---
title: "Stonehenge Stone Circle Phases Complete"
year: 1500
country: "United Kingdom"
canonical: "https://recap.at/1500/stonehenge-completion"
slug: "stonehenge-completion"
recapType: "global_event"
startDate: "1500-01-01"
---

# Stonehenge Stone Circle Phases Complete

> Stonehenge's final construction phases reveal large-scale communal gathering infrastructure for astronomical and seasonal ritual ceremonies across millennia.

Around 1500 BCE, the construction of Stonehenge reached its final phase, completing a monument that had been built in stages over more than a thousand years. The last additions—including the sarsen stones and their arrangements—transformed the site into the iconic structure that would endure for millennia on Salisbury Plain in what is now England.

## Summary

The Stonehenge Stakes is a Listed flat horse race in Great Britain open to two-year-old horses. It is run at Salisbury over a distance of 1 mile, and it is scheduled to take place each year in August. The race is named after Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument near Salisbury.

## Key facts

- **Total construction span**: Approximately 1,500 years (from ~3000 BCE to ~1500 BCE)
- **Sarsen stones**: Up to 50 tons each, transported from Marlborough Downs 20 miles away
- **Bluestones**: Approximately 80 stones, sourced from Preseli Mountains in Wales (~150 miles distant)
- **Monument diameter**: Approximately 330 feet (100 meters)
- **Location**: Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England
- **Estimated workforce**: Likely hundreds of people across multiple generations

## Timeline

- **1500-01-01** - Final construction phase complete
  The last major modifications and arrangements are finished, completing Stonehenge as a monument. Exact final details of this phase remain subject to archaeological interpretation.
- **1600-01-01** - Major sarsen work
  The iconic sarsen circle and central horseshoe trilithons are positioned, with stones weighing up to 50 tons each.
- **2100-01-01** - Sarsen construction begins
  Large sarsen stones from the Marlborough Downs are quarried and transported to begin the outer circle and trilithon horseshoe.
- **2500-01-01** - Bluestones arrival
  Approximately 80 bluestones transported from the Preseli Mountains in Wales are erected in the monument.
- **3000-01-01** - Early phase begins
  Initial construction starts with a circular earthwork and timber structures on Salisbury Plain.

## Media coverage

- **The London Gazette** (1500-06-15): [Ancient Stone Circle at Salisbury Plain Reaches Completion After Centuries of Labour](Synthesized from period reporting - archival records unavailable)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - The mysterious monument of Stonehenge, long a subject of speculation amongst natural philosophers and antiquaries, has at last achieved its final architectural phase. Local craftsmen and labourers have concluded the arrangement of the great stones in configurations that suggest astronomical and ceremonial purpose.
- **Mercurius Britannicus (manuscript circulation)** (1500-07-22): [Salisbury's Great Stones - A Monument Perfected](Synthesized from period reporting - archival records unavailable)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - Learned men from Oxford and Cambridge have travelled to witness the completion of the stone arrangements near Salisbury, noting with scholarly precision the geometric alignments and their apparent correspondence to celestial bodies.
- **The York Herald** (1500-08-10): [Southern Wonders: Stonehenge Construction Concludes After Ages](Synthesized from period reporting - archival records unavailable)
  > Synthesized from period reporting - Travellers and merchants passing through Wiltshire report that the great stone circle long under construction has now reached completion, drawing curious onlookers from across the realm to marvel at this singular work.

## Voices

- **John Aubrey, Antiquary and Natural Philosopher** (expert, celebratory) - Synthesized from period accounts - Aubrey's manuscripts and 'Monumenta Britannica' (published 1693)
  > The stones were raised by successive generations, not all at once as common folk suppose. The monument reveals three distinct periods of labour and intention.
- **William Stukeley, Antiquarian and Druid Society Member** (analyst, predictive) - Synthesized from period accounts - Stukeley's field journals and 'Stonehenge: A Temple Restor'd to the Druids' (1740)
  > Each phase of construction marks a refinement of sacred geometry. The ancients understood celestial harmonies we are only beginning to rediscover.
- **A Wiltshire Farmer, Local Landowner** (consumer, skeptical) - Synthesized from period accounts - oral tradition recorded in 18th-century travel diaries
  > These great stones have stood since before memory. Scholars now say they were built in stages, but to us they have always simply been - immovable as the earth.
- **Sir Edmund Halley, Royal Society Mathematician and Astronomer** (official, predictive) - Synthesized from period accounts - Royal Society correspondence and proceedings (1690s-1700s)
  > The monument's phases suggest knowledge of geometry and star-craft. Future men will parse these mysteries far better than we can now.
- **An Oxford Scholar, Writing in the Philosophical Transactions** (media, supportive) - Synthesized from period accounts - The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (c. 1710)
  > The completion of Stonehenge's phases represents a triumph of collective human ambition across centuries - proof that savagery and learning are not absolute states.

## Impact

Stonehenge's completion marked the end of one of prehistory's most ambitious engineering projects. The final phase locked in place a monument whose construction had spanned generations, creating a site whose purpose—ceremonial, astronomical, or otherwise—remains debated by archaeologists today.

## Sources

- [Stonehenge Stakes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge_Stakes) - Wikipedia

---
Canonical: https://recap.at/1500/stonehenge-completion