The age of Stonehenge

Bibliographic Data

ID3379153
AuthorsMike Parker Pearson (0000-0002-7341-121X, University of Sheffield), Ros Cleal, Peter Marshall (0000-0001-7094-7732), Stuart Needham (British Museum), J Pollard (0000-0002-8429-2009, University of Bristol), Caspian Richards (0000-0002-3151-4915, University of Manchester), Colin Richards, Clive Ruggles (University of Leicester), Alison Sheridan (0009-0001-1736-3647, National Museums Scotland), Julian Thomas (0000-0002-2907-4586), Chris Tilley (University College London), Kate Welham (0000-0002-2057-7101, Bournemouth University), A Chamberlain (0000-0003-1517-6538, University of Sheffield), Carolyn Chenery (0000-0001-9592-051X, British Geological Survey), Jane Evans (0000-0003-3667-494X, British Geological Survey), Chris Knüsel (University of Bradford), Neil Linford (English Heritage), Louise Martins (0000-0002-2083-813X, English Heritage), Louise Martin, J Montgomery (0000-0001-6729-3088, University of Bradford), Andy Payne (English Heritage), Michael Richards (0000-0001-5274-8887, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics), Mike Richards (0009-0004-7699-4977, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics)
Year2007
Volume81
Issue313
Pages617-639
Publication date2007-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAntiquity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-598X • E-ISSN: 1745-1744
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0003598x00095624
OpenAlexW2129432715
LanguageEN
Citations received43
References cited17

Stonehenge is the icon of British prehistory, and continues to inspire ingenious investigations and interpretations. A current campaign of research, being waged by probably the strongest archaeological team ever assembled, is focused not just on the monument, but on its landscape, its hinterland and the monuments within it. The campaign is still in progress, but the story so far is well worth reporting. Revisiting records of 100 years ago the authors demonstrate that the ambiguous dating of the trilithons, the grand centrepiece of Stonehenge, was based on samples taken from the wrong context, and can now be settled at 2600-2400 cal BC. This means that the trilithons are contemporary with Durrington Walls, near neighbour and Britain's largest henge monument. These two monuments, different but complementary, now predate the earliest Beaker burials in Britain - including the famous Amesbury Archer and Boscombe Bowmen, but may already have been receiving Beaker pottery. All this contributes to a new vision of massive monumental development in a period of high European intellectual mobility

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Beaker · Context (archaeology · Icon · Megalith · Period (music · Pottery · Prehistory · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · Historical Architecture and Urbanism · History