Three stone circles surround the Neolithic henge monument known as Avebury, which is located in Wiltshire, southwest England around the village of Avebury. The largest megalithic stone circle in the world can be found at this, one of the most well-known prehistoric sites in Britain. For modern pagans, it is a site of religious significance in addition to being a popular tourist destination. The Neolithic, or New Stone Age, monument was built over several hundred years during the third millennium BC. It consists of a massive henge with two smaller stone circles inside the center of the monument and a larger outer stone circle. Although archaeologists are unsure of its initial use, they assume it was probably part of a ritual or ceremony. The Avebury monument is a portion of a broader prehistoric landscape that also includes West Kennet Long Barrow, Windmill Hill and Silbury Hill, three neighboring older monuments. Although there was minor evidence of human habitation throughout the Roman era, the site had essentially been abandoned by the Iron Age. A hamlet was first constructed around the monument in the Early Middle Ages, and it later extended inside of it. Many of the standing stones surrounding the henge were destroyed by the locals in the Late Medieval and Early Modern eras, for both utilitarian and religious purposes. In the 17th century, Avebury piqued the curiosity of antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley, who documented a large portion of the site before to its demolition. The twentieth century saw the start of archaeological research, which was mostly overseen by Alexander Keiller, who directed a project that involved reconstructing a large portion of the monument. The National Trust is the owner and manager of Avebury. It has been included as a World Heritage Site and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The latter designation recognizes it as a component of the larger prehistoric Wiltshire landscape known as Stonehenge, Avebury, and Associated Sites [Information and Image Credit : Avebury, Wikipedia] [Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury ] [Image: The stone avenue; Wikipedia-Image Author : Dickbauch] [Image Availed Under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License; (Please Relate to Individual Image URLs for More Usage Property and Sharing, Remixing or Attributing the Work)] [License-Link : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en ] [Wikipedia-Image-Source-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ASC_Allee_1_db.jpg ] #History#Architecture
Heritage and Geographical Sites
