The Great Stones at Avebury

Avebury

Most people have heard of the famous stone circle at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, England. Fewer have heard of the much bigger circle, or rather, circles, thirty miles north, at Avebury.

Avebury was built about 500 years before Stonehenge was. Work started on it around 2900 BCE, while Stonehenge was not started till about 2400 BCE.

When historian John Aubrey came upon the circle at Avebury in the 17^th Century, he declared it far superior to Stonehenge, and said it was like ‘comparing a cathedral to a parish church’.

While Aubrey did do some valuable work, he had an unfortunate habit of presenting his sometimes unsubstantiated theories as facts; a habit which confused people for generations. Modern scientists, though, make it clear that their theories are just that.

‘I think ‘may’, ‘possibly’ and ‘probably’ are the words we use most often of all’ I was once told.

Shannon at Avebury

There are no triliths … horizontal stones, balanced on two upright ones … at Avebury. These are unique to Stonehenge. Nor are there stones brought from as far away as Wales, as there are at Stonehenge. All the stones are the rough sandstone called sarsen, the nearest deposit of which is about ten miles away, on Lockeridge Down.

To transport the huge stones that distance must have required an organised society, with an influential leadership.

Avebury is much larger than Stonehenge, too. Indeed, there is a thriving village within the outer circle, and the Salisbury to Swindon bus runs right through it.

Like Stonehenge there is an Avenue; that is, two lines of standing stones marking the edges of the approach to the circle. The one at Stonehenge consists of just two shallow furrows, which an untrained person would not recognise unless it was pointed out.

Much of what we see today, we owe to Alexander Keiller. This was a man of many interests, the greatest of which was archaeology. This is the science of finding out how people lived in the past by looking for and examining the remains of their buildings or property. He was able to finance this expensive pursuit with the considerable fortune his family had made from manufacturing marmalade!

When he came upon the circle in the 1920s and 1930s, it was in very poor condition, with some of the stones fallen over, and some carried away for use elsewhere.

In the Middle Ages, many people thought that stone circles and henges, or circular ditches, were the work of the Devil, so, encouraged by the Church, people took some of the stones away, and buried them. Later, in the 18^th Century, William Stukeley recorded local people using fire and water to break up the stones for building and road making. But, he was able to make drawings, engravings and paintings, showing what he thought the circle may have looked like when it was built.

Some of the Great Stones

These were of great help to Keiller, when he located all of the missing stones he could find, transported them back to Avebury, and re-located them in their original positions. And, if a stone could not be found, a concrete obelisk was erected where it should have stood.

One thing that could not be taken away, though, was the massive henge surrounding the complex. It is always a source of wonder that this was dug out using only primitive tools … a modern civil engineer estimated that such an undertaking would take one man three years today, using a mechanical digger.

Nowadays, the ditch is covered in grass, but the original idea was just to have a circle of bare earth … which, in most of Wiltshire, is a brilliant white chalk soil. This must have been a dramatic sight!

So enthusiastic was Keiller that he actually bought the land on which Avebury stood, as well as Avebury Manor, part of which is now the Alexander Keiller Museum, where many artefacts he found on his digs are displayed; arrowheads, coins, pottery and skeletons of animals, and even humans!

Also on display are objects from almost all points on the time-line, for the village was here from the earliest times, and many people would have grazed their sheep and cattle in the fields containing the stones. They would, no doubt, have inadvertently dropped coins, knives and the like.

One skeleton, which Keiller discovered in 1938, was found to be carrying the instruments of a barber-surgeon from the Middle Ages. It is assumed he was killed when a stone fell on him, in an attempt to move it. That stone is now back in position, and known as the Barber Stone. But, although the instruments are on display, the skeleton is not. It was taken to London, and destroyed by a German bomb in 1941!

But, artefacts are not the only things to be seen in the museum. There are interactive displays and models, showing how Avebury might have looked in bygone days, and giving histories of people connected with it.

After the war, Keiller, ill, and with his money running out, sold the property to the National Trust, in whose ownership it remains, although the monument itself is now in the care of English Heritage.

The Avenue, Avebury

If you visit the site, you will be immediately aware of a modern major difference between Avebury and Stonehenge. At Avebury, you can wander around the stones as you will; at Stonehenge, unless you make a special arrangement, you must admire them from a distance. And, at Avebury, admission is free of charge, although you do have to pay to use the car park or enter the museum.

But, it is a price worth paying.

Bus Ride to Avebury