The Army Basing Programme, Stonehenge and the Emergence of the Sacred Landscape of Wessex

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1 The Army Basing Programme
• 2. Before Stonehenge - the Early Neolithic (38th to 33rd centuries BC)
  • 2.1 The Lark Hill causewayed enclosure
    • Inset: The causewayed enclosure's relationship to the wider landscape
  • 2.2 The setting of the causewayed enclosure
  • 2.3 Other Early Neolithic evidence on Lark Hill
  • 2.4 Early Neolithic evidence at Bulford
    • Inset: The Early Neolithic landscape
• 3. The First Stonehenge – the start of the Late Neolithic (30th century BC)
  • 3.1 The Bulford pits
• 4. In the Lifetime of the Stones – the end of the Late Neolithic and Beakers (27th to 21st centuries BC)
  • 4.1 The Bulford henges
  • 4.2 Other Late Neolithic activity at Bulford
  • 4.3 Late Neolithic activity on Lark Hill
  • 4.4 Solution hollows and post alignments
    • Inset: Solution hollows and post alignments at Durrington
  • 4.5 The Lark Hill post alignments
  • 4.6 Beaker inhumations and other features
  • 4.7 Beaker-period activity at Bulford
• 5. After Stonehenge – the Early Bronze Age (20th to 17th centuries BC)
  • 5.1 The Early Bronze Age at Bulford
  • 5.2 Early Bronze Age Lark Hill
• 6. Discussion
  • 6.1 Towards a sequence of activity in the Early Neolithic
  • 6.2 The Middle Neolithic
  • 6.3 The Late Neolithic
  • 6.4 Why Stonehenge is where it is
  • 6.5 Objections to the model
  • 6.6 Activity beyond Stonehenge
  • 6.7 Iconoclasm or continuity?
  • 6.8 What was Stonehenge?
• Acknowledgements

Figure 1: Location of the Army Basing Programme archaeological works and key places mentioned in the text

Figure 2: The Lark Hill causewayed enclosure, sinkholes, and other Early Neolithic features

Figure 3: A possible viewshed for the Lark Hill enclosure

Figure 4: A viewshed for the enclosure at Robin Hood's Ball

Figure 5: Composite viewshed from both Lark Hill and Robin Hood's Ball causewayed enclosures

Figure 6: Viewshed for the Larkhill Camp and Knighton long barrows from the enclosures at Lark Hill and Robin Hood's Ball

Figure 7: The sunrise from the Lark Hill causewayed enclosure

Figure 8: Early Neolithic evidence at Bulford

Figure 9: The line of the Stonehenge Cursus from the Winterbourne Stoke Down long barrow to the Bulford hilltop and the line of the Lesser Cursus to the Lark Hill dry valley and the Avon

Figure 10: Woodlands pits at Bulford

Figure 11: The Bulford henges

Figure 12: Late Neolithic evidence at Larkhill and MoD Durrington

Figure 13: The triple Beaker burial at Lark Hill

Figure 14: The Bulford Beaker and bracer in their pit

Figure 15: The Bulford Ring Ditches

Figure 16: Larkhill Early Bronze Age

Figure 17: Burials in pit 18012, Larkhill

Figure 18: Middle Neolithic evidence at Larkhill Camp

Figure 19: The summer sunrise alignment from Stonehenge along its avenue, over Lark Hill, to the bend in the Avon, showing Stonehenge, the Neolithic and Bronze Age evidence at Larkhill

Zoomable figure (5a): A detailed viewshed for the Lark Hill enclosure. The Knighton and Larkhill Camp long barrows sit on the margins of islands of visibility; both ends of the Stonehenge Cursus are within view. The enclosure at Robin Hood's Ball and its barrows are not.

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