INTRODUCTION
STONEHENGE EXHIBITION
teachers’ resource
Welcome to Stonehenge. This resource is designed to support Key Stage 2 teachers lead their
class on a free self-led tour of the Stonehenge exhibition before visiting the stones. The resource
can be adapted for different age groups. There are 5 activities in the exhibition. Teachers can
spend as little or as much time in the exhibition as they wish. However, we recommend between
45 minutes to 1 hour using this resource. As well as the exhibition, we would encourage you to
take your group to visit the reconstructed Neolithic houses in the outside exhibition space.
This resource has been designed using a ratio of 30-35 children to 5-6 adults and is structured
around children working in groups. It might be helpful to assign these groups before
entering the exhibition. Please adapt it as necessary for the requirements of your group.
This resource addresses the following
key questions:
n
How was Stonehenge built?
n
How did the people who built Stonehenge live?
n
n
n
What is the difference between the Stone Age
and the Bronze Age?
How has the physical layout of Stonehenge
changed over time?
Why was Stonehenge built?
Through the process of answering these
questions in the exhibition, the pupils will
be able to:
n
n
Understand that questions about prehistory can
only be investigated through archaeological remains
that have survived
Use observational skills to make deductions
Before beginning the visit, you may want to ask your class what they already know about
Stonehenge. This may help you decide whether there are any parts of the exhibition you
want to spend more time on.
BOOKING AND SITE INFORMATION:
0370 333 0606
[email protected]
www.english-heritage.org.uk/onlinebooking
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Activity 1 (6 minutes): How has the physical
layout of Stonehenge changed over time?
Encourage the children to either stand in a circle or
sit down in the middle of the surrounding 360° video
animation (depending on how busy the exhibition is).
We suggest the children watch the video once through
without commentary before the teacher narrates during
the second time.
The video begins when the following image is displayed:
Phase 2: “500 years later, 4,500 years ago, the large
stones were put up at Stonehenge for the first time.
The larger stones called sarsens make up the stone
circle and horseshoe arrangement in the middle. There
are also smaller stones called bluestones in the middle
of the stone circle in a horseshoe shape.”
Phase 3: “300 years later, 4,200 years ago, the smaller
bluestones in the middle of the stone circle were
rearranged to form two full circles. This was the last
major construction activity at Stonehenge.”
Phase 4: “This is how Stonehenge looks today. It is now
in a ruined state. Have a think about what is missing.”
Move out of the 360 video into the exhibition space
and turn left towards the Stonehenge models.
Activity 2 (5 minutes): How has Stonehenge
changed over time?
The video explains how Stonehenge has changed over
four phases. Each phase of development is marked by
a black out and lights up with a date in the top hand
corner of each screen.
To narrate the video use this script:
Phase 1: “5,000 years ago, there were no stones, only
a ditch around the outside. Just inside there were 56
stones or posts. The holes where these stood contained
the remains of about 150 cremated men, women
and children.
Ask the students to gather in their groups around the
models, one per group. Each model represents one of
four stages in the construction of Stonehenge from
5,000 years ago, to 4,500 years ago, to 2,200 years ago
and to how it looks today.
Each group should study the model their group has
been assigned to. We have made some suggestions for
questions to ask them relating to each model below,
beginning with some recap questions to test their
learning from the 360 video in activity 1. The questions
are accompanied by an annotated diagram of the
relevant model. Key words are included in the glossary;
this can be found on page 17.
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During this activity, the key questions
addressed will be:
How has the layout of Stonehenge changed
over time?
n How does each phase differ and compare
to each other?
n
Key vocabulary:
n
Heel stone, Altar stone, sarsen, bluestone,
Aubrey hole, lintel, slaughter stone, trilithon,
Neolithic, avenue, earthwork, enclosure
By the end of this activity, the children
should be able to:
Explain how Stonehenge has changed over
four phases using more technical vocabulary
n Identify and name key stones and other
physical features
n
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Model 1: The Henge
a) Recap Questions
Q: How long ago was the first part of Stonehenge built?
A: 5,000 years ago
Q: Which phase of Stonehenge’s construction is represented in this model?
Q: What part of Stonehenge was built first?
A: Ditch and bank (a ‘Henge’)
Q: What features can you see and identify in this
phase of construction?
3. Another possible
entrance into Stonehenge
1. Earthwork enclosure
4. Aubrey Holes (containing standing
stones or post and
cremations)
2. Main possible entrance
to Stonehenge
5. Heel Stone
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Model 2: The first arrangement of the Stones
a) Recap Questions
b)How does Model 2 of construction compare
to Model 1?
Q: When did they start erecting the stones?
A: 4,500 years ago (500 years later)
5. Horizontal Lintel
1. Stone Circle
(Sarsen Stones)
3. Bluestones in a
horseshoe shape
4. Altar Stone
2. Trilithons (5)
6. Four standing stones
(now called Station Stones)
7. Two standing stones
(one of which now called
the Slaughter Stones)
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Model 3: The rearrangement of the bluestones
a) Recap Question
b) How does this phase of construction
compare to the previous phase?
Q: When did they start this phase of construction?
A: About 4,200 years ago (300 years later)
2. Rearrangement of the Bluestones from
horseshoe shape into a full circle and an
inner oval among the larger sarsen stones
1. The Avenue
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Model 4: How Stonehenge looks today
Q: What phase of Stonehenge’s construction do you
think this model represents?
A: This is how Stonehenge currently looks
Q:How does this differ to the previous phases of
construction?
The following questions may be helpful if the
group is struggling:
1. Which parts of the Stone Circle are missing?
2. Which inner trilithons are missing?
3. How many bluestones remain standing?
4. Where is the altar stone?
Two stones (and the
lintels on top) of two
of the Trilithons have
fallen down
The altar stone is
underneath the
collapsed standing
stone of the ruined
trilithon
Only 4 Bluestones remain
standing in the outer circle
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Activity 3 (25-40 minutes) (5-8 minutes
on each case): Glass cases
Running down the centre of the exhibition, there
are 5 glass cases. The three glass cases found in the
middle of the room should be looked at individually.
The remaining two glass cases side by side at the end
of the room, next to the models, should be looked at
together as comparisons will need to be made
between the objects in them.
Split the children into 4 groups. Each group should be
supervised by an adult who can guide the children by
asking the relevant questions assigned to each case.
Each case has three sides. Side 1 always faces towards
the centre of the exhibition space. Please rotate
clockwise to Side 2, and so on.
You may rotate the groups between each glass case
as you wish. It does not matter which glass case each
group starts at. Adults may either stick to one glass case
or rotate to each glass case remaining with the same
group, depending on how familiar they are with the
exhibition.
Antlers
Glass Case 1: How was Stonehenge built?
Side 1
Q:Do you remember what part of Stonehenge was constructed first?
A: The bank and ditch, 5,000 years ago
Q: Does anyone know what the enclosure would have
been made of?
A: Chalk
Q: Using the objects you can see in the case, what do
you think they would have used to dig up the sacred
earthwork enclosure?
A: Deer antlers, used like pick axes or rakes
Discuss:
What this process might have been like?
n How this process might be undertaken today
and with what sorts of tools?
n
Auroch (not used for digging)
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Q1: How much do you
think the sarsen and
bluestones weigh?
A: Sarsen stones
(30 tonnes, equivalent
to 8 elephants)
A: Bluestones: 1-2 tonnes
Glass Case 1: How
was Stonehenge built?
Side 2
Q6: What shape are
the sarsen stones that
make up Stonehenge?
A: Rectangular
Ask the group to look
at the map at the top of
the case and answer the
following questions.
Q7: Do you think they
would have found the
stones in this shape?
A: No
Q2: Where did the
sarsen stones come from?
A: Marlborough Downs
Q8: How do you think
they would have carved
the sarsen stones into the
shape they are in now?
A: Using mauls
(smaller stones)
and hammerstones
(larger stones) and
bashing them to shape
stones
Q3: Where did the
bluestones come from?
A: Preseli Hills,
South Wales
Ask the group to watch
the video and answer
the following questions.
Q5: Which is the
bluestone? Which is
the sarsen stone? What
differences can you see?
Q4: So, how do you
think they transported
the stones?
Q5: How do you think
they stood the stones up?
Key vocabulary:
n Earthwork,
enclosure, chalk, antler,
sarsen, bluestone,
maul, hammerstone,
Marlborough Downs,
Preseli Hills, Mortise and
Tenon, Tongue and Groove
bluestone
sarsen stone
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Glass Case 2: Who
built Stonehenge?
Side 1
Ask the children to look
at the illustration of this
Neolithic house and ask
the following questions:
Q1: Do you know where
the people who built
Stonehenge lived?
A: Durrington Walls
Q2: What would the roof
have been made of?
A: Hazel wood
Q3: Where would they
have slept?
A: Bed made of goat skin
and hazel wood
Q4: Where would they
have cooked their meals?
A: On the hearth
(on the fire in the centre
of the hut)
Q5: What would they
have eaten?
A: Pigs (pork), cattle (beef),
red deer, fruit from plants
such as berries and nuts.
Q6: What do you think
their diet was like? How
does it compare to today?
A: They would have
needed to eat well to be
able to undertake such
physical labour
Q7: How do you think
they would have caught
wild animals?
A: Hunting (bow and
arrow)
Show the group the
arrow heads on Side 2
(turn to next page) and
allow them to touch the
different arrowheads
at the bottom of the
display case
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Glass Case 2: Who
built Stonehenge?
Side 2
Q8: What are these
objects and how would
they have been used?
A: Arrowheads made
of flint
A: Hunting wild animals
for food
Discuss:
How the everyday lives
of Stone Age people
compare to the children’s
everyday lives today?
Watch the video to see
how a bow and arrow
was made during the tone
Age using wood, feathers,
Flint and Tree sap (amber).
If you have time, explain
this object!
Key vocabulary:
This is the leg bone of a
pig which still has the tip
of an arrowhead in its
bone joint!
hearth, flint, huntergatherer, pigs, wild cattle,
goats, hazel wood
n Durrington Walls,
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Glass Case 3: Why is
Stonehenge unique?
Side 1
At Durrington Walls,
archaeologists found lots
of abandoned objects
between the remains of
huts they excavated. Focus
on the objects numbered
7, 9 and 10. Durrington
Walls is 2 miles (3km)
from Stonehenge.
Archaeologists found lots
of abandoned objects
between the remains of
excavated huts.
Q2: Look at number
10. Imagine you are an
archaeologist in 2,000
years’ time. Do you think
you would find all these
objects? Why?
A: An example of this is
the flint knife. The handle
is made out of wood.
Wood comes from trees,
so it is an organic material.
Therefore, it would rot.
Q1: What do you think
they were they used for?
A: The answers are on
the labels in the display
window.
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Glass Case 3: Why is
Stonehenge unique?
Side 2
The following sites in
England also have large
monuments like Stonehenge
- stone circles, earthwork
enclosures or large tombs.
Q1: Look at the pictures
of the stone circles at the
top. How do these sites
compare to Stonehenge?
A1: The stones do not have
lintels on top. Stonehenge
is the only stone circle in
the world where the
standing stones have
lintels on top, these are
called trilithons.
A2: The stones are
unshaped. Stonehenge
is the only stone circle
in the world where the
standing stones have been
purposefully shaped.
Discuss:
Are you surprised at the
number of sites?
Key vocabulary:
n lintel, carved
stone
Ring of Brodgar,
Orkney Islands
Callanish,
Outer Hebrides
Thornborough Henges,
Yorkshire
Newgrange, County
Meath
Avebury, Wiltshire
Q2: Look at number 10.
Take a look at this
Grooved Ware pot.
Do you think that
archaeologists would find
this in its complete form
during excavations?
A: No.
Q3: How do you think
they would find it?
A: In small fragmented
pieces like this.
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Glass Cases 4 and 5: What is the difference
between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age?
Glass cases 4 and 5 each contain a skeleton and a set of
tools. Glass case 4 contains a skeleton and a set of tools
from the Stone Age. Glass case 5 contains a skeleton
and a set of tools from the Bronze Age. First, ask the
group to compare the two skeletons to develop their
observational skills. Secondly, ask the group to compare
the tools that people used before, during the time of
Stonehenge and after Stonehenge.
Q1: How do these skeletons compare and contrast?
Side 1
Glass Case 4: Before Stonehenge (Male)
Slide 1
Glass Case 5: After Stonehenge (Male)
Teeth: Full set of teeth
Teeth: Lots of missing teeth
Ribs: Some ribs missing
Ribs: Lots of missing ribs
Skull: Hole in the right hand side of the head
Skull: Heavily cracked skull
Murder Mystery: Based on their skeletal remains, how do you think these people died? Encourage the group to
think beyond weapons and warfare and also consider hygiene, disease and illness, daily tasks, diet.
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Q2: How do the tools of Neolithic people and Bronze
Age people compare? What do you find in a Bronze
Age toolkit that you do not find in a Stone Age toolkit?
Side 2
Glass Case 4: Late Neolithic Toolkit
Slide 2
Glass Case 5: Bronze Age toolkit
Stone and bone tools
Stone, bone and metal (bronze)
Q3: Why are the pots different in each period?
What do you notice about them?
Key vocabulary:
n Stone
Age, Bronze Age, stone, metal (bronze)
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If you have time . . .
Activity 4: Why was Stonehenge built?
Activity 7: Special Exhibition
Split the group into four groups and take them back
into the exhibition. Inside the exhibition there are
four screens. Each screen shows five 1 minute films
in squence - four theories and one about what
Stonehenge means to people today. Once each
group has watched each theory being explained, bring
everyone together in the corner of the exhibition and
get them to summarise the theories, then ask them
why they think Stonehenge was built. Remember to
emphasise that nobody knows for sure why
Stonehenge was built, so they cannot be wrong.
If you have time, you may want to go into the special
exhibition. The exhibition changes throughout the year,
to find out what the latest exhibition is, please visit
our website: www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/
stonehenge
Activity 5: How has the landscape around Stonehenge
changed over time?
Take a look at the panoramic video of Stonehenge.
There is a timeline along the top of the screen which
corresponds to the formation of different parts of the
landscape around Stonehenge. Ask the students to
identify what they see in the video outside when they
are walking around the stones.
Activity 6: How did the people who built
Stonehenge live?
Split them into their groups and go through the double
doors out of the exhibition. Outside is a replica sarsen
stone which they can pretend to pull, a real sarsen
and bluestone which they can touch and a series of
reconstructed Neolithic houses. These houses and the
artefacts inside them are based on what archaeologists
excavated at nearby Durrington Walls. They are allowed
to go inside and ask volunteers questions about how
Stone Age people lived 4,000 years ago.
Discovery Visits
Our Discovery Visits are our expert-led sessions which
cost just £100 for a class of about 30 students and run
for 2 hours. At Stonehenge we have three sessions
available Tuesday - Thursday during term time. To find
out more please visit our website www.english-heritage.
org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/school-visits/
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Glossary
A
Altar Stone: A flat slab of fine-grained sandstone, probably from central
south Wales, that lies buried under the fallen stones of the Great Trilithons
in the centre of Stonehenge.
Antler pick: A prehistoric digging tool often made from the main beam and
first (brow) tine (the branches) of a red deer antler. They are very useful as
samples for radiocarbon dating of ditches, pits and stone-holes.
Archaeology: The science of investigating the human past by means of
surviving evidence, both structures and objects (artefacts).
Artefacts: any object made or modified by human hands.
Aubrey Holes: The 56 regularly spaced pits just inside the inner edge of
the ditch of the Stonehenge enclosure. They were dug early in the history
of Stonehenge - around 3000-2900BC and held either timber posts or
smaller stone pillars. They were also used for the burial of cremated human
bones.
Avenue: The earthwork, consisting of parallel ditches and banks that links
the entrance to the Stonehenge enclosure with the River Avon at West
Avebury.
Avon (River): The river that flows approximately north-south on the
western side of the Stonehenge landscape. It flows past Durrington Walls/
Woodhenge to the north and West Amesbury henge to the south and is
seen by some part of a routeway that links these sites with Stonehenge.
‘Avon’ means river so the River Avon is the ‘River River’.
B
Bluestone: A term used to describe the smaller stones at Stonehenge
which originate in the Preseli Hills in south-west Wales. This overall term
includes a variety of different types of rock (rhyolite, dolerites) which all
come from the same broad area.
C
E
Earthwork: The term used to describe sites and monuments that are
defined by banks, mounds and/or ditches constructed from or dug out of
the underlying soils and rock. Examples include barrows, henges, cursus etc.
Enclosure: A space usually defined by an earthwork. These can be linear
(cursus, avenue) or circular (henge).
F
Flint: A hard glassy rock consisting of almost pure silica which is found in
chalk and river gravels and which was used by prehistoric people to make
a wide range of tools. It fractures in a predictable way when struck with a
stone or bone hammer (knapping) and can be more finely worked using
pressure to make, for example, arrowheads.
H
Heel Stone: The large unshaped upright sarsen stone that stands just
outside the entrance to the earthwork enclosure at Stonehenge.
Henge: A term used to describe late Neolithic circular enclosures. They are
characterised by having their bank outside their ditch. They can have two or
four entrances and inside may have circular settings of upright timber posts
or stones. Their construction and use is often associated with Grooved
Ware pottery. (NB. The earthwork enclosure at Stonehenge, where the
bank is inside the ditch - is not a typical henge)
I
Iron Age: The period after the Bronze Age. It starts in about 800BC with
the introduction of iron and ends with the Roman invasion of 43AD. This
period sees the development of a structured and more ‘tribal’ society with
elite groups constructing and occupying large defensible hilltop enclosures
(‘hillforts’).
L
Cremation: The funeral rite of burning a body on a pyre (essentially a
bonfire) to reduce it to bone. Open pyre cremation produces bone that
is pale in colour, twisted and cracked but still essentially recognisable.
Lintel: A horizontal structural element that spans two uprights. In the
context of Stonehenge this refers to the five horizontal stones that lay on
top of the sarsen trilithons and the 30 that spanned the uprights of the
sarsen circle.
D
M
Durrington Walls: A huge henge that lies close to Woodhenge on the west
bank of River Avon, to which it is linked with an avenue. Excavations have
shown that it was a major settlement (village) in about 2500BC as well as
a place for ceremony and feasting.
Marlborough Downs: The area of North Wiltshire, home of the Avebury
complex of Neolithic monuments (Avebury, West Kennet long barrow,
Silbury Hill, Windmill Hill etc.) which is propably the source of the
Stonehenge sarsens.
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M (continued)
Maul: The round balls of sarsen or flint, that were used as hammers to
shape the Stonehenge stones.
Mesolithic: The Middle Stone Age period (10,000-4000BC) a pre-farming
time when mobile groups hunted and gathered wild foods.
Mortise and tenon: The joints which lock together the uprights and lintels
of the sarsen trilithons and circle. Each joint consists of a protruding knob
on the top of the upright (the ‘tenon’) which fits into a corresponding
hollow worked into the underside of the lintel (the ‘mortise’). This is a joint
commonly used, in a more precise form, in woodworking.
N
Neolithic: The ‘New Stone Age’ (4000-2400BC), a time characterised
by the introduction of farming in the form of domesticated crops and
animals and by the construction of the first monuments - long barrows
and causewayed enclosures. Pottery, plain and round bottomed, is also
introduced at the beginning of this period as is a new leaf shape of
an arrowhead. The later part of the Neolithic sees the development
of decorated pottery (including Grooved Ware), new shapes of flint
arrowhead (see Oblique) and the construction of monuments such as
stone circles and henges.
P
Palaeolithic: The Old Stone Age from the beginnings of human occupation
of what would become Britain around one million years ago until about
10,000BC.
Prehistory (prehistoric): Meaning ‘before history’, an odd term but taken to
mean a time before written records, where our understanding of people
and their lives comes from the artefacts they left behind and the structures
that they built. In Britain, prehistory ends with the Roman invasion of
43AD but the time of prehistory obviously varies in different regions and
countries around the world.
Slaughter Stone: The horizontal sarsen stone that lies in the entrance to
the earthwork enclosure at Stonehenge. Originally one of two or three
uprights pillars, it was incorrectly thought in Victorian times to have been
an altar where human sacrifices took place.
Solstice: The longest (summer) and shortest (winter) days of the year.
Reflected in the alignment of Stonehenge as, on mid-summer day (usually
21st June) from the centre of Stonehenge, the sun appears to rise roughly
over the top of the Heel Stone (along the line of the Avenue). At midwinter (usually 21st December) the sun sets 180 degrees from this, directly
between the two upright stones of the tallest trilithon at the closed side
of the sarsen horseshoe. The two solstice events were clearly important at
Stonehenge and many other Neolithic monuments.
Station Stones: Originally four small sarsen stones placed in a rectangular
setting close to the inner edge of the earthwork bank at Stonehenge. Only
two remain; the positions of the missing ones are marked by low mounds
known as the North and South barrows (although they are not barrows).
Stone Age: The age before metal was first used. Divided into Palaeolithic
(Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) and Neolithic (New Stone
Age). The ‘lithic’ in each of these names refers to stone.
T
Trilithon: A setting of three stones (from the Greek ‘tri’ = three, ‘lithon’ =
stone), two uprights capped with a horizontal stone. Five trilithons form the
inner horseshoe within Stonehenge’s stone settings.
Tongue and groove: A type of joint used in woodworking to join planks
edge to edge. One has a protruding ‘tongue’ - the other a corresponding
‘groove’ into which the tongue fits. A version of this joint links the ends of
the lintels on Stonehenge’s sarsen circle.
Preseli Hills: A mountainous area of south-west Wales, the source of the
Stonehenge bluestones.
S
Sacred: Endowed with some special religious significance. Dedicated to a
god or made holy by religious association.
Sarsen: A type of hard pale or light brown sandstone. It is very hard due
to the silica with which the sand grains are cemented together. It is found
throughout southern England, including the Marlborough Downs area in
North Wiltshire, the probable source of the Stonehenge sarsens.
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