Avebury History
Dating from about 3750 BCE onwards, the ancient monuments of Avebury form part of the UNESCO Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. Avebury includes the world’s largest stone circle at almost 350 metres across, There are two avenues of paired standing stones (many underground and originally reaching just over 2 miles long) and Silbury Hill, the largest man-made earth mound in Europe, similar in volume to contemporary Egyptian pyramids. Other important sites are Windmill Hill, the longbarrows at both East and West Kennet, the Palisades, the Santctuary and many round barrows.
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We aim to share relevant in depth articles, visits, links to films and podcasts and site excavations
Drawn to Avebury
An exhibition about how Avebury has been recorded and reshaped, those drawn to and inspired by Avebury, this was part of the Chapel exhibition during Summer 2025.
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Avebury Timeline
A timeline of some of the influential people who have helped to restore and shape Avebury into the incredible place we see today
Explore the timeline here
Avebury Papers
The Avebury Papers is a four-year Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project to digitise, explore, and share the multimedia archive of Avebury’s Neolithic origins and its subsequent life-history
Explore more here
Quartered in Avebury
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Avebury To Akita - A short film
This film was produced in conjunction with the exhibition Circles of Stone: Stonehenge and Prehistoric Japan at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre, Wiltshire, UK from 30 September 2022 to summer 2023, sponsored by the Ishibashi Foundation. The drone work was supported by funding from the International Jomon Culture Conference.
Blickmead Visit
Around noon on September 17th and blessed by glorious late summer weather, a group of twenty Avebury Society members gathered at the Amesbury History Centre, ordered food and drink for lunch and browsed the displays. We met up with our guide Professor David Jacques, who pointed out some of the items that had come from his excavations at Blick Mead near by, about which we had heard when he spoke to the Society in 2021.
Suitably fortified by various dishes rustled up by the café we were led into the grounds of the Abbey, and into an idyllic rural scene, river sparkling in the sunlight, meadow grazed by cattle, parkland trees.
Once over the elegant bridge (under restoration) we left the Abbey grounds and entered a rather less pampered area belonging to the Antrobus estate. The solitude of this land is carefully preserved by the owners and we felt privileged in entering it.
Following a rough path, David first led us to the bank of the river where cir cles of disturbed water proved not to be due to fish but to the emergence of spring waters. David explained the significance of this not only for Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, fresh water, at the temperature of around 11oC (never freezing) but also for the animals on whom they relied for food and equipment, bone and skin. Another fascinating feature of the riverbank was the presence of ‘pink flints’. When the flints are removed from the shallow light-dappled water, in a short time they become coloured a bright pink. Some are to be seen in the History Centre. They may have added to the mystery of the place for the early inhabitants.
Retracing our steps took us to within sound of the A303 not far from the Countess roundabout, with glimpses through the trees of speeding traffic.
By contrast Blick Mead presented itself as a small peaceful meadow sloping gently to a flatter area once bordering the river, still part of the river in times of flood as earlier in the year. This was where the focus of the excavations had been and, funding permitting, will continue in the future. Here had been found the evidence of flint tool making and the strange platform of stone and bone built up and covering footprints left by aurochs. David painted a picture of a land teeming with life, from the herds of huge aurochs to beavers and hares.
The whole site must have been of ritual significance over thousands of years. There was evidence of the cultivation of henbane, no doubt used as an hallucinogenic.
We felt that the lives of the people had had much to commend it. They feasted (one auroch could feed over a hundred). No doubt they sang and danced. There were likely gatherings of many people from the surrounding country, as evidently continued into the neolithic age, the bronze age and later too, and indeed to the present Solstice celebrations.
The thought of this scene overshadowed by a vast flyover with the additional destruction of the water –table was chilling.
Our final destination was to ‘Vespasian’s Camp’, an iron age earthwork above a steep bank down to the river below. This had nothing to do with the emporer Vespasian!
The landowners had asked us not to proceed into the earthwork as ash-dieback threatened to drop branches on anyone beneath with consequent ‘health and safety’ problems.
David pointed out the security of the cliff-like riverbank at that side of the earthwork, elsewhere it had a single dich. He also showed the view that without trees would give a vista of the river bend providing a grand-stand view for any river procession.
On the far side, at a distance, the Abbey buildings could be seen nestled in the parkland.
We departed, with heartfelt thanks to David and to Martin Northmore–Ball who had indefatigably organised our day.
Recommended, a visit to the Amesbury History Centre in the High Street. There is much to see, and excellent refreshments are available!
Read Current Archaeology April 19th 2013 “Vespasian’s Camp; Cradle of Stonehenge”
As part of the exhibition alongside the people drawn to Avebury, there were also many people who lived in or were 'quartered' in Avebury for periods and were influenced by Avebury
Explore more here
The Barber Stone
In the fourteenth century and probably earlier many stones are now known to have been buried by local inhabitants presumably as a result of attempts to de-paganise the site. Whatever the reason it was to prove unfortunate for one particular individual who appears to have perished under one of the stones as it was being felled into a pit. When Alexander Keiller was carrying out his excavations in the 1930s under one stone (no.9 in the south-west quadrant of the henge) was found the skeleton of a man. He is believed to have been an itinerant barber-surgeon or tailor who had suffered various injuries when the stone had fallen and trapped him, this sad incident has allowed archaeologists to date a period when stone-burial was taking place, for with the skeleton they found the remains of a leather purse containing a pair of scissors, a probe and some coins. The scissors are believed to be among the earliest examples to have ever been found and the coins were a French sterling and two early 14th.Century pennies belonging to the reign of Edward 1 or 11 depending on sources.
Falkner's Circle Stone
A few hundred metres to the east of the West Kennet Avenue at a point about one third of the way along its length are the remains of a small stone circle known as "Falkner's Circle". It was partially excavated in 2002 and evidence of burning pits and stone destruction were found. About 36 metres in diameter it was originally thought to have consisted of 10-12 stones only one of which now exists. At present the relevance of the circle to the rest of the Avebury complex remains a mystery.
The circle is named after a Mr.Falkner who was an antiquary from Devizes. He first identified the circle in 1840. Some doubt has existed as to whether he was reporting a genuine circle, some other form of megalithic structure or a random assemblage of stones. The results of the 2002 excavations seem to confirm that the feature was indeed a circle. Curiously this component of the Avebury complex was overlooked by both John Aubrey and William Stukeley.
Today's Remaining Stones
The Avebury monuments suffered greatly at the hands of the more recent inhabitants of the area. It is estimated that the henge and avenues originally contained well in excess of 600 stones but so many have been destroyed or used for building. Only 76 are now visible though excavations and surveys, in recent years, have revealed that at least 20 others remain buried. The source of the stones used in the construction of the Avebury monuments was the Marlborough Downs about two miles to the east of Avebury itself where thousands of naturally occurring stones lay scattered on the landscape. The stones are believed to have formed from sedimentary deposits that had accumulated on top of the underlying chalk layer. the National Trust plantation at Lockeridge Dene and the small valley at Piggledene preserve many of the stones and gives some idea of the abundance that was available to the builders of the henge during the neolithic period.
The sarsens at Piggledene have become a noted environment for lichens and mosses. They can be found next to the A4 road just to the west of Fyfield.