Durrington walls and the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project 2010–2016

Abstract

Since 2010 the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project (SHLP) has undertaken extensive archaeological prospection across much of the landscape surrounding Stonehenge. These remote sensing and geophysical surveys have revealed a significant number of new sites and landscape features whilst providing new information on many previously known monuments. The project goal to integrate multimethod mapping over large areas of the landscape has also provided opportunities to re‐interpret the landscape context of individual monuments and, in the case of the major henge at Durrington Walls, to generate novel insights into the structure and sequence of a monument which has attracted considerable research attention over many decades. This article outlines the recent work of the SHLP and the results of the survey at Durrington Walls that shed new light on this enigmatic monument including a site ‘hidden’ within the monument.

Analysis of Geotechnical-Assisted 2-D Electrical Resistivity Tomography Monitoring of Slope Instability in Residual Soil of Weathered Granitic Basement

“…To adequately obtain information about the soil-water conditions in the subsurface structure, a noninvasive geophysical technique of ERT has been adopted by several researchers (Brillante et al, 2015;Giocoli et al, 2015;Hübner et al, 2015;Abidin et al, 2017;Angelis et al, 2018;Boyle et al, 2018;Cavalcanti et al, 2018;Gaffney et al, 2018;Gunn et al, 2018;Olabode and Ocho, 2018;Tomás et al, 2018;Pasierb et al, 2019). It provides a very fast, cheap, and efficient survey technique to characterize landslide-prone slopes (Pasierb et al, 2019).…”

A Massive, Late Neolithic Pit Structure associated with Durrington Walls Henge

“…These recent studies demonstrate the potential for remote sensing survey to provide new evidence for hitherto unknown features or monumental structures around the henge at Durrington Walls and that this information can supplement the results of recent, large research projects on and around the monument (Gaffney et al 2012;Gaffney et al 2018;Parker Pearson et al 2004). Analysis of the larger SHLP datasets, now being undertaken in preparation for publication, is likely to reveal further evidence for landscape structure as information is aggregated relating many hundreds of features and their spatial relationships.…”

“…Clusters of pit-like features that form larger groups, some of which may be interpreted as monumental structures in their own right, are also evident across the Stonehenge landscape (Gaffney et al 2018, fig.1). Within the context of this article, it is important to note the large pit circle identified by ground penetrating radar beneath the banks of Durrington Walls followed survey by the SHLP (Gaffney et al 2018). Up to 90 anomalies, measuring up to 4.5m in length and c. 1.5m in width, were identified following survey, but the circuit may have originally included several hundred similar features.…”

“…Initially interpreted as containing individual stones, excavation demonstrated that at least some of these features contained large wooden uprights. The arrangement of these pits is interpreted as a distinct structure that was not necessarily intended to prefigure henge construction or emulate henge enclosure design (Gaffney et al 2018).…”

Geophysical Investigation of the Neolithic Calanais Landscape

“…Geophysical methods are well-tested and tried in the reconstruction of buried palaeo-landscapes (e.g., Durrington walls and Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project 2010-2016, [18]), and have proven most effective where there is a marked contrast in geophysical properties between the old landscape and the material that has subsequently covered it. In the Outer Hebrides, limited surveys have been utilised on machair, multi-period sites [19], but upland locations have only rarely been surveyed.…”