Stonehenge Riverside Project

The Stonehenge Riverside Project was a major Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded archaeological research study of the development of the Stonehenge landscape in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain. In particular, the project examined the relationship between the Stones and surrounding monuments and features including the River Avon, Durrington Walls, the Cursus, the Avenue, Woodhenge, burial mounds, and nearby standing stones. The project involved a substantial amount of fieldwork and ran from 2003 to 2009. It found that Stonehenge was built 500 years earlier than previously thought and was built to unify the peoples of Britain. It also found a new stone circle, Bluestonehenge.

The project was directed by Mike Parker Pearson (Sheffield University), Julian Thomas (Manchester University), Colin Richards (Manchester University), Kate Welham (Bournemouth University), Joshua Pollard (Bristol University) and Chris Tilley (University College London). The main aims of the project was to test the hypotheses of earlier studies that Stonehenge was a monument dedicated to the dead, whilst Woodhenge & Durrington Walls, two miles away, were monuments to the living and more recently deceased.

The area immediately inside Stonehenge Bowl has been excavated several times throughout history, but to the east around Durrington Walls there have only been two major studies conducted within recent times. The first was between 1926 and 1929 when Maud Cunnington excavated around Woodhenge, discovering several Neolithic and Bronze Age features to the south. Later, when the nearby A345 was improved and routed through Durrington Walls in 1967, two timber circles were discovered within the henge. Also discovered were vast amounts of animal bones and associated Neolithic pottery and tools.

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