Amesbury
Updated: Nov 3
The world's most famous neolithic monument - Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites 373
What and Why
Stonehenge, the iconic archaeological sarsen-built monument of the United Kingdom, is known more for its unknown. No one can ascertain what exactly this monument is for. In fact many aspects of Stonehenge, such as how it was built and for what purposes it was used, remain subject to intensive debates. We are however certain it is not a random monument due to its precise solar alignment, and there was absolutely no written records or engraving about what exactly it was. After all Stonehenge was built sometime in 3000 BCE and hence it is natural there was no written records. Propositions of it being a burial ground, a temple or a calendar continue to be debated in all areas.
Stonehenge consists of an outer ring of vertical stones, each around 4 m high and 2 m wide, and weighing around 25 tonnes, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, looking like small triumphal arches, although the entire monument is now ruinous due to age. The monument is further surrounded by a number of concentric stone circles plus two small mounds serving as some kind of markers. Recall similar constructions as blogged in Stenness.
Stonehenge does not stand alone. Nearby in Avebury stands a Neolithic monument of three stone circles, as a matter of fact the large of its kind in the world. It includes enormous earthworks, ancient burial chambers, ceremonial avenues and one of Europe's largest artificial prehistoric mounds. Similar to Stonehenge, no one exactly knows what this stone circle is built for, although it is mostly proposed that this was a ceremonial site.
This is one of those sites that I came full of expectations and anxiety but still returned with awe and satisfaction. Just one of those places that one must be there to see its impression on mankind.
Toponymy
The area where Stonehenge is located was referred to as Stanheng, which comes from the Old English words 'stān' meaning 'stone', and 'hencg' meaning 'hinge' or 'hang' with literal meanings.
The town Amesbury, where Stonehenge is administered, has an uncertain etymology, although it has been mostly proposed to have derived from the Old English word 'amore-burh' meaning 'fortification with buntings'.
The town name Avebury derives from Old English, meaning 'fortification on the river (ave + burh)'. Nothing to do with birds when you see 'ave-'.
See
Stonehenge
I shall not discuss the history of the Stonehenge as it is firstly ill-defined and subject to debate, and secondly these debates are available aplenty in the public domain. I shall focus on some of the known scientific facts and trivia regarding the monument.
To be frank, when I was just walking round the ring, by the way you are prohibited from getting too close to prevent vandalism or damage, your head will be spinning with all sorts of mysterious stories about the place. At least that was what I was trying to figure out as I toured the site.
The picture above shows the original plan of the Stonehenge after the various fragmented informations and archaeological digs. The site, specifically the great trilithon, plus the encompassing horseshoe arrangement of the other trilithons, the heel stone, the slaughter stone, and the embanked avenue, are aligned precisely to the sunset of the winter solstice and the opposing sunrise of the summer solstice. Due to the discovery of animal bones it has been suggested the site is more devoted for winter and annual winter gatherings were organised within the site.
As the picture above shows, the heel stone is kind of the official entrance into the Stonehenge, with the two long dugouts serving as the 'avenue'. A strong advice that I would give to future visitors is to walk not only close to the trilithon, which almost 90% of the visitors would do, but to walk around the ring and also station stone perimeter. There are genuinely more to appreciate and honestly a lot more fun to discover!
As one can imagine, the entire Stonehenge is built in multiple phases and at different epochs the overall architecture varied, as shown above in the museum display.
The main part of the Stonehenge are largely sarsen stones and hence transportation by water would have been unlikely due to the immense weight of the stones. It had been conjectured that they could therefore only have been moved using sledges, ropes and an awful lot of manpower, and erected through ropes. How they managed to put the top slab remains an unsolved mystery that came more than 3,000 years ago. There is a model stone slab simulator outside the museum showing how difficult it is to move the slab, not even to mention about lifting it to the top, as shown in picture above.
The other circular rim of 56 small stones and holes is called the Aubrey Holes, named after by the archaeologist John Aubrey. In particular Q, R, Y and Z holes are probably part of a solar calendar, marking accurately positions corresponding to solstices, equinoxes and eclipses. The exact purpose of the other holes remains a mystery, although the likelihood is that they were originally used to support wooden posts before later being used to bury cremated remains.
Along this line, you can see the ray of light that shoots past the heelstone and through the trilithon. Again it makes me wonder how did they achieve it 3,000 years ago, without any measuring instrument, mathematics, while braving the cold and the wind in the middle of nowhere.
The tumulus.
The two barrows were originally thought to be some kind of tumulus, similar to our blogged Donore (Dún Uabhair) in Ireland (Irish: Éire). However these mounds seem to contain no archaeological finds, nor do they bear any astronomical functions and hence this theory is now dismissed.
The site is probably multifunctional: an astronomical observatory, a burial site, a ceremonial site plus recently a place of spiritual or physical healing. Recently during the 20th century, Stonehenge began to revive as a place of religious significance, especially on neopaganism and New Age beliefs, although much of these beliefs are being mocked upon, as they were found largely without historic or cultural backups. We actually have a friend who come here weekly as a pagan and is now officially barred from formally entering the site. However the site is a country side and he would still find a way to sneak into the area every now and then, as long as he is not dressed up with his pagan outfit.
Visitor Centre and Museum
The Stonehenge Visitor Centre is a small visitor centre cum museum that sits at the entrance into the site. The museum is a standard small museum, housing some of the smaller artefacts from the site. I have to confess it was a bit underwhelming considering the huge expectation of visitors to the Stonehenge.
Avebury stone circle
My wife and I did the Avebury stone circle separately, although it would only be another 45 minute drive away from Stonehenge. While clearly it is not as famous as the Stonehenge the area is actually a more pleasant to walk around and is way larger.
Avebury is not simply another prehistoric stone circle. It is actually the largest prehistoric stone circle in the world, forming part of an extraordinary archaeological landscape that includes enormous earthworks, ancient burial chambers, ceremonial avenues. Depending on when or how you would like to appreciate the site, the main stone circles and henge of Avebury were built roughly between 2850 BCE; while the first phase of Stonehenge is around 3000 BCE, the temple was erected later in the around 2500 BCE, so there were some whispers about Avebury being the slightly older brother! Whatever, both of them are simply some of the most important ancient prehistoric monuments, with no answers to what they actually were!
What makes Avebury particularly fascinating for me is that it is actually integrated with modern life. For obvious reason before the site was discovered, people have already settled all over the area and there are plenty of houses sitting on the site now as early as Middle Ages. In the late mediaeval and early modern periods, local people destroyed many of the standing stones around the henge, both for religious and practical reasons. In fact there is a cross-road junction right at the centre of the circle, with settlement all along it! Unlike Stonehenge which as I mentioned a few times, it sits on a hill in the middle of nowhere; Avebury's stones surround an actual village: Roads pass through the ancient enclosure, houses stand within its boundaries, and visitors can walk directly among many of the megaliths. Ancient monument and contemporary settlement coexist in an unusually intimate relationship.
John Aubrey and his team took interest in the stone circle during the 17th century and archaeological digs followed in the 20th century with archaeologists Harold Gray and Alexander Keiller both leading the excavation and reconstruction of the site. In particular the modern re-appearance of Avebury owes much to Keiller's credit. Keiller was an archaeologist and businessman whose family fortune came from the marmalade business enterprise. During the 1930s, he became deeply involved in the preservation and investigation of Avebury. He purchased land within the monument, led and organised archaeological excavations. There is now a small Alexander Keiller Museum as good stop to understand the archaeological importance of the site.
The first striking feature of Avebury is its enormous circular earthwork, known as the Great Henge. The henge, resembling a large trench, encloses approximately 115,000 m² and a circumference of 1.3 km. It consists of a massive outer bank and an internal ditch, with four entrances. The arrangement is particularly interesting because the ditch lies inside the bank rather than outside it, and hence it is almost definitely not a defence fortification but rather an enclosed ceremonial space. Effectively this becomes the main walking path of the site circumferencing the large circle which we walked around.
Originally, the outer circle consisted of approximately 100 standing sarsen stones, while two or three smaller circles occupied the interior, although the smaller circles have been largely destroyed. There are historic records of obelisk and arches standing inside the small cirlces but they are no longer there.
Compared to Stonehenge, these stones vary considerably in shape and size. Unlike the carefully shaped lintels and uprights at Stonehenge, Avebury's stones generally retain their natural irregular forms, mostly looking like shards.
Another fascinating aspects of Avebury is that the great circle was not an isolated monument. The most important example is what is known as the West Kennet Avenue, as below, which originally extended for approximately 2.4 km, linking one of the circle entrance with a ceremonial site known as the Sanctuary. The avenue consisted of two parallel lines of standing stones, arranged in pairs. Originally, it probably contained around 100 pairs, although only sections of the original arrangement survive today. The route may have been used for procession of some ceremonial ritual or communal gatherings connecting different sacred places.
The obvious question: Is the circle another protractor for astronomical measurements? The current answer is while some of the stones demonstrate deliberate astronomical alignments, it has been established that not every stone was positioned for astronomical purposes. The precise significance of Avebury's alignment and orientation remains a subject of archaeological investigation.
Slightly further afield of the main site sits the Silbury Hill which is the largest man-made earthen chalk mound in Europe. Its purpose remains a subject of ongoing debate: ranging from a territorial marker or cosmological platform to a communal ritual area. Another very important site is the West Kennet Long Barrow, constructed around 3650 BCE, and thus predating the entire Avebury by almost a millennium. This is one of the most impressive communal chambered tombs in Europe. The landmark features a facade of massive sarsen stones guarding five stone burial chambers that held the remains of at least 46 men, women, and children. We did not visit them as they are a bit far from the main site.
Eat and Drink
Sunday roast
While I do occasionally complain about the lack of Britishness in British cuisine, one of the things that I do regularly is to do the Sunday roast, which is really of British origin. In a recent popularity poll, British voted unanimously that the Sunday roast's prominence in British culture and was ranked second in a list of things people love about the United Kingdom.
It is no more than a jumbled dish of roasted meat including beef, lamb, chicken, sausages plus accompaniments such as Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, gravy, potatoes and various sauce condiments. The origin of it was simply that it was a gathering event after the Sunday church services and is actually common across Europe. The Britishness of this comes from the fact that it is traditional for Anglicans and English Catholics to fast before Sunday services, and hence it is usual to consume a much bigger meal after they break the fast.
Historically, Sunday was the only full day of rest for workers. The gathering around a slow-cooked meal served as the primary emotional anchor for working-class family life. A full Sunday roast historically fed a family for days afterwards. Leftover beef became cold cuts on Monday, minced into Shepherd's/Cottage pie on Tuesday, and the carcass or bones were boiled for broth mid-week.
Today, while church attendance has declined, the Sunday roast remains a key social event to cap off the weekend. This is now our irregular routine that our family try to follow after our Sunday services!
Travel Suggestions and Logistics
I took the train and arrived at Salisbury station. From there the easiest way is to take a cabbie from there which is just a 10-minute ride. The site is also well served by the local bus or tours. The entrance fee of the Stonehenge is GBP £26. The site will be a good half-day trip, although to be frank it would be hard to spend more than an hour at the site. The area is fairly windy and cold as it is quite open. One can also join a number of local tours which will include Bath as a destination.
Avebury on the other hand, is not that accessible by public transportation. It is at least 3/4 hour drive from Stonehenge or Salisbury station. Avebury is however a much more family site and one can spend a good half-day in the place.
UNESCO Inscription
Stonehenge and Avebury, in Wiltshire, are among the most famous groups of megaliths in the world. The two sanctuaries consist of circles of menhirs arranged in a pattern whose astronomical significance is still being explored. These holy places and the nearby Neolithic sites are an incomparable testimony to prehistoric times.
References
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Please share your thoughts and comments about the blog. If you need suggestions to build a travel itinerary, please let me know. More than willing to help. I would also like to build a bespoke-in-depth travel community around UNESCO WHS and ICH.
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