Beckhampton Dig near Avebury
Submitted by John O'Brien on Wednesday, 19 November 2003 Page Views: 2008
Neolithic and Bronze AgeI visited the new Beckhampton Dig near Avebury recently. It has been a bit of a disappointment so far. Mark Gillings (Leicester University) explained that they were searching for the "roots" of a pair of megaliths which would have stood on either side of the Beckhampton Avenue, to the South of the Long Stones.They had evaluated all the evidence starting with Stukeley's engravings and selected the likely spot.
Once the topsoil was removed, the team fouund no trace of the expected stone holes. There were traces of ancient ploughmarks in the bedrock chalk but nothing else of note.
They are now backfilling the excavation including relaying all the turf which they dug out carefully by hand. This will avoid unsightly damage to the field.
Mark explained that plan B involved selecting two smaller sites close by where there were very slight indications in the Geophysics results that there might be something underground.
He was remarkably cheery and helpful despite the setback.
He also gave me a description of Pete Glastonbury and suggested the Red Lion as the likely place to find him. This turned out to be scurrilous gossip (:-).
Avebury itself was a joy as always.
John
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