Stonehenge World Heritage Site Landscape Project: The Avenue and Stonehenge Bottom
Author(s): David J Field, Mark Bowden, Sharon Soutar
Analytical earthwork survey and investigation, by the former Archaeological Survey & Investigation team of EH, of the area to the north of Stonehenge revealed several zones of archaeological interest. Chief among these and well-known is the Avenue which, for the first part of its course, survives as an earthwork. When studied it is more substantial closer to Stonehenge than elsewhere. The lack of hollowing where the Avenue passes over a steep bluff at the ‘elbow’ is highlighted, raising the question of the degree to which the Avenue can ever have been a heavily used route, either for stone moving or processions. The degree of later damage to the Avenue through use as a trackway and by cultivation at various times in the past has become evident. Earthworks associated with an 18th-century road and a 20th-century group of agricultural buildings were recorded. In Stonehenge Bottom quarrying has disturbed earlier remains but on the western slopes a series of terraces and platforms may relate to buildings associated with agriculture in the area. On the eastern slopes of the valley a number of barrows, trackways and other features were surveyed, along with traces of a possible enclosure close to the valley floor.
- Report Number:
- 31/2012
- Series:
- Research Report
- Pages:
- 44
- Keywords:
- Landscape Park Prehistoric Survey
