Stonehenge for the Ancestors

For many centuries, scholars and enthusiasts have been fascinated by Stonehenge, the world¿s most famous stone circle. In 2003 a team of archaeologists commenced a long-term fieldwork project for the first time in decades. The Stonehenge Riverside Project (2003-2009) aimed to investigate the purpose of this unique prehistoric monument by considering it within its wider archaeological context.

This is the second of four volumes which present the results of that campaign. 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.

With contributions by:

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

Contents

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1. Before Stonehenge: the Mesolithic and earlier Neolithic

M. Parker Pearson, J. Pollard, C. Richards, J. Thomas, C. Tilley and K. Welham

2. Stonehenge Stage 1: the Late Neolithic

M. Parker Pearson, J. Pollard, C. Richards, J. Thomas, C. Tilley and K. Welham

3. Stonehenge Stage 2: the end of the Late Neolithic

M. Parker Pearson, J. Pollard, C. Richards, J. Thomas, C. Tilley and K. Welham

4. Stonehenge Stage 3: the Chalcolithic

M. Parker Pearson, J. Pollard, C. Richards, J. Thomas, C. Tilley and K. Welham

5. Stonehenge Stage 4: the Early Bronze Age

M. Parker Pearson, J. Pollard, C. Richards, J. Thomas, C. Tilley and K. Welham

6. Stonehenge Stage 5: the Early¿Middle Bronze Age

M. Parker Pearson, J. Pollard, C. Richards, J. Thomas, C. Tilley and K. Welham

7. Stonehenge in its context: monuments and society in Britain and western Europe

M. Parker Pearson, J. Pollard, C. Richards, J. Thomas, C. Tilley and K. Welham

8. Lithic scatters from the ploughsoil in the Stonehenge landscape

D. Mitcham

9. Investigating traditions of stone-working and inhabitation in the Stonehenge landscape: the lithic assemblages of the Stonehenge Riverside Project

B. Chan

10. The petrography of bluestones and other lithics

R. Ixer and R. Bevins

11. The micromorphology of buried soils and associated sediments in the Stonehenge environs

C.A.I. French