Third stage: 2470–2280 bce
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Radiocarbon dating indicates that the side ditches and banks of a ceremonial avenue almost 2 miles (3 km) long were dug from Stonehenge to the River Avon at some time in the period between 2470 and 2280 bce. It is possible that the avenue traces the path of the bluestones that were moved from the Aubrey Holes and Bluestonehenge to the Q and R holes during Stonehenge’s second stage of construction. The avenue varies in width from about 60 to 115 feet (18 to 35 metres) and terminates at a small henge at the riverside. This henge, measuring 100 feet (30 metres) in diameter, was built after the bluestones at its centre were removed. About the first 1,600 feet (500 metres) of the avenue from Stonehenge are aligned toward the summer solstice sunrise and the winter solstice sunset. Excavations in 2008 revealed that this stretch of the avenue’s banks was built upon preexisting natural chalk ridges coincidentally sharing this same solstitial alignment. At Durrington Walls a similar avenue about 560 feet (170 metres) long and 100 feet (30 metres) wide had been built about 2500 bce between the Southern Circle and the River Avon and remained in use for several centuries. The Durrington avenue was aligned toward the summer solstice sunset, while the Southern Circle faced the winter solstice sunrise. This solstitial alignment raises the possibility that Stonehenge and Durrington were built as complementary halves of a single complex, articulated by the River Avon.
Fourth, fifth, and sixth stages: 2280–1520 bce
The fourth stage of Stonehenge’s construction occurred between 2280 and 2030 bce. About 2200 bce the bluestones were rearranged to form a circle and an inner oval. Atkinson thought that this inner oval was subsequently modified in prehistory to form a horseshoe, but this transformation may have been the result of Roman removal of the stones or of later stone-robbing. At some point during Stonehenge’s fifth stage, between 2030 and 1750 bce, a ring of pits known as the Z Holes was dug outside the sarsen circle. A second ring of pits, called the Y Holes, was dug during the monument’s sixth and final stage of construction, between 1640 and 1520 bce. As with all radiocarbon dating, the precise dates of such events can only be estimated within many decades, if not centuries.
Stonehenge in the 21st century
Stonehenge is the world’s most famous stone circle, visited by more than a million people per year. It stands as an icon for all that is mysterious and awe-inspiring about humanity’s prehistoric past. For well over a century, people have gathered at the monument to celebrate the summer solstice. Although banned in 1985 as a result of violent clashes with police, the annual gathering resumed in 2000 and now draws a crowd of more than 30,000. Modern-day Druidic societies have claimed Stonehenge as their own temple, even though the identification of Stonehenge with the original Druids is suspect. The first such society, the Ancient Order of Druids, was formed in 1781; more recently, the number of similar Druidic and other Neo-Pagan groups has risen in tandem with the decline in conventional religious belief.
The British government proposed the construction of a new visitor centre on several occasions throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, but the project was repeatedly delayed by budget cuts and other disagreements. In 2013, however, a new visitor centre opened about 1.5 miles (2 km) from the stones, at the edge of the World Heritage site. Designed by Australian firm Denton Corker Marshall, the building features an undulating roof, supported by thin angled steel columns, that shelters a glass cube where the cafe and shop are located and a chestnut-timbered box that houses the museum.
Two more circles of pits—one at Airman’s Corner and the other just to the northwest of Stonehenge proper—were discovered by geophysical survey in 2009 and 2010. The dates of these circles are unknown, and it remains to be determined whether the pits held posts or stones or were merely circles of holes.
In December 2015, archaeologists announced that they had discovered two quarries in the Preseli Mountains from which the bluestones had been extracted about 140 miles (225 km) from Stonehenge. Recesses in rock at both sites matched the dimensions of the bluestones, and several stones that were similar to the bluestones in size and shape remained at the sites. Discovering the quarries allowed archaeologists to establish (by performing radiocarbon dating of hazelnut shells and charcoal left by the workers at the quarries) that the stones had been quarried approximately 500 years before Stonehenge was erected. The archaeologists speculated that the bluestones may have been part of an earlier monument that was dismantled and its stones reused to build Stonehenge.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica