Woodhenge, near Durrington in Wiltshire, was a late Neolithic monument whose principal structures were made of timber. Built around 2500 BC, it occupied the same broad ceremonial landscape as Stonehenge and Durrington Walls. The concrete markers now visible identify excavated post positions; they are modern aids to interpretation, not surviving prehistoric pillars. This distinction is essential because the original monument would have been experienced as an arrangement of substantial wooden uprights, with different colours, textures and visual barriers from those presented by the low markers today.

Six nested oval settings of posts stood within an enclosing ditch and bank. Their layout required planning, the selection of timber and the excavation of sockets capable of supporting the uprights. Building with wood did not make a monument insignificant or temporary in its social meaning. Trees had to be felled and moved, labour organised and positions established across the chosen ground. The finished arrangement would have directed movement and sightlines, creating distinctions between inner and outer spaces that are difficult to appreciate from a plan alone.

Finds and deposits indicate repeated activity at the site, although the details of ceremonies remain uncertain. Pottery, animal remains and objects placed around posts and within earthworks help archaeologists consider practices of gathering and deposition. The monument's orientation also relates to the midsummer sunrise. Such an alignment suggests attention to seasonal events, but it does not supply a complete explanation of belief. Woodhenge's relationship with neighbouring monuments has encouraged wider interpretations of ritual landscapes, which should be recognised as arguments developed from evidence rather than direct testimony from its builders.

Aerial photography brought the site to attention in 1925, when crop marks revealed buried features that were difficult to recognise from the ground. Excavations by Maud and Ben Cunnington followed in 1926 and 1927. Their work established the post settings and led to the installation of markers that made the plan accessible to visitors. The discovery illustrates an important change in archaeology: observation from above could reveal patterns across cultivated land and identify monuments whose original materials had decayed almost completely.

Woodhenge therefore has two closely connected histories, one of prehistoric construction and use and another of archaeological recovery. Its modest modern appearance should not obscure the scale of the vanished structure or the wider setting in which it stood. Comparing the markers, earthworks and surrounding landscape encourages an understanding of Neolithic architecture beyond surviving stone. The site shows how timber buildings could organise communal experience, while also demonstrating the methods through which traces in soil can be transformed into a carefully qualified account of a distant human past.