Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-13T21:53:09.469Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the Road to Stonehenge: Report on Investigations beside the A344 in 1968, 1979 and 1980

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Michael W. Pitts ,
Hilary Howard ,
Alister Bartlett  and
Andrew David
Michael W. Pitts
Affiliation:
Department of the Environment, Alexander Keiller Museum, Avebury, Marlborough, Wilts., SN8 1RF, England
Hilary Howard
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Southampton, S09 5NH, England
Andrew David
Affiliation:
Department of the Environment, Ancient Monuments Laboratory, 23 Savile Row, London, WIX 2HE, England
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Salvage excavations on the verges of the A344 at Stonehenge resulted in the recovery of large, well stratified groups of prehistoric artefacts. In 1968, a complete section across the Avenue earthwork was recorded, and material obtained for a radiocarbon determination. In 1979 and 1980, the two ditches of the Avenue were again sectioned. Detailed recording of find provenances from both these and the Heelstone ditches permitted a fuller understanding of the erosion and filling processes. In 1979, part of a pit that had held a previously unknown standing stone was excavated. A geophysical survey of the Avenue suggests that further pits may be present along its course. A unique deposit of prehistoric stoneworking debitage was sectioned in 1980. It is suggested that this debitage, representing the opportunistic use of megalith shaping debris, accumulated within a structure inhabited at the time the major stone monument was being erected. The discovery of these rock fragments has prompted an important new study of the petrology at Stonehenge, and a discussion of stoneworking around the site is included. The paper concludes with an appraisal of the chronology of Stonehenge and an introduction to the comprehensive excavation archive.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , 1982 , pp. 75 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ashbee, P., 1978. ‘Amesbury barrow 51: excavations in 1960’, Wilts. Arch. Nat. Hist. Mag. 70–71, 1–60.Google Scholar
Ashbee, P., 1981. ‘Amesbury barrow 39: excavations 1960‘, Wilts. Arch. Mag. 74–75, 3–34.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R. J. C., 1957. ‘Worms and weathering’, Antiquity 31, 219–33.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R. J. C., 1967. ‘Further radiocarbon dates for Stonehenge’, Antiquity 41, 63–66.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R.J.C., 1979. Stonehenge. Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R.J.C., 1980. The prehistoric temples of Stonehenge and Avebury. London.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R. J. C., Piggott, C. M. and Sandars, N. K., 1951. Excavations at Dorchester, Oxon. Oxford.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R.J.C., Piggott, S. and Stone, J. F. S., 1952. ‘The excavation of two additional holes at Stonehenge, and new evidence for the date of the monument’, Ant. J. 32, 14–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, R. J. C., Vatcher, F. de M. and Vatcher, H. L., 1976. ‘Radiocarbon dates for the Stonehenge Avenue’, Antiquity 50, 239–40.Google Scholar
Beavon, R. V., Fitch, F. J. and Rast, N., 1961. ‘Nomenclature and diagnostic characters of ignimbrites with reference to Snowdonia’, Liverpool Manchester Geol. J. 2, 600–10.Google Scholar
Boksenbaum, M. W., 1980. ‘Basic Mesoamerican stone-working: nodule smashing?’, Lithic Technology 9, 12–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boswell, P. H. G., 1933. Mineralogy of sedimentary rocks. London.Google Scholar
Bowen, H. C. and Smith, I. F., 1977. ‘Sarsen stones in Wessex: the Society's first investigation in the evolution of the landscape project’, Ant. J. 57, 185–96.Google Scholar
Bradley, R., 1970. ‘The excavation of a Beaker settlement at Belle Tout, East Sussex, England’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 36, 312–79.Google Scholar
Bradley, R., 1976. ‘Maumbury Rings, Dorchester: the excavations of 1908–1913’, Archaeologia 105, 1–97.Google Scholar
Brentnall, H. C., 1946. ‘Sarsens’, Wilts. Arch. Nat. Hist. Mag. 51, 419–39.Google Scholar
Brewer, J. S. (ed.), 1845. Fuller's Church History of Britain, Vol. 1. Oxford.Google Scholar
Burleigh, R. and Hewson, A., 1979. ‘British Museum natural radiocarbon measurements, XI’, Radiocarbon 21, 339–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burleigh, R., Matthews, K. and Ambers, J., 1982. ‘British Museum natural radiocarbon measurements, XIV’, Radiocarbon 24.Google Scholar
Carver, R., 1971. Procedures in sedimentary petrology. New York.Google Scholar
Clark, J. G. D., 1936. ‘The timber monument at Arminghall and its affinities’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 2, 1–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, M. J., Lewin, J. and Small, R. J., 1967. ‘The sarsen stones of the Marlborough Downs and their geomorphological implications’, Southampton Res. Ser. Geog. 4, 3–40.Google Scholar
Clark, R. M., 1975. ‘A calibration curve for radiocarbon dates’, Antiquity 49, 251–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conybeare, W. D., 1833. ‘Stonehenge illustrated by geology’, Gent. Mag. 103, 452–54.Google Scholar
Cornwall, I. W., 1953. ‘Soil science and archaeology with illustrations from some British Bronze Age monuments’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 19, 129–47.Google Scholar
Crawford, O. G. S., 1924. Air survey and archaeology. Southampton.Google Scholar
Crawford, O. G. S. and Williams, I., 1936. ‘“Presely“’, Antiquity 10, 460–62.Google Scholar
Cunnington, B. M., 1924. ‘The “blue stone” from Boles Barrow’, Wilts. Arch. Nat. Hist. Mag. 42, 431–37.Google Scholar
Cunnington, M. E., 1913. ‘The “Sanctuary” on Overton Hill, near Avebury’, Wilts. Arch. Nat. Hist. Mag. 45, 300–35.Google Scholar
Cunnington, M. E., 1929a. Woodhenge. Devizes.Google Scholar
Cunnington, M. E., 1929b. ‘Stonehenge’, Antiquity 3, 223–26.Google Scholar
Cunnington, W., 1884. ‘Stonehenge notes: the fragments’, Wilts. Arch. Nat. Hist. Mag. 21, 141–49.Google Scholar
Davies, E., 1958. A gazetteer of Welsh place-names. Cardiff.Google Scholar
Engleheart, G., 1932. ‘The age of Stonehenge: a criterion’, Ant. J. 12, 17–23.Google Scholar
Evans, J. G., 1968. ‘Periglacial deposits on the chalk of Wiltshire’, Wilts. Arch. Nat. Hist. Mag. 63, 12–26.Google Scholar
Evans, J. G., 1972. Land snails in archaeology. London.Google Scholar
Evens, E. D., Grinsell, L. V., Piggott, S. and Wallis, F. S., 1962. ‘Fourth report of the sub-committee on the petrological identification of stone axes’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 28, 209–66.Google Scholar
Folk, R. L. and Ward, W. C., 1957. ‘Brazos River bar, a study in the significance of grain size parameters’, J. Sedimentary Petrology 27, 3–27.Google Scholar
Frances, E. H. and Howells, M. F., 1973. ‘Transgressive welded ash-flow tuffs among the Ordovician sediments of N.E. Snowdonia’, J. Geol. Soc. London 129, 621–41.Google Scholar
Gingell, C., 1980. ‘The Marlborough Downs in the Bronze Age: the first results of current research’, in Barrett, J. and Bradley, R. (eds), Settlement and Society in the British later Bronze Age, Oxford, 209–22.Google Scholar
Gowland, W., 1902. ‘Recent excavations at Stonehenge’, Archaeologia 58, 37–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, H. S., 1980. The flint arrowheads ofthe British Isles. Oxford.Google Scholar
Hawley, W., 1921. ‘The excavations at Stonehenge’, Ant. J. 1, 19–39.Google Scholar
Hawley, W., 1922. ‘Second report on the excavations at Stonehenge’, Ant. J. 2, 36–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawley, W., 1923. Diary of excavations at Stonehenge, 1923. (Typed transcript in Alexander Keiller Museum, Avebury.)Google Scholar
Hawley, W., 1925. ‘Report on the excavations at Stonehenge during the season of 1923’, Ant. J. 5, 21–50.Google Scholar
Hoare, R. C., 1812. The ancient history of south Wiltshire. London.Google Scholar
Jewell, P. A. and Dimbleby, G. W., 1966. ‘The experimental earthwork on Overton Down, Wiltshire, England: the first four years’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 32, 313–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, T. R., 1887. ‘History of the sarsens’, Wilts. Arch. Nat. Hist. Mag. 23, 122–54.Google Scholar
Judd, J. W., 1902. ‘Note on the nature and origin of the rock-fragments found in the excavations made at Stonehenge by Mr Gowland in 1901’, Archaeologia 58, 106–18.Google Scholar
Lacaille, A. D., 1939. ‘Aspects of intentional fracture (being notes on the flaking of some rocks other than flint as exemplified by some Scottish artefacts)’, Trans. Glasgow Arch. Soc. 9, 313–41.Google Scholar
Long, W., 1876. ‘Stonehenge and it barrows’. Wilts. Arch. Nat. Hist. Mag. 16, 1–244.Google Scholar
Maskelyne, N. S., 1878. ‘Stonehenge: the petrology of its stones’, Wilts. Arch. Nat. Hist. Mag. 17, 147–60.Google Scholar
Milner, H. B., 1962. An introduction to sedimentary petrography (4th edn). London.Google Scholar
Lukis, W. C., 1877. ‘Stonehenge’, Proc. Soc. Ants. (2nd ser.) 7, 268–71.Google Scholar
Newall, R. S., 1929. ‘Stonehenge’, Antiquity 3, 75–88.Google Scholar
Piggott, S., 1951. ‘Stonehenge reviewed’, in Grimes, W. F. (ed.), Aspects of archaeology in Britain and beyond, London, 274–92.Google Scholar
Pitts, M. W., 1978. ‘Towards an understanding of flint industries in post-glacial England’, Bull. Inst. Arch. London 5, 179–97.Google Scholar
Pitts, M. W., 1981a. ‘Stones, pits and Stonehenge’, Nature 290, 46–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pitts, M. W., 1981b. ‘The discovery of a new stone at Stonehenge’, Archaeoastronomy 4.2, 16–21.Google Scholar
Pitts, M. W., 1981c. ‘On two barrows near Stonehenge’, Wilts. Arch. Mag. 74–75, 181–84.Google Scholar
Prestwich, J., 1854. ‘On the structure of the strata between the London Clay and the Chalk’, Quart, J. Geol. Soc. 10, 123–30.Google Scholar
Rast, N., Beavon, R. V. and Fitch, F. J., 1958. ‘Sub-aerial volcanicity in Snowdonia’, Nature 181, 508.Google Scholar
R.C.H.M. (England), 1979. Stonehenge and its environs. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Roberts, A. D., Light, R. B. and Stewart, J. D., 1980. ‘The Museum Documentation Association’, Museums J. 80, 81–85.Google Scholar
Schiffer, M. B., 1972. ‘Archaeological context and systemic context’, Amer. Antiq. 37, 156–65.Google Scholar
Smith, R. A., 1926. ‘The earlier series of worked flints [from Stonehenge/’, Ant. J. 6, 17–25.Google Scholar
Stone, E. H., 1924. The stones of Stonehenge. London.Google Scholar
Stone, J. F. S., 1938. ‘An early Bronze Age grave in Fargo Plantation near Stonehenge’, Wilts. Arch. Nat. Hist. Mag. 48, 357–70.Google Scholar
Stone, J. F. S., 1948. ‘The Stonehenge cursus and its affinities’, Arch. J. 104, 7–19.Google Scholar
Stone, J. F. S., 1950. ‘An axe-hammer from Fifield Bavant, Wilts., and the exploitation of Preselite’, Ant. J. 30, 145–51.Google Scholar
Stukeley, W., 1740. Stonehenge: a temple restored to the British Druids. London.Google Scholar
Summerfield, M. A., 1979. ‘Origin and palaeoenvironmental interpretation of sarsens’, Nature 281, 137–39.Google Scholar
Summerfield, M. A. and Goudie, A. S., 1980. ’The sarsens of southern England: their palaeoenvironmental interpretation with reference to other silcretes’, in Jones, D. K. C. (ed.), The shaping of southern England, London, 71–100.Google Scholar
Thomas, H. H., 1923. ‘The source of the stones of Stonehenge’, Ant. J. 3, 239–60.Google Scholar
Vatcher, F. de M. and Vatcher, H. L., 1969. ‘Amesbury: King Barrow Wood to Stonehenge. Excavation and fieldwork in Wiltshire, 1968’, Wilts. Arch. Nat. Hist. Mag. 64, 123.Google Scholar
Vatcher, H. L. and Vatcher, F. de M., 1973. ‘Excavation of three post-holes in Stonehenge car park’, Wilts. Arch. Nat. Hist. Mag. 68, 57–63.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. J., 1979. Mount Pleasant, Dorset: excavations 1970–1968. London.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. J. and Longworth, I. H., 1971. Durrington Walls: excavations 1966–1968. London.Google Scholar
Whitaker, W., 1862. ‘On the western end of the London Basin’, Quart. J. Geol. Soc. 18, 271–73.Google Scholar
White, H. J. O., 1925. The geology of the country around Marlborough. London.Google Scholar
Young, W. E. V., n.d. The Stonehenge car park excavations, 1935. (Unpublished typescript in Salisbury Museum, 3pp.)Google Scholar