- Professor Mike Parker Pearson, University of Sheffield
- Professor Julian Thomas, University of Manchester
- Dr Joshua Pollard, University of Bristol
- Dr Colin Richards, University of Manchester
- Chris Tilley, University College London
- Dr Kate Welham, Bournemouth University
A major research project in the Stonehenge area, that is part funded by the AHRC through the Standard Research Grant scheme, has revealed that the monument was part of a larger ritual centre.
The Stonehenge Riverside Project is a joint collaboration between archaeologists at the Universities of Sheffield, Manchester, Bristol, UCL and bournemouth. Together they have unearthed a huge settlement at Durrington Walls, near Stonehenge.
The AHRC Standard Research Grant of nearly half a million pounds is being used to support the research being undertaken at this site and so far excavations have revealed an enormous ancient settlement that once housed hundreds of people. Archaeologists believe the houses were constructed and occupied by the builders of nearby Stonehenge, the legendary monument on Salisbury Plain.
The houses have been radiocarbon dated to 2600-2500 B.C., the same 
period Stonehenge was built - one of the facts that leads the archaeologists to conclude that people who lived in the Durrington Walls houses were responsible for constructing Stonehenge. The houses form the largest Neolithic or new stone age village ever found in Britain.
The discoveries help confirm a theory that Stonehenge did not stand in isolation but was part of a much larger religious complex used for funerary ritual. Durrington Walls is the world's largest known henge - an enclosure with a bank outside it and a ditch inside, usually thought to be ceremonial. It is some 450 metres across and encloses a series of concentric rings of huge timber posts.
Professor Parker Pearson now believes that Stonehenge and Durrington Walls were intimately connected. He said: "Durrington's purpose was to celebrate life and deposit the dead in the river for transport to the afterlife, while Stonehenge was a memorial and even final resting place for some of the dead."
He added: "This discovery at Durrington Walls sheds light on the actual purpose of Stonehenge and shows that it wasn't a monument in isolation but part of a larger complex."
Directors of the Stonehenge Riverside Project are Professor Mike Parker Pearson (Univeristy of Sheffield), Professor Julian Thomas (University of Manchester), Dr Joshua Pollard University of Bristol), Dr Colin Richards (University of Manchester), Chris Tilley (University College London) and Dr Kate Welham (Bournemouth University). The Project is run by the universities of Sheffield, Manchester, Bournemouth, Bristol and University College London.
The Stonehenge Riverside Project is currently funded by the AHRC, National Geographic Society and English Heritage. The project has been running since 2003 and was funded in 2004-2005 by the British Academy, the Royal Archaeological Institute, English Heritage, the Prehistoric Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the McDonald Institute. Other contributors to the project include Wessex Archeaology and the University of Cambridge.
The landowners include the Ministry of Defence, the National Trust and Wiltshire County Council.
Further inormation on this project can be seen at http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/research/stonehenge/index.html and http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070130-stonehenge.html