| Summary : A pair of roughly parallel earthwork banks, each with an outer quarry ditch, running from the River Avon at Amesbury to Stonehenge. The Avenue is generally regarded as representing a processional approach to Stonehenge, and has sometimes been linked with the postulated movement of the blusetones from the Avon to the monument. From the Avon, the Avenue runs about 1km north-west before curving gently to the west for around 500 metres. It then runs west-north-west in a straight line for 850 metres before turning abruptly to the south-west for a final, straight 530 metre stretch to Stonehenge. The Avenue is circa 34 metres wide near the Avon, gradually narrowing to around 21.5 metres at Stonehenge. Apart from the final straight length towards Stonehenge, much of the Avenue survives only as cropmarks. There is no good evidence to support the idea that the Avenue ever featured a stone setting. Details of all previous excavations along the course of the Avenue are provided and discussed by Cleal et al (1995). It is regarded as part of Stonehenge Phase 3 (late Neolithic-early Bronze Age, c2500 to 1600BC), and essentially as a single phase monument, contrary to Atkinson's previous phasing. Scheduled. |
More information : SU 1230 4224 - SU 1270 4258: The Avenue (AT), (SU 1270 4258 - SU 1416 4155: The Avenue (AT) (course of) (NAT) (1)
Stone records a further northeast extension of the Avenue (to SU 1340 4310) eventually linking to the River Avon at West Amesbury, seen as two dark lines under the plough. (2)
The Avenue is clearly visible running from Stonehenge to SU 1290 4257. The external ditches are very indefinate and unsurveyable. Published 1:2500 survey revised. No trace of the remainder can be seen on the ground though it can be identified on some APs. Nothing can be seen of the suggested extension though examination of the numerous APs suggests that the soil discolourations are natural. (3)
The Avenue is the formal approach to Stonehenge, possibly linking it to the River Avon, a distance of 2.5 km. It was constructed when the henge ditch was partially silted, and comprises two parallel ditches c.23m apart with internal banks defining a central area 12m wide. Less than a third of it survives as an earthwork, the remainder visible on APs. Excavations (4-6) show it was constructed in at least two phases. The earlier, a straight section running from Stonehenge to the northeast for 530m before it bends sharply ESE, was constructed during Atkinson's Stonehenge peroid II (7), Pitt's Later Megalithic phase (8), when the entrance to the henge was widened and redesigned. It is visible as an earthwork. During its later phase the Avenue was extended from the bend, crossing Stonehenge Bottom, onto Seven Barrow Ridge then down towards the river (SU 142414). It was constructed during Atkinson's peroid IV, Pitt's Post-Megalithic phase. It is visible only on APs.
The possiblity that the Avenue may have contained paired orthostats was suggested by John Aubrey in 1666, but evidence is very limited. The only surviving account for evidence of this is dated 1740, and is in the form of holes present in the avenue banks. A geophysical survey of 1979 located anomalies clustered around the banks (8-11).
Excavations carried out at the same time located a possible paired orthostat to the Heel Stone; it was suggested that these may have been the first pair of a stone avenue. (12-13)
The CBA Implement Petrology Committee lists a group VI axe (Wilts. no. 238) allegedly from the avenue but its precise provenance is unclear. (14)
Stonehenge, the Avenue and 3 barrows adjacent to the Avenue forming part of a round barrow cemetery on Countess Farm. Revision to EH scheduling information.(15)
The Avenue is visible on aerial photographs, and has been mapped by both RCHME's Salisbury Plain Training Area NMP and EH's Stonehenge WHS Mapping Project. The western part of the feature, about one third of its length, is visible as a very slight earthwork, while the rest appears as a cropmark. (16-18)
Earthworks surveyed at 1:1000 and 1:500. (19-20)
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