After the famous site of Stonehenge, the secondary stone circle of Avebury falls. Just like its counterpart it is set in a much larger landscape of ancient monuments. Covering a period of over 1000 years, these gigantic tributes, to entities we are yet to understand, rose up from the ground in feats of engineering unimaginable today. Attributed to ceremonies and celebrations of life, death and the circle of the sun, they connected people to the landscape, the underworld and the heavens. Their purpose has been lost but their spiritual legacy remains.
Landscape History
Approximately 7000 years ago, c.8500 – 4000 BC, during the Mesolithic period (Middle Stone Age) the landscape was filled with wild woodland. Oaks, elms, alder, lime and hazel would have covered the slopes and valleys while the wildlife and wolves prowled around the tree trunks. The people were hunters, preying on deer, aurochs (wild, extinct cattle) and wildcats, all amongst the woodland clearings. However, their lifestyles were beginning to change dramatically as the practice of farming grew with crops grown and animals domesticated.
During the Neolithic period (the New Stone Age, c.4000 – 2200 BC) farming had become common practice and therefore settlement had become more permanent. The production of pottery increased and the woodland was gradually felled for both agricultural and construction purposes. Ancient tracks that cut across the landscape date to this period with the prehistoric route of the Ridgeway running across the south of the country to the River Thames and out into the North Sea, amongst many others. It is also during this period that the first monuments arise. Long barrows became the place for the dead to rest and stone circles were erected to align with the rise of the sun.
During the Bronze Age (c2200 -700BC) the earlier monuments were abandoned but still respected. Skills were enhanced using new metal working techniques and new types of pottery emerged. The dead were buried in more modest round barrows alongside elements considered important in both life and death, including arrowheads, knives, daggers and antler picks.
During the Iron Age hillforts were built to cap the hilltops, ramparts defining their boundaries with an external ditch as an extra deterrent. When the Romans arrived from 43AD, they spread westwards, bringing with the new trade and trade routes, including a Roman road cutting the edge of Silbury Hill. After the Roman departure, the Saxons created the first settlement around the stones of Avebury. The name translates from the Saxon ‘burh’ for fortified town and Ave for the river Avon, translating to ‘fortified town on the River Avon’. Eventually Avebury became a monastic settlement but after the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century it became an imposing country estate. It wasn’t until the 17th century that interest in the stones was rekindled on an academic level, by John Aubrey (1626-1697) and William Stukeley (1687-1765). The fever soon spread and, like Stonehenge, Avebury became a popular historical destination of mystery.
During the 19th century a number of excavations took place. Harold St George Gray (1908-1922) undertook five, finding pottery, flint antler picks and a female skeleton which was radiocarbon dated to c. 2000BC. Alexander Keiller bought Avebury manor in the 1930s, immediately setting out to re-site buried stones and create the museum. Today Avebury is a World Heritage Site, managed by both English Heritage and the National Trust, visited by about 200,000 people a year.
West Kennet Long Barrow
The West Kennet Long Barrow, as the oldest monument in the local landscape, is one of the most impressive and accessible Neolithic chambered tombs in Britain. It dates to between 3670 and 3635 BC and was found to contain 46 skeletons of men, women and children alongside a collection of grave goods including pottery, jewellery and weapons. Several later cremations were also added with it finally being sealed around 2000BC.
The barrow was excavated in 1859 and again a century later. It was then reconstructed to what we see today. Many untouched examples still remain dormant, but are a little smaller, including the Pimperne Long Barrow set deep in the ancient landscape of Cranborne Chase.
(Dorset Cursus)
The Dorset Cursus is one of the most enigmatic prehistoric monuments in the country. Covering seven miles, over hilltops and through valleys, this earthworks has shrunk back into the landscape and been farmed into the soil. Nevertheless, dating deep from within the Neolithic period, its edge is often combined with long barrows and even added to in the Bronze Age with round barrows. At the time of the Roman arrival, although no longer in use, the mighty earthwork would have still been prominent, however the roman road just cut straight through it.
Windmill Hill
With manageable time now on their hands the settled, ancient farming people of Avebury embarked on the construction of Windmill Hill. This causewayed enclosure, dating from 3700BC, consists of 3 rings of banks and ditches, with the ditch on the interior side of the bank, and is believed to be one of the earliest examples of early farming communities. It took approximately 60 years to build and was used, possibly as a meeting or trading place, for almost four centuries intensely and then used for minor events for another 2000 years. Alexander Keiller excavated the site in the 1930’s and unearthed flint tools, fragments of pottery and pieces of animal and human bone suggesting the exchange of goods, feasting or carrying out of rituals. Neighbouring the enclosure is a secondary, rectangular enclosure. It is believed that human corpses were left to rest here to be picked clean of flesh by animals in order to prepare the bones for burial.
Avebury
Avebury’s circular enclosed area, at 1 km in diameter, is the largest in Europe. Consisting of four entrances, the banks were constructed in two different phases. The first bank was begun soon after 3000 BC, while the second phase was probably two centuries later. The surrounding large sarsen stones were erected soon after followed by the two smaller circles in the northern and southern halves. None of the stones have been shaped or carved and vary in size, the largest being the largest megalith in Britain, weighing in at 100 tonnes. The banks would have been stripped of any growth, exposing white chalk and reaching a height of 16 metres from the bottom of the ditch to the top tip.
Recent theories present the idea that Avebury was site for the dead and West Kennet Palisade (now under the village of West Kennet) the site for the living, as it was constructed from wood. This is due to the everlasting resitence of the stone compared to the rotting and decaying wood. The route, between the two, connected life and death and would therefore have been imitated through the West Kennet stone avenue. This is mirrored at Stonehenge with a route from the Stones at Stonehenge leading away, via a causeway, to Woodhenge.
During the medieval period, ruled by Christianity, the stones were viewed through suspicious eyes, seen as pagan and posed a possible risk to their beliefs. The village was also growing, slowly encroaching on the spiritual circle. It was around this time that many of the stones were toppled and buried. On being unearthed a body, dating from 1320, was discovered underneath, found with scissors in his hands.
(Stonehenge)
The mighty stone circle of Stonehenge dates to the same period as the Avebury Stone circle (Avebury slightly predating the more famous option) and therefore must have had some relationship. Although Stonehenge has larger stones, Avebury has the larger circle. Both monuments are surrounded by Long Barrows, Round barrows, ancient settlement, field systems and other unknown earthworks. Alignments to the sunrise and sunset of the solstice match while mile long avenues lead up to the stones. Nevertheless, full interpretation is still elusive for both.
The Sanctuary
The 40m stone circle of The Sanctuary was constructed around 2500BC. It began life as timber posts with the stones gradually added at a later date. In the 1930s human bone, pottery and evidence of possible feasting was unearthed, suggesting the purpose was for social gatherings or celebrations.
West Kennet Avenue
Around the same time as the construction of The Sanctuary, the West Kennet Avenue was developed. Covering a length of just over a mile it connected the site of the smaller stone circle to Avebury, passing though the West Kennet wooden Palisade on the way. The avenue consists of paired stones, which would have cleared a path though the heavily wooded environment. The stones have subtle differences in their shape some long and cylindrical, some triangular. This has been suggested to be male and female representations and therefore connected to fertility, birth and death. Like the Dorset Curses the avenue pays no attention to the landscape’s topography and instead is more intent on taking people on a journey to reach their destination. Alexander Keiller excavated the avenue in 1934 discovering some later burials, possibly people of high status or as sacrifices, with the stones acting as grave markers.
Silbury Hill
Silbury Hill is the most unique, prominent but confusing monument of them all. It has the title as the largest man-made mound in Europe and is comparable in height the Egyptian pyramids. Construction began at around 2470 and was completed by 2350 BC, so was the last of the ancient monuments to built in the area. It is mainly made out of chalk and, at 40 metres high, the conical hill would have shone just as bright in the day as it would have in the moonlight. Its method on how it was built is contested, the most recent theory being a spiral path leading to the top. In 1776 the Duke of Northumberland dug a shaft down from its peak to try to discover its function, but found nothing. Horizontal tunnels were cut into its side during the 18th and 19th centuries that again produced no evidence to indicate either its use or purpose.
In May 2000 the 1776 shaft collapsed creating a deep hole in the centre. However, it enabled archaeological investigations to be carried out while the rescue work was going on. But still to this day, at now 30 metres high, no shrine or burial has been found and no one can say why it was built.
To explore the area it is possible to park at any number of locations (payment required in Avebury). Footpaths, permissive paths and bridleways all link the sites with some areas free to roam. Avebury Stone circle is accessible for all.
