Location: 6 miles west of Marlborough, within the small village of Avebury. (SU 102699)
In its own way Avebury is as impressive a site as Stonehenge, indeed perhaps more impressive now, as there are none of the sadly necessary restrictions, nor the ugly modern developments that have grown up beside Stonehenge, and if you visit Avebury ‘out of season’, you may well find there the atmosphere of Mysterious Britain.
The henge covers 28 acres and is enclosed by a bank and a ditch still deep in places. Unfortunately only 27 of the original 100 standing stones remain, but they are impressive enough, the larger ones weighing about 40 tons. A small village has grown up inside the henge, and after the massive destruction in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some of the stones were incorporated in the village dwellings. During the 1930s the henge was partially excavated, and stones buried since the fourteenth century were re-erected; others may still remain buried.
As with other henges and stone circles, the purpose of this impressive monument at Avebury remains unknown. Clues include the avenues of standing stones which led towards it, the southerly avenue still surviving and described in Chapter 4 — these were possibly processional ways — and the shapes of the stones, among them diamond stones and tall pillars, possibly intended to represent female and male, and suggesting that some of the rituals involved the promotion of fertility. We have noted these shapes at other sites (there is a very good example of
A section of Avebury henge {Wiltshire), shotting the still deep ditch, the outer bank, and the partly re-erected stone circle, with concrete markers indicating missing stones. Notice the nearest stone and the farthest, both of a lozenge shape which may possibly symbolise the female element.
A diamond stone at The Hurlers in Cornwall) and the choice of shape, necessitating laborious tooling, obviously had some significance
Aveburv is situated close to several other important prehistoric sites, including The Sanctuary (once the site of a circular wooden building). Windmill Hill (the largest causewayed enclosure so far found in Britain), Silbury Hill (see Chapter 8), and West Kennet Long Barrow (see Chapter 2).
World History
