New Stones discovered at Avebury

Submitted by vicky on Friday, 05 December 2003 Page Views: 14432

National Trust archaeologists have discovered an arc of buried megaliths that once formed part of the great stone circle at Avebury in Wiltshire, it was announced earlier this week. A geophysics survey has revealed that at least 15 stones lie buried within the circle itself.

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 02/12/2003

Note: Mike Pitts calls for one of the fallen stones to be re-instated - see comment below.

Contributor Bio for vicky: Ex Megalithic Portal Editor, Co-author of 'Rock Around the Peak - Megalithic Monuments of the Peak District' and... More

<< Increased tuition fees could hit archaeology

News

Antiquity reports on a major new megalithic complex in Europe >>