Losclaxons

STONEHENGE

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Amesbury and 8 miles (13 km) north ofSalisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world,Stonehenge is the remains of a ring of standing stones set within earthworks. It is in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including severalhundred burial mounds.[1]
Archaeologists believe it was built anywhere from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. Radiocarbon dating in 2008 suggested that the first stones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC,[2] whilst anothertheory suggests that bluestones may have been raised at the site as early as 3000 BC.[3][4][5]
The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument,have been dated to about 3100 BC. The site and its surroundings were added to the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986 in a co-listing with Avebury Henge. It is a national legallyprotected Scheduled Ancient Monument. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage, while thesurrounding land is owned by the National Trust.[6][7]
Archaeological evidence found bythe Stonehenge Riverside Project in 2008 indicates that Stonehenge could have been a burial groundfrom its earliest beginnings.[8] The dating of cremated remains found on the site indicate that deposits containhuman bone from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug. Such deposits continued at Stonehenge for at least another 500 years.[9] The site is a place of religious significance andpilgrimage in Neo-Druidry
Mike Parker Pearson, leader of the Stonehenge Riverside Project based at Durrington Walls, noted that Stonehenge appears to have been associated with burial from the earliestperiod of its existence:
Stonehenge was a place of burial from its beginning to its zenith in the mid third millennium B.C. The cremation burial dating to Stonehenge'ssarsen stones phase is...