Avebury, a place in time.

We stopped at Avebury stone henge recently but I wanted to give it its own feature, given that there is around 5000 years or more of history in one place it would be a shame to resign it to a small mention of the main blog.

Avebury is around 5000 years old, built during the late Neolithic period when people in the UK were just starting to live together and farm the land, prior to this we were still hunters and gatherers, during this period people from Europe crossed the sea armed with new methods for growing food and crop seeds and so the era of the hunter gatherer started to come to an end, the loss of one way of life and the creation of another.

Avebury wasn’t built all in one go, more that it was continually changed and shaped over several hundred years consisting of firstly an outer bank, ditch, inner stone circle which in its self surrounds a further 2 stone circles.

Stones were likely taken from the actual site or from the nearby Fyfield Down, where Sarsen stones still exist today and the site is the best evidence of Sarsen left in the UK, Sarsen interestingly is a result of what was sand deposited by seas or rivers, over time it slowly absorbed dissolved silica and eventually became stone which was very hard wearing almost like granite. It would also be an fair assumption that one stone existed here before the ring was even conceived, a large towering lump of sarsen where hunters would of gathered beneath for reference in the land, if this was the case the sigh of such a large piece of stone would of awed early man, perhaps even thinking it was left by their creators.

How it may have been constructed

It was largely abandoned by the Iron age and then by the middle ages Avebury was being dismantled and destroyed. Its position in the landscape is itself important, laying in chalk land in the upper Kennet valley that is a catchment for the River Kennet and a contains a large number of seasonal springs, around 4500 BC it appears that the environment itself changed from predominantly woodland to farm land as there is little pollen found in chalk soils from this period.

Archeology from the neolithic time was limited to a large collection of flint working not far away and a dig found post holes which some have suggested was a larger building, but with no dating evidence or even further digs it would be impossible to put a date on this, if true it would put its age near to the start of Stone Henge.

The construction of Avebury at this point in history helps to show that people were secure enough to be able to devote significant time to its construction, indicating they had a secure food source, water and safety.

The entire site sits across some 28 acres in all, with the outer circumference measuring over 1000ft, a bank that reached 55 feet high and the ditch plunging to nearly 30ft, with chalk being the rubble dug from the ditch its gleaming white banks would of looked immensely impressive at the time.

The site would of been made up of between 98-105 stones forming the outer circle are irregular in size and shape, the inner circles came together around what would of been the larges stone, the Obelisk would of reached a whopping 21ft high and 8 feet in diameter with very early descriptions making it phallic in appearance and giving rise to some suggestion that this particular area was for fertility.

The whole site would of been created by hand, with many hundreds of people digging with antler and jaw bone through the relatively soft chalk and pilling it up, this in its self is some undertaking, let along the combined human resources needed to complete such a project.

During the Roman period in Britain there is little evidence to suggest they paid much attention to it, with only a few coins having been found, however during the Anglo-Saxon reign there is good evidence to suggest they had a close link or settlements in the area from the common names given such as Wodin’s barrow or Wondin’s hill. Avebury’s earliest mention comes from this very period, around 939 and notes the boundaries of the village, nearby Silbury hill was fortified at this time as the Vikings rampaged across the land.

We can shudder today at our forebearers behavior, but during the medieval period the stones were buried in the ground or destroyed, this was in response to much of England becoming Christian and the churches almost demonic need to destroy or link with the devil in order to retain their hold on the land. During the 1930s excavations a stone was lifted and the body of a male was discovered underneath, it was said this was the result of the stones being toppled and one falling and crushing the man to death, its a nice little tale but it is more likely that as the church and Abbey were at constant loggerheads that this person belonged to neither and buried under the stone for ease. It was at the time of his death that locals stopped pulling the stones down, maybe in fear of more revenge.

It wasn’t until the Victorian era that Avebury was finally protected from further destruction by the purchase of the village and land surrounding the area, Sir John Lubbock encourage people to build outside of the henge rather than within it. With the 1920s an heir to the marmalade fortune Alexander Keiler purchased the village and much of the land around it, as homes became vacant he pulled them down as did the National trust until 1979 where the remainder of the homes were allowed to stand.

Not far away you have a procession of stones that head straight to the Sanctuary another henge constructed of mainly wood and stone and coupled with the nearby West Kennet long barrow and Silbury hill, the area certainly held a significant site of importance for thousands of years.

We had visited Avebury before a number of years ago and were taken with it then, the large stones some weighing 40 tons are a sight to be seen and offer the traveler a perspective of what it must have been like to enter this place of worship and significance.

One evening we were taking pictures at the site when I noticed that my voice created an echo that my wife could not hear very well, when we switched places the same thing happened, the stone we stood at acted as a barrier absorbing any incoming sounds, but stood no more than 6 feet way a loud and audible echo was heard which seemed to emanate from the darkness, on another occasion we were walking down from the cottage towards the outer circle and sacred tree when he church began to ring its bells, the sound appeared to be in front of us and then behind until it grew louder the further away we were.

I know there has been previous studies on sound resonance in the circle with it showing that sound from outside the henge would of been difficult to hear, lending it even more mystery and air and other experiments creating echo’s from the few stones left, but these are best achieved in the absence of visitors and cars.

During its heigh of power and importance and complete with its 160 odd stones, the acoustics must of been exceptional with music, chanting and ceremonies creating a spectacular atmosphere, having been and spent some time there, I was able to get better impression of the site and its landscape, the low mist that hung over the henge and other local sites gives you a sense of what our ancestors would of seen or experienced.

If indeed it was a sight of fertility significance then would it be fair to suggest that Stone henge celebrated death, the 2 sites being used at Spring for rebirth and Stone henge for death or end of seasons. Another thing that struck me recently was the close resemblance to the enigmatic cup and ring markings found throughout the UK and most heavily on Ilkley moor, the use of the circle seems to have been of a significance for the time.

What ever its original purpose, there is no denying that Avebury is a special place, a place that needs to be protected and understood, maybe we will never fully understand its significance but to each that visit it means something individual.