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November 18, 2013

Visit Avebury. The largest prehistoric monument in England.

Avebury Stone Circle rivals – some would say exceeds – Stonehenge as the largest, most impressive and complex prehistoric site in Britain.

Built and altered over many centuries from about 2850 BC to 2200 BC, it now appears as a huge circular bank and ditch, enclosing an area of 281 ⁄2 acres (111 ⁄2 hectares), including part of Avebury village.Within this ‘henge’ ditch is an inner circle of great standing stones, enclosing two more stone circles, each with a central feature.

The site’s present appearance owes much to the marmalade heir Alexander Keiller, who excavated and re-erected many stones during the 1930s, and whose archaeological collections are displayed in the nearby museum. Many stones had been broken or buried in medieval and later times, one crushing its destroyer as it fell.

Avebury is part of a wider complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments, with many other ritual sites in English Heritage care. West Kennet Avenue joined it to The Sanctuary, and another stone avenue connected it with Beckhampton. West Kennet Long Barrow and Windmill Hill are also nearby, as is the huge and mysterious Silbury Hill. This extraordinary assemblage of sites seemingly formed a huge ‘sacred landscape’, whose use and purpose can still only be guessed at. Avebury and its surroundings have, with Stonehenge, achieved international recognition as a World Heritage Site.

Avebury Henge and Stone Circles are in the freehold ownership of The National Trust and in English Heritage guardianship. They are managed by The National Trust on behalf of English Heritage, and the two organisations share the cost of managing and maintaining the property.

Take a tour of Stonehenge and discover more about the neolithic man and the landscape they shaped. At Avebury, walk amongst the stones, visit the Alexander Keiller Museum to find out about the arcaeological excavations Keiller did in the 1930s and visit the Avebury Manor and Garden, nearby West Kennet Long Barrow.

Avebury Links:
The Henge Shop – a unique location in the centre of Avebury, the largest prehistoric stone circle in the world.
English Heritage – Avebury Stone Circle.
Stonehenge Guided Tours: Stonehenge and Avebury Stone Circle Tours
National Trust: Avebury Visitor Information Centre
Visit Wiltshire: Official Wiltshire Tourism Authority

Avebury News Updates:
Follow Avebury Stone Circle on Twitter for all the latest news and events.

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Stonehenge Stone Circle Tour Guide

April 19, 2013

Mesolithic life before Stonehenge found at Amesbury

Posted by StonehengeNews under Ancient Britons, archaoology tours, stonehenge guide, Visit Wiltshire
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Aerial archaeologist Ben Robinson visits Amesbury in Wiltshire where excavations have revealed that the history of people living in this location dates back much further than previously thought.

Photo: English Heritage

New evidence from the dig, at a site called Vespasian’s Camp, has revealed traces of human settlement 3,000 years before nearby Stonehenge was built. A team of archaeologists has uncovered evidence of sustained hunter gatherer activity which dates to 8,000 years ago – long before Stonehenge
David Jacques explains why the discovery is of international importance and what it means in terms of unlocking the secrets of Stonehenge, located less than a mile away.

The Flying Archaeologist – Stonehenge is broadcast on Friday, 19 April at 19:30 BST on BBC One West and South. The series is broadcast nationwide from Wednesday, 1 May at 20:30 BST on BBC Four Watch a clip here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22019089

September 15, 2012

Ancient mystery of Wiltshire’s standing stones

Posted by StonehengeNews under archaoology tours, avebury, Avebury Stone Circle, stonehenge news, stonehenge tours, Visit Wiltshire
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If you like your history to come alive and leap out at you off the page, there’s probably no better place to experience it in the whole of England than Wiltshire.

Image: Avebury Stone (Wiltshire, England) by Flickr user dev-pemcoastphotos.com

Here, the twin mysteries of Stonehenge and Avebury lie in store for those fascinated by the past. This is no dry and dusty text book lesson endured by generations of school children…these are fascinating history hotspots just a few miles apart which have defined our heritage for thousands of years.

Avebury lies within a 5,000 year old stone circle and its related earthworks, where in Stone Avenue dozens of pairs of standing stones stretch nearly two miles to the ceremonial site of The Sanctuary. To the northeast are hundreds such stones on Fyfield Down, and west lies the Neolithic tomb of West Kennet Long Burrow.

To the northwest, beyond the village limits, is Windmill Hill, a giant livestock enclosure whose origins go back nearly six millennia

Feat of Engineering

Stonehenge, a feat of engineering beyond imagination, is a 4,000 year old stone circle built on a site which can be dated back even earlier.

Archeologists have unearthed a simple circular ditch and earth rampart which predates the stones

Image: Stonehenge by Flickr user teamaskins

themselves by a thousand years, when a ring of huge timber uprights were erected there.

The giant megaliths we see today are made of sarsen – sandstone – each weighing on average 25 tonnes; they were transported from Marlborough Downs 20 miles away, and 30 were arranged in a circle and capped with lintels. Five even bigger structures were subsequently erected within the outer circle, known as ‘trilithons’ and again each supporting a stone lintel.

How this incredible journey was ever accomplished is still virtually unfathomable – and 4,000 years later historians are still trying to explain one of Britain’s most fascinating and enduring mysteries…

A Glimpse of the Past

And that’s not all…visitors to Wiltshire are spoilt for choice if they are looking for a glimpse of Britain’s past.

Woodhenge is only two miles east of Stonehenge, and is another age-old jewel in the crown of this amazingly historical county; pottery in the area has been dated back to late Neolithic and early Bronze Age times.

And Bluestonehenge or Bluehenge is a mere mile away, another prehistoric outpost which in recent years has undergone major excavations.

Radio-carbon testing of antler tools found at the site are still on-going; small stone chips found here have been tentatively dated to around 3,000 to 2,400 B.C. – the rock type is thought to have originated in west Wales, 150 miles away.
Link Source –Nicki Williams – Nicki Williams writes for leading on-line sports company Gear-Zone, specialists in camping and climbing equipment, waterproof clothing, and sportswear.

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