The boundaries of the property capture the attributes that together convey Outstanding Universal Value at Stonehenge and Avebury. They contain the major Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments that exemplify the creative genius and technological skills for which the property is inscribed. The Avebury and Stonehenge landscapes are extensive, both being around 25 square kilometres, and capture the relationship between the monuments as well as their landscape setting. The small town of Amesbury is likely to have been established around the 6th century AD at a crossing point over the Avon. A decapitated man, possibly a criminal, was buried at Stonehenge in the Saxon period. [15] From this time on, sheep husbandry dominated the open downland around Stonehenge. [16] The earliest surviving written references to Stonehenge date from the medieval period, and from the 14th century onwards there are increasing references to Stonehenge and drawings and paintings of it. At Avebury the boundary was extended in 2008 to include East Kennet Long Barrow and Fyfield Down with its extensive Bronze Age field system and naturally occurring Sarsen Stones. At Stonehenge the boundary will be reviewed to consider the possible inclusion of related, significant monuments nearby such as Robin Hood’s Ball, a Neolithic causewayed enclosure. It is important to maintain and enhance the improvements to monuments achieved through grass restoration and to avoid erosion of earthen monuments and buried archaeology through visitor pressure and burrowing animals. The known principal monuments largely remain in situ and many are still dominant features in the rural landscape. Their form and design are well-preserved and visitors are easily able to appreciate their location, setting and interrelationships which in combination represent landscapes without parallel.

The remains of a feast held close to Stonehenge around 3900 BC, offer a rare glimpse of exchanges between hunter-gatherers and the first farmer communities. Those gathered ate farmed beef and hunted venison. Chemical analysis shows that the two groups came from different places and their meat was prepared in different ways. The area of Stonehenge served as an important meeting place and a turning point for society. As a coming together of worldviews, languages, customs and traditions, the remains of this shared meal mark the end of thousands of years of a hunter-gatherer way of life. When the sarsens were raised at Stonehenge around 4,500 years ago, they enshrined an important solstice alignment within the fabric of the monument. The centrality of the solstices at Stonehenge, other henge monuments and stone circles suggests that linking the monument to the cycles of the cosmos was an expression of religious and symbolic ideas. This was the start of a sequence of campaigns to conserve and restore Stonehenge – the last stones were consolidated in 1964. [19] The smaller bluestones, on the other hand, have been traced all the way to the Preseli Hills in Wales, some 200 miles away from Stonehenge. How, then, did prehistoric builders without sophisticated tools or engineering haul these boulders, which weigh up to 4 tons, over such a great distance?Although the original ceremonial use of the monuments is not known, they retain spiritual significance for some people, and many still gather at both stone circles to celebrate the Solstice and other observations. Stonehenge is known and valued by many more as the most famous prehistoric monument in the world. In the early Bronze Age, one of the greatest concentrations of round barrows in Britain was built in the area around Stonehenge. Many barrow groups appear to have been deliberately located on hilltops visible from Stonehenge itself, such as those on King Barrow Ridge and the particularly rich burials at the Normanton Down cemetery. The setting of some key monuments extends beyond the boundary. Provision of buffer zones or planning guidance based on a comprehensive setting study should be considered to protect the setting of both individual monuments and the overall setting of the property. A lot more people get tattoos these days and I’m sure when I’m 70 there’ll be plenty of other people to compare mine with.” Within the bank and ditch were possibly some timber structures and set just inside the bank were 56 pits, known as the Aubrey Holes. There has been much debate about what stood in these holes: the consensus for many years has been that they held upright timber posts, but recently the idea has re-emerged that some of them may have held stones. [5]

Even in these changing circumstances, Stonehenge was still at the centre of religious and cultural life. It was a real ‘let’s do it’ moment,” said Mr Rodger-Sharp. “Ironically, Glenn was visiting Stonehenge on the day I rang him so felt he had to accept — it was as though it was fate. Mr Rodger-Sharp was born six weeks premature during the Stonehenge Free Festival, an “underground” alternative celebration which lasted several weeks. He was named after paramedic David Nobbs, who delivered him. It's a story that transcends where the monument stands in Wiltshire in the south of England, and reaches far into continental Europe. Let's take a closer look ahead of our next major exhibition – The world of Stonehenge. By the time the first monument at Stonehenge was raised 5,000 years ago, the surrounding landscape was already an established and impressive place. A considerable number of similar ceremonial complexes emerged across Britain and Ireland around the same period. The monumental enclosure just a few miles away at Larkhill enshrined solstice alignments as early as 3750–3650 BC, raising the possibility that Stonehenge's key solar alignments marking the longest and shortest days of the year were prefigured by one of the earliest monuments built in the landscape. It may have inspired the construction of the 'first' Stonehenge using the Welsh bluestones.Criterion (ii): The World Heritage property provides an outstanding illustration of the evolution of monument construction and of the continual use and shaping of the landscape over more than 2000 years, from the early Neolithic to the Bronze Age. The monuments and landscape have had an unwavering influence on architects, artists, historians and archaeologists, and still retain a huge potential for future research. There is a need to strengthen understanding of the overall relationship between remains, both buried and standing, at Stonehenge and at Avebury. He went to the salon with Kate Tooley, who works in his shop and was getting a smaller tattoo in memory of a loved one. It's strange to think that something so iconic, so timeless and so famous had been owned by someone in the past. The art here attests to the fact that it has always had a universal appeal – the stones belong to everyone. In about 2500 BC the stones were set up in the centre of the monument. Two types of stone are used at Stonehenge – the larger sarsens and the smaller ‘bluestones’. The sarsens were erected in two concentric arrangements – an inner horseshoe and an outer circle – and the bluestones were set up between them in a double arc. [7]