9/5/2023 0 Comments Circle landscape drawing![]() Meanwhile, the introduction of turnpike roads and the railway to Salisbury brought many more visitors to Stonehenge. Some of these, such as the First World War Stonehenge airfield, have long since been demolished, but others, such as the Larkhill airfield sheds, still stand and are important in the history of early military aviation. Barracks, firing ranges, field hospitals, airfields and light railways were established. ![]() 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. Stonehenge in the 20th and 21st Centuries The earliest surviving written references to Stonehenge date from the medieval period, and from the 14th century onwards there are increasing references to Stonehenge and drawings and paintings of it. From this time on, sheep husbandry dominated the open downland around Stonehenge. A decapitated man, possibly a criminal, was buried at Stonehenge in the Saxon period. The small town of Amesbury is likely to have been established around the 6th century AD at a crossing point over the Avon. Recent excavations raised the possibility that it was a place of ritual importance to Romano-British people. Stonehenge appears to have been frequently visited in the Roman period (from AD 43), since many Roman objects have been found there. In the Iron Age, probably about 700 BC, a major hillfort later known as Vespasian’s Camp was constructed 1¼ miles east of Stonehenge overlooking the river Avon. įrom the middle Bronze Age, less communal effort went into the construction of ceremonial monuments such as Stonehenge and more on activities such as the creation of fields. Perhaps these axes were a symbol of power or status within early Bronze Age society, or were related in some way to nearby round barrow burials. They appear to be bronze axes of the Arreton Down type, dating from about 1750–1500 BC. Many barrow groups appear to have been deliberately located on hilltops visible from Stonehenge itself, such as those on King Barrow Ridge and the particularly rich burials at the Normanton Down cemetery.įour of the sarsens at Stonehenge were adorned with hundreds of carvings depicting axe-heads and a few daggers. In the early Bronze Age, one of the greatest concentrations of round barrows in Britain was built in the area around Stonehenge. From about 2400 BC, well-furnished Beaker graves such as that of the Amesbury Archer are found nearby. The stone settings at Stonehenge were built at a time of great change in prehistory, just as new styles of ‘Beaker’ pottery and the knowledge of metalworking, together with a transition to the burial of individuals with grave goods, were arriving from the Continent. They may have been intended for a rearrangement of the stones that was never completed. 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 18 BC. The earthwork Avenue was also built at this time, connecting Stonehenge with the river Avon. Probably at the same time that the stones were being set up in the centre of the monument, the sarsens close to the entrance were raised, together with the four Station Stones on the periphery.Ībout 200 or 300 years later the central bluestones were rearranged to form a circle and inner oval (which was again later altered to form a horseshoe). 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. Two types of stone are used at Stonehenge – the larger sarsens and the smaller ‘bluestones’. In about 2500 BC the stones were set up in the centre of the monument. About 64 cremations have been found, and perhaps as many as 150 individuals were originally buried at Stonehenge, making it the largest late Neolithic cemetery in the British Isles. Within and around the Aubrey Holes, and also in the ditch, people buried cremations. ![]() ![]() There has been much debate about what stood in these holes: the consensus for many years has been that they held upright timber posts, but recently the idea has re-emerged that some of them may have held stones. Within the bank and ditch were possibly some timber structures and set just inside the bank were 56 pits, known as the Aubrey Holes. This enclosed an area about 100 metres in diameter, and had two entrances. ![]() It is possible that features such as the Heel Stone and the low mound known as the North Barrow were early components of Stonehenge, but the earliest known major event was the construction of a circular ditch with an inner and outer bank, built about 3000 BC. ![]()
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