Stonehenge for the Ancestors: Part 1 - Landscape and Monuments

The Stonehenge Riverside Project (2003-2009), a collaborative enterprise directed by six academics from five UK universities, aimed to investigate the purpose of the unique prehistoric monument of Stonehenge by considering it within its wider archaeological context and contemporary landscape.

This volume is the first of four which present the results of the six-year project. It includes investigations of the monuments and landscape that pre-dated Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain as well as excavation at Stonehenge itself. The main discovery at Stonehenge was of cremated human remains from many individuals, allowing their demography, health and dating to be established. With a revised radiocarbon-dated chronology for Stonehenge’s five stages of construction, these burials can now be considered within the context of the monument’s development.

The different types of stone from which Stonehenge is formed – bluestones from Wales and sarsen silcretes from more local sources – are investigated both at Stonehenge and in its surroundings. These surrounding monuments include single standing stones, the Cuckoo Stone and the Tor Stone, as well as the newly discovered circle of Bluestonehenge at West Amesbury beside the River Avon. The ceremonial Stonehenge Avenue, linking Stonehenge to Bluestonehenge, is also included, with a series of excavations along its length.

The working hypothesis behind the Stonehenge Riverside Project is to link Stonehenge with a complex of timber monuments upstream at the great henge of Durrington Walls and neighbouring Woodhenge. Whilst these other sites are covered in a later volume (Volume 3), this first volume explores the role of the River Avon and its topographic and environmental evidence.

Stonehenge for the Ancestors: Part 1 - Landscape and Monuments by Mike Parker Pearson, Joshua Pollard, Colin Richards, Julian Thomas, Chris Tilley & Kate Welham is available from today from Sidestone Press (publication format includes a free version available to read online).  The volume includes contributions by:

Umberto Albarella, Michael Allen, Olaf Bayer, Wayne Bennett, Richard Bevins, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Chris Casswell, Andrew Chamberlain, Benjamin Chan, Rosamund Cleal, Gordon Cook, Glyn Davies, David Field, Charles French, Robert Ixer, Neil Linford, Peter Marshall, Louise Martin, Claudia Minniti, Doug Mitcham, Bob Nunn, Andy Payne, Mike Pitts, Rebecca Pullen, Julian Richards, David Robinson, Clive Ruggles, Jim Rylatt, Rob Scaife, Ellen Simmons, Charlene Steele, James Sugrue, Anne Teather, Sarah Viner, Tony Waldron, Katy Whitaker and Christie Willis.

Subsequent volumes in the series include:

• Stonehenge for the Ancestors: Part 2 - Synthesis (forthcoming, 2022)
• Durrington Walls and Woodhenge - A place for the living (forthcoming, 2023)
• After Stonehenge - Later prehistory and the historical period in the Stonehenge landscape (forthcoming, 2024)