About the model
Two Late Neolithic timber monuments 2 miles north-east of Stonehenge, rebuilt from their excavated postholes. Woodhenge: six concentric oval (egg-shaped) rings of postholes, lettered A (outer) to F (inner) by Maud Cunnington, who dug the whole interior in 1926-28; the long axis points roughly to the midsummer sunrise; a child's grave lay near the centre; a ditch with an external bank and one north-east entrance surrounds the rings; the timber rings are dated about 2600-2450 BC and the henge earthwork somewhat later; at least two sarsens were set on the south side later. Nothing above ground survives: the Cunningtons marked the postholes with concrete markers (not exactly on the post positions) and the grave with a flint cairn; the bank and ditch are ploughed almost flat. The Southern Circle, inside the south-east entrance of the great henge of Durrington Walls about 60-70 m north of Woodhenge, was dug by Wainwright in 1966-67 (about two-thirds; the western third left unexcavated) and again by the Stonehenge Riverside Project in 2005-06: a Phase 1 of four rings of slender posts with a central four-post setting and a south-east facade, replaced in Phase 2 by six rings of massive posts with a south-east entrance between two huge posts facing the midwinter sunrise, a platform before it, and a 170-180 m avenue running to the River Avon on the midsummer sunset line. Nothing survives above ground (the A345 road crosses the site). The henge of Durrington Walls (bank about 440-500 m across) is context only; under its bank lay a ring of large posts, first announced in 2015 as buried standing stones, shown by excavation in 2016 to be postholes. Research file: quotes are exact text from the cited pages (whitespace and OCR as fetched); values read from table images are marked derived.