The Stonehenge & Avebury WHS Research Framework provides a united historic environment research agenda and strategy for the Stonehenge & Avebury World Heritage Site.

Resulting from discussion across the research community, the Framework offers a guide that encompasses the widest possible set of views and priorities. It is in every sense a collaborative document, produced by and for the constituency of researchers working in the World Heritage Site.

 

The Research Framework

The three volumes of the Research Framework consist of the following, click on each title to download:

• Resource Assessment of the Avebury part of the World Heritage Site summarising the known archaeological and historical record and the key techniques used in their investigation

 

• Summary of Research Activity in the Stonehenge Landscape summarising the advances in knowledge in that part of the World Heritage Site since the publication of the original Stonehenge Research Framework in 2005.

 

• Research Agenda and Strategy which builds on the accompanying resource assessments to provide the first fully integrated Research Framework for the whole of the World Heritage Site

 

Previous Research Frameworks

The two parts of the World Heritage Site historically had separate research frameworks that were created at different times and in different formats.  A project funded by Historic England and delivered by Wessex Archaeology to create a united Research Framework was completed in 2016 and launched at the WHS’s 30th Anniversary Conference. The Avebury and Stonehenge Archaeological & Historical Research Group (ASAHRG) also played a key role in this work.

The Historic England website provides links to the archive Archaeological Research Agenda for Avebury WHS (2001). You can download a copy of the Stonehenge WHS: An Archaeological Research Framework (2005) here.