Stonehenge—A New Understanding: Solving the Mysteries of the Greatest Stone Age Monument
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Vatcher, F. de M. and H. L. Vatcher. 1973. Excavation of three postholes in Stonehenge carpark. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 68: 57–63.
Viner, S., J. Evans, U. Albarella, and M. Parker Pearson. 2010. Cattle mobility in prehistoric Britain: strontium isotope analysis of cattle teeth from Durrington Walls (Wiltshire, Britain). Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 2812–20.
Wainwright, G. J. 1979. Mount Pleasant, Dorset: excavations 1970–1971. London: Society of Antiquaries.
Wainwright, G. J. with I. Longworth. 1971. Durrington Walls: excavations 1966–1968. London: Society of Antiquaries.
Wainwright, G. J., J. G. Evans, and I. H. Longworth. 1971. The excavation of a Late Neolithic enclosure at Marden, Wiltshire. Antiquaries Journal 51: 177–239.
Walton, P. and J. P. Wild. (eds). 1990. Textiles in Northern Archaeology: NESAT III Textile Symposium in York 6–9 May 1987. London: Archetype Publications.
West, S. E. 1990. West Stow: the prehistoric and Romano-British occupation. Bury St. Edmunds: East Anglian Archaeology 48.
Whitley, J. 2002. Too many ancestors. Antiquity 76: 119–26.
Whittle, A. W. R. 1997a. Sacred Mound, Holy Rings. Silbury Hill and the West Kennet palisade enclosures: a later Neolithic complex in north Wiltshire. Oxford: Oxbow.
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Whittle, A. W. R., R. J. C. Atkinson, R. Chambers, and N. Thomas. 1992. Excavations in the Neolithic and Bronze Age complex at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, 1947–1952 and 1981. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 58: 143–201.
Whittle, A. W. R., A. Barclay, A. Bayliss, L. McFadyen, R. Schulting, and M. Wysocki. 2007. Building for the dead: events, processes and changing worldviews from the thirty-eighth to the thirty-fourth centuries cal. BC in southern Britain. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 17 (Suppl.): 123–47.
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ILLUSTRATIONS
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Color Plates
1. Our 2008 excavation of Aubrey Hole 7 recovered the cremated bones of about sixty people buried within Stonehenge more than four thousand years ago. © Aerial-Cam
2. The 26.6 square kilometers of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, including Durrington Walls, Stonehenge, and other Neolithic sites. Clusters of Early Bronze Age barrows encircle Stonehenge. Reconstruction drawing by Peter Dunn, © English Heritage
3. Stonehenge without the tourists. © Aerial-Cam
4. Sunset through sarsen stones 1 and 30. These form the northeast entrance to Stonehenge, leading to and from the avenue. © Aerial-Cam
5. Reconstruction of Stonehenge Stage 1. © Peter Dunn
6. Reconstruction of Stonehenge Stage 3. © Peter Dunn
7. Colin Richards (center top) excavating one of the Neolithic houses at Durrington Walls. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
8. Trenches around the east entrance of Durrington Walls revealed Neolithic houses (foreground) and the avenue running from the river (visible in the far trench). © Aerial-Cam
9. The Durrington Walls Avenue had a surface of broken flint (darker area in center), flanked by chalk banks. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
10. Reconstruction of the Southern Circle at Durrington Walls. It is likely to date to the same time as Stonehenge’s sarsen circle and trilithons (Stage 2). © Peter Dunn
11. The Southern Circle as rebuilt at North Newnton, Wiltshire, in 2006 by Time Team. © Julian Thomas and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
12. Reconstruction of the Durrington Walls Avenue and surrounding houses. © Peter Dunn
13. Reconstruction of the Western Enclosure at the center of the Durrington Walls village. © Peter Dunn
14. Reconstruction of the Neolithic village of Durrington Walls before the building of the henge bank and ditch. © Peter Dunn
15. Reconstruction of the Durrington Walls henge ditch and bank. © Peter Dunn
16. The discovery of an antler pick at the bottom of the Greater Cursus ditch. This helped us to place the Cursus in the same date range as the Lesser Cursus. © Julian Thomas and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
17. The Cuckoo Stone, near Woodhenge, was erected east of the Cursus. © Aerial-Cam
18. The Food Vessel burial under excavation at Bulford. This multiple burial, close to the standing stone, contained many grave goods. © Colin Richards and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
19. At Woodhenge, Josh Pollard discovered that a stone “cove” once stood in the southern part of the site after the timber posts had decayed. © Aerial-Cam
20. Excavations at Durrington Walls (center and right) and south of Woodhenge (bottom left). © Colin Richards and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
21. The remains of a Late Neolithic timber tower overlooking the River Avon, south of Woodhenge. It was subsequently disturbed by the building of an Early Bronze Age barrow. © Aerial-Cam
22. The completion of the excavation of Aubrey Hole 7. © Aerial-Cam
23. Reconstruction of Bluestonehenge at West Amesbury, on the west bank of the River Avon. © Peter Dunn
24. Reconstruction of the Stonehenge Avenue reaching the West Amesbury henge after removal of the bluestones and construction of a henge ditch and bank. © Peter Dunn
25. The busy moments of an excavation. This is Bluestonehenge in 2009. © Aerial-Cam
26. The periglacial stripes and chalk ridges revealed in our excavation across the avenue close to Stonehenge in 2008. © Aerial-Cam
27. Colin Richards (left) and Andrew Chamberlain at the closed chamber tomb, or cromlech, of Carreg Samson in west Wales. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
28. At Craig Rhosyfelin we fou
nd the first clear evidence of bluestone quarrying. The monolith (lower right) left behind in the quarry was detached by prehistoric stoneworkers from the outcrop (behind where Ben Chan and I are standing); they then moved the monolith from the rock face along stone rails on which it still rests. © Aerial-Cam
Black & White Illustrations
Chapter 1
p. 17 Reconstruction of a Neolithic house of the fourth millennium BC. From Parker Pearson “Bronze Age Britain” figure 35. Reconstruction drawing by Peter Dunn, © English Heritage
p. 22 A pair of Neolithic stone axes from the quarries at Langdale in the Lake District.These polished axes are nearly a foot long. While some axes were used for practical purposes, others show no signs of wear, so appear to have had a ritual or symbolic value. © National Museums of Scotland
p. 24 Map of Avebury, Stonehenge, and Preseli, with other henge complexes and related Neolithic sites. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
Chapter 2
p. 28 Plan of Stonehenge, showing the ditch, bank, Station Stones, and avenue. © English Heritage
p. 29 Plan of Stonehenge, showing the numbering of the bluestones and sarsens. © English Heritage
p. 30 Plan of Stonehenge Stage 1 (3000–2920 BC), showing the Aubrey Holes and postholes inside the ditch and bank. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 31 Plan of Stonehenge Stage 2 (2680–2470 BC), showing the sarsen circle and the Q & R Holes. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 32 Plan of Stonehenge Stage 3 (2620–2480 BC), showing the avenue and the rearranged bluestones. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 33 Plan of Stonehenge Stage 4 (2280–1980 BC), showing the bluestone oval and circle. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 34 Plan of Stonehenge Stage 5 (2280–2020 BC), showing the Y & Z Holes. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 36 Professor William Gowland (kneeling center) supervising excavations at Stonehenge in 1901. © English Heritage
p. 37 Colonel William Hawley (seated right) with his team of workmen at Stonehenge in 1919. © English Heritage
p. 41 Professor Richard Atkinson (kneeling center) supervising the re-erection of Stone 53 at Stonehenge in 1964; Professor Stuart Piggott is standing fourth from the left. Reproduced by permission of English Heritage
p. 44 Schematic plan of astronomical alignments at Stonehenge—Stage 1 (3000–2920 BC). The post settings in the northeast entrance were aligned approximately on the northern major moonrise; Stone 97 provided a sightline from the center of the circle to the midsummer solstice sunrise. Together with Stones B and C, it provided an approximate alignment approximately on the northern major moonrise. Some of the post settings in the center of the circular enclosure were aligned approximately on the southern major moonrise to the southeast. The area shaded gray shows the range of moonrise (east) and moonset (west) at major standstill. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project. After Richards (2007)
p. 47 Plan of astronomical alignments at Stonehenge—Stage 2 (2620–2480 BC). The axis of midwinter sunset/midsummer sunrise was marked by the great trilithon within the sarsen circle. The Station Stones also provided an alignment on this solstice axis as well as a further approximate alignment with the southern major moonrise and northern major moonset. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project. After Ruggles (1997) and Richards (2007)
Chapter 3
p. 53 The interior of House 7 in the stone-built Neolithic village at Skara Brae, showing the stone dresser and central hearth. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 54 Peterborough Ware was a style of Middle Neolithic pottery used throughout most of Britain in 3400–2600 BC. © Julian Thomas and Routledge
p. 55 Grooved Ware was a style of Late Neolithic pottery used throughout Britain in 2800–2200 BC, probably originating in Orkney around 3200 BC. It is the style of pottery used at the Neolithic village of Durrington Walls. © Julian Thomas and Routledge
p. 57 A plan of Durrington Walls showing the bank of the River Avon (right), the avenue leading through the ditch and bank from the Southern Circle, the Western Enclosures (center left) and the positions of some of our trenches. Woodhenge is the much smaller monument at the bottom. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 60 The Avebury stone circles and henge (center rear) were part of a complex ceremonial landscape that included Silbury Hill (left) and the West Kennet palisaded enclosures (foreground). From Whittle “Sacred Mound, Holy Rings: Silbury Hill and the West Kennet Palisade Enclosures: A later Neoplithic Complex in North Wiltshire” figure 87. © Oxbow Books
p. 63 A pit excavated in 2004 at Durrington Walls. It contained animal bones that are the remains of feasting, as well as flint tools, pottery, and a human femur. The black and white photographic rods are used to indicate scale. © Julian Thomas and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 64 The fragment of human femur from the pit shown in the previous figure. Note the impact scar in the center of the bone (below the three centimeter mark in the scale) caused by a flint arrowhead. © Aerial-Cam
p. 65 A chisel arrowhead from Bluestonehenge. This type of arrowhead was in use in the Middle Neolithic (3400–2600 BC). © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 67 An oblique arrowhead from the ditch of the Stonehenge Avenue. This type of arrowhead was in use in the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic (2600–2200 BC). © Aerial-Cam
p. 68 The flint phallus (and two flint balls) from a pit beneath the avenue at Durrington Walls. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
Chapter 4
p. 73 The floor of House 547 at Durrington Walls. The white rectangular area is the chalk-plaster floor in the center of the house. Within it, the dark circular area is the hearth. A line of stakeholes, showing where the wattle-and-daub wall once stood, surrounds the house. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 75 The remains of four Late Neolithic houses are visible in this main trench at Durrington Walls. I am standing outside the doorway of one of the houses in an area of midden (heaps of domestic garbage). © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 78 A plan of the excavation trenches at Durrington Walls, showing some of the house floors and their hearths. The inset (top left) shows the position of the trenches in relation to the henge bank, the river, and the modern roads. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project, drawn by Mark Dover
p. 79 Computer-generated plots showing the relative density in the northern part of the main trench of animal bones (left), worked flints (center), and burned flints (right). The outline plans of the houses are visible, as is the curving line of postholes forming a fence that separated two of the houses. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project, drawn by Ben Chan
p. 80 Full plan of the Southern Circle, combining the 1967 and 2005–2006 excavation and geophysics results. The cone shapes are the postholes and their ramps. Julian Thomas’s excavation trench is marked to the west. The rest of the circle is now buried beneath the modern road. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project, drawn by Lawrence Shaw
p. 81 A plan of the Late Neolithic timber circle of Woodhenge. Today the postholes are marked with small concrete pillars, and the bank and ditch are barely visible. The contents of the grave were destroyed during the Blitz, but the burial is thought to date to the Early Bronze Age. Reconstruction drawing by Peter Dunn © English Heritage
p. 82 A reconstruction of the timber posts at Woodhenge. Reconstruction drawing by Peter Dunn
p. 84 Model of Phase 1 of the Southern Circle as a square-shaped arrangement of posts surrounded by two concentric timber circles, with the D-shaped house to the northeast. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
&n
bsp; p. 85 Model of Phase 1/2 of the Southern Circle. In this phase the builders added a timber portal facing the midwinter sunrise. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 87 Model of Phase 2a of the Southern Circle. In this phase, a horseshoe-shaped arrangement of timber posts was erected inside three concentric circles. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 88 Model of Phase 2b of the Southern Circle. In this last phase, a ring of posts was added at the center of the circle and a final ring was added around the outside. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 90 A computer-generated image of the Southern Circle in its final phase. The image has been created as an overlay on the excavation plan of the postholes and other features. The lintels are hypothetical. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project, created by Lawrence Shaw
Chapter 5
p. 95 Excavating one of the postholes at Woodhenge. After the posts had decayed, a cove of sarsen standing stones was erected in the southern part of the monument.© Josh Pollard and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 98 A laser scan of the floor of House 851, showing the beam-slot indentations where wooden furniture once stood around the edge of the plaster floor. To the left of the circular hearth a pair of indentations, made by someone’s knees, are also visible. © Kate Welham and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
p. 101 A plan of the Neolithic village of Skara Brae in Orkney. The Durrington Walls houses are very similar in plan and internal organization, but were built in wood rather than stone. A photograph of House 7 is shown in Chapter 4. © English Heritage and Batsford
p. 104 An elevated view of Julian Thomas’s trench showing the central square house and the postholes of its circular palisade fence within the largest of the Western Enclosures. © Julian Thomas and the Stonehenge Riverside Project
Chapter 6
p. 112 A group of antler picks deposited by Neolithic builders before they built the henge bank of Durrington Walls. © Mike Parker Pearson and the Stonehenge Riverside Project