Stonehenge Riverside Project

Stonehenge Riverside Project
Name	Stonehenge Riverside Project
Location	Stonehenge, Durrington Walls, Amesbury, Wiltshire
Dates	2003–2009
Directors	Mike Parker Pearson, Julian Thomas, Joshua Pollard, Colin Richards, Chris Tilley
Affiliation	University of Sheffield, University of Manchester, University of Bristol, University College London, Bournemouth University

Stonehenge Riverside Project. It was a major international archaeological research program that fundamentally reshaped understanding of the Stonehenge landscape and its Neolithic inhabitants. Directed by a consortium of leading British universities, the project aimed to investigate the monument not in isolation but as part of a wider ceremonial complex. Its groundbreaking work established a profound connection between the realms of the living and the dead, centered on the River Avon.

Background and objectives

The project was conceived to challenge the prevailing focus on Stonehenge itself by examining its relationship with the surrounding ceremonial landscape. Key objectives included investigating the link between the stone circle and the nearby massive henge enclosure at Durrington Walls, as well as exploring the settlement evidence in the area. The directors, including Mike Parker Pearson, were influenced by ethnographic parallels and sought to test the hypothesis that Stonehenge was part of a broader ritual domain connected by the River Avon. This approach required extensive, multidisciplinary fieldwork across several key sites within the World Heritage Site.

Excavations and fieldwork

Extensive excavations were conducted at multiple sites between 2003 and 2009, with major campaigns at Durrington Walls and its associated Southern Circle and Avenue. The team also excavated at the Cursus barrows, the Stonehenge Avenue, and Aubrey Hole number 7 within Stonehenge itself. Fieldwork employed a range of techniques including open-area excavation, geophysical survey, and environmental sampling. Work at Durrington Walls revealed the remains of a vast Neolithic settlement, including house floors, middens, and material culture, providing unprecedented insight into domestic life contemporaneous with the monument's construction.

Key findings and interpretations

The project's most transformative interpretation was that Stonehenge functioned as a domain of the dead, linked via the Stonehenge Avenue and the River Avon to Durrington Walls as a domain of the living. Excavations at Durrington Walls uncovered the largest Neolithic settlement in northern Europe, with evidence of large-scale feasting. The discovery of the Southern Circle timber monument and its avenue leading to the river provided a direct ceremonial counterpart to the stone settings at Stonehenge. This reinforced the idea of a ritual journey between monuments dedicated to life and ancestors, a concept supported by material evidence like Grooved Ware pottery and animal bones.

Chronology and dating

Radiocarbon dating from the project refined the timeline of the Stonehenge landscape. Settlement activity at Durrington Walls was dated to the late Neolithic, around 2500 BC, precisely contemporaneous with the erection of the sarsen stones at Stonehenge. The timber structures at the Southern Circle were built and used within a short period, suggesting intense, focused activity. Dates from the Cursus and other monuments helped clarify the sequence of development, showing the landscape was used for ceremonial purposes for over a millennium, from the early fourth millennium BC into the Bronze Age.

Relationship to Stonehenge landscape

The project demonstrated that Stonehenge was one component in an integrated complex of monuments. The Stonehenge Avenue was shown to connect the stone circle to the River Avon, which in turn linked to the avenue approaching Durrington Walls. This created a ceremonial circuit. The Cursus, a long Neolithic enclosure, was also re-interpreted as a possible processional route or death track related to solar alignments. The research positioned Stonehenge within a dynamic ritual topography that included timber circles, henges, burial mounds like the Bush Barrow, and avenues, all orchestrated around the flow of the River Avon.

Project team and methodology

The project was co-directed by archaeologists Mike Parker Pearson of the University of Sheffield, Julian Thomas of the University of Manchester, and Joshua Pollard of the University of Bristol, with contributions from Colin Richards and Chris Tilley. It involved specialists from the University College London and Bournemouth University, among others. Methodology was highly interdisciplinary, integrating excavation with geophysics, osteoarchaeology, isotope analysis, and archaeoastronomy. This collaborative approach allowed for a holistic reconstruction of Neolithic society, from diet and mobility to cosmology and monument construction.

Category:Archaeological projects in England Category:Stonehenge Category:Neolithic Britain