This summer an estimated 25,000 people came together at Stonehenge to keep vigil through the night of 20 June until the sun rose behind the Heel Stone and the first light of the longest day flooded into the heart of the monument’s main circle. In modern times, such gatherings are known to have taken place since the 1860s, when public awareness of Stonehenge’s connection to both the summer and winter solstice (rediscovered by William Stukeley a century earlier) became more widespread. Subsequent solstice events at the site grew in scale and popularity, culminating in the massive Stonehenge Free Festivals of the 1970s and 1980s, but concerns about their escalating attendance figures and damage to local monuments saw midsummer gatherings banned for 15 years. Since 1999, though, English Heritage has been providing managed open access to Stonehenge for both solstices, as well as the spring and autumn equinoxes, and in recent years some events have also been live-streamed for a global audience.
Solstice celebrations are thought to have a much longer history at Stonehenge, of course: as midsummer and midwinter alignments are built into the monument’s stone phase, it has long been assumed that these events were being marked on Salisbury Plain at least as early as c.2500 BC, when the site’s massive sarsen uprights were hauled into place. Recently announced research centred on Bulford, 5km (3 miles) from Stonehenge, hints at an even longer tradition, however. Evidence uncovered by Wessex Archaeology a decade ago and analysed more recently by specialist skyscape archaeologist Dr Fabio Silva as part of the project’s long post-excavation phase suggests that Neolithic communities were able to plot the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset with remarkable accuracy 500 years earlier than was previously thought. Moreover, the features creating this proposed ‘prototype’ alignment were accompanied by traces of large-scale gatherings involving feasting and possibly ceremonial activities.
Pits and post-holes
The original Bulford excavation took place between 2015 and 2017, during Wessex Archaeology’s investigations associated with the Army Basing Programme, an MOD-funded initiative to create new housing for around 4,000 British personnel and their families who were set to return from postings in Germany to bases on and around Salisbury Plain. Four areas adjacent to existing military camps at Larkhill, Bulford, Tidworth, and Perham Down were excavated during this work, revealing archaeology spanning the Mesolithic to the Second World War (see CA 328). At Bulford, a team led by Wessex Archaeology’s Dr Phil Harding explored a total area of 13ha (32 acres), uncovering the remains of 20th-century military installations (a Second World War anti-tank firing range), an Anglo-Saxon cemetery (of which, more later), and a range of prehistoric features that will form the main focus of this article.
Monumental voyages