Avebury Stones

[gyrtrash]

New stones discovered at Avebury

Got this in an email today;-

COMPLETING THE CIRCLE OF HISTORY
National Trust discovers buried megaliths at Avebury

Originally constructed over 4,500 years ago, the existence of these enormous stones has remained a puzzle for archaeologists for the last three hundred years.
Today’s visitors to Avebury will see most of the standing megaliths in the western half of the stone circle. The famous map of Avebury drawn up by William Stukely in the 1720s showed that many of the stones in the south-east and north-east quadrants of the circle were missing.

Now, the first ever geophysics survey of these areas of Avebury, carried out by the National Trust, has revealed that at least fifteen of the megaliths lie buried in the circle itself. The massive stones show up very clearly as computer images and the National Trust has been able to identify their sizes, the direction in which they are lying and where they fit in the circle.

Martin Papworth, the National Trust’s Archaeologist for Wessex, said; "This is a truly exciting find and completes the circle of Avebury. These stones were erected over 4,500 years ago and the world of archaeology suspected that most of these stones had been demolished and lost forever. We know that many of the Avebury stones still standing up to three hundred years ago were broken up for building stone in the seventeenth and eighteenth century.

"Until now, no-one had realised that some of these stones had survived intact and that they actually lay buried in the earth, next to their original locations. It is quite likely that they have lain there since the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, pushed over and buried there by the local population who may have seen these pagan symbols as a threat to the established church."

In the 1930s, Alexander Keiller excavated and re-erected many of the stones that can be seen today, standing in the west half of the circle. However, the outbreak of WWII brought an end to his project. Now, although the National Trust has no plans to raise the stones that have been so well protected by the earth for around seven hundred years, it is considering using ground probing radar to create 3 dimensional images of each of the buried stones and raise them as computer images.

Source: National Trust Press Release 2/12/2003



I hope the NT change their minds. I'd love to see the 'lost' stones re-erected!

 

[Anonymous]

well since the circle is already hugely "reconstructed"..why not put em up again?.

 

[TheOriginalCujo]

I find Avebury facinating. When I visited it during our trip to stay with the inlaws I found it a very strange experience.

It's one of those ancient sites whose meaning is probably lost forever which begs the question 'How do we, as 21st Century humans, interact with it?'

Cujo

 

[NilesCalder]

It's one of those ancient sites whose meaning is probably lost forever which begs the question 'How do we, as 21st Century humans, interact with it?

I seem to recall that "...the medium of native american purcusion" didn't meet with our full approval.

It truely is a fascinating ritual landscape.

 

[Jerry_B]

Re: New stones discovered at Avebury

I hope the NT change their minds. I'd love to see the 'lost' stones re-erected!

All we need is a sugar magnate to do it all for them, at his own whim...

 

[Stormkhan]

The biggest problem is contextual translation. Considering there are no contemporary records of the intent or reason of the builders we can only guess, no matter study of alignments, sizes and material of stone circles.
Regardless of our archaeological research, we must find it difficult to place religious or moral values of the ancients and this makes it difficult to fathom reasons for the time, effort and labour required to construct such impressive and long-lasting monuments.

For all we know it was an aborted attempt at making an adventure playground for Iron Age kiddies!

I'd highly recommend Bernard Cornwalls "Stonehenge". Fiction, true, but well researched and very convincing!

Personally, I don't care why they built it ... I just appreciate the result. If we get spiritually recharged by contact with ancient monuments, it's a bonus!

 

[OneWingedBird]

We could always send in Gary Denke...

 

[gyrtrash]

They might get one up!

Personally, I don't care why they built it ... I just appreciate the result. If we get spiritually recharged by contact with ancient monuments, it's a bonus!

I feel pretty much the same about any ancient remains. I reckon things like this are unlikely to ever be truly understood, completely. Beautiful in their own right though, without any 'religious' or 'ritual' connotations...

From the Wiltshire Advertiser today;-

ONE of the fallen megaliths at Avebury may be restored to its original place, even though there are no plans to excavate its long-buried brothers.
...archaeologist Mike Pitts is applying to reinstate a stone on the eastern side of the circle, which fell over in the 18th century.

"The principal reason for wanting to excavate in the stone circle is that we do not know when it was built," he said.
"Our best chance is to find something organic, such as a red deer antler pick, which we can carbon date."

He has been talking to English Heritage and the National Trust for two years about his idea, but feels a full-scale restoration of the circle wouldn't be appropriate.

"Generally, I think it would be good if one or two megaliths were re-erected at Avebury," he said.
"Some people would like to re-erect all of them, but I believe we have to draw a balance because the way Avebury looks at the moment is the way it has looked for many generations.
"It would completely transform the place and then it would become something that really dated from the 21st century."

Druid Terry Dobney, who holds the title Keeper Of The Stones, is in no doubt that the buried stones should be raised.
He says the National Trust promised Alexander Keiller, the millionaire and amateur archaeologist who uncovered many of the stones in the western part of the circle, that it would continue his work.

Brian Sumbler, who runs Avebury Antiques, said it was unlikely the buried megaliths would ever be reinstated and he wasn't sure they should be.
"There is some sort of taboo that states they are past history so they shouldn't be raised," he said.

From; http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/swindon/news/SWINDON_NEWS30.html


I don't geddit. How come it's 'taboo' to raise them now?
I don't think it'd spoil the place if more stones were raised...
(But then, I don't live there...)

 

[Stormkhan]

Surely it was "taboo" to let the stones fall and the pattern break.

It's twits who don't want the cost of reconstruction!

 

[Yithian]

A (seemingly, so-far) good Avebuy site i've stumbled into here:
http://www.avebury-web.co.uk/

Am waiting for a copy of The Avebury Cycle by Michael Dames to drop onto my doormat. Will let you know what i make of it in a while tthough i've been warned it makes some fair old jumps of interpretation.

 

[Anonymous]

Taking into account the NT's current love of such things as selling off bits of old estates to developers to build those shitty 'executive' style homes(as anyone who reads Private Eye's Nooks and Corners will already know), why would they raise the stones, at a cost, when it won't bring them much in the way of income?
Any talk of 'taboos' just makes people sound like a lot of peasants, and considering how much reconstruction the place has had in the last century, putting a few buried stones back in their proper alignement is hardly a biggy. The way people are talking you would think there was a proposal to turn them into a big smiley face!

 

[Stormkhan]

... complete with "Vote for Blair Again" arranged nicely around the outside as well as a big sign advertising this space being constructed by a firm that's paid undisclosed sums to New Labour coffers.

Cynical old me!

 

[zygmunt_rocks_on]

It is quite likely that they have lain there since the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, pushed over and buried there by the local population who may have seen these pagan symbols as a threat to the established church."

Why didn't they push them all over then?


An old school friend of mine got "married" in Avebury Circle. First I knew of it was when I saw him on a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall programme on channel 4... he was cooking their vegetarian wedding feast in the back of their camper!

 

[eyepod]

putting a few buried stones back in their proper alignement is hardly a biggy.

Oh, but it is. They can't just dig out the stones with a JCB, each one would have to be properly archaeologically excavated before any work on standing them up could be done. The work to straighten the Cove stones last year took about 2 months at probably great expense.

Have a look here: Straightening The Cove Stones

That website belongs to a friend of mine who lives at Avebury. He really knows his stuff. If you're interested in Avebury, Silbury, Stonehenge, and some less well known monuments in the area you could do a lot worse than to have a browse around it.

Avebury Tour Homepage

 

[EnolaGaia]

Secret Square Discovered Beneath Neolithic Stone Monument
Hidden beneath the world's largest prehistoric stone circle, archaeologists in England have discovered an even older, secret square-shaped megalithic monument.

"Our research has revealed previously unknown megaliths inside the world-famous Avebury stone circle. We have detected and mapped a series of prehistoric standing stones that were subsequently hidden and buried, along with the positions of others likely destroyed during the 17th and 18th centuries," Mark Gillings, academic director and reader in archaeology in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, said in a statement. "Together, these reveal a striking and apparently unique square megalithic monument within the Avebury circles that has the potential to be one of the very earliest structures on this remarkable site."

The new finds are shocking for such an old site, which has been extensively studied by archaeologists since the 1600s. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/59668-avebury-circle-once-a-square.html