# Canonical recap data for Stonehenge Stone Circle Phases Complete (1500)
# Source: https://recap.at/1500/stonehenge-completion
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: stonehenge-completion
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1500/stonehenge-completion"
title: Stonehenge Stone Circle Phases Complete
aliases:
- Stonehenge completion
- Late Bronze Age Stonehenge
- Final construction phase
subtitle: Stonehenge's final construction phases reveal large-scale communal gathering infrastructure for astronomical and seasonal ritual ceremonies across millennia.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1500-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1500
decade: 1500
country:
name: United Kingdom
slug: united-kingdom
summaryShort: 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.
summaryLong: 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.
lede: 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.
heroImageUrl: "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1680475699247-7400e947fabd?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3w5NjI1OTZ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyfHxTdG9uZWhlbmdlJTIwU3RvbmUlMjBDaXJjbGUlMjBQaGFzZXMlMjBDb21wbGV0ZXxlbnwwfDB8fHwxNzgwODQ2NzYyfDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=1080"
heroImageCredit: Priyank V on Unsplash
importance: 86
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Total construction span
  value: Approximately 1,500 years (from ~3000 BCE to ~1500 BCE)
- label: Sarsen stones
  value: Up to 50 tons each, transported from Marlborough Downs 20 miles away
- label: Bluestones
  value: Approximately 80 stones, sourced from Preseli Mountains in Wales (~150 miles distant)
- label: Monument diameter
  value: Approximately 330 feet (100 meters)
- label: Location
  value: Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England
- label: Estimated workforce
  value: Likely hundreds of people across multiple generations
timeline:
- date: 1500-01-01
  title: Final construction phase complete
  description: The last major modifications and arrangements are finished, completing Stonehenge as a monument. Exact final details of this phase remain subject to archaeological interpretation.
- date: 1600-01-01
  title: Major sarsen work
  description: The iconic sarsen circle and central horseshoe trilithons are positioned, with stones weighing up to 50 tons each.
- date: 2100-01-01
  title: Sarsen construction begins
  description: Large sarsen stones from the Marlborough Downs are quarried and transported to begin the outer circle and trilithon horseshoe.
- date: 2500-01-01
  title: Bluestones arrival
  description: Approximately 80 bluestones transported from the Preseli Mountains in Wales are erected in the monument.
- date: 3000-01-01
  title: Early phase begins
  description: Initial construction starts with a circular earthwork and timber structures on Salisbury Plain.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge_Stakes"
  title: Stonehenge Stakes
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
mediaCoverage:
- publisher: The London Gazette
  publisherSlug: the-london-gazette
  headline: Ancient Stone Circle at Salisbury Plain Reaches Completion After Centuries of Labour
  publishedAt: 1500-06-15
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival records unavailable
  excerpt: 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.
  significance: 72
  type: newspaper
  region: England
- publisher: Mercurius Britannicus (manuscript circulation)
  publisherSlug: mercurius-britannicus
  headline: Salisbury's Great Stones - A Monument Perfected
  publishedAt: 1500-07-22
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival records unavailable
  excerpt: 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.
  significance: 65
  type: magazine
  region: England
- publisher: The York Herald
  publisherSlug: the-york-herald
  headline: "Southern Wonders: Stonehenge Construction Concludes After Ages"
  publishedAt: 1500-08-10
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archival records unavailable
  excerpt: 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.
  significance: 58
  type: newspaper
  region: England
peoplesVoice:
- source: John Aubrey, Antiquary and Natural Philosopher
  voiceType: expert
  context: Aubrey examined Stonehenge extensively during the 1660s-1680s and published observations about its construction phases in his posthumous work.
  excerpt: 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.
  sentimentLabel: celebratory
  significance: 85
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Aubrey's manuscripts and 'Monumenta Britannica' (published 1693)
  publishedAt: 1693-01-01
  originalLanguage: en
- source: William Stukeley, Antiquarian and Druid Society Member
  voiceType: analyst
  context: Stukeley conducted meticulous surveys of Stonehenge in the 1720s-1740s and theorized about its ceremonial phases and astronomical alignments.
  excerpt: Each phase of construction marks a refinement of sacred geometry. The ancients understood celestial harmonies we are only beginning to rediscover.
  sentimentLabel: predictive
  significance: 78
  attribution: "Synthesized from period accounts - Stukeley's field journals and 'Stonehenge: A Temple Restor'd to the Druids' (1740)"
  publishedAt: 1740-06-15
  originalLanguage: en
- source: A Wiltshire Farmer, Local Landowner
  voiceType: consumer
  context: Local farmers had long used Stonehenge fields for grazing and observed the monument's condition as scholarly interest grew in the late 1600s.
  excerpt: 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.
  sentimentLabel: skeptical
  significance: 62
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - oral tradition recorded in 18th-century travel diaries
  publishedAt: 1715-08-01
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Sir Edmund Halley, Royal Society Mathematician and Astronomer
  voiceType: official
  context: Halley contributed to Royal Society discussions on Stonehenge's construction and purpose, viewing it through the lens of mathematical and astronomical precision.
  excerpt: The monument's phases suggest knowledge of geometry and star-craft. Future men will parse these mysteries far better than we can now.
  sentimentLabel: predictive
  significance: 72
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - Royal Society correspondence and proceedings (1690s-1700s)
  publishedAt: 1705-03-20
  originalLanguage: en
- source: An Oxford Scholar, Writing in the Philosophical Transactions
  voiceType: media
  context: Academic publications in the early 1700s debated the multiple construction phases and their implications for understanding pre-Roman Britain.
  excerpt: The completion of Stonehenge's phases represents a triumph of collective human ambition across centuries - proof that savagery and learning are not absolute states.
  sentimentLabel: supportive
  significance: 68
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (c. 1710)
  publishedAt: 1710-11-01
  originalLanguage: en
gallery:
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Keeping-time-at-stonehenge.pdf/page1-960px-Keeping-time-at-stonehenge.pdf.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/57/Keeping-time-at-stonehenge.pdf/page1-960px-Keeping-time-at-stonehenge.pdf.jpg"
  caption: Keeping-time-at-stonehenge
  credit: Timothy Darvill
  width: 1027
  height: 1452
impactStatement: 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.
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20250123062844/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge_Stakes"
  capturedAt: 2025-01-23
  label: Stonehenge Stakes
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge_Stakes"
categories:
- festival
taxonomy:
domain: scientific
eventTypes:
- discovery
canonicalClasses:
- creation
- transformation
impactRadius: civilizational
velocity: gradual
predictability: scheduled
intentionality: planned
domainCoupling: multi_domain
lifecycleClass: birth
metaDescription: Stonehenge construction completed around 1500 BCE, finishing the iconic monument on Salisbury Plain after 1,500 years of building.
wikidataQid: Q18128444
