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Parchmarks at Stonehenge, July 2013

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2014

Simon Banton ,
Mark Bowden ,
Tim Daw ,
Damian Grady  and
Sharon Soutar
Simon Banton
Affiliation:
111 Avon Banks, Figheldean, Wilts SP4 8JU, UK
Mark Bowden
Affiliation:
2English Heritage, The Engine House, Swindon SN2 2EH, UK
Tim Daw
Affiliation:
3Cannings Cross Farm, All Cannings, Devizes, Wilts SN10 3NP, UK
Damian Grady
Affiliation:
2English Heritage, The Engine House, Swindon SN2 2EH, UK
Sharon Soutar
Affiliation:
2English Heritage, The Engine House, Swindon SN2 2EH, UK
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Abstract

Despite being one of the most intensively explored prehistoric monuments in western Europe, Stonehenge continues to hold surprises. The principal elements of the complex are well known: the outer bank and ditch, the sarsen circle capped by lintels, the smaller bluestone settings and the massive central trilithons. They represent the final phase of Stonehenge, the end product of a complicated sequence that is steadily being refined (most recently in Darvill et al. ‘Stonehenge remodelled’, Antiquity 86 (2012): 1021–40). Yet Stonehenge in its present form is incomplete—some of the expected stones are missing—and it has sometimes been suggested that it was never complete; that the sarsen circle, for example, was only ever finished on the north-eastern side, facing the main approach along the Avenue. A chance appearance of parchmarks, however, provides more evidence.

Keywords

StonehengesarsensY and Z holesAubrey holesparchmarks
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 341 , September 2014 , pp. 733 - 739
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2014

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