October
21
/ 2018
The Avebury monuments cluster around the headwaters of the upper Kennet valley in north Wiltshire, close to the northern edge of the Wessex chalk uplands. Much of the archaeological fame of this region resides in its spectacular late Neolithic monuments. The Avebury henge, its megalithic avenues, Silbury Hill and the West Kennet palisaded enclosures are among the largest megalithic, earthen and wooden constructions found in the Neolithic of Atlantic Europe. While monument building here reached its apogee in the centuries around 2500BC, the origins of this remarkable ceremonial complex, and the pre-eminent status of this landscape, must be sought in developments during the earlier Neolithic. On present evidence, the first farming communities in the region look to have been established
