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: StonehengeServer Costs Fundraiser 2024
Help our mission to provide free history education to the world! Please donate and contribute to covering our server costs in 2024. With your support, millions of people learn about history entirely for free every month.
$3926 / $18000
Definition
Timeline
-
c. 8500 BCE - 7650 BCEThree 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 BCEConstruction 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 BCEStonehenge Phase I - earthen henge dug on the site.
-
c. 3000 BCEStonehenge Phase II - Digging of the Aubrey Holes, which probably contained wooden posts (or perhaps bluestones). Stonehenge functions as a cremation cemetery.
-
c. 2550 BCEPhase III at Stonehenge, the refashioning of the simple earth and timber henge into a unique stone monument.
-
c. 2030 BCE - c. 1520 BCEThe last phase of construction at Stonehenge, the digging of the Y and Z holes outside the outermost sarsen circle.
