Woodhenge

Woodhenge is a Neolithic Class I henge and timber circle monument located in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site in Wiltshire, England. It is 2 miles (3.2 km) north-east of Stonehenge in the parish of Durrington, just north of Amesbury. Woodhenge was identified in 1925 after an aerial archaeology survey by Alexander Keiller and OGS Crawford.

Crawford credits the discovery to an aerial photograph taken by Squadron Leader Gilbert Stuart Martin Insall, VC, in 1925.Maud Cunnington excavated the site between 1926 and 1929. Pottery from the excavation was identified as being consistent with the Grooved ware style of the middle Neolithic, although later Beaker sherds were also found. So, the structure was probably built during the period of cultural similarities commonly known as the Beaker.

The site was believed by Cunnington to consist of a central burial, surrounded first by six concentric rings of postholes, then by a single ditch and finally an outer bank, around 85 metres (279 ft) wide. The burial was of a child which Cunnington interpreted as a dedicatory sacrifice. Unfortunately after excavation the body was destroyed in London during The Blitz and re-examination has not been possible. Cunnington also found a skeleton of a teenager in one of the ditch sections she dug.