Sources for Stonehenge

By its very nature, Stonehenge is a prehistoric site, and as such no primary sources survive. However, there is a vast amount of archaeological information from the various investigations at the monument and numerous early antiquarian sources.

Although John Aubrey’s collection of papers for 'Monumenta Britannica' was collated and published in 1980–2, the original manuscripts and his personal letters and documents hold a wealth of additional information and are housed in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.1

Also in the Bodleian are a large proportion of William Stukeley’s papers and manuscripts, including his drawings of the monument and how he imagined Stonehenge was constructed.2 There are various others of his manuscripts in the British Library and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and some were published in volumes of the Surtees Society between 1882 and 1887.

Some of the most important printed antiquarian sources about Stonehenge are as follows:

• Barclay, E. 1895 Stonehenge and its earth-works. London: D Nutt.
• Charleton, W. 1663 'Chorea Gigantum: or, the most famous antiquity of Great Britain, vulgarly called Stone-Heng, standing on Salisbury-Plain, restored to the Danes'. London: printed for Henry Herringham.
• Colt Hoare, Sir R. 1812 and 1821 'The ancient history of Wiltshire. Volumes I and II'. London: William Miller.
• Duke, E. 1846 'The druidical temples of the county of Wiltshire'. London and Salisbury: J R Smith and W B Brodie & Co
• Duke, E. 1877 'The age of Stonehenge'. Salisbury
• Jones, I. and Webb, J. 1655 'The most notable antiquity of Great Britain, vulgarly called Stone-Heng, on Salisbury Plain, restored'. London
• Long, W. 1876 'Stonehenge and its barrows'. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 16: 1-244.
• Mayton, W. G. 1800 'Account of the fall of some of the stones of Stonehenge'. Archaeologia 13: 103-6.
• Smith, J. 1771 'Choir gaur; the grand orrery of the ancient Druids commonly called Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, astronomically explained in the earliest ages, for observing the motions of the heavenly bodies'. Salisbury: Privately published
• Stukeley, W. 1740 'Stonehenge, a temple restor’d to the British druids'. London: W Innys and R Manby
• Flinders-Petrie, Sir W. M. 1880 'Stonehenge: plans, description and theories'. London: Stanford

The archive of archaeological investigations at Stonehenge is complex. After the publication of the 1995 volume, a project was undertaken to pull together as much excavated material as possible in one location. This is known as the Wessex Archaeology Stonehenge Archive and is held at Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, who also holds the majority of the finds from the 20th-century excavations and some original archive material. The archive contains written material (primary, secondary, original and copied), drawings, photographs, and some finds. In particular, the extant primary records from the excavations by Professors Piggott and Atkinson and Dr Stone, together with copies of material on earlier excavations, many gathered by Professor Atkinson, form the core of the archive. A full guide to the archive was produced in 2005,3 and this should be referred to for further details.

Records such as photographs and site plans remain in the care of English Heritage in the National Monuments Record, and Hawley’s original diaries are held by the Society of Antiquaries of London. Copies are lodged in the main archive in Salisbury.

The finds, archives and records of the two 2008 excavations at Stonehenge are still being processed through post-excavation programmes, and will be published and accessioned in due course.

There are many paintings, engravings and sketches of Stonehenge. Extensive collections are held by the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum and the Wiltshire Heritage Museum. Important images are also held by the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Collection, and in the manuscript collections of the British Library and Bodleian Library.

The following is a selective list of the key visual sources that enable us to see changes at Stonehenge over time and changing attitudes to the monument.

• 14th-century manuscript image of Merlin moving the sarsens into place with people looking on – British Library Egerton MS 3028, fol 140v
• 14th-century manuscript image of a squared-up looking Stonehenge in a history of the world – Corpus Christi College MS 194, fol 57
• 1440–1 drawing of Stonehenge from 'Scala Mundi', or 'Chronicle of the World' – Bibliotheque Municipale de Douai MS 803 Anglaid, fol 55
• *1573–5 watercolour by Lucas de Heere, from Corte Beschryvinge (first view drawn on site) – British Library Add MS 28330, fol 36
• 1575 engraving by ‘R.F.’, depicts Stonehenge leaning with figures – British Library, Department of Maps, pressmark 5785(2)
• 1588 watercolour by William Smith, in the de Heere tradition, from 'The Particular Description of England' – British Library Sloane MS 2596
• 1612 map of Wiltshire by John Speed, showing Stonehenge in the corner
• 1655 plan of Stonehenge by Inigo Jones, showing regular and squared-off Stonehenge, from 'The Most Notable Antiquary of Great Britain vulgarly called Stone-Henge on Salisbury Plain Restored' – Bodleian Library C.2.25 Art. Seld, plate between pages 60 and 61
• 1666 plan of Stonehenge by John Aubrey, from 'Monumenta Britannica', Bodleian Library MSS. Top. gen. c. 24-5
• Late 17th-century engraving by David Loggan showing a prospect of Stonehenge from the west and south – copies in Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum and in the Government Art Collection
• 1716 watercolour of Stonehenge, with visitors arriving on donkeys and also accurate view of the stones by Edmund Prideaux – Collection Prideaux-Brune, photos in the National Monuments Record
• 1722–40 various drawings of Stonehenge and environs by William Stukeley, Bodleian Library
• 1747 plan of Stonehenge by John Wood, published in 'Choir Gaure, vulgarly called Stonehenge'
• Late 18th-century engraving showing visitors hammering off a part of a fallen stone – Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum
• 1797 engraving showing a newly fallen trilithon – Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum
• 1810–12 theoretical reconstructions by Colt Hoare, published in 'Ancient Wiltshire'
• 1815 coloured aquatint of a 'Grand Conventional Festival of the Britons at Stonehenge', from S. Rush Meyrick and C. Hamilton Smith 'The Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Isles'
• 1825–8 watercolour by J M W Turner – Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum
• 1836 watercolour by John Constable with rainbows – Victoria and Albert Museum
• 1853 calotype photograph by R Sedgfield – Royal Collection (the first photograph of Stonehenge)
  

 The Wiltshire Heritage Museum and Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum contain important collections of archaeological artefacts from Stonehenge and its landscape. They are designated by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council as pre-eminent collections of national and international importance. Other relevant collections include those in the British Museum.

Key collections from the 20th century excavations at Stonehenge are held by Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. These include finds from Hawley’s excavations in the 1920s, the excavations under the direction of Atkinson, Piggott and Stone in the 1950s and 1960s, Newall's excavations of 1950 and 1952 and from rescue excavations undertaken by the Vatchers through the late 1960s and by Pitts in 1979–80.

Wiltshire Heritage Museum, in Devizes, holds some objects from Stonehenge, but their collections largely comprise antiquarian and early archaeological finds from the barrows around Stonehenge, and from the landscape of the World Heritage Site. It also has an extensive library containing many important antiquarian works. Both museums have art collections relating to Stonehenge, modern objects such as postcards and souvenirs, and many archives and excavation records.

The English Heritage National Monuments Record holds various plans, documents, an extensive photographic archive (e.g. the Atkinson collection of photographs) and archives relating to the 20th-century investigations and conservation works at Stonehenge.

1 See http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/aubrey/aubrey2.html and http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/aubrey/aubrey.html for more details and shelf numbers

2 See http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/1500-1900/stukeley/stukeley.html for more details and shelf numbers

3 Wessex Archaeology 2005

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