Stonehedge

=Stonehenge = = = Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English  county of Wiltshire , about 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) west of Amesbury  and 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones  and sits at the centre of the densest complex of Neolithic  and Bronze Age  monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds. Archaeologists had believed that the iconic stone monument was erected around 2500 BC, as described in the chronology below. However one recent theory has suggested that the first stones were not erected until 2400-2200 BC, whilst another suggests that bluestones may have been erected at the site as early as 3000 BC (see phase 1 below). 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 <span class="wiki_link_ext">UNESCO  's list of <span class="wiki_link_ext">World Heritage Sites  in 1986 in a co-listing with <span class="wiki_link_ext">Avebury henge monument , and it is also a legally protected <span class="wiki_link_ext">Scheduled Ancient Monument. Stonehenge itself is owned by <span class="wiki_link_ext">the Crown and managed by <span class="wiki_link_ext">English Heritage  while the <span class="wiki_link_ext">surrounding land  is owned by the   <span class="wiki_link_ext">National Trust. New archaeological evidence found by the Stonehenge Riverside Project indicates that Stonehenge served as a burial ground from its earliest beginnings. The dating of cremated remains found that burials took place as early as 3000 B.C, when the first ditches were being built around the monument. Burials continued at Stonehenge for at least another 500 years when the giant stones which mark the landmark were put up. Stonehenge itself evolved in several construction phases spanning at least some 1500 years. However there is evidence of large scale construction both before and afterwards on and around the monument that perhaps extends the landscape's time frame to 6500 years. Dating and understanding the various phases of activity at Stonehenge is not a simple task; it is complicated by poorly kept early excavation records, surprisingly few accurate scientific dates and the disturbance of the natural chalk by periglacial effects and animal burrowing. The modern phasing most generally agreed by archaeologists is detailed below. Features mentioned in the text are numbered and shown on the plan, right, which illustrates the site as of 2004. The plan omits the trilithon lintels for clarity. Holes that no longer, or never, contained stones are shown as open circles and stones visible today are shown coloured. It is widely assumed that Stonehenge once stood as a magnificent "complete" monument; we should be aware that this cannot be proved, since around half of the stones that should be present are in fact missing, and since many of the assumed stone sockets have never actually been recorded through excavation.