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Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, ii, iii
Reference	373
Region**	Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription	1986  (10th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. ** Region as classified by UNESCO.

Avebury is the site of a large henge and several stone circles surrounding the village of Avebury in the English county of Wiltshire. It is one of the finest and largest Neolithic monuments in Europe, about 5,000 years old. Although older than the megalithic stages of Stonehenge 32 kilometres (20 mi) to the south, the two monuments are broadly contemporary overall. Avebury is roughly midway between the towns of Marlborough and Calne, just off the main A4 road on the northbound A4361 towards Wroughton. The henge is a Scheduled Ancient Monument^[1] and a World Heritage Site.^[2]

Avebury is a National Trust property.

Location and environment

Map showing the location of Avebury within Wiltshire.

At grid reference SU10266996,^[3] Avebury is respectively about 6 and 7 mi (10 and 11 km) from the modern towns of Marlborough and Calne. Avebury lies in an area of chalkland in the Upper Kennet Valley at the western end of the Berkshire Downs that forms the catchment for the River Kennet with local springs and seasonal watercourses. The monument stands slightly above the local landscape, sitting on a low chalk ridge 160 m (520 ft) above sea level; to the east are the Marlborough Downs, an area of lowland hills. The site lies at the centre of a collection of Neolithic and early Bronze Age monuments and was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in a co-listing with the monuments at Stonehenge, 17 mi (27 km) to the south, in 1986. It is now listed as part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site.^[4] The monuments are preserved as part of a Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape for the information they provide regarding prehistoric people's relationship with the landscape.^[5]

Radiocarbon dating and analysis of pollen in buried soils, has shown that the environment of lowland Britain changed around 4,250–4,000 BC. The change to a grassland environment from damp, heavy soils and expanses of dense forest was mostly brought about by farmers, probably through the use of slash and burn techniques, although environmental factors may also have made a contribution. Pollen is poorly preserved in the chalky soils found around Avebury, so the best evidence for the state of local environment at any time in the past comes from the study of the deposition of snail shells; different species of snail live in specific habitats so the presence of a certain species indicates what the area was like at a particular point in time.^[6] The available evidence suggests that in the early Neolithic, Avebury and the surrounding hills were covered in dense oak woodland, and as the Neolithic progressed, the woodland around Avebury and the nearby monuments receded and was replaced by grassland.^[7]

Before the henge

West Kennet Avenue

The history of the site prior to the construction of the henge is uncertain due to a lack of dating evidence from modern archaeological excavations.^[8] Evidence of activity in the region before the 4th millennium BC is limited, indicating that there was little occupation. Stray finds of flints at Avebury, dating between 7,000 and 4,000 BC, indicate that the site was visited in the late Mesolithic period by hunter-gatherers, however, a collection of flints found 300 m (980 ft) to the west of Avebury marks the site of a flint working site occupied over several weeks.^[9] Avebury's later importance, despite minimal earlier activity, was not unique; sites which follow this pattern include Stonehenge in Wiltshire and Hambledon Hill in Dorset.^[10] Another possible parallel with Stonehenge is the presence of a posthole, similarly shaped to one at Stonehenge, near Avebury's southern entrance. Although this has not been dated, archaeologists Mark Gillings and Joshua Pollard believe that the position of the posthole, which is incongruous with the rest of the henge, indicates it probably dates to a pre-henge phase.^{[11 ]}

In the 4th millennium BC, around the start of the Neolithic period in Britain, society in Britain underwent radical changes. These coincided with the introduction of domesticated species of both animals and plants to Britain and a changing material culture – new objects such as pottery have been found from this period. This domestication allowed hunter-gatherers to settle down and provide their own food and led to land clearance as agriculture spread. Also, for the first time, monuments were erected, which has been taken as evidence of people changing the way they viewed their place in the world.^{[11 ]} Based on anthropological studies of modern societies, Gillings and Pollard suggest that forests, clearings, and stones were important in Neolithic culture, not only as resources but symbolically; the site of Avebury was at a convergence of these three elements.^[12] Neolithic activity at Avebury is evidenced by flint, animal bones, and pottery such as Peterborough ware dating from the early 4th and 3rd millennia BC. There are also five distinct areas of Neolithic activity within 500 m (1,600 ft) of Avebury; this includes a scatter of flints along the line of the West Kennet Avenue – an avenue that connects Avebury with the Neolithic site of The Sanctuary. Pollard suggests that areas of activity in the Neolithic became important markers in the landscape.^[13]

Construction

The construction of large monuments such as Avebury indicates that a stable agrarian economy had developed in Britain by around 4,000–3,500 BC, as the people who built them had to be secure enough to spend time on such non-essential activities. Avebury was one of a group of monuments built in the area in the Neolithic period. The monuments comprise a henge (Avebury itself) and associated long barrows, stone circles, avenues, and a causewayed enclosure. These types of monument are not exclusive to the Avebury area; for example: Stonehenge features the same monument types, and in Dorset there is a henge on the edge of Dorchester and nearby a causewayed enclosure at Maiden Castle.^[14] According to Caroline Malone, who worked for English Heritage as an inspector of monuments and was the curator of Avebury's Alexander Keiller Museum, it is possible that the monuments associated with Avebury – and other Neolithic monumental landscapes such as Stonehenge – constituted ritual or ceremonial centres.^[14]

Monument

Part of the outer circle

Most of the surviving structure is composed of earthworks, known as the dykes, consisting of a massive ditch and external bank henge. Although the henge is not perfectly circular, it has a diameter of about 420 metres (460 yd).^[15] The only known comparable sites of similar date are only a quarter of the size of Avebury. The ditch alone was 21 metres (69 ft) wide and 11 metres (36 ft) deep, with a sample from its primary fill carbon dated to 3300 - 2630 BC (4300+/-90).^[16] The excavation of the bank has demonstrated that it has been enlarged, presumably using material dug from the ditch, so it could be assumed that the construction of the ditch could have started at the earlier date, although speculation puts it nearer the later date.

Within the henge is a great outer circle. This is one of Europe's largest stone circles^[17] with a diameter of 335 metres (1,099 ft) and was either contemporary with, or built around four or five centuries after the earthworks. There were originally 98 sarsen standing stones, some weighing in excess of 40 tons. The stones varied in height from 3.6 to 4.2 m as exemplified at the north and south entrances. The fill from two of the stoneholes has been carbon dated to between 2900 and 2600 BC (3870+/-90, 4130+/-90)^[18]

Nearer the middle of the monument are two further, separate stone circles. The northern inner ring is 98 metres (322 ft) in diameter, but only two of its four standing stones remain upright. A cove of three stones stood in the middle, its entrance facing northeast.

The stone avenue

The southern inner ring was 108 metres (354 ft) in diameter before its destruction in the eighteenth century. The remaining sections of its arc now lie beneath the village buildings. A single large monolith, 5.5 metres (18 ft) high, stood in the centre along with an alignment of smaller stones. The West Kennet Avenue, an avenue of paired stones, leads from the southeastern entrance of the henge and traces of a second, the Beckhampton Avenue, lead out from the western entrance.

Archaeologist Aubrey Burl has conjectured a sequence of construction beginning with the erection of the North and South Circles around 2800 BC, followed by the Outer Circle and henge around two hundred years later, with the two avenues added around 2400 BC.

Archaeological geophysics suggests that a timber circle of two concentric rings stood in the northeast sector of the outer circle, although this has not yet been confirmed by excavation. A ploughed barrow is visible from the air in the northwestern quadrant.

The henge had four opposing entrances, two on a north by northwest and south by southeast line, and two on an east by northeast and west by southwest line.

Ancient references

The name of the village of Avebury and the earthwork have been synonymous only since the 20th century. The earliest written mention of the earthwork is from the 13th century, when it is referred to as Waledich. In 1696, it was referred to as Wallditch. Both names are of Anglo-Saxon origin, and probably mean "ditch of the wealas"; wealas was a term used by Anglo-Saxon colonists to describe an enclave of native Britons. ^[19]

Destruction of the stones

Stukeley's drawing of the stones being broken up by fire

Many of the original stones were broken up or removed from the early 14th century onwards at the behest of the Christian Church to remove the association with pagan rituals, to make room for agriculture, or to provide local building materials. Both John Aubrey and later, William Stukeley visited the site and described the destruction. When Aubrey first arrived in 1643 all the stones of the Avenue were either still in situ or lying where they had fallen. Shortly afterwards their destruction began in earnest, some were broken up by being hammered and others by being heated in large fires and broken along a line marked with water. Stukeley spent much of the 1720s recording what remained of Avebury and the surrounding monuments, and left a drawing depicting the fire and water method.^[20] Stukeley was greatly angered by the destruction of the monument saying:

And this stupendous fabric, which for some thousands of years, had brav'd the continual assaults of weather, and by the nature of it, when left to itself, like the pyramids of Egypt, would have lasted as long as the globe, hath fallen a sacrifice to the wretched ignorance and avarice of a little village unluckily plac'd within it.^[21]

Only 27 stones of the Outer Circle survive, many of them re-erected by Alexander Keiller in the 1930s. Concrete pylons now mark the former locations of the missing stones and it is likely that more stones are buried on the site.

Excavations

Part of the outer ditch

Excavation at Avebury has been limited. In 1894 Sir Henry Meux put a trench through the bank, which gave the first indication that the earthwork was built in two phases. The site was surveyed and excavated intermittently between 1908 and 1922 by a team of workmen under the direction of Harold St George Gray. He was able to demonstrate that the Avebury builders had dug down 11 metres (36 ft) into the natural chalk using red deer antlers as their primary digging tool, producing a henge ditch with a 9-metre (30 ft) high bank around its perimeter. Gray recorded the base of the ditch as being 4 metres (13 ft) wide and flat, but later archaeologists have questioned his use of untrained labour to excavate the ditch and suggested that its form may have been different. Gray found few artefacts in the ditch-fill but he did recover scattered human bones, amongst which jawbones were particularly well represented. At a depth of about 2 metres (7 ft), Gray found the complete skeleton of a 1.5-metre (5 ft) tall woman.

The Barber Stone

During the 1930s archaeologist Alexander Keiller re-erected many of the stones. Under one, now known as the Barber Stone, the skeleton of a man was discovered. Coins dating from the 1320s were found with the skeleton, and the evidence suggests that the man was fatally injured when the stone fell on him whilst he was digging the hole in which it was to be buried in a medieval "rite of destruction". As well as the coins Keiller found a pair of scissors and a lancet, the tools of a barber-surgeon at that time, hence the name given to the stone.^[22][23]

When a new village school was built in 1969 there was a further opportunity to examine the site, and in 1982 an excavation to produce carbon dating material and environmental data was undertaken.

In April 2003, during preparations to straighten some of the stones, one was found to be buried at least 2.1 metres (7 ft) below ground. It was estimated to weigh over 100 tons, making it one of the largest ever found in the UK.^[24] Later that year, a geophysics survey of the southeast and northeast quadrants of the circle by the National Trust, revealed at least 15 of the megaliths lying buried. The National Trust were able to identify their sizes, the direction in which they are lying, and where they fitted in the circle.^[25][26]

Theories

The postulated original layout of the circles

A great deal of interest surrounds the morphology of the stones, which are usually described as being in one of two categories; tall and slender, or short and squat. This has led to numerous theories relating to the importance of gender in Neolithic Britain with the taller stones considered "male" and the shorter ones "female". The stones were not dressed in any way and may have been chosen for their pleasing natural forms. Many claim to have identified carvings on the stones' surfaces, some carvings being more persuasive than others.

The human bones found by Gray point to some form of funerary purpose and have parallels in the disarticulated human bones often found at earlier causewayed enclosure sites. Ancestor worship on a huge scale could have been one of the purposes of the monument and would not necessarily have been mutually exclusive with any male/female ritual role.

The henge, although clearly forming an imposing boundary to the circle, has no defensive purpose as the ditch is on the inside. Being a henge and stone circle site, astronomical alignments are a common theory to explain the positioning of the stones at Avebury.

The relationships between the causewayed enclosure, Avebury stone circles, and West Kennet Long Barrow to the south, has caused some to describe the area as a "ritual complex" – a site with many monuments of interlocking religious function.

Interpretations

Avebury is seen as a spiritual centre by many who profess beliefs such as Paganism, Wicca, and Druidry; for some it is regarded more highly than Stonehenge. The pagan festivals all attract visitors, and the summer solstice especially draws increasingly large crowds. Avebury is said to stand on the St Michael ley line, an alignment that is said to run across England from Cornwall to East Anglia.

The question of access to the site at certain times of the year has been controversial and The National Trust, who steward and protect the site, have been in dialogue with a number of groups.^[27][28] Neo-Druids call the site Caer Abiri.^[29]

The Red Lion public house in Avebury is rumoured to be one of the most haunted pubs in England^[30]

See also

• Megaliths
• List of megalithic sites

References

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading

• Dames, Michael (1977). The Avebury Cycle. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd. ISBN 978-0500278864.  
• Francis, Evelyn (2001). Avebury. Wooden Books. ISBN 978-1904263159.  
• Gillings, Mark; Pollard, Joshua; Rick; Wheatley, David (2008). Landscape of the Megaliths: excavation and fieldwork on the Avebury monuments 1997-2003. Oxford: Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1842173138.  
• Watson, Aaron (2001). "Composing Avebury". World Archaeology 33 (2): 296–314. doi:10.1080/00438240120079307. ISSN 0043-8243. http://www.jstor.org/pss/827904.  

External links

• Avebury Concise History from Wiltshire County Council
• Avebury information at the National Trust
• Avebury website
• Avebury Pagan Events Calendar
• Ancient Places TV: HD Video of Avebury
• Day Out: Avebury and Marlborough - A 30 minute BBC TV programme made in 1983 of a day spent exploring Avebury and Marlborough
• National Trust information for Avebury

Avebury Panorama (April, 2003)

World Heritage Sites in the United Kingdom England Frontiers of the Roman Empire (Hadrian's Wall) · Blenheim Palace · Canterbury Cathedral, St. Augustine's Abbey and St. Martin's Church · Bath · Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape · Derwent Valley Mills · Durham Castle and Cathedral · Ironbridge Gorge · Jurassic Coast · Kew Gardens · Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City · Maritime Greenwich · Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's Church · Saltaire · Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites · Studley Royal Park and Fountains Abbey · Tower of London Scotland Frontiers of the Roman Empire (Antonine Wall) · Edinburgh Old Town and New Town · Heart of Neolithic Orkney · New Lanark · St. Kilda Wales Castles and Town Walls of King Edward I in Gwynedd · Blaenavon Industrial Landscape · Pontcysyllte Aqueduct Northern Ireland Giant's Causeway

Coordinates: 51°25′43″N 1°51′15″W / 51.42861°N 1.85417°W / 51.42861; -1.85417

From Wikitravel

Avebury standing stones

Avebury is a village in Wiltshire, famous for its neolithic stone circle. The henge and stone circles are thought to date from about 2500 BC to 2000 BC and are roughly contemporary with the more famous Stonehenge 20 miles to the south. The circular bank and ditch, which is almost a mile in circumference, encloses a much later mediaeval village, with a Saxon church and Elizabethan country manor. Many of the stones are missing or buried, having been considered evil by the local farmers during mediaeval times, they were toppled or broken up, many of which to be revealed and restored in the 1930s by the famous archaeologist Alexander Keiller. The village and henge lie at the centre of one of the most exciting megalithic landscapes in the world, with the remains of two prehistoric processional avenues of stones leading from the circle, leading to other nearby prehistoric points of interest such as West Kennett Long Barrow and Silbury Hill.

Get in

By car

Avebury lies at the heart of the Wiltshire Downs, accessible easily from the M4 motorway, and is located about 6 miles west of Marlborough, along the A4 (Bath Road) at the junction of the A4361 and the B4003. Local signposting directs visitors to the official tourist car park which is situated just south of the circle itself off the A4361. There is a local village car park located in the centre of the village, but this has restricted parking for non-residents during daylight hours.

By train

The nearest train stations are 10 miles away in Pewsey or 11 miles in Swindon.

By bus

Swindon, as well as being on the main line to London, has a good selection of local bus transport, and local buses which pass Avebury on their routes include Stagecoach in Swindon/First 49 Swindon-Trowbridge; Wilts & Dorset 5, 6 Salisbury-Swindon.

Get around

Avebury village can be best explored on foot, though access to the henge itself requires some climbing and walking over rough grassland, and may not be suitable for all. Apart from the driest seasons of the year, it is advisable to have waterproof shoes or walking boots, since the grass can be wet and muddy, and the exposed chalk on the slopes of the henge can become slippery when wet. Two roads bisect Avebury, splitting the massive circle into 4 'quadrants' and each quadrant is fenced separately with sprung gated access. In some seasons, parts of the henge may be roped off to prevent erosion, so please observe the signs and help keep this monument for future generations. At certain times of the year, one or more quadrants may have sheep grazing the grass and care should be taken to avoid letting any out, and dogs should be kept on a leash. The east-west road is the village High Street to the west and Green Lane to the east and is generally much quieter to cross than the main north-south road which is unfortunately the main road to Swindon and thus carries a fair amount of fast moving and heavy goods traffic. This main road takes a double hairpin bend at the centre of the circle, where it joins the High Street, and much care should be taken in this area. It is possible to walk to the other related local sights which make up the Avebury landscape, but in less favourable weather, car transport is advisable.

See

The henge itself is the main attraction of Avebury and each of the four quadrants can be visited one after the other in a single circuit of the circle. Many people prefer to go around twice, once close to the stones, and once right up on top of the henge bank, where there is a good path.

South West Quadrant

From just west of the Henge Shop on the High Street, you can enter the south west quadrant through the sprung gate and are immediately presented with an impressive arc of re-erected stones, starting with the misshapen 'blacksmiths' stone - this one was located by Keiller in the cellar of a blacksmiths where a 17th century antiquarian had noted it being toppled and used as building material. The 6th stone in from the road is the famous Barber Stone - when Keiller lifted this stone in the 1930s, the skeleton of a mediaeval Barber-Surgeon, with an intact pair of scissors, was revealed underneath, crushed by the falling stone.

South East Quadrant

After crossing the busy main road which goes south out of the village, the path leads you directly to one of the largest stones in the complex (about 60 tonnes) - the Devil's Chair - which has a small ledge on the outside edge where you can sit and make a wish. This quadrant also contains the remains of the inner stone circle and a central marker stone erected by Keiller to take the place of a much larger obelisk which stood there until the 17th century. At the exit of this quadrant, there is a huge sprawling beech tree on the henge, which reputedly JRR Tolkein used to sit under, and the exposed root system is certainly very Middle Earth.

North East Quadrant

Crossing Green Lane into the north east quadrant, there are very few stones revealed in this sector, mostly because Keiller ran out of money and this area was never excavated - you can be sure that many stones lie undiscovered under the grass. This sector does, however, contain the Cove stones, which are two huge flat stones perpendicular to each other - a third long lost stone once formed a three-sided 'cove'. It is interesting to note that while one of the stones is smooth, the other is very rough.

North West Quadrant

Crossing the busy main road into the north west quadrant, this sector is once again heavily reconstructed and as well as another impressive arc of re-erected stones, contains the single largest stone of the site - the Swindon Stone, which marks the way to Swindon. The exit from this quadrant leads you out to the courtyard where the Barn Museum, Tea Room, WC facilities, the Keiller Museum, St. James Church, and Avebury Manor gardens are all situated.

• West Kennett Avenue is the prehistoric processional avenue of stones which leads from the south east quadrant towards the Sanctuary on Overton Hill some 1 and 1/4 miles distant. Keiller re-erected all of the stones in this section of avenue in the 1930s and it gives a vivid impression of what it must have been like for prehistoric people to walk between the pairs of alternating stones (some theorists say representing male and female) to the ancient site of the Sanctuary. Unfortunately, Keiller only managed to re-erect 3/4 mile of Avenue and it cuts off abruptly at a fence. The National Trust have recently purchased the farm land beyond this boundary, but no plans for further excavation have been set. There is a small layby at the bottom end of the avenue if people wish to drive to it instead of walking from Avebury village.

• The Sanctuary is the final prehistoric destination of West Kennett Avenue and is situated on Overton Hill on the A4, just where the Ridgeway Path bisects the A4. This was the site of a prehistoric temple, far older than the Avebury complex itself. All that remains is a series of concentric circular post holes, and stone holes (the stones having been removed in the 17th century) the positions of which are now marked by concrete markers to give you some impression of the scale of the building. Standing at the centre of the circle, you can glance back towards Avebury Village and see the hole markers for the first pair of Avenue stones which eventually join up with the rest of West Kennett Avenue. Acrss the A4 from here are several later Bronze Age burial mounds.

• Silbury Hill is the largest man-made hill in Europe (130 feet high) and is thought to be contemporary with the Avebury henge complex. It is named after a mythical King Sel, who was thought to be buried at the base of the mound, but several generations of excavations have revealed no burials. It lies along the A4 to the south west of Avebury, and was thought to be the final destination of the long lost Beckhampton Avenue, another processional avenue of stones from Avebury which has long since vanished (apart from two stones now stranded in the middle of a field - the Longstones - Adam and Eve, as they are known). The hill itself is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and access is restricted. There is a car park and viewing area off the A4.

• West Kennett Long Barrow is a neolithic passage tomb with a row of impressive sarsen stones guarding the entrance. Access to the long barrow is by a 1/4 mile footpath from a layby on the A4 just to the east of Silbury Hill. The barrow itself is on the brow of a chalk ridge, and is one of the longest chambered barrows of its kind in Europe. Access to the inside of the tomb is open, and well worth exploring. At the end of the neolithic, the tomb was filled with rubble and was left that way until archaeologists in the 1960s excavated the inside, revealing dozens of skeletons of all ages in the various compartments.

• Other local areas of interest include Windmill Hill neolithic enclosure, Hackpen Hill White Horse, East Kennett Long Barrow and the Ridgeway Path.

Buy

There are several shops in the village, as well as souvenir shops in the museums.

• The village Post Office can supply most food and drink essentials, as well as allowing you to post your postcards from the village post box.
• The Henge Shop is packed with souvenirs, gifts, and pagan and spritual books and clothing, and no trip would be the same without a visit. Guided tours of Avebury can be arranged with the proprieter, as well as dowsing lessons.

Eat

The Red Lion pub serves a wide menu of meals and snacks in its two indoor restaurants, and is open all day. The pub has bench tables out in front which can be pleasant to drink at in summer, but are too close to the busy road to make eating pleasant.

The tea room located in the courtyard beside the Great Barn Museum is open seasonally and sells sandwiches, buiscuits and teas, and has an indoor and outdoor seating area.

• Right at the centre of the circle is the famous Red Lion pub, which also has rooms to let, and is one of the more famous haunted hotels in the region. It was built in the 17th century and features a well inside the pub which is supposed to have been the scene of several grisly murders. The pub caters for families, and has two bars, an extensive dining room and menu, as well as B&B bedrooms.

• About a mile away in the nearby village of Beckhampton is the equally famous Waggon & Horses public house, made famous in the 80s and 90s as being the central hub of the Crop Circle phenomenon. Today it is a friendly Real Ale pub which serves food.

Sleep

Many of the houses in Avebury village offer B&B accommodation.

• Red Lion Pub High Street.
• The New Inn Avebury
• The Lodge
• The Old Forge
• Manor Farm

Get out

From Wikiversity

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Avebury

The Wiltshire village of Avebury can be found today just off the A4 it is partly surrounded by a huge stone circle and henge which is almost a mile in circumferance. A large part of the village was bought and restored by Alexander Kieller in the 1920's and 1930's, he spent his fotune on clearing away buildings, conducting excavations, and re-erecting fallen stones.

From LoveToKnow 1911