circular bank and ditch enclosure made of Late Cretaceous (Santonian Age) Seaford chalk, measuring about 360 feet (110 m) in diameter, with a large entrance to the north east and a smaller one to the south. It stood in open grassland on a slightly sloping spot. The builders placed the bones of deer and oxen in the bottom of the ditch, as well as some worked flint tools. The bones were considerably older than the antler picks used to dig the ditch, and the people who buried them had looked after them for some time prior to burial. The ditch was continuous but had been dug in sections, like the ditches of the earlier causewayed enclosures in the area. The chalk dug from the ditch was piled up to form the bank. This first stage is dated to around 3100 BC, after which the ditch began to silt up naturally. Within the outer edge of the enclosed area is a circle of 56 pits, each about 3.3 feet (1 m) in diameter, known as the Aubrey holes after John Aubrey, the 17th-century antiquarian who was thought to have first identified them. These pits and the bank and ditch together are known as the Palisade or Gate Ditch. The pits may have contained standing timbers creating a timber circle, although there is no excavated evidence of them. A recent excavation has suggested that the Aubrey Holes may have originally been used to erect a bluestone circle. If this were the case, it would advance the earliest known stone structure at the monument by some 500 years.
In 2013, a team of archaeologists, led by Mike Parker Pearson, excavated more than 50,000 cremated bone fragments, from 63 individuals, buried at Stonehenge. These remains were originally buried individually in the Aubrey holes, but were exhumed in 1920 during an excavation by William Hawley, who considered them unimportant and in 1935 re-buried them together in one hole, Aubrey Hole 7. Physical and chemical analysis of the remains has shown that the cremated were almost equally men and women, and included some children. There is evidence that the underlying chalk beneath the graves was crushed by substantial weight, so the team concluded that the first bluestones brought from Wales were probably used as grave markers. Radiocarbon dating of the remains has put the date of the site 500 years earlier than previously estimated, to around 3000 BC. A 2018 study of the strontium content of the bones found that many of the individuals buried there around the time of construction had probably come from near the source of the bluestone in Wales and had not extensively lived in the area of Stonehenge before death.
Between 2017 and 2021, studies by Professor Parker Pearson (UCL) and his team suggested that the bluestones used in Stonehenge had been moved there following dismantling of a stone circle of identical size to the first known Stonehenge circle (110m) at the Welsh site of Waun Mawn in the Preseli Hills. It had contained bluestones, one of which showed evidence of having been reused in Stonehenge. The stone was identified by its unusual pentagonal shape and by luminescence soil dating from the filled-in sockets which showed the circle had been erected around 3400–3200 BC, and dismantled around 300–400 years later, consistent with the dates attributed to the creation of Stonehenge. The cessation of human activity in that area at the same time suggested migration as a reason, but it is believed that other stones may have come from other sources.
Stonehenge 2 (c. 2900 BC)
The second phase of construction occurred approximately between 2900 and 2600 BC. The number of postholes dating to the early third millennium BC suggests that some form of timber structure was built within the enclosure during this period. Further standing timbers were placed at the northeast entrance, and a parallel alignment of posts ran inwards from the southern entrance. The postholes are smaller than the Aubrey Holes, being only around 16 inches (0.4 m) in diameter, and are much less regularly spaced. The bank was purposely reduced in height and the ditch continued to silt up. At least twenty-five of the Aubrey Holes are known to have contained later, intrusive, cremation burials dating to the two centuries after the monument's inception. It seems that whatever the holes' initial function, it changed to become a funerary one during Phase two. Thirty further cremations were placed in the enclosure's ditch and at other points within the monument, mostly in the eastern half. Stonehenge is therefore interpreted as functioning as an enclosed cremation cemetery at this time, the earliest known cremation cemetery in the British Isles. Fragments of unburnt human bone have also been found in the ditch-fill. Dating evidence is provided by the late Neolithic grooved ware pottery that has been found in connection with the features from this phase.
Stonehenge 3 I (c. 2600 BC)
Archaeological excavation has indicated that around 2600 BC, the builders abandoned timber in favour of stone and dug two concentric arrays of holes (the Q and R Holes) in the centre of the site. These stone sockets are only partly known (hence on present evidence are sometimes described as forming 'crescents'); however, they could be the remains of a double ring. Again, there is little firm dating evidence for this phase. The holes held up to 80 standing stones (shown blue on the plan), only 43 of which can be traced today. It is generally accepted that the bluestones (some of which are made of dolerite, an igneous rock), were transported by the builders from the Preseli Hills, 150 miles (240 km) away in modern-day Pembrokeshire in Wales. Another theory is that they were brought much nearer to the site as glacial erratics by the Irish Sea Glacier although there is no evidence of glacial deposition within southern central England. A 2019 publication announced that evidence of Megalithic quarrying had been found at quarries in Wales identified as a source of Stonehenge's bluestone, indicating that the bluestone was quarried by human agency and not transported by glacial action.
The long-distance human transport theory was bolstered in 2011 by the discovery of a megalithic bluestone quarry at Craig Rhos-y-felin, near Crymych in Pembrokeshire, which is the most likely place for some of the stones to have been obtained. Other standing stones may well have been small sarsens (sandstone), used later as lintels. The stones, which weighed about two tons, could have been moved by lifting and carrying them on rows of poles and rectangular frameworks of poles, as recorded in China, Japan and India. It is not known whether the stones were taken directly from their quarries to Salisbury Plain or were the result of the removal of a venerated stone circle from Preseli to Salisbury Plain to "merge two sacred centres into one, to unify two politically separate regions, or to legitimise the ancestral identity of migrants moving from one region to another". Evidence of a 110-metre (360 ft) stone circle at Waun Mawn near Preseli, which could have contained some or all of the stones in Stonehenge, has been found, including a hole from a rock that matches the unusual cross-section of a Stonehenge bluestone "like a key in a lock". Each monolith measures around 6.6 feet (2 m) in height, between 3.3 and 4.9 ft (1 and 1.5 m) wide and around 2.6 feet (0.8 m) thick.
What was to become known as the Altar Stone was believed to have been derived from the Senni Beds, perhaps from 50 miles (80 kilometres) east of the Preseli Hills in the Brecon Beacons. Work announced in 2024 by a team from Curtin University, who analysed the chemical composition of fragments of rock that had fallen off the Altar Stone, and dated them, found that the best match was with rocks in the Orcadian Basin (which includes Caithness, Orkney, and the Moray Firth regions of north-eastern Scotland). The researchers stated that this implies the stone was transported some 430 miles (690 km), and thus demonstrates cultural links between Southern England and Northern Scotland.
The north-eastern entrance was widened at this time, with the result that it precisely matched the direction of the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset of the period. This phase of the monument was abandoned unfinished, however; the small standing stones were apparently removed and the Q and R holes purposefully backfilled.
The Heel Stone, a Tertiary sandstone, may also have been erected outside the north-eastern entrance during this period. It cannot be accurately dated and may have been installed at any time during phase 3. At first, it was accompanied by a second stone, which is no longer visible. Two, or possibly three, large portal stones were set up just inside the north-eastern entrance, of which only one, the fallen Slaughter Stone, 16 feet (4.9 m) long, now remains. Other features, loosely dated to phase 3, include the four Station Stones, two of which stood atop mounds. The mounds are known as "barrows" although they do not contain burials. Stonehenge Avenue, a parallel pair of ditches and banks leading two miles (3 km) to the River Avon, was also added.
Stonehenge 3 II (2600 BC to 2400 BC)
During the next major phase of activity, 30 enormous Oligocene–Miocene sarsen stones (shown grey on the plan) were brought to the site. They came from a quarry around 16 miles (26 km) north of Stonehenge, in West Woods, Wiltshire. The stones were dressed and fashioned with mortise and tenon joints before 30 sarsens were erected in a circle of standing stones approximately 98 feet (30 m) in diameter, with a ring of 30 lintel stones resting on top. The lintels were fitted to one another using tongue and groove joints – a woodworking method, again. Each standing stone was around 13.5 feet (4.11 m) high, 7.0 feet (2.13 m) wide, and 3.5 feet (1.06 m) deep, weighing around 26 tons. Each had clearly been worked with the final visual effect in mind: The orthostats widen slightly towards the top in order that their perspective remains constant when viewed from the ground, while the lintel stones curve slightly to continue the circular appearance of the earlier monument.
The inward-facing surfaces of the stones are smoother and more finely worked than the outer surfaces. The average thickness of the stones is 3.6 feet (1.1 m) and the average distance between them is 3.3 feet (1 m). A total of 75 stones would have been needed to complete the circle (60 stones) and the trilithon horseshoe (15 stones). It was thought the ring might have been left incomplete, but an exceptionally dry summer in 2013 revealed patches of parched grass which may correspond to the location of missing sarsens. The lintel stones are each around 10 feet (3.2 m) long, 3.3 feet (1 m) wide and 2.6 feet (0.8 m) thick. The tops of the lintels are 16 feet (4.9 m) above the ground.
Within this circle stood five trilithons of dressed sarsen stone arranged in a horseshoe shape 45 feet (13.7 m) across, with its open end facing northeast. These huge stones, ten uprights and five lintels, weigh up to 50 tons each. They were linked using complex jointing. They are arranged symmetrically. The smallest pair of trilithons were around 20 feet (6 m) tall, the next pair a little higher, and the largest, single trilithon in the south-west corner would have been 24 feet (7.3 m) tall. Only one upright from the Great Trilithon still stands, of which 22 feet (6.7 m) is visible and a further 7.9 feet (2.4 m) is below ground. The images of a 'dagger' and 14 'axeheads' have been carved on one of the sarsens, known as stone 53; further carvings of axeheads have been seen on the outer faces of stones 3, 4, and 5. The carvings are difficult to date but are morphologically similar to late Bronze Age weapons. Early 21st century laser scanning of the carvings supports this interpretation. The pair of trilithons in the north east are smallest, measuring around 20 feet (6 m) in height; the largest, which is in the south-west of the horseshoe, is almost 25 feet (7.5 m) tall.
This ambitious phase has been radiocarbon dated to between 2600 and 2400 BC, slightly earlier than the Stonehenge Archer, discovered in the outer ditch of the monument in 1978, and the two sets of burials, known as the Amesbury Archer and the Boscombe Bowmen, discovered three miles (5 km) to the west. Analysis of animal teeth found two miles (3 km) away at Durrington Walls, thought by Parker Pearson to be the 'builders camp', suggests that, during some period between 2600 and 2400 BC, as many as 4,000 people gathered at the site for the mid-winter and mid-summer festivals; the evidence showed that the animals had been slaughtered around nine months or 15 months after their spring birth. Strontium isotope analysis of the animal teeth showed that some had been brought from as far afield as the Scottish Highlands for the celebrations.
At about the same time, a large timber circle and a second avenue were constructed at Durrington Walls overlooking the River Avon. The timber circle was oriented towards the rising Sun on the midwinter solstice, opposing the solar alignments at Stonehenge. The avenue was aligned with the setting Sun on the summer solstice and led from the river to the timber circle. Evidence of huge fires on the banks of the Avon between the two avenues also suggests that both circles were linked. They were perhaps used as a procession route on the longest and shortest days of the year. Parker Pearson speculates that the wooden circle at Durrington Walls was the centre of a 'land of the living', whilst the stone circle represented a 'land of the dead', with the Avon serving as a journey between the two.
Stonehenge 3 III (2400 BC to 2280 BC)
Later in the Bronze Age, although the exact details of activities during this period are still unclear, the bluestones appear to have been re-erected. They were placed within the outer sarsen circle and may have been trimmed in some way. Like the sarsens, a few have timber-working style cuts in them suggesting that, during this phase, they may have been linked with lintels and were part of a larger structure.
Stonehenge 3 IV (2280 BC to 1930 BC)
This phase saw further rearrangement of the bluestones. They were arranged in a circle between the two rings of sarsens and in an oval at the centre of the inner ring. Some archaeologists argue that some of these bluestones were from a second group brought from Wales. All the stones formed well-spaced uprights without any of the linking lintels inferred in Stonehenge 3 III. The Altar Stone may have been moved within the oval at this time and re-erected vertically. Although this would seem the most impressive phase of work, Stonehenge 3 IV was rather shabbily built compared to its immediate predecessors, as the newly re-installed bluestones were not well-founded and began to fall over. However, only minor changes were made after this phase.
Stonehenge 3 V (1930 BC to 1600 BC)
Soon afterwards, the northeastern section of the Phase 3 IV bluestone circle was removed, creating a horseshoe-shaped setting (the Bluestone Horseshoe) which mirrored the shape of the central sarsen Trilithons. This phase is contemporary with the Seahenge site in Norfolk.
After the monument (1600 BC on)
Main article: Y and Z HolesThe Y and Z Holes are the last known construction at Stonehenge, built about 1600 BC, and the last usage of it was probably during the Iron Age. Roman coins and medieval artefacts have all been found in or around the monument but it is unknown whether the monument was in continuous use throughout British prehistory and beyond, or exactly how it would have been used. Notable is the massive Iron Age hillfort known as Vespasian's Camp (despite its name, not a Roman site) built alongside the Avenue near the Avon. A decapitated seventh-century Saxon man was excavated from Stonehenge in 1923. The site was known to scholars during the Middle Ages and since then it has been studied and adopted by numerous groups.
Function and construction
Main article: Theories about Stonehenge See also: Archaeoastronomy and StonehengeStonehenge was produced by a culture that left no written records. Many aspects of Stonehenge, such as how it was built and for what purposes it was used, remain subject to debate. A number of myths surround the stones. The site, specifically the great trilithon, the encompassing horseshoe arrangement of the five central trilithons, the heel stone, and the embanked avenue, are aligned to the sunset of the winter solstice and the opposing sunrise of the summer solstice. A natural landform at the monument's location followed this line, and may have inspired its construction. It has been conjectured that the design of the monument included a celestial observatory function, which might allow prediction of eclipse, solstice, equinox and other celestial events important to the builders' belief system. The excavated remains of culled animal bones suggest that people may have gathered at the site for the winter rather than the summer.
There is little or no direct evidence revealing the construction techniques used by the Stonehenge builders. Over the years, various authors have suggested that supernatural or anachronistic methods were used, usually asserting that the stones were impossible to move otherwise due to their massive size. However, conventional techniques, using Neolithic technology as basic as shear legs, have been demonstrably effective at moving and placing stones of a similar size. The most common theory of how prehistoric people moved megaliths has them creating a track of logs along which the large stones were rolled. Another megalith transport theory involves the use of a type of sleigh running on a track greased with animal fat. An experiment with a sleigh carrying a 40-ton slab of stone was successfully conducted near Stonehenge in 1995; a team of more than 100 workers managed to push and pull the slab along the 18-mile (29 km) journey from the Marlborough Downs.
Proposed functions for the site include usage as an astronomical observatory or as a religious site. In the 1960s, Gerald Hawkins described in detail how the site was apparently set out to observe the Sun and Moon over a recurring 56-year cycle. More recently, two major new theories have been proposed. Geoffrey Wainwright, president of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and Timothy Darvill, of Bournemouth University, have suggested that Stonehenge was a place of healing—the primeval equivalent of Lourdes. They argue that this accounts for the high number of burials in the area and for the evidence of trauma deformity in some of the graves. However, they do concede that the site was probably multifunctional and used for ancestor worship as well. Isotope analysis indicates that some of the buried individuals were from other regions. A teenage boy buried approximately 1550 BC was raised near the Mediterranean Sea; a metal worker from 2300 BC dubbed the "Amesbury Archer" grew up near the Alpine foothills of Germany; and the "Boscombe Bowmen" probably arrived from Wales or Brittany, France.
On the other hand, Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University has suggested that Stonehenge was part of a ritual landscape and was joined to Durrington Walls by their corresponding avenues and the River Avon. He suggests that the area around Durrington Walls henge was a place of the living, whilst Stonehenge was a domain of the dead. A journey along the Avon to reach Stonehenge was part of a ritual passage from life to death, to celebrate past ancestors and the recently deceased. Both explanations were first mooted in the twelfth century by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who extolled the curative properties of the stones and was also the first to advance the idea that Stonehenge was constructed as a funerary monument.
There are other hypotheses and theories. According to a team of British researchers led by Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield, Stonehenge may have been built as a symbol of "peace and unity", indicated in part by the fact that at the time of its construction, Britain's Neolithic people were experiencing a period of cultural unification.
Stonehenge megaliths include smaller bluestones and larger sarsens (a term for silicified sandstone boulders found in the chalk downs of southern England). The bluestones are composed of dolerite, tuff, rhyolite, or sandstone. The igneous bluestones appear to have originated in the Preseli hills of southwestern Wales, about 140 miles (230 km) from the monument. The sandstone Altar Stone may have originated in east Wales. Analysis published in 2020 indicates the sarsens came from West Woods, about 16 miles (26 km) from the monument.
Researchers from the Royal College of Art in London have discovered that the monument's igneous bluestones possess "unusual acoustic properties" – when struck they respond with a "loud clanging noise". Rocks with such acoustic properties are frequent in the Carn Melyn ridge of Presili; the Presili village of Maenclochog (Welsh for bell or ringing stones) used local bluestones as church bells until the 18th century. According to the team, these acoustic properties could explain why certain bluestones were hauled such a long distance, a major technical accomplishment at the time. In certain ancient cultures, rocks that ring out, known as lithophonic rocks, were believed to contain mystic or healing powers, and Stonehenge has a history of association with rituals. The presence of these "ringing rocks" seems to support the hypothesis that Stonehenge was a "place for healing" put forward by Darvill, who consulted with the researchers.
Stonehenge-builders and DNA studies
See also: Neolithic Europe, Chalcolithic Europe, and Genetic history of EuropeThere is evidence to suggest that despite the introduction of farming in the British Isles, the practice of cereal cultivation fell out of favor between 3300 and 1500 BC, with much of the population reverting to a pastoralist subsistence pattern focused on hazelnut gathering and pig and cattle rearing. A majority of the major phases of Stonehenge's construction took place during such a period where evidence of large-scale agriculture is equivocal. Similar associations between non-cereal farming subsistence patterns and monumental construction are also seen at Poverty Point and Sannai Maruyama.
Stonehenge I and II
Researchers studying DNA extracted from Neolithic human remains across Britain determined that the people who built Stonehenge I and II were closely related to Iberian and Central European Early and Middle Neolithic populations, modelled as having about 75% ancestry from Early European Farmers who came from the Eastern Mediterranean, travelling west from there, and 25% ancestry coming from Western Hunter-Gatherers from western Europe. These farmers moved to Iberia before heading north, reaching Britain in about 4,000 BC. Most of the ancestry of British Neolithic farmers came from the people who followed this route, with a minor contribution from groups who followed the Danube into Central and Western Europe. Their agricultural techniques seem to have come originally from Anatolia, and their mixture appears to have happened primarily on the continent before the Neolithic farmers migrated to Britain.
At the time of their arrival, Britain was inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers who were the first inhabitants of the island after the last Ice Age ended about 11,700 years ago. The farmers replaced most of the hunter-gatherer population in the British Isles without mixing much with them.
Despite their mostly Aegean ancestry, the paternal (Y-DNA) lineages of Neolithic farmers in Britain were almost exclusively of Western Hunter-Gatherer origin. This was also the case among other megalithic-building populations in northwest Europe, meaning that these populations were descended from a mixture of hunter-gatherer males and farmer females. The dominance of Western Hunter-Gatherer male lineages in Britain and northwest Europe is also reflected in a general 'resurgence' of hunter-gatherer ancestry, predominantly from males, across western and central Europe in the Middle Neolithic.
Stonehenge III (megalithic structure)
At the time the megalithic Stonehenge 3 II was constructed (2600–2400 BC) by Neolithic people, the Bell Beaker people arrived, around 2,500 BC, migrating from mainland Europe. They lived side by side for ca. 500 years, with the Bell Beaker people probably incorporating the henge-structures into their belief-system.
The earliest British individuals associated with the Beaker culture, most likely speakers of Indo-European languages whose ancestors migrated from the Pontic–Caspian steppe, were similar to those from the Rhine. Eventually, there was again a large population replacement in Britain. More than 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool was replaced with the arrival of the Bell Beaker people, who had approximately 50% WSH ancestry.
Modern history
Archaeological research and restoration
1600–1900
Throughout recorded history, Stonehenge and its surrounding monuments have attracted attention from antiquarians and archaeologists. John Aubrey was one of the first to examine the site with a scientific eye in 1666, and, in his plan of the monument, he recorded the pits that now bear his name, the Aubrey holes. William Stukeley continued Aubrey's work in the early eighteenth century, but took an interest in the surrounding monuments as well, identifying (somewhat incorrectly) the Cursus and the Avenue. He also began the excavation of many of the barrows in the area, and it was his interpretation of the landscape that associated it with the Druids. Stukeley was so fascinated with Druids that he originally named Disc Barrows as Druids' Barrows.
The most accurate early plan of Stonehenge was that made by Bath architect John Wood in 1740. His original annotated survey has now been computer-redrawn and published. Importantly Wood's plan was made before the collapse of the southwest trilithon, which fell in 1797 and was restored in 1958.
William Cunnington was the next to tackle the area in the early nineteenth century. He excavated some 24 barrows before digging in and around the stones and discovered charred wood, animal bones, pottery and urns. He also identified the hole in which the Slaughter Stone once stood. Richard Colt Hoare supported Cunnington's work and excavated some 379 barrows on Salisbury Plain including on some 200 in the area around the Stones, some excavated in conjunction with William Coxe. To alert future diggers to their work, they were careful to leave initialled metal tokens in each barrow they opened. Cunnington's finds are displayed at the Wiltshire Museum. In 1877, Charles Darwin dabbled in archaeology at the stones, experimenting with the rate at which remains sink into the earth, for his book The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms.
Stone 22 fell during a fierce storm on 31 December 1900.
1901–2000
William Gowland oversaw the first major restoration of the monument in 1901, which involved the straightening and concrete setting of sarsen stone number 56 which was in danger of falling. In straightening the stone he moved it about half a metre from its original position. Gowland also took the opportunity to further excavate the monument in what was the most scientific dig to date, revealing more about the erection of the stones than the previous 100 years of work had done. During the 1920 restoration, William Hawley, who had excavated nearby Old Sarum, excavated the base of six stones and the outer ditch. He also located a bottle of port in the Slaughter Stone socket left by Cunnington, helped to rediscover Aubrey's pits inside the bank and located the concentric circular holes outside the Sarsen Circle called the Y and Z Holes.
Richard Atkinson, Stuart Piggott and John F. S. Stone re-excavated much of Hawley's work in the 1940s and 1950s, and discovered the carved axes and daggers on the Sarsen Stones. Atkinson's work was instrumental in furthering the understanding of the three major phases of the monument's construction.
In 1958, the stones were restored again, when three of the standing sarsens were re-erected and set in concrete bases. The last restoration was carried out in 1963 after stone 23 of the Sarsen Circle fell over. It was again re-erected, and the opportunity was taken to concrete three more stones. Later archaeologists, including Christopher Chippindale of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge and Brian Edwards of the University of the West of England, campaigned to give the public more knowledge of the various restorations and, in 2004, English Heritage included pictures of the work in progress in its book Stonehenge: A History in Photographs.
In 1966 and 1967, in advance of a new car park being built at the site, the area of land immediately northwest of the stones was excavated by Faith and Lance Vatcher. They discovered the Mesolithic postholes dating from between 7000 and 8000 BC, as well as a 10-metre (33 ft) length of a palisade ditch – a V-cut ditch into which timber posts had been inserted that remained there until they rotted away. Subsequent aerial archaeology suggests that this ditch runs from the west to the north of Stonehenge, near the avenue.
Excavations were once again carried out in 1978 by Atkinson and John Evans, during which they discovered the remains of the Stonehenge Archer in the outer ditch, and in 1979 rescue archaeology was needed alongside the Heel Stone after a cable-laying ditch was mistakenly dug on the roadside, revealing a new stone hole next to the Heel Stone.
In the early 1980s, Julian C. Richards led the Stonehenge Environs Project, a detailed study of the surrounding landscape. The project was able to successfully date such features as the Lesser Cursus, Coneybury Henge and several other smaller features.
In 1993, the way that Stonehenge was presented to the public was called 'a national disgrace' by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. Part of English Heritage's response to this criticism was to commission research to collate and bring together all the archaeological work conducted at the monument up to this date. This two-year research project resulted in the publication in 1995 of the monograph Stonehenge in its landscape, which was the first publication presenting the complex stratigraphy and the finds recovered from the site. It presented a rephasing of the monument.
21st century
More recent excavations include a series of digs held between 2003 and 2008 known as the Stonehenge Riverside Project, led by Mike Parker Pearson. This project mainly investigated other monuments in the landscape and their relationship to the stones—notably, Durrington Walls, where another "Avenue" leading to the River Avon was discovered. The point where the Stonehenge Avenue meets the river was also excavated and revealed a previously unknown circular area which probably housed four further stones, most likely as a marker for the starting point of the avenue.
In April 2008, Tim Darvill of the University of Bournemouth and Geoff Wainwright of the Society of Antiquaries began another dig inside the stone circle to retrieve datable fragments of the original bluestone pillars. They were able to date the erection of some bluestones to 2300 BC, although this may not reflect the earliest erection of stones at Stonehenge. They also discovered organic material from 7000 BC, which, along with the Mesolithic postholes, adds support for the site having been in use at least 4,000 years before Stonehenge was started. In August and September 2008, as part of the Riverside Project, Julian C. Richards and Mike Pitts excavated Aubrey Hole 7, removing the cremated remains from several Aubrey Holes that had been excavated by Hawley in the 1920s, and re-interred in 1935. A licence for the removal of human remains at Stonehenge had been granted by the Ministry of Justice in May 2008, in accordance with the Statement on burial law and archaeology issued in May 2008. One of the conditions of the licence was that the remains should be reinterred within two years and that in the intervening period they should be kept safely, privately and decently.
A new landscape investigation was conducted in April 2009. A shallow mound, rising to about 16 in (40 centimetres) was identified between stones 54 (inner circle) and 10 (outer circle), clearly separated from the natural slope. It has not been dated but speculation that it represents careless backfilling following earlier excavations seems disproved by its representation in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century illustrations. There is some evidence that, as an uncommon geological feature, it could have been deliberately incorporated into the monument at the outset. A circular, shallow bank, little more than four inches (10 cm) high, was found between the Y and Z hole circles, with a further bank lying inside the "Z" circle. These are interpreted as the spread of spoil from the original Y and Z holes, or more speculatively as hedge banks from vegetation deliberately planted to screen the activities within.
In 2010, the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project discovered a "henge-like" monument less than 0.62 mi (1 km) away from the main site. This new hengiform monument was subsequently revealed to be located "at the site of Amesbury 50", a round barrow in the Cursus Barrows group.
In November 2011, archaeologists from University of Birmingham announced the discovery of evidence of two huge pits positioned within the Stonehenge Cursus pathway, aligned in celestial position towards midsummer sunrise and sunset when viewed from the Heel Stone. The new discovery was made as part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project which began in the summer of 2010. The project uses non-invasive geophysical imaging technique to reveal and visually recreate the landscape. According to team leader Vince Gaffney, this discovery may provide a direct link between the rituals and astronomical events to activities within the Cursus at Stonehenge.
In December 2011, geologists from University of Leicester and the National Museum of Wales announced the discovery of the source of some of the rhyolite fragments found in the Stonehenge debitage. These fragments do not seem to match any of the standing stones or bluestone stumps. The researchers have identified the source as a 230-foot (70 m) long rock outcrop called Craig Rhos-y-felin (51°59′30″N 4°44′41″W / 51.99167°N 4.74472°W / 51.99167; -4.74472 (Craig Rhos-y-Felin)), near Pont Saeson in north Pembrokeshire, located 140 miles (220 km) from Stonehenge.
In 2014, the University of Birmingham announced findings including evidence of adjacent stone and wooden structures and burial mounds near Durrington, overlooked previously, that may date as far back as 4000 BC. An area extending to 4.6 square miles (12 km) was studied to a depth of three metres with ground-penetrating radar equipment. As many as seventeen new monuments, revealed nearby, may be Late Neolithic monuments that resemble Stonehenge. The interpretation suggests a complex of numerous related monuments. Also included in the discovery is that the cursus track is terminated by two 16-foot (5 m) wide, extremely deep pits, whose purpose is still a mystery.
Origin of sarsens, bluestones and other modern developments
In July 2020, a study led by David Nash of the University of Brighton concluded that the large sarsen stones were "a direct chemical match" to those found at West Woods near Marlborough, Wiltshire, some 15 miles (25 km) north of Stonehenge. A core sample, originally extracted in 1958, had recently been returned. First the fifty-two sarsens were analysed using methods including x-ray fluorescence spectrometry to determine their chemical composition which revealed they were mostly similar. Then the core was destructively analysed and compared with stone samples from various locations in southern Britain. Fifty of the fifty-two megaliths were found to match sarsens in West Woods, thereby identifying the probable origin of the stones.
During 2017 and 2018, excavations by professor Parker Pearson's team at Waun Mawn, a large stone circle site in the Preseli Hills, suggested that the site had originally housed a 110-metre (360 ft) diameter stone circle of the same size as Stonehenge's original bluestone circle, also orientated towards the midsummer solstice.
The circle at Waun Mawn also contained a hole from one stone which had a distinctive pentagonal shape, very closely matching the one pentagonal stone at Stonehenge (stonehole 91 at Waun Mawn / stone 62 at Stonehenge). Soil dating of the sediments within the revealed stone holes, via optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), suggested the absent stones at Waun Mawn had been erected around 3400–3200 BC, and removed around 300–400 years later, a date consistent with theories that the same stones were moved and used at Stonehenge, before later being reorganised into their present locations and supplemented with local sarsens as was already understood. Human activity at Waun Mawn ceased around the same time which has suggested that some people may have migrated to Stonehenge. It has also been suggested that stones from other sources may have been added to Stonehenge, perhaps from other dismantled circles in the region.
Further work in 2021 by Parker Pearson's team concluded that the Waun Mawn circle had never been completed, and of the stones which might once have stood at the site, no more than 13 had been removed in antiquity.
In February 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of "vast troves of Neolithic and Bronze Age artifacts" while conducting excavations for the proposed highway tunnel near Stonehenge. The find included Bronze Age graves, late neolithic pottery and C-shaped enclosure on the intended site of the Stonehenge road tunnel. Remains also contained a shale object in one of the graves, burnt flint in C-shaped enclosure and the final resting place of a baby.
In January 2022, archaeologists announced the discovery of thousands of prehistoric pits during an electromagnetic induction field survey around Stonehenge. Based on the shape of the pits and the artifacts found inside, the study's lead author, Philippe De Smedt, assumed that six of the 9 large pits excavated were made by prehistoric humans. One of the oldest was about 10000 years old and contained hunting tools.
In August 2024, the journal Nature published research from a team at Curtin University in Australia identifying the origin of the Altar Stone, which is partially buried by a collapsed sarsen stone, as having come from the Orcadian Basin in northeast Scotland, some 700 km away.
Folklore
"Heel Stone", "Friar's Heel", or "Sun-Stone"
The Heel Stone lies northeast of the sarsen circle, beside the end portion of Stonehenge Avenue. It is a rough stone, 16 feet (4.9 m) above ground, leaning inwards towards the stone circle. It has been known by many names in the past, including "Friar's Heel" and "Sun-stone". At the Summer solstice an observer standing within the stone circle, looking northeast through the entrance, would see the Sun rise in the approximate direction of the Heel Stone, and the Sun has often been photographed over it.
A folk tale relates the origin of the Friar's Heel reference.
The Devil bought the stones from a woman in Ireland, wrapped them up, and brought them to Salisbury plain. One of the stones fell into the Avon, the rest were carried to the plain. The Devil then cried out, "No-one will ever find out how these stones came here!" A friar replied, "That's what you think!", whereupon the Devil threw one of the stones at him and struck him on the heel. The stone stuck in the ground and is still there.
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable attributes this tale to Geoffrey of Monmouth, but though book eight of Geoffrey's Historia Regum Britanniae does describe how Stonehenge was built, the two stories are entirely different.
The name is not unique; there was a monolith with the same name recorded in the nineteenth century by antiquarian Charles Warne at Long Bredy in Dorset.
Arthurian legend
The twelfth-century Historia Regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of Britain"), by Geoffrey of Monmouth, includes a legend of Stonehenge's origin, describing how Stonehenge was brought from Ireland with the help of the wizard Merlin. Geoffrey's story spread widely, with variations of it appearing in adaptations of his work, such as Wace's Norman French Roman de Brut, Layamon's Middle English Brut, and the Welsh Brut y Brenhinedd.
According to the tale, the stones of Stonehenge were healing stones, which giants had brought from Africa to Ireland. They had been raised on Mount Killaraus to form a stone circle, known as the Giant's Ring or Giant's Round. The fifth-century king Aurelius Ambrosius wished to build a great memorial to the British Celtic nobles slain by the Saxons at Salisbury. Merlin advised him to use the Giant's Ring. The king sent Merlin and Uther Pendragon (King Arthur's father) with 15,000 men to bring it from Ireland. They defeated an Irish army led by Gillomanius, but were unable to move the huge stones. With Merlin's help, they transported the stones to Britain and re-erected them as they had stood. Mount Killaraus may refer to the Hill of Uisneach. Although the tale is fiction, archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson suggests it may hold a "grain of truth", as evidence suggests the Stonehenge bluestones were brought from the Waun Mawn stone circle on the Irish Sea coast of Wales.
Another legend tells how the invading Saxon king Hengist invited British Celtic warriors to a feast but treacherously ordered his men to massacre the guests, killing 420 of them. Hengist erected Stonehenge on the site to show his remorse for the deed.
Sixteenth century to present
Stonehenge has changed ownership several times since King Henry VIII acquired Amesbury Abbey and its surrounding lands. In 1540 Henry gave the estate to the Earl of Hertford. It subsequently passed to Lord Carleton and then the Marquess of Queensberry. The Antrobus family of Cheshire bought the estate in 1824.
Acquisition for the nation
Stonehenge was one of several lots put up for auction in 1915 by Sir Cosmo Gordon Antrobus, soon after he had inherited the estate from his brother. The auction by Knight Frank & Rutley estate agents in Salisbury was held on 21 September 1915 and included "Lot 15. Stonehenge with about 30 acres, 2 rods, 37 perches of adjoining downland."
Cecil Chubb bought the site for £6,600 (£668,000 in 2024) and gave it to the nation three years later, with certain conditions attached. Although it has been speculated that he purchased it at the suggestion of – or even as a present for – his wife, in fact he bought it on a whim, as he believed a local man should be the new owner.
Saving the skyline
The plot bought by Chubb and gifted to the nation was only 30 acres (12 ha) in size, and various buildings stood within clear sight of the monument, the most prominent being Stonehenge Aerodrome. Some 300 metres (980 ft) from the stones, the aerodrome was built during the First World War for the Royal Flying Corps and its large stone and brick hangars dominated the skyline.
In the dry valley at Stonehenge Bottom, a main road junction was built between what would later be designated as the A303 and A344 roads, along with several cottages and a cafe.
In 1927 the land around Stonehenge was put up for auction in three plots. Plot A lay immediately west of the monument and included the (by now disused) Stonehenge Aerodrome, Plot B was to the south on the other side of the main road, and Plot C on the north side included part of the Stonehenge Cursus.
There was interest from developers, and in August 1927 a subscription fund was launched in order to "save the skyline" of the monument. The subscription made rapid progress, with George V as the lead subscriber, and by October 1927 £8,000 had been raised, which was enough to purchase Plot A and start the demolition of the aerodrome. The fund continued for a number of years to secure the remaining land around the henge for the nation, with fundraising for Plot C continuing through 1929.
The land was taken into the management of the National Trust to preserve. The last large aircraft hangar was removed in 1930, and by the middle of the 1930s the aerodrome site was cleared.
More recently the land has been part of a grassland reversion scheme, returning the surrounding fields to native chalk grassland. This process continued in 2022 when the National Heritage Lottery Fund (NHLF) gave a grant to the National Trust to acquire another 170 hectares of the Stonehenge Landscape.
Neopaganism
During the twentieth century, Stonehenge began to revive as a place of religious significance, this time by adherents of Neopaganism and New Age beliefs, particularly the Neo-druids. The historian Ronald Hutton would later remark that "it was a great, and potentially uncomfortable, irony that modern Druids had arrived at Stonehenge just as archaeologists were evicting the ancient Druids from it." The first such Neo-druidic group to make use of the megalithic monument was the Ancient Order of Druids, who performed a mass initiation ceremony there in August 1905, in which they admitted 259 new members into their organisation. This assembly was largely ridiculed in the press, who mocked the fact that the Neo-druids were dressed up in costumes consisting of white robes and fake beards.
The earlier rituals were complemented by the Stonehenge Free Festival, loosely organised by the Polytantric Circle, held between 1972 and 1984, during which time the number of midsummer visitors had risen to around 30,000. However, in 1985, the site was closed to festivalgoers by a High Court injunction. A consequence of the end of the festival in 1985 was the violent confrontation between the police and New Age travellers that became known as the Battle of the Beanfield, when police blockaded a convoy of travellers to prevent them from approaching Stonehenge. Beginning in 1985, the year of the Battle, no access was allowed into the stones at Stonehenge for any religious reason. This "exclusion-zone" policy continued for almost fifteen years: until just before the arrival of the twenty-first century, visitors were not allowed to go into the stones at times of religious significance, the winter and summer solstices, and the vernal and autumnal equinoxes.
However, following a European Court of Human Rights ruling obtained by campaigners such as Arthur Uther Pendragon, the restrictions were lifted. The ruling recognized that members of any genuine religion have a right to worship in their own church, and Stonehenge is a place of worship to Neo-Druids, Pagans and other "Earth based' or 'old' religions. Meetings were organised by the National Trust and others to discuss the arrangements. In 1998, a party of 100 people was allowed access and these included astronomers, archaeologists, Druids, locals, pagans and travellers. In 2000, an open summer solstice event was held and about seven thousand people attended. In 2001, the numbers increased to about 10,000.
Year | Sunrise report | Notes / Attendance figures in brackets |
---|---|---|
2000 | Wednesday morning | First year of Managed Open Access, entry times to the stones 23:30 on the 20th to 07:30 on the 21st (6,000) |
2001 | Initially cloudy | Access times extended to eleven hours running from 22:00 to 09:00 |
2002 | Raining | Many leave early to watch England play Brazil in the FIFA World Cup (22,000) |
2003 | Clear | First modern MOA on a Friday night record crowd in attendance (30,000) |
2004 | Misty sunrise | Transit of Venus earlier in the month on the 8th June (21,000) |
2005 | Clear | Monday night, Tuesday morning (23,000) |
2006 | Rain and cloud cover | England vs Sweden in the FIFA World Cup on the evening of the 20th results in many arriving late and heavy rain leads to a lower attendance (18,700) |
2007 | Cloudy, brighter later | Access times altered to 20:30 to 08:00. Glastonbury Festival starts the next day (24,093) |
2008 | Cloudy with some rain | Access time brought forward to 20:00 (36,290) |
2009 | Cloudy brighter later | Access time brough forward again to 19:30 (36,500) |
2010 | Reasonably clear | A 6.7m high metal sculpture called 'The Ancestor' was displayed (22,000) |
2011 | Rain and cloud | Heavy rain dampens the proceedings (18,000) |
2012 | Heavy rain | Transit of Venus earlier in the month on 6th June (14,500) |
2013 | Grey cloud | BBC Sky at Night films a 'Solstice Special' during the celebrations (21,000) |
2014 | Reasonably clear | BBC Culture Show broadcast a 'Battle for Stonehenge' special featuring the new visitor centre and a history of open access (37,500) |
2015 | Clear | Thousands mark the summer solstice at Stonehenge (23,000) |
2016 | Clear | Alcohol ban and car parking charges introduced Full Strawberry moon in conjunction with the night of the celebrations (12,000) |
2017 | Reasonably clear | Extra security due to the Manchester Arena bombing a month earlier (13,000) |
2018 | Clear sunrise | Centenary of the gifting of Stonehenge to the nation by local barrister Cecil Chubb (9,500) |
2019 | Clear | Weekend solstice Friday night, sunrise on Saturday morning (10,000) |
2020 | Sunday morning | Solstice gathering cancelled due to lockdown restrictions |
2021 | Cloudy | Despite solstice access being officially cancelled due to on-going lockdown restrictions, a couple of hundred people still managed to enter the site |
2022 | Cloudy | First official gathering since lockdown (6,000) |
2023 | Misty morning | Thousands gather for the summer solstice. (10,000) |
2024 | Clear sunrise | The gathering passed off peacefully despite a Just Stop Oil protest a few days earlier (15,000) |
2025 | TBC access usually on the night of the 20th / morning of the 21st June |
Setting and access
When Stonehenge was first opened to the public it was possible to walk among and even climb on the stones, but the stones were roped off in 1977 as a result of serious erosion. Visitors are no longer permitted to touch the stones but are able to walk around the monument from a short distance away. English Heritage does, however, permit access during the summer and winter solstice, and the spring and autumn equinox. Additionally, visitors can make special bookings to access the stones throughout the year. Approximately 30,000 local residents are entitled to free admission to Stonehenge under an agreement dating back to 1921.
The access situation and the proximity of the two roads have drawn widespread criticism, highlighted by a 2006 National Geographic survey. In the survey of conditions at 94 leading World Heritage Sites, 400 conservation and tourism experts ranked Stonehenge 75th in the list of destinations, declaring it to be "in moderate trouble".
As motorised traffic increased, the setting of the monument began to be affected by the proximity of the two roads on either side—the A344 to Shrewton on the north side, and the A303 to Winterbourne Stoke to the south. Plans to upgrade the A303 and close the A344 to restore the vista from the stones have been considered since the monument became a World Heritage Site. However, the controversy surrounding expensive re-routing of the roads led to the scheme being cancelled on multiple occasions. On 6 December 2007, it was announced that extensive plans to build Stonehenge road tunnel under the landscape and create a permanent visitors' centre had been cancelled.
In 2009, the government gave approval for a £25 million scheme to create a smaller visitors' centre and close the A344, although this was dependent on funding and local authority planning consent. In 2010, Wiltshire Council granted planning permission for a centre 1.5 mi (2.4 kilometres) to the west, and English Heritage confirmed that funds to build it would be available, supported by a £10m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. In June 2013 the A344 was closed to begin the work of removing the section of road and replacing it with grass. The centre, designed by Denton Corker Marshall, opened to the public in December 2013.
An announcement in November 2020 stated that a plan to construct a four-lane tunnel for traffic below the site had been approved. This was intended to eliminate the section of the A303 that runs close to the circle. The plan had received opposition from a group of "archaeologists, environmentalists and modern-day druids" according to National Geographic but was supported by others who wanted to "restore the landscape to its original setting and improve the experience for visitors". Opponents of the plan were concerned that artifacts that are underground in the area would be lost or that excavation in the area could de-stabilize the stones, leading to their sinking, shifting or perhaps falling. In July 2023, the Department for Transport announced that, despite the original planning application having been overturned by the High Court in 2021, the Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, had approved plans for a 2-mile (3.2 km) road tunnel.
In February 2024, the High Court in London rejected a fresh bid by campaigners to stop construction of the road tunnel. A further legal challenge was made in the High Court in July 2024. Although this action was dismissed by the High Court in October 2024, the incoming Labour government had already announced that the tunnel would 'not move forward' on 29 July.
Vandalism
See also: Just Stop Oil § StonehengeThe site has suffered vandalism intermittently for centuries. Until the 17th century, stones disappeared from the site, to be employed at building sites. In the 19th century, tourists employed chisels to cut rock chips off the megaliths as souvenirs.
Although the first years of the Free Festival (annual, from 1975 onwards) saw "very little vandalism", Stonehenge had to be fenced off from 1978 onwards. Later, repeated vandalism in the 1980s and 1990s led the authorities to deploy up to hundreds of police, erect barriers around Stonehenge, and impose exclusion zones up to six kilometres from the archaeological monument. The vandalism of 1984 included defacing the monument with purple spray paint. The government went so far as to close Stonehenge to protect it from vandalism, but in the face of public outcry the government opted to re-open it.
In 2008, two men used a hammer and a screwdriver to take a small chip the size of a 10p coin from the side of the Heel Stone, in what authorities described as "the first vandalism in decades".
In 2020, the British transport minister was accused of vandalism when he decided that the road through the Stonehenge area would be converted into a tunnel that would pass in the immediate vicinity. The project was decades old, but had repeatedly been delayed because of its cost or the effects on archaeological remains. The historian Tom Holland opined that "To inflict this act of vandalism on this landscape seems unbelievable." Tunnel opponents considered it "state-sponsored vandalism" even as their case was defeated in court in 2024.
On 19 June 2024, climate protesters from Just Stop Oil vandalised three of the standing stones by spraying orange cornflour powder paint onto them. Wiltshire Police arrested student Niamh Lynch from Oxford and Rajan Naidu from Birmingham. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called it a "disgraceful act of vandalism" to one of the UK's and the world's oldest and most significant monuments, and called on anyone associated with Just Stop Oil or who donated to them to condemn the act. Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer called the vandalism "outrageous" while deeming Just Stop Oil as "pathetic", demanding that the activists and anyone else involved with the act "face the full force of the law". The archaeologist Mike Pitts said the impact of the protest was "potentially quite concerning", and said that the megaliths were fenced off and guarded to protect their surfaces, which were entirely covered in prehistoric markings that have not been fully analysed. He also expressed concern about possible damage to the diverse lichen patterns on the megalith surfaces. English Heritage called the defacement "extremely upsetting" and began an investigation to assess the damage caused by the paint, before removing it with blown air and reporting that there was "no visible damage" to the stones. The English Heritage webpage for Stonehenge calls for visitors to respect the stones since they form a World Heritage Site, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and a place sacred to many. Conversely, Sarah Kerr, a lecturer in archaeology at University College Cork, noted that the effects of climate change pose a much greater threat to Stonehenge and other British heritage sites than Just Stop Oil's protest, which was washed away without causing damage.
In popular culture
Main article: Cultural depictions of StonehengeSee also
Historical context
- Prehistoric Britain – Prehistoric human occupation of Britain
- Neolithic British Isles – British, Irish and Manx history c. 4100–2500 BC
- Bell Beaker culture – Archaeological culture, 2800–1800 BC
- Bronze Age Britain – Period of British history from c. 2500 until c. 800 BC
Other monuments in the Stonehenge ritual landscape
- Bluestonehenge – Prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England
- Bush Barrow – Archaeological site in England
- Cuckoo Stone – Neolithic standing stone in Wiltshire, England
- Durrington Walls – Late Neolithic palisaded enclosure
- Normanton Down Barrows – Barrows in England
- Stonehenge Avenue – ancient avenue on Salisbury plain, Wiltshire, EnglandPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Stonehenge Cursus – Neolithic monument in Wiltshire, England
- Woodhenge – Neolithic henge and timber circle monument near Stonehenge
About Stonehenge and replicas of Stonehenge
- Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge – Stonehenge's use in tracking seasons
- Cultural depictions of Stonehenge
- Excavations at Stonehenge – Archaeological excavations at Stonehenge site
- Stonehenge replicas and derivatives
- Stonehenge Free Festival – 1974–1984 UK music festival
- Stonehenge Landscape – Estate owned by the National Trust of England
Fiction
- Stonehenge, novel
Similar sites
- Astronomical complex – group of man-made structures used for astronomical observationsPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Stonehenge replicas and derivatives
- Almendres Cromlech – Stone circle in Évora, Portugal
- Arkaim – Ancient settlement of the Sintashta culture
- Avebury – Neolithic henge monument in Wiltshire, England
- Cahokia – Archaeological site in southwestern Illinois, US
- Carhenge – replica of Stonehenge near the city of Alliance, Nebraska
- Göbekli Tepe – Neolithic archaeological site in Turkey
- Goloring – ancient earthworks near Koblenz, Germany
- Goseck circle – Neolithic henge monumentPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets – Calendar circle built circa 4900 BC in Germany
- List of largest monoliths
- Maryhill Stonehenge – Stonehenge replica in Maryhill, Washington, U.S.
- Medicine wheel – Ancient stone circles in North America
- Nabta Playa – Calendar circle built circa 5000 BC in Egypt
- Newgrange – Neolithic monument in County Meath, Ireland
- Ring of Brodgar – A neolithic stone circle in Orkney, Scotland
- Carahunge – Prehistoric archaeological site in Armenia
Sites with similar sunrise or sunset alignments
- Manhattanhenge – Solar phenomenon in Manhattan, New York City
- MIThenge – Hallway at the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
Museums with collections from the World Heritage Site
- The Salisbury Museum – museum in Salisbury, England, United KingdomPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
- Wiltshire Museum – Museum in Devizes, England, United KingdomPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
Footnotes
- Patterson (2022): "Whole genome ancient DNA studies have shown that the first Neolithic farmers of the island of Great Britain who lived 3950–2450 BCE derived roughly 80% of their ancestry from Early European Farmers (EEF) who originated in Anatolia more than two millennia earlier, and 20% from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (Western European Hunter-Gatherers: WHG) with whom they mixed in continental Europe, indicating that local WHG in Britain contributed negligibly to later populations."
- Olalde (2018): "Another striking observation is the haplogroup composition of Neolithic males in Britain (n=34), who displayed entirely I2a2 and I2a1b haplogroups. There is no evidence at all for a contribution to Neolithic farmers in Britain of the Y chromosome haplogroups (e.g., G2) that were predominant in Anatolian farmers and in Linearbandkeramik central European farmers."
- Sánchez-Quinto (2019): "Whereas mtDNA lineages from megalith burials harbor haplogroups K, H, HV, V, U5b, T, and J (among others), males from megalith burials belong almost exclusively to YDNA haplogroup I, more specifically to the I2a sublineage, which has a time to most recent common ancestor of ~15000 BCE. This pattern of uniparental marker diversity is found not only among individuals buried in megaliths, but also in other farmer groups from the fourth millennium BCE, which display similar patterns of uniparental marker diversity ... The high frequency of the hunter-gatherer-derived I2a male lineages among megalith as well as nonmegalith individuals suggests a male sex-biased admixture process between the farmer and the hunter-gatherer groups. ... The I2 YDNA lineages that are very common among European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers are distinctly different from the YDNA lineages of the European Early Neolithic farmer groups, but frequent in the farmer groups of the fourth millennium BCE, suggesting a male hunter-gatherer admixture over time."
- Cassidy (2020): "... the predominance of a single Y haplogroup (I-M284) across the Irish and British Neolithic population. ... provides further evidence of the importance of patrilineal ancestry in these societies."
- Sánchez-Quinto (2019): "Whereas mtDNA lineages from megalith burials harbor haplogroups K, H, HV, V, U5b, T, and J (among others), males from megalith burials belong almost exclusively to YDNA haplogroup I, more specifically to the I2a sublineage, which has a time to most recent common ancestor of ~15000 BCE. This pattern of uniparental marker diversity is found not only among individuals buried in megaliths, but also in other farmer groups from the fourth millennium BCE, which display similar patterns of uniparental marker diversity ... The high frequency of the hunter-gatherer-derived I2a male lineages among megalith as well as nonmegalith individuals suggests a male sex-biased admixture process between the farmer and the hunter-gatherer groups. ... The I2 YDNA lineages that are very common among European Mesolithic HGs are distinctly different from the YDNA lineages of the European Early Neolithic farmer groups, but frequent in the farmer groups of the fourth millennium BCE, suggesting a male hunter-gatherer admixture over time."
- Mathieson (2018): "We provide the first evidence for sex-biased admixture between hunter-gatherers and farmers in Europe, showing that the Middle Neolithic "resurgence" of hunter-gatherer-related ancestry in central Europe and Iberia was driven more by males than by females."
- "In summary, the 2021 excavations provide evidence that only 30% of Waun Mawn's stone circle was ever completed, leaving large gaps on the west and south sides. if Waun Mawn provided some of the bluestones for Stonehenge, these can only have been a small portion of the total."
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Supporters say the highway tunnel will relieve traffic congestion ... Opponents fear the loss of ancient artifacts still hidden underground.
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Up until the 17th century stones occasionally went missing to help build bridges or houses
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At one time, chisels would be handed to people visiting Stonehenge, so they could chip away at the ancient monument to get their own souvenirs. But the practice has been outlawed since 1900
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In the early years of the Free Festival the authorities remained tolerant. After 1978 they roped off the stones inner sanctum towards the Heel There was very little vandalism
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Repeated vandalism has led to a barrier being erected around the stones, and during the past four years a four-mile exclusion zone has been enforced from June 11 to June 24
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in 1984 Vandalism occurred
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archeologists tolerated Druid rituals at Stonehenge By 1984 vandalism: "People were climbing all over the stones and spray-painting them purple."
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it was built several millennia before the Celts with their druid priests arrived on British shores? For several hundred years, people have believed that Stonehenge is connected to the druids, so ardently that public outcry eventually drove the government, which had closed the monument to keep it from vandalism and other deterioration, reopened it
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«wanton vandalism of one of the world's most iconic heritage sites»
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The road past Stonehenge will be put in a tunnel, the Transport Secretary has decreed, enraging those who declare it vandalism
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the Government gave the go-ahead for a project that has been talked about for decades but has been rejected as archaeological vandalism or just too costly
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Tom Holland, the historian and president of the alliance, told The Daily Telegraph: "To inflict this act of vandalism on this landscape seems unbelievable
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this judgement is a huge blow and exposes the site to National Highway's state-sponsored vandalism
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- Brace, Selina; Diekmann, Yoan; Booth, Thomas J.; van Dorp, Lucy; Faltyskova, Zuzana; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan; Olalde, Iñigo; Ferry, Matthew; Michel, Megan; Oppenheimer, Jonas; Broomandkhoshbacht, Nasreen; Stewardson, Kristin; Martiniano, Rui; Walsh, Susan; Kayser, Manfred; Charlton, Sophy; Hellenthal, Garrett; Armit, Ian; Schulting, Rick; Craig, Oliver E.; Sheridan, Alison; Parker Pearson, Mike; Stringer, Chris; Reich, David; Thomas, Mark G.; Barnes, Ian (2019). "Ancient genomes indicate population replacement in Early Neolithic Britain". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 3 (5): 765–771. Bibcode:2019NatEE...3..765B. doi:10.1038/s41559-019-0871-9. ISSN 2397-334X. PMC 6520225. PMID 30988490.
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Videography
- Spencer, Christopher (dir.) "Stonehenge decoded", New York City : National Geographic, 2008
External links
- Stonehenge English Heritage official site: access and visiting information; research; future plans
- Skyscape- live webfeed
- 360° panoramic English Heritage: interactive view from the centre
- Stonehenge Landscape National Trust – information about the surrounding area.
- Stonehenge Today and Yesterday – Frank Stevens (1916), via Project Gutenberg.
- Stonehenge, a Temple Restor'd to the British Druids – William Stukeley (1740), via Project Gutenberg.
- Stonehenge, and Other British Monuments Astronomically Considered – Norman Lockyer (1906), via Project Gutenberg.
- Glaciers and the bluestones of Wales Archived 18 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine British Archaeology essay about the bluestones as glacial deposits.
- Stonehenge: The Lost Circle Revealed
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