Stonehenge for the Ancestors: Part 2 - Synthesis

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 second of four which present the results of the six-year project. It includes studies of the lithics from excavations, both from topsoil sampling and from excavated features, as well as of the petrography of the famous bluestones, as identified from chippings recovered during excavations. Other specialist syntheses include soil micromorphology. The volume provides an overview of Stonehenge in its landscape over millennia from before the monument was built to the last of its five constructional stages. It includes a chapter placing Stonehenge in its full context within Britain and western Europe during the third millennium BC.

Stonehenge for the Ancestors: Part 2 - Synthesis by Mike Parker Pearson, Joshua Pollard, Colin Richards, Julian Thomas, Chris Tilley & Kate Welham is available from Sidestone Press (publication format includes a free version available to read online).  The volume includes contributions by:

Richard Bevins, Ben Chan, Rob Ixer, Charles French and Douglas Mitcham

Subsequent volumes in the series include:

• 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)

Previous volumes in the series include:

• Stonehenge for the Ancestors: Part 1 - Landscape and Monuments (2020)