Avebury
The village of Avebury in Wiltshire has given its name to one of the greatest stone circles in the British Isles. Located in the midst of a rich prehistoric landscape, the village lies a few miles away from the Ridgeway and in close proximity to Silbury Hill, the Sanctuary, the West Kennet Long Barrow, and the long barrows of East Kennet and Beckhampton.
The story goes that while returning from a day's hunting one winter's evening in 1648, John Aubrey, on passing through the village of Avebury, recognized in the earthworks and standing stones around him an ancient temple, which he attributed to the Druids.
In the early 18th century, William Stukeley visited the site on several occasions and witnessed, to his great distress, the destruction of numerous stones by farmers intent on clearing the land for fields. Stukeley agreed with Aubrey's identification of the site and in 1743 published his book Abury, a Temple of the British Druids.
Mostly dating to around 2,600-2,500 B.C.E., the Avebury complex, which covers about 28 acres and is partially overlapped by the village, comprises a huge circular earthwork ditch, originally about 30 feet deep, and bank about a quarter of a mile in diameter which encloses an outer circle of standing stones. Within this outer circle are two inner circles, both about 340 feet in diameter. The northern inner circle, of which only a few stones remain, apparently consisted of two concentric circles; an inner one of 12 stones and an outer one of 27 stones. At the centre of the northern circle stood a trio of very large stones, two of which survive, called "the Cove." At the centre of the southern circle stood a tall stone over 20 feet in length called "the obelisk." It had already fallen when William Stukeley saw, and drew it, in the 18th century, and is now gone altogether (its site, as with the other missing stones at Avebury, is now marked by a concrete pillar).
The northern and southern inner stone circles are believed to have been built first, around 2,600 B.C.E., and the outer circle and the earthworks added about a hundred years later, around 2,500 B.C.E.
The outer circle is breached at four points - roughly at points north, south, east, and west - to form entrances. From two of these originally ran two great avenues of which only the one, leading from the south entrance, the so-called West Kennet Avenue, survives for a short way in reconstructed form with stones lining its course on both sides.
Originally, according to Stukeley, the West Kennet Avenue stretched all the way to the Sanctuary on Overton Hill, while the other, the Beckhampton Avenue, of which very little survives, terminated near the Beckhampton Long Barrow. Stukeley interpreted the avenues as representing a great stone serpent passing through a ring formed by the Avebury circle.
If you're paying attention, while driving west on the A4 out of the town of Marlborough, you will begin to see things you've never seen before. First, you'll begin to notice many large grass-covered mounds on both sides of the road (round barrows). A bit farther on, if you look up the hill on your left, you will see an above ground mound fronted on the east side by enormous upright stones (West Kennett Long Barrow). Farther on, to your right, you will see a huge (132 ft. high), upside-down, flat-topped, cone-shaped, man-made mound.
The round barrows are single burial mounds of very ancient vintage. The eighteenth century antiquarian and field-archaeologist, William Stukeley, said of them, "they are assuredly the single sepulchres of kings, and great personages, buried during a considerable space of time, and that in peace. There are many groups of them together, and as family burial places."
West Kennett Long Barrow is a burial mound of a different kind. Called a chambered barrow, it is internally divided into sections and was found to accommodate the remains of 46 individuals. Standing a full hundred meters long, It is believed to be at least 4,000 years old and represented quite an engineering project. The stones which mark the entryway to the barrow are large sarsen stones, weighing 7-10 tons each.
Easily visible from West Kennett Long Barrow, to the north and slightly to the west, is the enigmatic construction known as Silbury Hill. When excavated, it was found to be a multi-tiered chalk hill, covered with earth. It was originally thought to be a more elaborate kind of burial mound, but no trace of any human remains have ever been discovered. Its purpose is lost to us, now, but many ancient workers must have found their thrill building Silbury Hill. Where did the chalk and earth come from to build it? We have only to look to the north about a mile or so to find the answer.
The source for the material to construct Silbury Hill must be the product of the massive earthwork surrounding Avebury, the greatest of all the ancient stone circles of Britain. Millions of tons of earth had to be moved to create Avebury's bank and ditch (the henge), and they had to go somewhere. The best guess is that Silbury Hill is where they went.
The standing stones of Avebury form, by far, the largest of Britain's stone circles, with a diameter of nearly three-fourths of a mile. In addition, it is the only circle with a town inside it. Many of the stones that used to stand are missing, now, according to Stukeley: "fallen a sacrifice to the wretched ignorance and avarice of a little village unluckily plac'd within it." Apparently, the villagers used whatever was convenient to hand to build their roads or houses or barns or whatever.
Enough of the original stones are left standing to convey the impression that this was a site of major importance to the ancient peoples who lived in that area 4 millennia ago. Intersecting the southern margin of the circle is a double line of stones, known as the Avenue, presumably a processional way leading back to another stone circle, now vanished, known as the Sanctuary. Another avenue, known as the Beckhampton Avenue, leads away to the west. These are but the best known sites in the Avebury area. There are many other sites and phenomena worth investigating in this area that are beyond the scope of this article, such as ley lines, dolmens, quoits, white horses, wood henges, wells, sacred groves, barrows, altars, avenues, hills and earthworks. Together, all of the sites and structures in the area, formed a vast and impressive complex. No doubt, the individual monuments had a specific purpose and meaning and were intentionally arranged in such a way as to facilitate some larger practical or ritual purpose, important to the lives of the people long ago.
While we can't know exactly what was on the minds of the ancients, we can see that they were fully capable of performing amazing feats of planning, organization and engineering and were adept at design and architecture. For that, they are to be applauded, and we should be glad that we can still appreciate their handiwork, if only in part.
While in Avebury, there's no need to get completely lost in pre-history. You should visit the parish church of St. James, situated within the stone circle in a very pleasant district of town. It is a good example of the blending of architectural styles from different time periods. Portions of the windows have been dated to the first half of the eleventh century, before the Norman conquest. Parts of the nave and chancel are thirteenth century while the tower seems to be fifteenth century. The whole church was restored in the late nineteenth century, to its present fine condition. The neighboring manor house has several white peacocks in residence, and they will jump out at you when you least expect it. They're harmless, though, and add some spice to your visit.
