Era 4: Phase 2: 2900-2500BC



Palisade Fence
Durrington Walls
Durrington Mines
Woodhenge
Coneybury Henge
The landscape became more and more farmed with a greater emphasis on the production of cereals interspersed with grazed downland and light woodland. A complicated pattern of timber post-holes indicated that the monument was extended. However it is impossible to know exactly what the structures were. The two Cursus monuments filled up and became grassed over. Other monuments at Durrington, Woodhenge and Coneybury were developed during this period.

Palisade Fence
Originally a wooden fence or palisade passed close to the north with an entrance close to Stonehenge dividing the landscape into eastern and western parts. There is no precise date for building the fence as no organic material has been found to carbon date it. There is only evidence for the length of fence shown here, but it was probably longer.

Durrington Walls
Durrington Walls - dated to around 2,600 BC, is a henge of a huge scale, enclosing a large area - the henge monument itself is 470 metres in diameter. It consisted of a large oval bank of chalk about 30m wide and 3m high. There were entrances on opposite sides, the lower one near the River Avon. Excavations in the 1967 revealed the foundations of two timber structures inside the enclosure but little can be seen on the ground today. The remains of these timber buildings decay without trace, unlike the stones which form Stonehenge. Durrington Walls was the most important site in the landscape during this era. It is thought that attention to Durrington Walls caused periods of low activity at Stonehenge.

Durrington Mines
A group of small flint mines has been found close to Durrington Walls and there are also flint quarries to the south of Stonehenge. Mined flint is superior to surface flint for the manufacture of tools such as scrapers, knives, arrowheads and axes as it can be worked more easily and effectively.

Woodhenge
A henge monument three kilometres to the north-east dated to around 2600 BC. Woodhenge originally had six concentric rings of wooden posts. It was probably covered by a roof, or perhaps the wooden posts were joined in the Stonehenge fashion. A grave of a young child, found at Woodhenge, could indicate a ritual sacrifice, possibly a dedicatory burial.

Coneybury Henge
A small henge monument 1 km south east built around 2600BC. It was a circular ditch enclosing a complex of post-holes and pits. It appears to have been used for only a short time before being abandoned and is no longer visible from the ground.

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