John Frederick Smerdon Stone (1891? – 1957) was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 archaeologist, most famous for his work in and around Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

, especially at Stonehenge

Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...

 and the Woodhenge

Woodhenge

Woodhenge is a Neolithic Class I henge and timber circle monument located in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site in Wiltshire, England. It is north-east of Stonehenge in the parish of Durrington, just north of Amesbury.-Discovery:...

 area.

In 1947, Dr Stone excavated the first ever trench across the Stonehenge cursus

Cursus

thumb|right|250px|[[Stonehenge Cursus]], Wiltshirethumb|right|250px|[[Dorset Cursus]] terminal on Thickthorn Down, DorsetCursus was a name given by early British archaeologists such as William Stukeley to the large parallel lengths of banks with external ditches which they thought were early Roman...

, at a site near the Fargo Plantation a little north west of the stone circle. This permitted its dating for the first time and Dr Stone was able to establish its prehistoric date and that it had been constructed using antler

Antler

Antlers are the usually large, branching bony appendages on the heads of most deer species.-Etymology:Antler originally meant the lowest tine, the "brow tine"...

 picks in irregular sections. In the cursus ditch fill, he also found a piece of Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 stone, incorrectly described as a fragment from the Cosheston Beds of Milford Haven

Milford Haven

Milford Haven is a town and community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, a natural harbour used as a port since the Middle Ages. The town was founded in 1790 on the north side of the Waterway, from which it takes its name...

. Coupled with the finds of bluestone

Bluestone

Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:*a feldspathic sandstone in the U.S. and Canada;*limestone in the Shenandoah Valley in the U.S...

 fragments found between the cursus and Stonehenge, Dr 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.

In 1950, Dr Stone joined R. J. C. Atkinson

Richard J. C. Atkinson

Richard John Copland Atkinson CBE was a British prehistorian and archaeologist.-Biography:He was born in Evershot, Dorset and went to Sherborne School and then Magdalen College, Oxford, reading PPE...

 and Stuart Piggott

Stuart Piggott

Stuart Ernest Piggott CBE was a British archaeologist best known for his work on prehistoric Wessex.Born in Petersfield, Hampshire, Piggott was educated at Churcher's College and on leaving school in 1927 took up a post as assistant at Reading Museum where he developed an expertise in Neolithic...

 in an excavation at Stonehenge itself. Commissioned by the Society of Antiquaries

Society of Antiquaries of London

The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...

, their work recovered many cremations and developed the phasing that still dominates much of what is written about Stonehenge.

Source

Chippendale, C "Stonehenge Complete" (Thames and Hudson, London, 2004)

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