Avebury

The stone circle / henge of Avebury is located in the village of Avebury in Wiltshire to the east of Bath. He is one of the largest stone circles in the British Isles and part since 1986 as part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The sandstones are from about two miles away. The stone circle at Avebury, inclusive of the surrounding walls an area of ​​about 15 hectares, is now partly built and consists of a large outer circle and two smaller inner circles. The center line is aligned with the midsummer sunrise.

History

The Henge was built about 2500 to 2600 BC. He heard Marden, Durrington Walls and Mount Pleasant ( Dorchester ) to large Neolithic Henges and can ware with the Grooved be associated.

From the 14th century the destruction of the monument began under the direction of the Christian Church. The stones were buried up with such a " stone burial " a traveling barber was buried under a falling stone. Under this stone 600 years later his remains were discovered. The stone is also called " The Barber 's Stone " and today is a "feminine" (ie, lower and wider ) diamond-shaped stone.

In order to make room for agriculture, more stones were removed in the 17th and 18th centuries, for example, used for building houses. In order to destroy the very hard stones, they were heated in a fire and then doused with cold water. Along the forming because of the stress cracks the stones were smashed with hammers.

The scholar John Aubrey recognized in 1648 with soil characteristics and the large stones in the landscape and in the village as prehistoric stone circle, which he attributed to the Druids, who lived about 2000 years after the construction of stone circles. The scholar William Stuckeley called the Stone Circle in 1720 as a sanctuary of the British Druids (Temple of British Druids).

Excavations

Excavations carried out by Alexander Keiller in the 1920s. 1930 will be re-established by the National Trust numerous stones.

Construction

The geometry of the stone circle at Avebury is far more advanced than the other stone circles in Britain.

Of the original 154 megaliths ( stones) are still obtained 36. Along with the stone avenues was the complex of about 600 megaliths. The locations of the destroyed bricks of stone circles are marked with concrete pillars. The destroyed avenues were only partially completed.

Outside large stone circle ( about 2500 BC )

• Extent about 1200 m
• Diameter 427 m
• On a 6 m high embankment 98 stones were originally set, 27 of which have survived. The stones were 2.1 m to 5.5 m high and weighed up to 40 tons.

They are deeply rooted 15 to 60 cm in the soil. The largest stone ( " Obelisk " ) was 5.5 m high and was overthrown and destroyed in the 18th century.

Inner Northern District smaller (around 2600 BC )

• About 98 m in diameter
• From the original 27 stones There are four surviving.

Inner south circle smaller (around 2600 BC )

• About 104 m in diameter
• Of the original 29 stones have survived five.

Geometric covers

The stone circle at Avebury seems striking geometric references to have in particular to two neighboring places of worship:

• The center was built on a latitude of 51.42857 °. This corresponds to exactly one -seventh of the earth's circumference (360 ° / 7).
• The distance to the center of the neighboring Stonehenge corresponds exactly to the 1440 portion of the equatorial circumference ( 1:1440 ≙ 1 minutes: 1 day). .
• The distance to the tower of Glastonbury Tor is exactly the 600th part of the equatorial circumference.

All three places form an almost Right Triangle. Whether these dimensions were random or intended is not known.

Information for Visitors

The whole area is freely accessible. Also worth seeing is the Alexander Keiller Museum in the historic barn and medieval village church where the Tourist Information is located. If you follow the narrow road along the stone avenue to the south, take a short ride a larger highway. If one then turns right there, West Kennet Long Barrow, Silbury Hill and Swallowhead Springs, the source of the Kennet, can be visited.