Stonehenge

Definition

Stonehenge is a Neolithic / Bronze Age monument located on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, southern England. The first monument on the site, began around 3100 BCE, was a circular 'henge' earthwork about 360 feet (110 metres) in diameter, a 'henge' in the archaeological sense being a circular or oval-shaped flat area enclosed by a boundary earthwork.

More about: Stonehenge

Timeline

  • c. 8500 BCE - 7650 BCE
    Three large post holes and a tree hole close to Stonehenge show evidence of probable ritual activity on the site long before the appearance of the monument.
  • c. 3700 BCE
    Construction of the causwayed enclosure (a type of large prehistoric earthwork) known as Robin Hood's Ball, 2.8 miles north-west of Stonehenge.
  • c. 3100 BCE
    Stonehenge Phase I - earthen henge dug on the site.
  • c. 3000 BCE
    Stonehenge Phase II - Digging of the Aubrey Holes, which probably contained wooden posts (or perhaps bluestones). Stonehenge functions as a cremation cemetery.
  • c. 2550 BCE
    Phase III at Stonehenge, the refashioning of the simple earth and timber henge into a unique stone monument.
  • c. 2030 BCE - c. 1520 BCE
    The last phase of construction at Stonehenge, the digging of the Y and Z holes outside the outermost sarsen circle.
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