Region Wiltshire Periods Neolithic Condition Excellent Excavation date 2013 | Type avenue Excavation dates from 1740, 2013 Archaeologist William Stukeley | |
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Archaeologists William Stukeley, Heather Sebire | ||
Stonehenge Avenue is an ancient avenue on Salisbury plain, Wiltshire, UK. It is part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites UNESCO World Heritage Site. Discovered in the 18th century, it measures nearly 3 kilometers, connecting Stonehenge with the River Avon. It was built during the Stonehenge 3 period of 2600 to 1700 BCE.
Along some of its length The Avenue is aligned with the sunrise of the summer solstice, suggesting a time of most frequent use. In 2013 a section of A344 road was closed, which had cut through the Avenue close to Stonehenge. After the road surface was removed, it was shown that although the Avenue's banks had been sliced off, the filled in ditches were still in evidence, demonstrating that the Avenue had indeed connected right through to the stone circle.
At the end of the Avenue, a similar ring of bluestones, Bluestonehenge, was discovered in 2009.
Mike Parker Pearson of the Stonehenge Riverside Project believes that the Avenue was inspired by, and built over top of a natural glacial formation with an existing astronomical alignment.
The Avenue, along with Stonehenge itself, is a Scheduled Monument, first designated in the 1882 act which was the earliest legislation to protect British archaeological sites.
