r-park by the Vatchers, which appear to date to the eighth
millennium BC (Cleal, Walker and Montague 1995, 43). Three of the four
posts line up with a nearby tree-hole, and give the impression that some
form of very early (and unique) monumental structure may have existed
in the immediate vicinity of Stonehenge.
In the earlier part of the Neolithic (from 4000 BC onwards), the Stonehenge
area saw the emergence of one of the principal concentrations of ceremonial
monuments in southern England. These include the causewayed enclosure
at Robin Hood's Ball, and a group of earthen long barrows, which are especially
densely concentrated on Wilsford and Normanton Downs (Figure 1). These
long mounds contained a variety of mortuary deposits, including bodies
in various states of articulation and disaggregation. The location and
orientation of some of the long mounds suggests an close connection with
the two large linear enclosures of the Greater and Lesser Cursus, which
may consequentially be relatively early in date (the single radiocarbon
date from the Great Cursus suggests otherwise). The surface collection
work of the Stonehenge Environs Project was able to identify a number
of scatters of chipped stone tools and waste which complement the distribution
of these monuments, on the King Barrow Ridge and Coneybury Hill, near
Winterbourne Stoke Crossroads and the Diamond, north of the Cursus, and
perhaps also on Stonehenge Down (Richards 1990: 265-6). Furthermore, there
have been sporadic finds of Early Neolithic pottery, and a number of pits,
principally concentrated in a swathe of country on the west of the River
Avon, southward from the King Barrow Ridge. These include the spectacular
deposit at the Coneybury 'Anomaly', a large pit containing numerous animal
bones and pottery sherds, seemingly lining the pit interior (Richards
The earliest phase of activity at Stonehenge itself dates
to late in the Earlier Neolithic, at around 3000 BC, consisting of a circular
interupted ditch with internal bank, and a concentric circle of timber
uprights set in the Aubrey Holes (Cleal, Walker and Montague 1995: 64).
Artefactual associations included clusters of flint knapping debris, chalk
balls, and deliberately placed cattle skulls on the ditch bottom, which
may have been curated for a considerable while before deposition. Shortly
after these acts of deposition, the ditch began to be deliberately backfilled,
not as a single event but in a series of small-scale episodes.
The later part of the Neolithic saw the development of a new complex of
ceremonial monuments in the Stonehenge area. Stonehege itself was transformed
and reconfigured on a number of occasions. A complex series of timber
structures was constructed in the middle of the enclosure, and a great
number of cremated human bodies were buried in the ditch, bank, and the
Aubrey Holes, from which the timbers had now been removed. Finally, the
bluestones were set up in the Q and R holes, and by around 2500 BC the
sarsen circle and probably the sarsen trilithons had been constructed
(Cleal, Walker and Montague 1995: 206-7). In the surrounding landscape,
the two cursus monuments were deliberately destroyed, and a massive linear
palisade was constructed north of Stonehenge, blocking off the view toward
Robin Hood's Ball.
Later, the henge monuments of Coneybury, Durrington Walls
and Woodhenge were constructed: earthen ceremonial enclosures which contained
settings of timber uprights. Although Stonehenge is often classified with
these monuments, it was clearly used in an entirely different way. Stonehenge
has produced rather little material culture of later Neolithic date, in
contrast with the massive quantities of pottery and animal bones which
seem to document events of conspicuous consumption at Durrington Walls
(Wainwright and Longworth 1971).
By the later Neolithic, scatters of flint which may document
occupation patterns were a little denser in the Stonehenge region, and
there are indications that those concentrations to the west of the monument
contain a greater 'industrial' element (Rich