John Frederick Smerdon Stone (20 July 1899 – 12 May 1957) was a British archaeologist, most famous for his work in and around
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
, especially at
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...
and the
Woodhenge
Woodhenge is a Neolithic Class II henge and timber circle monument within the Stonehenge World Heritage Site in Wiltshire, England. It is north-east of Stonehenge, in Durrington parish, just north of the town of Amesbury.
Discovery
Woodheng ...
area.
Stone was born in
Bath, Somerset
Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...
. In 1947, Stone excavated the first ever trench across the Stonehenge
cursus
250px, Stonehenge Cursus, Wiltshire
250px, Dorset Cursus terminal on Thickthorn Down, Dorset
Cursuses are monumental Neolithic structures resembling ditches or trenches in the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. Relics found within them in ...
, at a site near the Fargo Plantation a little north west of the stone circle. This permitted its dating for the first time and Stone was able to establish its prehistoric date and that it had been constructed using
antler
Antlers are extensions of an animal's skull found in members of the Cervidae (deer) family. Antlers are a single structure composed of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, and blood vessels. They are generally found only on male ...
picks in irregular sections. In the cursus ditch fill, he also found a piece of
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
stone, incorrectly described as a fragment from the Cosheston Beds of
Milford Haven
Milford Haven ( cy, Aberdaugleddau, meaning "mouth of the two Rivers Cleddau") is both a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has ...
. Coupled with the finds of
bluestone
Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:
* basalt in Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand
* dolerites in Tasmania, Australia; and in Britain (including Stonehenge)
* felds ...
fragments found between the cursus and Stonehenge, Stone hypothesised that an earlier bluestone monument, predating the megalithic stages of Stonehenge, had stood near the cursus and been subsequently moved and re-erected on its current spot.
[ Chippendale, C "Stonehenge Complete" (Thames and Hudson, London, 2004)]
In 1950, Stone joined
R. J. C. Atkinson
:''Alternative meaning: Richard Atkinson (educator)''
Richard John Copland Atkinson CBE (22 January 1920 – 10 October 1994) was a British prehistorian and archaeologist.
Biography
Atkinson was born in Evershot, Dorset, and went to Sherbo ...
and
Stuart Piggott in an excavation at Stonehenge itself. Commissioned by the
Society of Antiquaries, their work recovered many cremations and developed the phasing that still dominates much of what is written about Stonehenge.
References
Further reading
* Stone, John F.S., 1935. ''Some discoveries at Ratfyn, Amesbury and their bearing on the date of Woodhenge'', Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 47, 55-67
* Stone, John F.S., 1936. ''An enclosure on Boscombe Down East'', Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 47, 466-489
* Stone, John F.S., 1938. ''An early Bronze Age grave in Fargo Plantation near Stonehenge'', Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 48, 357-70
* Stone, John F.S., 1947. ''The Stonehenge Cursus and its affinities'', Archaeological Journal, 104, 7-19
* Stone, John F.S., & Young, W.E.V., 1948. ''Two pits of grooved ware date near Woodhenge'', Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 52, 287-306
* Stone, John F.S., 1949. ''Some grooved ware pottery from the Woodhenge area'', Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 15, 122-27
* Stone, John F.S., 1958. ''Wessex Before the Celts'', Frederick A Praeger Publishers, New York, 1958, Library of Congress Card # 58-8184
1899 births
1957 deaths
Archaeologists of Stonehenge
People from Bath, Somerset
20th-century British archaeologists
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