Stonehenge Riverside Project

The Stonehenge Riverside Project was a big research study paid for by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. It looked at how the land around Stonehenge landscape changed during the time of Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain. The project studied how Stonehenge connected with other important places nearby, like the River Avon, Durrington Walls, the Cursus, the Avenue, Woodhenge, and many burial mounds and standing stones.

The work lasted from 2003 to 2009 and included a lot of digging and exploring. One of the most exciting discoveries was that Stonehenge was built 500 years earlier than people thought before. Scientists believe Stonehenge may have been a place to bring together different groups of people in Britain. The project also found a hidden circle of stones called Bluestonehenge, which had never been seen before.

Background

The Stonehenge Riverside Project was led by researchers from several universities, including Sheffield University, Manchester University, Bournemouth University, University of Southampton, and University College London. The project aimed to understand how Stonehenge and nearby sites like Woodhenge and Durrington Walls were used. They wanted to learn if Stonehenge was a place connected to remembering people who had passed away, while Woodhenge and Durrington Walls might have been for celebrating life.

Previous excavations

People have dug in the area around Stonehenge many times. One important dig happened between 1926 and 1929, led by Maud Cunnington, who found old items near Woodhenge. In 1967, when a road was built nearby, workers found two circles made of wood and many old animal bones, pots, and tools.

Fieldwork

The Stonehenge Riverside Project involved many years of careful digging and studying the land around Stonehenge. In 2003, researchers used special tools to look at the ground near a big circle of earth called Durrington Walls and found two new ways to enter it.

Each year from 2004 to 2009, more digging happened in different places. Workers dug small holes near the River Avon and around Stonehenge, finding old pieces that showed people lived there thousands of years ago. They also dug near fallen large stones, and even made a copy of an old wooden circle for a TV show. Many students and volunteers helped, and artists came to draw and learn about the work.

In 2008 and 2009, they found the remains of another circle of stones near the river, about a mile from Stonehenge, which they called "Bluehenge."

Stonehenge as a cemetery

Stonehenge is Britain's largest cemetery from the third millennium BC, holding the remains of many people. Scientists studied the bones and found that around 150 to 240 individuals may have been buried there. This research helped us learn that people started using Stonehenge as a place for burials a very long time ago, in the early third millennium BC.

Conclusion

The research showed that Stonehenge was built to bring together people from all over Stone Age Britain. The findings were shared in a book called Stonehenge, Exploring the Greatest Stone Age Mystery by Mike Parker Pearson.