Avebury stone circle

Arthur D B (Sh)

Avebury stone circle is the largest stone circle in Britain and lies ‘at the centre of one of the most remarkable concentrations of Neolithic and early Bronze Age archaeology in western Europe’. It is only 25 miles from Stonehenge and six and a half miles from Marlborough.

Avebury was constructed, used, and remade over a period from about 3,000 BC for about thousand years. The around 98 stones of Avebury create a large circle of 3-metre-high stones, some weighing 100 tons, with a diameter of around 350m in diameter. There is a second wider circle and then an earth bank surrounding that.

Reconstruction

In the 1920s an extraordinarily wealthy man called Alexander Keiller came on to the Avebury scene. Between 1925 and 1929, he directed excavations at nearby Windmill Hill, which he had bought in 1924. He went on to reconstruct a portion of the stone avenue which leads into Avebury. Then, fully under Avebury’s spell, in 1935 he leased Avebury Manor and bought it later in 1937. The manorial estate included much of the village and the great Neolithic monument. Having already re-erected many stones of the avenue he decided his mission was now to restore the stone circles to their ‘original’ state. However, due to financial pressures caused by the Second World War, he had to abandon the project.

Weird theories

There have been very few finds here compared to other sites of a similar age in the area. There is no evidence of feasting as there was at other places, where huge amounts of pottery and animal bone were recovered. Avebury is different, comparatively very ‘clean’ of evidence, making an interpretation much more difficult.

Some have interpreted Avebury and its neighbouring prehistoric monuments differently from academics. These interpretations have been defined by professional archaeologist Aubrey Burl as being “more phony than factual”. Such inaccurate ideas originated with William Stukeley in the late 17th century, who believed that Avebury had been built by the Druids, who were persecuted by Roman invaders.

In the 1720s, scholarly opinion was largely based on the idea that the stones were Roman works. Most believed that ancient Britons were “too unsophisticated” to construct an intricate architectural structure. Archaeologists since then have identified the monument as having been constructed two thousand years before the Iron Age, during the Neolithic period. Inigo Jones was the first to suggest that the stones were built by Romans in his book. The book consisted of architectural designs, depicting the broken “Roman” construction. The English writer Thomas Hearne was unsure if the stones had been built by the Romans or the ancient Britons, but Stukeley was confident that Avebury was much older than the Roman period. He refuted Jones’ theory.

Stukeley determined that by gathering a mass of information about all known stone circles and other archaeological sites, one could build a theory to provide an accurate understanding of prehistoric sites. He formed a theory of “Celtic” stone temples. In his book, History of the Temples of the Ancient Celts, he asserted the common characteristics between all stone structures in Britain.

Stukeley was motivated in proving that the Druids had formed the stones because he could prove that ancient Britons were well-informed about science, disproving sceptics like Hearne. Stukeley was interested in providing additional information on the holy doctrine of the Trinity. He believed that the snake illustrated on the stones represented the Messiah and the circle meant ‘divine’, a symbol for God. In the remaining part of the Trinity, wings, which were not depicted on the stones, represent the holy spirit. He concluded that the absence of wings on the pattern of stones at Avebury was because of the challenge carving them onto stone.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Avebury stones are a mysterious and powerful place, crumbled by time.