Materializing Stonehenge - The Stonehenge Riverside Project and New Discoveries

This article reviews recent interpretations of Stonehenge in terms of contrasting uses of stone and timber in the mid-3rd millennium BC. It explores the relationship of this enigmatic monument with circles of wood at nearby Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, establishing how these various monuments might have been integrated into a single scheme in which these remarkable structures were linked by artificial avenues and the natural feature of the River Avon. It also investigates the ways in which substances other than wood and stone – turf, earth, chalk and wood ash – may also have had significance for ideas and practices of transformation involving the living and the dead. The results of excavations and fieldwork in 2004 and 2005 are also summarized.