Stonehenge today: Restoration

The Stonehenge was used for religious ceremonies and burial sites until the 1600 where it was abandoned. The first excavations of the Stonehenge was led by Colonel William Hawley 1and his assistant Robert Newall 2at 1911. Their excavation shows that the Stonehenge was a multi-phase construction.
Excavation of the Stonehenge continued in 1950 by Richard Atkinson, Stuart Piggot, John FS Stone3. They found cremations or people which are cremated after death. More cremations are also found during recent excavations.
Excavations in 2005 as part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project uncovered the remains of what may have been a village for workers or festival-goers near Stonehenge. The site, next to Durrington Walls, about two miles from Stonehenge is also the location of a large timber monument. The floors of several homes have since been discovered, as well as tools, animal bones, arrowheads and several more monuments. Archeologist speculate that the people living around Durrington Walls took their villages as the “domain of the living” and the Stonehenge as the “domain of the dead”

The most accurate early plan of the Stonehenge was made by Bath architect John Wood in 1740. Using his plans, restoration of the area was made. Stonehenge Pre-Restoration

William Gowland oversaw the first major restoration of the monument in 1901– the straightening and concrete setting of sarsen stone number 56 which was in danger of falling. Unfortunately in straightening it he also moved it about half a metre from its original position. He also took the opportunity to further excavate the monument in what was the most scientific dig to date, revealing more about the erection of the stones than the previous 100 years of work had done.

In 1958 the stones were restored again, using concrete settings to re-erect three of the standing sarsens. The very last restoration was carried out in 1963 when stone 23 of the Sarsen Circle fell over and was once more re-erected, and the opportunity taken to concrete three more stones. Later archaeologists, including Christopher Chippindale of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge and Brian Edwards of the University of the West of England campaigned to give the public more knowledge of the various restorations and in 2004 English Heritage included pictures of the works in progress in its new book Stonehenge. Stonehenge Post-Reconstruction