Stone Henge - Research Paper Example

The only identified comparable sites of similar epoch (Flagstones and Stonehenge in Dorset) are just a quarter of Avebury size. The ditch alone was 21m (69ft) wide and 11m (36ft) deep, with its key fill carbon dated to around 3400 - 2625BC (Castleden 34). A later date in the current period is more likely though excavation of its bank has validated that it has been expanded, presumably by use of materials excavated from its ditch. The fill on the foot of the final ditch may therefore post-date any other in a former, shallower ditch that does not exist any more.

Since there lacks written account from the era of the Avebury Stonehenge construction, nobody knows for sure. Neolithic people resided here as evidenced by some artifacts found inside the sites and in burial barrows. They do appear to line up with spiritual events that are readily recognized. However, the why question remains a clandestine. This has sparked many legends about their origin and purpose dealing with the entirety from King Arthur to the Devil. So far none of the mysticism has any historical reliability.

The circles predate them all, except perhaps of course the Devil (Sugden 1)! Aubrey Burl estimates a sequence of construction starting with the South and North erected around 2800BC, followed by the Outer Circle and the henge around 200 years later, the 2 avenues added around 2400BC. A timber circle of 2 concentric rings, acknowledged through archaeological geophysics conceivably stood in the northeast part of the outer circle, though this waits excavation testing (John and Atkinson 9). A ploughed barrow can also be seen from the air in north-western quadrant.

The henge had 4 entrances, 2 opposing ones on north by north-west and south by south-east line, and 2 on an east by - and west by south-west line. ‘In spite of being a man-made construction, it was featured in the 2005 TV program Seven Natural Wonders as among the wonders of West Country for the reason that it consists of natural constituents. The henge is a World Heritage Site and a Scheduled Ancient Monument’ (unesco.com). Excavation at Avebury Stone Henge has been quite limited. Sir Henry Meux placed a trench over the bank in 1894, which consequently gave the first suggestion that this earthwork was constructed in two stages.

The site got surveyed and excavated spasmodically about 1908 to 1923 by a team of workers under the command of Harold St. George Gray. Gray Harold was able to establish that the Avebury constructors had dug down 11m (36ft) into the natural chalk during excavating the henge ditch, creating an outer bank 9m (30ft) high around the entire perimeter of the henge as well as using red deer horn as their main digging tool (LLC 46). Harold Gray recorded the ditch’s base as being flat and 4m (13ft) wide although some late archaeologists have grilled his use of untrained labor to excavate the ditch, suggesting that its form might have been different.

Harold Gray found few artifacts in the ditch filled but did recover dispersed human bones, jawbones being principally well represented. At about a depth of 2m (7ft), Gray encountered a complete woman’s skeleton 1.5m (5ft) tall who had been possibly buried there (LLC 51). Alexander Keiller, an archaeologist re-erected majority of the