Photos

This is a small part of the prehistoric stone circle situated in the village of Avebury, Wiltshire. It dates from around 2,500 B.C. and has a diameter of 348 metres. Originally there were 98 standing stones of between 3 and 6 metres in height that made up the circle. Inside there were two smaller stone circles, one of 27 and one of 29 stones. Surrounding the largest circle was a further circle formed by a 5.5 metre high earth bank and a 9 metre deep ditch.

The circles remained largely intact throughout the Roman period and by 600 A.D. a settlement grew up inside the circle. Around this time, when the church was powerful and there was a fear of paganism, many of the stones were deliberately buried. As the settlement grew into a village and in the 17th century began to expand, many of the stones were broken up for building materials.

In 1934 a project was begun to re-erect many of the buried stones and markers were placed to show the positions of those that had disappeared. The man who oversaw the task of this re-development, a man called Alexander Keiller, described the initial state of the site as "the outstanding archaeological disgrace of Britain".

This photo was taken mid-afternoon in December and the sun is already low and casting long shadows across the grass. The very small dots on the horizon on the left-hand side are people walking the 5.5 metre high earth bank circle.

Regards,

Rich