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New Stones at Avebury
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Volume 53 Number 1, January/February 2000
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by Chris Hellier
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A new series of slabs at Avebury stone circle in western England,
discovered under a farmer's field, probably formed a causeway linking the
circle, or henge, to a contemporary burial site at Beckhampton, a mile to
the southwest. University of Leicester and Southampton archaeologists now
believe that the complex, whose main circle was last excavated in 1930,
covered a much larger area than originally thought and was probably built
in several stages.
The existence of buried avenues was first suggested in the 1720s by the
English antiquarian William Stukeley, although many dismissed his theories
as guesswork. Some years ago, however, an avenue was uncovered leading from
Avebury to nearby West Kennet, and the latest find appears to confirm
Stukeley's beliefs and the notion that Avebury was connected to other
ceremonial sites.
Avebury, constructed between 2800 and 2700 B.C., includes the world's
largest stone circle (1,401 feet in diameter), numerous barrows, and the
130-foot-tall Silbury Hill, the largest man-made mound in Europe. Evidence
of a "woodhenge" has also been unearthed at the site. Large holes, six feet
deep and arranged in circles, are thought to have supported giant wooden
pillars up to 17 feet tall. While the pillars might have formed part of a
ritual building, they are much larger and closer together than necessary to
support a roof and are more likely to have been a free-standing wooden
henge, possibly one of 40 similar structures in Wessex, the Anglo-Saxon
kingdom that in the late ninth and tenth centuries included much of
southern England. The latest discoveries have major implications for
Stonehenge. If there were other wooden structures in the region, then
Stonehenge may not be as unique as was once thought. Henges, in stone or
(more usually) wood, were simply part of the religious landscape of the
period.
The idea of henges dotting ancient Britain is reinforced by the discovery
of the so-called "Seahenge," a remarkably well-preserved timber circle, on
a remote Norfolk beach in November 1998. Comprising 55 timber posts, with
an upturned oak stump in the middle, it was exposed by winter gales that
swept away a peat dune covering it. Seahenge is the first circle to be
found with an intact oak stump at its center. Other sites have revealed
hollows in their centers but until now no one knew what had caused them.
Seahenge is extremely fragile and was only preserved thanks to its peat
covering. This past summer archaeologists from the Norfolk County
Council's Archaeological Unit excavated and dismantled the circle. Once
cleaned, studied, and treated, it may be reconstructed near its original
site.
© 2000 by the Archaeological Institute of America
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