Stonehenge is a very old structure made of large stones located on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, about two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury. It has an outer circle of tall sarsen stones, each about 13 feet (4.0 m) high, 7 feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighing around 25 tons. These stones are connected by horizontal lintel stones using special joints called mortise and tenon, a feature not found in other similar monuments. Inside the circle are smaller bluestones arranged in groups of three stones, with two large vertical sarsen stones and one horizontal lintel. The monument, now partially ruined, is aligned with the sunrise during the summer solstice and the sunset during the winter solstice. It is surrounded by earthworks and is part of a large area with many ancient Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments, including hundreds of burial mounds.
Stonehenge was built in several stages, starting around 3100 BC and continuing until about 1600 BC. The large sarsen stones were placed between 2600 BC and 2400 BC. The earliest part of the monument, a circular earth bank and ditch, dates to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating shows the bluestones were moved to their current positions between 2400 BC and 2200 BC, though they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC.
Stonehenge is one of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom and is considered a symbol of British culture. It has been protected by law since the Ancient Monuments Protection Act of 1882. The site was added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. It is owned by the Crown Estate and managed by English Heritage, while the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.
Stonehenge may have been used as a burial place from the beginning. Human bones found in the area date back to as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first built, and remained there for at least 500 years.
Etymology
The Oxford English Dictionary refers to Ælfric's 10th-century list of words, where "henge-cliff" is described as "precipice" or "stone." This suggests that the "stanenges" or "Stanheng" near Salisbury, recorded by 11th-century writers, likely meant "stones held up in the air." In 1740, William Stukeley wrote that "pendulous rocks" in Yorkshire were called "henges," and he believed "Stonehenge" in Old Saxon meant "hanging stones." Christopher Chippindale's book Stonehenge Complete explains that the name "Stonehenge" comes from Old English words: "stān" meaning "stone," and either "hencg" meaning "hinge" (as the flat stones rest on top of the tall stones) or "hen(c)en" meaning "to hang" or "gallows." Chippindale also mentions another possible origin: "suspended stones."
The word "henge" is used to describe a type of ancient monument. Archaeologists define henges as circular earthworks with a raised bank and an inner ditch. This term comes from older scholarly descriptions.
Early history
Mike Parker Pearson, leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project near Durrington Walls, stated that Stonehenge was connected to burial practices from the time it was first built:
Stonehenge was used for burials from the beginning of its construction until its peak in the mid-third millennium B.C. The cremation burials found during the sarsen stones phase are likely one example of many from this later period, showing that Stonehenge remained a place for the dead.
Stonehenge was built in several stages over at least 1,500 years. Evidence suggests that large-scale construction and activity around the monument may have begun as long as 6,500 years ago. Understanding the different stages of its use is difficult because of natural chalk damage from cold weather, animal burrowing, poor early excavation records, and a lack of accurate scientific dates. The most widely accepted modern stages of construction are described below. Features mentioned in the text are numbered and shown on the plan.
Archaeologists discovered four or possibly five large Mesolithic postholes (one may have been a fallen tree) dating to about 8,000 B.C. beneath the old tourist car park, which was used until 2013. These postholes held pine posts about 0.75 meters in diameter, which were later rotted in place. Three of the posts (or four) were aligned east-west, which may have had ritual meaning. A similar Mesolithic site, Warren Field in Aberdeenshire, is considered the world’s oldest lunisolar calendar, corrected yearly by observing the midwinter solstice. Similar but later sites have been found in Scandinavia. A settlement possibly built at the same time as the posts was found at Blick Mead, a reliable spring about 1.6 kilometers from Stonehenge.
Salisbury Plain was still wooded, but 4,000 years later, during the earlier Neolithic period, people built a causewayed enclosure at Robin Hood’s Ball and long barrow tombs in the surrounding area. Around 3,500 B.C., a Stonehenge Cursus was built 700 meters north of the site as early farmers began clearing trees and developing the area. Other stone or wooden structures and burial mounds may date back to 4,000 B.C.; charcoal from the Blick Mead camp has been dated to that time. The University of Buckingham’s Humanities Research Institute believes the community that built Stonehenge lived there for many centuries, making it potentially “one of the most important places in the history of the Stonehenge landscape.”
The first monument was a circular bank and ditch made of Seaford chalk, measuring about 110 meters in diameter, with a large entrance to the northeast and a smaller one to the south. It was built on open grassland on a slightly sloping area. The builders placed deer and oxen bones in the ditch, along with some worked flint tools. These bones were much older than the antler picks used to dig the ditch, and the people who buried them had cared for them for some time before burial. The ditch was dug in sections, like earlier causewayed enclosures, and the chalk removed from the ditch was used to build the bank. This first stage dates to around 3,100 B.C., after which the ditch began to fill with dirt naturally. Inside the enclosed area, there is a circle of 56 pits, each about 1 meter in diameter, known as the Aubrey holes after John Aubrey, a 17th-century researcher who first identified them. These pits, along with the bank and ditch, are called the Palisade or Gate Ditch. The pits may have once held standing timbers, but no evidence of them has been found. A recent excavation suggests the Aubrey holes may have originally been used to build a bluestone circle, which would make the earliest known stone structure at the site about 500 years earlier than previously thought.
In 2013, archaeologists led by Parker Pearson uncovered more than 50,000 cremated bone fragments from 63 individuals buried at Stonehenge. These remains were originally buried individually in the Aubrey holes but were moved in 1920 by William Hawley, who thought they were unimportant, and reburied together in Aubrey Hole 7 in 1935. Analysis showed the cremated remains included roughly equal numbers of men and women, along with some children. Evidence suggests the chalk beneath the graves was crushed by heavy weights, leading researchers to believe the first bluestones from Wales were used as grave markers. Radiocarbon dating of the remains pushed the site’s date back to about 3,000 B.C. A 2018 study of the bones’ strontium content found that many of the individuals buried there likely came from near the source of the bluestones in Wales and had not lived in the Stonehenge area long before death.
Between 2017 and 2021, studies by Parker Pearson and his team suggested the bluestones used in Stonehenge were moved there after a stone circle of the same size as the first known Stonehenge circle (110 meters) at the Welsh site of Waun Mawn in the Preseli Hills was dismantled. One of the stones from that circle showed signs of being reused in Stonehenge. The stone’s unusual pentagonal shape and soil dating from filled-in sockets indicated the circle was built around 3,400–3,200 B.C. and dismantled about 300–400 years later, matching the dates for Stonehenge’s creation. The stop in human activity in that area at the same time suggested migration as a possible reason, though other stones may have come from different sources.
The second phase of construction occurred roughly between 2,900 and 2,600 B.C. Postholes from the early third millennium B.C. suggest a timber structure was built within the enclosure during this time. Additional standing timbers were placed at the northeast entrance, and a line of posts ran inward from the southern entrance. These postholes were smaller than the Aubrey holes, about 0.4 meters in diameter, and spaced irregularly. The bank was intentionally lowered in height, and the ditch continued to fill with dirt.
At least 25 of the Aubrey holes are known to have contained cremation burials from the two centuries after Stonehenge’s creation. It appears the holes’ original purpose changed to funerary
Function and construction
Stonehenge was created by a group of people who did not leave behind written records. Many details about Stonehenge, such as how it was built and what it was used for, are still not fully understood. There are many stories and myths about the stones. The site, including the large trilithons, the horseshoe-shaped arrangement of the five central trilithons, the heel stone, and the embanked avenue, are aligned with the sunset on the winter solstice and the sunrise on the summer solstice. A natural landform at the site followed this line and may have influenced the monument's design. Some people believe the monument was used as a celestial observatory, which could have helped predict events like eclipses, solstices, and equinoxes that were important to the people who built it. Excavated animal bones suggest that people may have gathered at the site during the winter rather than the summer.
There is little direct evidence about the methods used to build Stonehenge. Over time, some people have suggested that supernatural or unusual methods were used because the stones are very large. However, simple techniques using tools from the Neolithic period, such as shear legs, have been shown to work for moving large stones. The most common theory is that people used a track made of logs to roll the stones. Another theory involves using a type of sleigh on a greased track. In 1995, an experiment near Stonehenge successfully moved a 40-ton stone slab over an 18-mile (29 km) journey using a team of more than 100 workers.
Possible uses for Stonehenge include serving as an astronomical observatory or a religious site. In the 1960s, Gerald Hawkins described how the site might have been used to observe the Sun and Moon over a 56-year cycle. More recently, two theories have been proposed. Geoffrey Wainwright and Timothy Darvill suggest that Stonehenge was a place of healing, similar to modern sites like Lourdes. They believe this explains the many burials nearby and the evidence of injuries in some graves. They also say the site was likely used for ancestor worship. Isotope analysis shows that some of the buried individuals came from other regions. A teenage boy buried around 1550 BC was raised near the Mediterranean Sea, and a metalworker from 2300 BC, called the "Amesbury Archer," grew up near the Alpine foothills of Germany. Another group, the "Boscombe Bowmen," may have come from Wales or Brittany, France.
Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University suggests that Stonehenge was part of a ritual landscape connected to Durrington Walls through their shared avenues and the River Avon. He believes the area around Durrington Walls was a place for the living, while Stonehenge was a place for the dead. A journey along the River Avon to reach Stonehenge may have symbolized a transition from life to death, honoring ancestors and the recently deceased. These ideas were first suggested in the 12th century by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who also believed the stones had healing powers and that Stonehenge was a funerary monument.
Other theories exist. A team led by Mike Parker Pearson suggests that Stonehenge was built as a symbol of peace and unity, reflecting a time when Neolithic people in Britain were uniting culturally.
Stonehenge includes smaller bluestones and larger sarsens, which are silicified sandstone boulders found in southern England. The bluestones are made of materials like dolerite, tuff, rhyolite, or sandstone. Analysis shows the igneous bluestones likely came from the Preseli hills in southwestern Wales, about 140 miles (230 km) away. The Altar Stone may have come from east Wales. A 2020 study found that the sarsens originated from West Woods, about 16 miles (26 km) from Stonehenge.
Researchers from the Royal College of Art in London discovered that the bluestones have unusual acoustic properties. When struck, they make a loud, ringing sound. Similar rocks are found in the Carn Melyn ridge in Preseli, where local bluestones were used as church bells until the 18th century. These acoustic properties may explain why certain bluestones were transported so far, a significant achievement at the time. In some ancient cultures, rocks that produce sound, called lithophonic rocks, were believed to have mystical or healing powers. This supports the theory that Stonehenge was a place for healing, a view supported by Timothy Darvill, who worked with the researchers.
Stonehenge-builders and DNA studies
Between 3300 and 1500 BC, evidence shows that farming, especially growing cereal crops, was not widely practiced in the British Isles. Instead, many people focused on raising animals like pigs and cattle, and gathering hazelnuts. During this time, major parts of Stonehenge were built. However, clear signs of large-scale farming from this period are not well understood. Similar patterns of non-cereal farming and large stone structures are found at sites like Poverty Point and Sannai Maruyama.
Scientists studied DNA from ancient human remains in Britain and found that the people who built the first two major phases of Stonehenge were closely related to early farming groups from Iberia and Central Europe. These groups had about 75% ancestry from early farmers who originally lived in the Eastern Mediterranean and moved westward, and 25% ancestry from hunter-gatherers in western Europe. These farmers traveled from the Eastern Mediterranean to Iberia before moving north to Britain around 4000 BC. Most British Neolithic farmers shared this ancestry, with a small contribution from groups who traveled through the Danube into Central and Western Europe. Their farming methods likely originated in Anatolia, and their mixing with other groups happened mainly on the continent before they reached Britain.
When these farmers arrived in Britain, the island was already home to hunter-gatherer groups who had lived there since the end of the last Ice Age, about 11,700 years ago. These early farmers largely replaced the hunter-gatherer population with little mixing between the groups.
Although these early farmers had ancestry from the Aegean region, their male genetic lines were mostly from Western Hunter-Gatherers. This pattern was also seen in other large stone structure-building groups in northwest Europe, suggesting these groups were formed by hunter-gatherer men and farmer women. The dominance of Western Hunter-Gatherer male lines in Britain and northwest Europe also reflects a broader increase in hunter-gatherer ancestry, mainly from males, across western and central Europe during the Middle Neolithic.
Around 2500 BC, the Bell Beaker people arrived in Britain from mainland Europe. They lived alongside the Neolithic people for about 500 years, and the Bell Beaker group may have included the henge structures in their beliefs. The earliest people in Britain linked to the Bell Beaker culture were likely speakers of Indo-European languages, with ancestors from the Pontic–Caspian steppe. These people were similar to those from the Rhine region. Eventually, the Bell Beaker people replaced most of Britain’s Neolithic population. More than 90% of the Neolithic genetic makeup in Britain was replaced by the Bell Beaker people, who had about 50% ancestry from Western Steppe Herders.
Roman era
In 1979, Richard J. C. Atkinson used new layer analysis methods to prove that the Roman army did not try to destroy the monument as a place for druidic resistance. He found that stone pieces he had earlier thought were part of layers from the fourth or fifth century AD were actually from the original builders shaping the stones or from quarrying materials during the Middle Bronze Age. An excavation in 2008, along with a review of earlier findings, showed that the monument was an important site during the Roman era, with more activity than just simple use. Evidence included coins from the late fourth century, many Roman-era pottery items, and bones of food animals buried in pits. A square-cut trench ending with a bluestone slab and containing a Roman coin was believed to be a burial site.
Medieval period
In 1926, William Hawley discovered the skeleton of a young man, aged 28–32, without a head. The remains were found inside the stone circles near Y-Hole 9 on the central axis. A scientific test called radiocarbon dating shows the skeleton is between 600 and 690 AD. The burial was shallow, and the body had to be forced into the space, causing most of the ribs to break. The head was placed on top of the body. Archaeologist Mike Pitts believes the remains suggest a sacrificial or judicial execution, showing that Stonehenge was still important during the Middle Ages. He notes that post holes near the grave may have been part of a gallows, connecting the site to the word "henge," which is similar to "hanging." Aubrey Burl, however, argues that the name "henge" refers to the shape of the trilithons, which look like structures used for multiple hangings.
Modern history
Throughout history, Stonehenge and its nearby monuments have interested historians and archaeologists. Architect Inigo Jones believed Stonehenge was built during Roman times. In 1666, John Aubrey was one of the first people to study the site carefully. He made a map of the monument and recorded the pits now called the Aubrey holes. In the early 1700s, William Stukeley continued Aubrey’s work and also studied the surrounding monuments. He incorrectly identified the Cursus and the Avenue. He also began digging in nearby barrows. Stukeley thought the landscape was connected to the Druids. Because he was so interested in Druids, he originally named Disc Barrows Druids’ Barrows.
The most accurate early map of Stonehenge was made by architect John Wood, the Elder, in 1740. His original map, now redrawn using computers, is still used today. Wood’s map was created before the southwest trilithon fell in 1797 and was rebuilt in 1958.
In the early 1800s, William Cunnington studied the area and dug in 24 barrows. He found charred wood, animal bones, pottery, and urns. He also found the hole where the Slaughter Stone once stood. Richard Colt Hoare supported Cunnington’s work and dug in 379 barrows on Salisbury Plain, including 200 near Stonehenge. He and others left metal tokens in each barrow they opened to mark their work. Cunnington’s findings are displayed at the Wiltshire Museum. In 1877, Charles Darwin studied the stones for his book about how worms help form soil.
Stone 22 fell during a storm on December 31, 1900.
In 1901, William Gowland led the first major restoration of Stonehenge. He straightened and set in concrete sarsen stone number 56, which was nearly falling. He moved the stone about half a meter from its original place. Gowland also did a scientific dig that revealed more about how the stones were built than previous work had. In 1920, William Hawley, who had studied Old Sarum, dug near the base of six stones and the outer ditch. He found a bottle of port wine in the Slaughter Stone socket left by Cunnington. He also rediscovered Aubrey’s pits inside the bank and found the Y and Z Holes outside the Sarsen Circle.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Richard J. C. Atkinson, Stuart Piggott, and J. F. S. Stone re-examined Hawley’s work and found carved axes and daggers on the sarsen stones. Atkinson’s research helped scientists better understand the monument’s three major construction phases.
In 1958, three standing sarsens were restored and set in concrete bases. In 1963, stone 23 of the Sarsen Circle fell and was rebuilt, with three more stones set in concrete. Later, archaeologists like Christopher Chippindale and Brian Edwards worked to share information about the restorations. In 2004, English Heritage included images of the work in its book Stonehenge: A History in Photographs.
In 1966 and 1967, Faith and Lance Vatcher excavated land northwest of the stones before a new car park was built. They found postholes from the Mesolithic period (7000–8000 BC) and a 10-meter palisade ditch. Later studies suggested this ditch ran from the west to the north of Stonehenge near the Avenue.
In 1978, Atkinson and John Evans found the remains of the Stonehenge Archer in the outer ditch. In 1979, a dig near the Heel Stone revealed a new stone hole after a ditch was mistakenly dug.
In the early 1980s, Julian C. Richards led the Stonehenge Environs Project, which studied the surrounding area. The project dated features like the Lesser Cursus and Coneybury Henge.
In 1993, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee called Stonehenge’s presentation to the public “a national disgrace.” In response, English Heritage commissioned research to summarize all previous archaeological work. This led to the 1995 publication Stonehenge in its Landscape, which described the monument’s complex layers and findings.
Between 2003 and 2008, the Stonehenge Riverside Project, led by Mike Parker Pearson, studied nearby monuments like Durrington Walls. They found another Avenue leading to the River Avon and a circular area near the Stonehenge Avenue that may have held four stones.
In 2008, Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright dug inside the stone circle to find fragments of bluestone pillars. They dated some bluestones to 2300 BC and found organic material from 7000 BC, showing the site was used 4,000 years before Stonehenge was built. Also in 2008, Julian C. Richards and Mike Pitts removed cremated remains from Aubrey Hole 7 and reburied them as part of the Riverside Project. A license allowed this work, requiring remains to be reburied within two years.
In 2009, a new study found a small mound between stones 54 and 10, possibly part of the original monument. A shallow bank was also found between the Y and Z Hole circles.