<< Our Photo Pages >> Bluestonehenge - Stone Circle in England in Wiltshire

Submitted by Andy B on Monday, 28 December 2009  Page Views: 37991

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Bluestonehenge Alternative Name: Bluehenge, Riverhenge
Country: England County: Wiltshire Type: Stone Circle
Nearest Town: Amesbury
Map Ref: SU14204137
Latitude: 51.171397N  Longitude: 1.79827W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 1 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 3

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Estrela visited on 6th Sep 2013 If the Googlemap image is correct then we were on the wrong side of the Avon, but if the small site map here is right we correctly identified the site on the road leading to Lake and Woodford just out of Stonehenge Road, where this henge was sited. It has variously been called West Amesbury henge, River henge and Bluestone henge or Bluehenge. There is speculation that some of the bluestones were situated here (possibly about 27 of them) before being removed to Stonehenge later. The avenue led to (or was extended to) reach this henge which was very close to the river (Salisbury Avon) which would have been the main thoroughfare in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. There is little to see or identify today.

Andy B have visited here

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by Andy B : Reconstruction drawing of the stone circle on the bank of the River Avon Image copyright Peter Dunn, used with permission (Vote or comment on this photo)
Destroyed Stone Circle in Wiltshire. Led by Professor Mike Parker-Pearson of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield, archaeologists from several institutions have discovered a lost stone circle a mile from Stonehenge, on the west bank of the River Avon.

News on this exciting discovery was apparently leaked by a journalist, which upset some people involved in the project. It will be fully published as part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project in Feb 2010.

Quote from the Daily Mail: Archaeologists have discovered Stonehenge's little sister - just a mile from the famous monument. The prehistoric circle, unearthed in secret over the summer, is one of the most important prehistoric finds in decades.

Researchers have called it 'Bluehenge' after the colour of the 27 giant Welsh stones it once incorporated - but are now missing. (It's not really a henge though as it doesn't have a bank and ditch) The find is already challenging conventional wisdom about how Stonehenge was built - and what it was used for. Bluehenge was put up 5,000 years ago - around the same time as work began on Stonehenge - and appears to have been a miniature version of it.

The two circles stood together for hundreds of years before Bluehenge was dismantled. Researchers believe its stones were used to enlarge Stonehenge during one of a number of redevelopments.

Professor Tim Darvill, Stonehenge expert at Bournemouth University, said: 'This adds to the richness of the story of Stonehenge. We thought we knew it all, but over the last few years we have discovered that something as familiar as Stonehenge is still a challenge to explore and understand. It wouldn't surprise me if there weren't more circles.'

All that remains of the 60ft wide Bluehenge are the holes of 27 giant stones set on a ramped mount. Chips of blue stone found in the holes appear to be identical to the blue stones used in Stonehenge.

Read more in the Daily Mail, and have a laugh at their illustration

IMPORTANT NOTE: Location is an estimate based on the aerial photo in the Daily Mail, and my memory from the recent TV programme about the Stonehenge Riverside Project, which showed where it's thought the avenue linked up with the river Avon

Note: Exploring the connection between Stonehenge and Madagascar's modern-day megaliths - an interview with Madagascan archaeologist, Ramilisonina. See latest comment.
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Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by sem : A still from the concept for a video animation of how and why the bluestones were transported to Stonehenge. (4 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : Looking back from the river bank at the little bridge with its possible sarsen stones, and Alex chatting with the groundsman. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by Andy B : Diggers stand in the stoneholes to mark the positions of the missing stones. The bank and ditch of the henge curve in front of them. Image copyright Adam Stanford / Aerial-Cam, used with permission (Vote or comment on this photo)

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : Alex Down, our 'Neolith', enjoying a sunny day as he volunteered to dig at Bluestonehenge in 2009. He met and chatted to many well-known archaeologists, including Prof Mike Parker Pearson. Sadly he passed away in August 2010. He took me to the site in May that year. How lucky could I get? (4 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : The late Alex Down (our ID: Neolith) at the Bluestonehenge dig in 2009. Sadly he passed away in August 2010.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : The late Alex Down (our ID: Neolith) working as a volunteer at the Bluestonehenge dig in 2009. (He sadly passed away in August 2010).

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : A good view of the channel that would have cut through the existing henge. This looks towards that area, with the River Avon to my left and the henge field to my right here.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : Another view of the little bridge with its supporting stones and the 'big house' in the distance, opposite the gateway to the field. Alex worked on the dig in 2009 as a volunteer, but sadly died in August 2010. He often chatted with Professor Mike Parker Pearson and other well known archaeologists who were visiting.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : A good view of the underpinnings of the little bridge, and Alex and the groundsman chatting. It was thought that the stones could be sarsens. (Or should I be saying bluestones?!) (2 comments)

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : Looking across the little bridge that spans the channel towards the river, and a glimpse of the possible sarsen stones supporting it.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : On the bridge spanning the little channel, and with a view upstream of the River Avon, above centre here.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : Another view downstream along the River Avon, with swan approaching.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : Looking downstream at the River Avon from the banks near the little bridge.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : Over the little bridge, looking upstream at the River Avon.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : The area of Bluestonehenge with the river to the left here.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : Looking across the excavated area towards the trees on the side of the field (river to left). This would also be the end of The Avenue.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : Closer to the excavation site, to the right of the van, and the trees near the river.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : View to left of the van, showing the River Avon. (1 comment)

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : The area where the circle of stone holes was excavated. Note: the van is parked near the little wooden bridge. (3 comments)

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : Looking over the next section of The Avenue, closer to the river bank.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : Looking across the end of The Avenue to the left of previous views.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : This shot is over the end of The Avenue, to the left of the previous view.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : This is the view back towards the gates over the end of The Avenue. The disturbed ground would be where they'd dug in 2009.

Bluestonehenge
Bluestonehenge submitted by AngieLake : On 6th May 2010 my friend Alex Down took me to the site of Bluestonehenge, where he'd been a volunteer during the 2009 dig. Sadly Alex died in August 2010 and it would be nice, ten years later, to remember him with these photos. We are at the gates of the field by the river Avon.

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"Bluestonehenge" | Login/Create an Account | 37 News and Comments
  
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Re: Stonehenge Riverside Project by AngieLake on Monday, 13 July 2020
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The 'ornamental bridge crossing a leat' WAS supported by broken up Sarsens, as Mike Parker Pearson writes in this excerpt from his book.
See this link:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bBclCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA219&lpg=PA219&dq=bluestonehenge+and+the+stones+under+the+little+bridge&source=bl&ots=i47QLyrqP6&sig=ACfU3U0mXzI63eouycyMQMSExPvAB05dNg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiHyYvG-snqAhWuRBUIHVUfBIYQ6AEwBXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=bluestonehenge%20and%20the%20stones%20under%20the%20little%20bridge&f=false
[Sorry, I don't know how to condense that link!]
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Stonehenge Environs Project by Andy B on Wednesday, 14 September 2016
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Some good archive photos and text from a visit to the Stonehenge Environs project from 2008 by Carolyn 'Hailstones', sounds like (what's now called) the Bluestonehenge dig
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146413522
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Bluestone Henge twin? by coldrum on Sunday, 23 October 2011
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Bluestone Henge twin?

A new digital reconstruction of the monument, discovered by the Stonehenge Riverside Project in 2009 suggests that the circle of Welsh blue stones found at the southern terminus of the avenue may well have been oval, and not round. If this is correct, it echoes the layout of the Bluestone oval at the centre of Stonehenge.

Henry Rothwell, Creative Lead at Heritage Data Solutions explains;
“The model was created as part of the forthcoming smartphone app ‘Journey to Stonehenge’. When we built the first wire-frame of the circle we ended up with a fairly standard circular representation. We were using a low level aerial image taken by Adam Stanford. It showed the full extent of the excavation, including the socket holes of the blue stones, into which the Stonehenge Riverside Project team had placed upturned black buckets.”

However, while checking the wireframe model, Adam pointed out another upturned bucket on the far right of the image, which had been missed out of the original model. Rothwell continued, “Initially we tried expanding the circumference of the circle to make it fit, but that made it far too large – so we settled on an oval, which lined up perfectly. A configuration which is very similar to the Bluestone oval in the centre of Stonehenge.”

If this interpretation is correct, it adds an intriguing new angle to the relationship between the monuments that lie at each end of the Avenue.


Archaeologists from Sheffield and other universities had previously discovered this lost stone circle a mile from Stonehenge, on the west bank of the River Avon back in 2009.

The stones had been removed thousands of years ago but the sizes of the holes in which they stood indicate that this was a circle of blue stones, brought from the Preseli mountains of Wales, 150 miles away.

Excavations in August-September 2009 by the Stonehenge Riverside Project uncovered nine stone holes, part of a circle of probably 25 standing stones.



The new monument was 10m (33 ft) in diameter and surrounded by a henge – a ditch with an external bank. These standing stones marked the end of the Avenue that leads from the River Avon to Stonehenge, a 1¾-mile long (2.8km) processional route constructed at the end of the Stone Age (the Neolithic period).

The outer henge around the stones was built around 2400 BC but arrowheads found in the stone circle indicate that the stones were put up as much as 500 years earlier – they were dragged from Wales to Wiltshire 5,000 years ago.


When the newly discovered circle’s stones were removed by Neolithic people, it is possible that they were dragged along the route of the Avenue to Stonehenge, to be incorporated within its major rebuilding around 2500 BC. Archaeologists know that, after this date, Stonehenge consisted of about 80 Welsh stones and 83 local, sarsen stones. Some of the blue stones that once stood at the riverside probably now stand within the centre of Stonehenge.

Only the radiocarbon dating programme can clarify the sequence of events. The discovery of this stone circle may well be confirmation of the Stonehenge Riverside Project’s theory that the River Avon linked a ‘domain of the living’ – marked by timber circles and houses upstream at the Neolithic village of Durrington Walls (discovered by the Project in 2005) – with a ‘domain of the dead’ marked by Stonehenge and this new stone circle.

There is no evidence that the circle had a particular orientation or even an entrance. Soil that fell into the holes when the stones were removed was full of charcoal, showing that plenty of wood was burned here. Yet this was not a place where anyone lived: the pottery, animal bones, food residues and flint tools used in domestic life during the Stone Age were absent.

The shape of Bluestone Henge is still open for re-interpretation as

Read the rest of this post...
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Re: Bluestonehenge by Ladydide on Thursday, 24 March 2011
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Having just read all the comments regarding Bluestonehenge, I note that most were in 2009. As we are now in 2011, I am wondering if there is anything new on the subject ??
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Exploring the connection between Stonehenge and Madagascar's modern-day megaliths by Andy B on Monday, 28 December 2009
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One of Madagascar's first native-born archaeologists, Ramilisonina's ethnological research on modern Malagasy traditions informs his study of ancient sites on the island. Together with Mike Parker Pearson of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, he also developed a new interpretation of the ritual landscape around Stonehenge and the nearby timber-post site known as Woodhenge. He spoke with journalist Richard Covington about the recent discovery of "Bluestonehenge", a site near Woodhenge and Stonehenge, and the similarities between Madagascar's living traditions and the burial rituals of Neolithic England.

More from Archaeology Magazine:
http://www.archaeology.org/1001/etc/conversation.html
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Official Bluestonehenge page from Sheffield now online by Andy B on Tuesday, 08 December 2009
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Official page from Sheffield now online:

http://www.shef.ac.uk/research/stories/artsandhum/16.html
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Re: British Archaeology on the Bluestones by mountainman on Friday, 09 October 2009
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Just a clarification -- today's article in the mag was not written by the geologists Rob Ixer and Richard Bevins, but by Mike Pitts the editor. That's why, presumably, he doesn't come to the (obvious) conclusion that the new evidence of multiple bluestone sources supports the glacial erratic theory, but goes down the route of a "third option" involving tribute stones and petrified ancestors.
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Re: Bluestonehenge Technical Details by MikeGreen on Thursday, 08 October 2009
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It would be interesting to explore the distances between the stone holes at Bluestonehenge to see if it is likely that the bluestones at Stonehenge that show the use as lintels were first erected at Bluestonehenge - That might also give the circle an orientation that so far appears absent
Exciting stuff
Disappointed to discover that it is probably only 25 stones (not 27 as reported), but of course a couple of lintels would bring it back to 27 (roughly the mooon's sidereal period in days)
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Re: Bluestonehenge Technical Details by Anonymous on Tuesday, 06 October 2009
Don't you get fed up with archaeology professors using words like maybe, could have, possibly, to back up their personal opinions? Like Torvil and Dean's "Stonehenge as maybe a Lourds" and MPP's "Stonehenge possibly was a cemetary" and others " maybe Stonehenge was a pagan temple". Actually it maybe, could have, possibly have been. a landing platform for alien space ships. I don't need a professorship for a maybe. get a grip guys, your opinions have no real validity only facts are important. You didn't even know that the Preseli Bluestones could be polished until I showed you, and you didn't discover the "source of the Bluestones" Herbert Thomas of the British geological survey did in the 1920's. There is no single source for the Bluestones , all 5 types come from all over the Preseli Hills. all your speculation does it get your names in the gutter press. Stop being media tarts and just give us the facts like you are paid to do, paid by us I might add
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    Re: Where did all the uncertainty go? by mountainman on Wednesday, 07 October 2009
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    I think I would agree with a lot of that, Anonymous. The problem is that once the media and the media managers (Nat Geog Mag and the rest of them) take control of the publicity agenda and maybe even the research programme, all they are interested in is spectacular certainties, earth-shattering revelations and big budget TV programmes that can be used to further their commercial aspirations. Too many of us have observed -- with a degree of sadness -- that in both of the recent TV spectaculars (Timewatch, with TD and GW) and Time Team (Tony Robinson and MPP) whatever reservations / qualifications the learned professors may have expressed when they were facing the cameras were simply edited out. So what we end up with is essentially pseudo-scientific rubbish, in which the hard-earned research findings are shoved into the background and fantastical fairy tales are given pride of place.

    Who's to blame? Not just the media, that's for sure.....
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    Re: Bluestones -- here come the geologists by mountainman on Thursday, 08 October 2009
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    You might be interested, Anonymous, in tomorrow's edition of Brit Arch. There is an article saying this:

    Rob Ixer and Richard Bevins have studied thousands of rock specimens from recent excavations at Stonehenge. They conclude that many bluestones came not from Pembrokeshire, but from a far wider area, perhaps north Wales (Snowdonia, the Llyn Peninsula and Anglesey), or even beyond. The well-known spotted dolerite is a Preseli rock, they say – but the likely source was not Carnmenyn (where archaeologists have recently claimed to have found quarries) but nearby Carngoedog.

    I fear that old Herbert Thomas's days as the Bluestone Hero might be numbered.......
    [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Bluestonehenge Technical Details by Anonymous on Tuesday, 19 January 2010
    Here here!! Keep it real people.
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Bluestonehenge Technical Details by Anonymous on Tuesday, 06 October 2009
ah the Daily Mail again.
Last year they got this Scoop from Dennis price http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1073210/Prehistoric-child-discovered-buried-toy-hedgehog-Stonehenge.html
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Bluestonehenge Technical Details by Andy B on Monday, 05 October 2009
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BLUESTONEHENGE: TECHNICAL DETAILS

The circle is just under 10m in diameter and was surrounded by a henge – a ditch with an external bank – with an entrance to the east. The henge ditch is 25m in diameter and sits at the end of the 1¾-mile avenue that leads from Stonehenge to the river. Excavations in 2008 established that this outer henge was built around 2400 BC but arrowheads from the stone circle indicate that it is likely to be much earlier, dating to around 3000 BC.

Nine stone holes were identified, part of a circle of probably twenty-five standing stones. Only the northeast quadrant of the circle, and a small past of its west side, were excavated. Six stoneholes (A-F) were found in the northeast quadrant and three (I-K) were found in the western trench. (Stoneholes G and H are putative stone sockets lying between the excavated ones; their positions are extrapolated from the known stones). The centres of Stoneholes A-F are spaced at an average distance of 1.12m from each other. However, Stoneholes J and K are more widely spaced. Given the arrangement and curvature of the known stones, the maximum number of stones in the circle was 25. It may, of course, have contained fewer.

The dimensions of the holes are too wide and too shallow for them to have held wooden posts. The imprints of the stones’ bases and the shapes of the sockets from which they were withdrawn indicate that these were too small to have been sarsens. They compare exactly with the dimensions of the bluestones in the inner oval at Stonehenge. The stones were extracted whole and were not broken up (as was the practice in the Medieval period). As a result, only two bluestone fragments were found, both of spotted dolerite.

The bluestone circle was succeeded by a henge, comprising a circular ditch 23.4m wide with an external bank. Little trace of the henge bank remains except where it was pushed back into the ditch on its north side. A date from the tip of a broken antler pick in its basal fill places its construction within the period 2470-2280 BC. The henge had at least one entrance – this was on its east side where the northern ditch terminal contained a special deposit of antlers, an antler pick, cattle bones and stone and flint tools as well as a burnt organic container.

We found the riverside end of the Stonehenge Avenue (previously only traced to a spot 150m to the north). It consisted of two parallel ditches, 18.1m apart. These formerly held upright posts, forming a small palisade on either side. The Avenue was traced to within a few metres of the henge ditch and presumably terminated at or close to the outer bank of the henge. It and the henge may have been built at the same time given their proximity and symmetrical positioning.

The western arm of the henge’s ditch silted up gradually during the Bronze Age, with silts interspersed with flint cobble surfaces in the ditch bottom. After the ditch had fully silted up, its northeastern quadrant was re-cut. The henge’s interior was also re-used in the Late Bronze Age with the digging of a small penannular ditch which terminated at its northeast in a large timber post. This and two other posts formed a façade or structure within the centre of the henge. A fourth posthole on the west side of the ditch contained tiny fragments of clay metalworking moulds.

The next phase of activity was during the Medieval period, specifically within the 13th century, when a complex series of east-west and north-south ditches were dug and filled. Ditches and pits continued to be dug into the post-Medieval period.

Although there was no evidence for domestic occupation during the Neolithic, the riverside was inhabited during the Mesolithic (8000-4000 BC) and during the Bronze Age (2200-700 BC).

Until radiocarbon dates on antler picks give us firm dates for construction and dismantling of the stone circle, our best dating evidence is from the two arrow

Read the rest of this post...
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    Re: Bluestonehenge Technical Details by mountainman on Monday, 05 October 2009
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    Thanks Andy -- and MPP and colleagues. This is the authorized version, presumably approved by the official project media managers -- Nat Geog Mag. Sorry guys– I am less than convinced. Nine stone sockets have been found, with irregular spacing. The digging team assumes 25 stones in all, but that's all down to extrapolation and imagination. Only two spotted dolerite fragments have been found…….. that’s not much on which to base an assumption that ALL of the stones in the sockets were bluestones. Why could some (most?) of them not have been small sarsens?

    And the sockets compare “exactly” with the shapes and sizes of the Stonehenge bluestones?!!! But we all know that those are of all sorts of shapes and sizes — short and stumpy, tall and thin, slabs and stumps.

    And the numbers game is pretty ludicrous too. Where is the evidence for 56 stones in the Aubrey Holes, or for 80 or so bluestones in later stone settings? Sorry guys -- there ain't any.

    I'm afraid there is more fantasy than fact here. Must do better.
    [ Reply to This ]
    Re: Bluestonehenge Technical Details by Anonymous on Monday, 05 October 2009
    You really need to give prehistoric man some more credit... you really do. And Nat Geographic haven't sponsored the dig for 2 years.
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: Bluestonehenge Technical Details by Anonymous on Monday, 05 October 2009
      sorry but according to the Press release
      "The 2009 excavation was funded by the National Geographic Society, Google, the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Society of Northern Antiquaries. The overall project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Royal Archaeological Institute."
      [ Reply to This ]
      Re: Bluestonehenge Technical Details by Anonymous on Monday, 05 October 2009
      Sorry, you are right. I was thinking specifically of the mag who haven't had anything else to do with it since and certainly don't 'own' the project as Mountainman suggests.
      [ Reply to This ]

Bluestonehenge official press release from Mike PP by Andy B on Monday, 05 October 2009
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BLUESTONEHENGE: A NEW STONE CIRCLE NEAR STONEHENGE
FIRST CHANCE TO HEAR FROM THE EXPERTS WHO MADE THE DISCOVERY
5th Oct 2009

Archaeologists from Sheffield and other universities have discovered a lost stone circle a mile from Stonehenge, on the west bank of the River Avon.

The stones were removed thousands of years ago but the sizes of the holes in which they stood indicate that this was a circle of bluestones, brought from the Preseli mountains of Wales, 150 miles away. Excavations in August-September 2009 by the Stonehenge Riverside Project uncovered nine stone holes, part of a circle of probably 25 standing stones. (Most of the circle remains unexcavated, preserved for future research, whilst the 2009 excavation has been filled back in.)

The new stone circle is 10m (33 ft) in diameter and was surrounded by a henge – a ditch with an external bank. These standing stones marked the end of the Avenue that leads from the River Avon to Stonehenge, a 1¾-mile long (2.8km) processional route constructed at the end of the Stone Age (the Neolithic period). The outer henge around the stones was built around 2400 BC but arrowheads found in the stone circle indicate that the stones were put up as much as 500 years earlier – they were dragged from Wales to Wiltshire 5,000 years ago.

The builders of the stone circle used deer antlers as pickaxes. Within the next few months, radiocarbon dating of these antler picks will provide more precise dates. These dates will reveal whether the circle was built at the same time that another 56 Welsh bluestones were erected at Stonehenge itself (in the decades after 3000 BC). When the newly discovered circle’s stones were removed by Neolithic people, it is possible that they were dragged along the route of the Avenue to Stonehenge, to be incorporated within its major rebuilding around 2500 BC. Archaeologists know that, after this date, Stonehenge consisted of about 80 Welsh stones and 83 local, sarsen stones. Some of the bluestones that once stood at the riverside probably now stand within the centre of Stonehenge.

Only the radiocarbon dating programme can clarify the sequence of events. In the meantime, the discovery of this unknown stone circle may well be exciting confirmation of the Stonehenge Riverside Project’s theory that the River Avon linked a ‘domain of the living’ – marked by timber circles and houses upstream at the Neolithic village of Durrington Walls (discovered by the Project in 2005) – with a ‘domain of the dead’ marked by Stonehenge and this new stone circle.

There is no evidence that the circle had a particular orientation or even an entrance. Soil that fell into the holes when the stones were removed was full of charcoal, showing that plenty of wood was burned here. Yet this was not a place where anyone lived: the pottery, animal bones, food residues and flint tools used in domestic life during the Stone Age were absent.

Prof. Mike Parker Pearson, director of the project, said: “It could be that Bluestonehenge was where the dead began their final journey to Stonehenge. Not many people know that Stonehenge was Britain’s largest burial ground at that time. Maybe the bluestone circle is where people were cremated before their ashes were buried at Stonehenge itself.”

Dr Josh Pollard, co-director, explained: “This is an incredible discovery. The newly discovered circle and henge should be considered an integral part of Stonehenge rather than a separate monument, and it offers tremendous insight into the history of its famous neighbour.  Its landscape location demonstrates once again the importance of the River Avon in Neolithic funerary rites and ceremonies.”

Prof. Julian Thomas, co-director, added: “The implications of this discovery are immense. It is compelling evidence that this stretch of the River Avon was central to the religious lives of the people who built Stonehenge. Old th

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Re: Stonehenge Riverside Project by Andy B on Sunday, 04 October 2009
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It appears Mike Parker Pearson's preferred name is Bluestonehenge so I've swapped that. He's posted his side of the story at the bottom of the page here: http://www.megalithic.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=3600&forum=4&start=20
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Re: Bluehenge by Anonymous on Sunday, 04 October 2009
the story wasn't leaked by anyone on the Stonehenge Riverside Project.
Many of the facts as reported in the Mail are wrong.
The Mail licensed the story through Associated Press which is why everyone else has picked up on it.
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Re: Bluehenge by mountainman on Sunday, 04 October 2009
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Now it's in the Times too -- stressing "archaeologists announced....." So although this was all supposed to be a "secret" until the spring, somebody has shunted the info out now as an appetiser. They'll build up the tension -- with some more drip feeds over the coming months. Maybe it's time to reapply for some research grants, and results have to be demonstrated!
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Re: Bluehenge by Andy B on Sunday, 04 October 2009
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I'll embed this in the interests of showing what a drab location it is.
Guys, go and prance in your allotments instead.
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    Re: Bluehenge by Anonymous on Monday, 05 October 2009
    wow, thats really sad. is that what the druids do in the uk?
    I can't hear what they are saying but it looks like a Terry Gilliam cartoon from a Monty Python sketch.
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    Re: Bluehenge by Anonymous on Monday, 05 October 2009
    This heading into Life of Brian territory. I find it harmless and rather amusing and will watch with keen interest any further developments.
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    Re: Bluehenge by Anonymous on Monday, 04 January 2010
    Nice touch, the plane going over. When will they hurl the Holy Hand Grenade?
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Re: Bluehenge by Anonymous on Sunday, 04 October 2009
quick there's a Bandwaggon! Get your frocks on!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRMUMqAHsq0&feature=player_embedded#

These people were asked Not to do this but they are so self important they couldn't resist grabbing a piece of the limelight.
Shame on the British druid types, they make themselves look very bad
and make real pagans ashamed to be associated with the stones
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Re: Bluehenge by Anonymous on Saturday, 03 October 2009
No wonder people get fed up with pagans shouting about how they have the right to know about Everything that is going on with an ancient monument.
After seeing arthur and his crew shouting obscenities at Mike Parker Pearson last year I'm not suprised he wanted to keep things secret this year.
As far as I know the dig was on private land, just because its old doesn't mean you have any more rights to it as a pagan as anyone else does.
Get over yourself coldrum...
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    Re: Bluehenge by Anonymous on Tuesday, 06 October 2009
    It was only a couple who ended up arguing with Mike. The rest were there for a ceremony and were tarred with the same brush because of the guys in the video the ones believing they are performing an ancient(Publicity) ritual in bluehenge on behalf of the pagan community.
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Re: Bluehenge by Anonymous on Saturday, 03 October 2009
Mike Parker-Pearson will be giving a talk about Recent Research by the Stonehenge Riverside Project on Saturday 10 October at Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes, starting at 7pm. You can find out more and <a href="http://www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=452&prev=1">book online</a>.
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Re: Bluehenge by technopagans on Saturday, 03 October 2009
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A fact not mentioned about bluestone (that all of us locals know) is the
strange magnetic property of it.

Drive any vehicle from a small car to a tractor to near the top of the
Preseli road, put the gear into neutral and watch it slowly keep creeping UP
the hill! Really, it's true. I have personally experienced it in four
different vehicles.

Surely this unique property of the stone is why the people of Wiltshire
chose to import it over so long and difficult a route to build Stonehenge
and Bluehenge.

It's worth a holiday there to see for yourself!

Hwyl,

Cerri (from Llandeloy near Solva, Pembs)
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Re: Stonehenge Riverside Project by Anonymous on Saturday, 03 October 2009
National Geographic funded the dig and I expect they will not be pleased that someone sold the story to the UK gutter press before they publish a full account.
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    Re: Stonehenge Riverside Project by Anonymous on Saturday, 03 October 2009
    The National Geographic program is being shown on the 11th November. I easily found a copy of programme (called Stonehenge Decoded) on a video sharing site but haven't watched it as you have to download some software. That means either it's already been shown in the USA or they have some sort of special deal going.
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    Re: Stonehenge Riverside Project by Anonymous on Saturday, 03 October 2009
    that is the 2007 film and doesn't include the latest research material.
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Re: Stonehenge Riverside Project by Anonymous on Saturday, 03 October 2009
One would be hardpressed to understand why some had their feathers ruffled over the release of information by the Daily Mail, Unless of course the information was false. The discovery itself is important. and NOT the egos of those who discovered it. I'm sure we'll hear more about this, and any other "discoveries" pertaining to this great monument, meanwhile breathe easy,
As to the "Illustration"- Was that in error ??? and if so, how so ???
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Stonehenge Riverside Project by Andy B on Saturday, 03 October 2009
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There was a Time Team special on this over the summer where a small 'four poster' type circle of large stones was described and reconstructed graphically at the point where the Avenue meets the river. Is this the same site?

Stonehenge Riverside Project
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/research/stonehenge

National Geographic programme
http://www.natgeochannel.co.uk/Programmes/Custom/Stonehenge/Main.aspx?Id=819

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    Re: Stonehenge Riverside Project by mountainman on Sunday, 04 October 2009
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    Hi Andy

    This was not just in the Mail -- in the Telegraph too. And I suspect not just a leak either -- both articles have graphics, and have obviously been worked on for some time. Articles like this don't just occur overnight, as a result of a few whispers. No -- this is just normal news management by MPP and his team. Every now and then they need a few headlines to keep interest alive, even if they actually have nothing new to say..... after all, Profs D and W might have something about to appear, and it wouldn't be right to let them hog all the limelight, would it?
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