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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.
- Archaeology
- Wildlife
- Construction
- Activities
- Early history
- Military
- Trivia
- Ownership
- Preservation
The earliest structures known in the immediate area are four or five pits, three of which appear to have held large pine totem-pole like posts erected in the Mesolithic period, between 8500 and 7000 BC.[1] It is not known how these posts relate to the later monument of Stonehenge. Within the bank and ditch were possibly some timber structures and s...
At this time, when much of the rest of southern England was largely covered by woodland, the chalk downland in the area of Stonehenge may have been an unusually open landscape.[2] It is possible that this is why it became the site of an early Neolithic monument complex.
In about 2500 BC the stones were set up in the centre of the monument. Two types of stone are used at Stonehenge the larger sarsens and the smaller bluestones. The sarsens were erected in two concentric arrangements an inner horseshoe and an outer circle and the bluestones were set up between them in a double arc.[7]
One of the last prehistoric activities at Stonehenge was the digging around the stone settings of two rings of concentric pits, the so-called Y and Z holes, radiocarbon dated by antlers within them to between 1800 and 1500 BC. They may have been intended for a rearrangement of the stones that was never completed.[8]
The small town of Amesbury is likely to have been established around the 6th century AD at a crossing point over the Avon. A decapitated man, possibly a criminal, was buried at Stonehenge in the Saxon period.[15] From this time on, sheep husbandry dominated the open downland around Stonehenge.[16] The earliest surviving written references to Stoneh...
Since 1897, when the Ministry of Defence bought a vast tract of land on Salisbury Plain for army training exercises, the activities of the military have had an impact on the area. Barracks, firing ranges, field hospitals, airfields and light railways were established.[17] Some of these, such as the First World War Stonehenge airfield, have long sin...
This was the start of a sequence of campaigns to conserve and restore Stonehenge the last stones were consolidated in 1964.[19]
The monument remained in private ownership until 1918 when Cecil Chubb, a local man who had purchased Stonehenge from the Atrobus family at an auction three years previously, gave it to the nation.[20] Thereafter, the duty to conserve the monument fell to the state, today a role performed on its behalf by English Heritage.
From 1927, the National Trust began to acquire the land around Stonehenge to preserve it and restore it to grassland. Large areas of the Stonehenge landscape are now in their ownership. More recent improvements to the landscape including the removal of the old visitor facilities and the closure of the section of the old A344 that ran close to the ...
Feb 14, 2022 · Stonehenge is one of the world’s most famous monuments. Located in Wiltshire and managed by English Heritage, the prehistoric site attracts more than one million tourists each year. But when was Stonehenge actually constructed? What was it used for? And why did Charles Darwin pay a visit in the 1880s?
- Rachel Dinning
- 5 min
Work began on Stonehenge about 5,000 years ago, but it was built in stages over many years. The stone circle dates from about 2500 BC, in the late Neolithic period. We don’t know exactly how the stones were brought to Stonehenge, but some of them – the bluestones – came from the Preseli Hills in south-west Wales, over 150 miles (250km) away.
Dec 7, 2021 · It's a story that transcends where the monument stands in Wiltshire in the south of England, and reaches far into continental Europe. Let's take a closer look ahead of our next major exhibition – The world of Stonehenge. Stonehenge was constructed about 4,500 years ago at around the same time as the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.
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Significance of Stonehenge. Stonehenge is the world’s best-known ancient stone circle, lying at the heart of one of the richest archaeological landscapes in Europe. Built around the same time as the Great Pyramid in Egypt, 4,500 years ago, the finished monument of massive and finely dressed sarsen stone was unlike anything ever seen across ...
Discover the rise, influence and decline of Stonehenge across 6,000 years of history. Lying some 150km west of London in the Wiltshire countryside, Stonehenge is perhaps the world's most awe-inspiring ancient stone circle. Older than the Great Pyramids and the Roman Empire, the origin of its story began some 9,000 years ago.
