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Avebury

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


This article is about the prehistoric site. For the modern village and civil par
ish containing it, see Avebury, Wiltshire.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
Avebury Henge and Village Avebury (South Inner Circle), Wiltshire, UK - Diliff.j
pg
Type
Cultural
Criteria
i, ii, iii
Reference
373
UNESCO region Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription
1986 (10th Session)
Avebury is located in Wiltshire
Avebury
Map of Wiltshire showing the location of Avebury
Avebury (/'e?vbri/) is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles
, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the b
est known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest stone circle in
Europe. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to c
ontemporary Pagans.
Constructed around 2600 BCE,[1] during the Neolithic, or 'New Stone Age', the mo
nument comprises a large henge (a bank and a ditch) with a large outer stone cir
cle and two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the centre of the mon
ument. Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it
was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremony. The Avebury monument w
as a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments n
earby, including West Kennet Long Barrow and Silbury Hill.
By the Iron Age, the site had been effectively abandoned, with some evidence of
human activity on the site during the Roman occupation. During the Early Middle
Ages, a village first began to be built around the monument, which eventually ex
tended into it. In the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods, locals destroyed
many of the standing stones around the henge, both for religious and practical r
easons. The antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley however took an intere
st in Avebury during the 17th century, and recorded much of the site before its
destruction. Archaeological investigation followed in the 20th century, led prim
arily by Alexander Keiller, who oversaw a project of reconstructing much of the
monument.
Avebury is owned and managed by the National Trust, a charitable organisation wh
o keep it open to the public.[2] It has been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monu
ment,[3] as well as a World Heritage Site, in the latter capacity being seen as
a part of the wider prehistoric landscape of Wiltshire known as Stonehenge, Aveb
ury and Associated Sites.[4]

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