West Kennet Avenue

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West Kennet Avenue

West Kennet Avenue or Kennet Avenue is a prehistoric site in the English county of Wiltshire . As part of the Avebury region is part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites UNESCO - World Heritage Site .

Temporal and local context

Kennet Avenue is associated with the prehistoric sites of Avebury and The Sanctuary and was created some time after they were built, approximately 2,200-2400 BC. There were formerly four avenues that led in all four directions to the sanctuary . Only the stone-lined southern Kennet Avenue remains.

Holes and pits were found halfway along the way. At first they were thought to be traces of settlement. Today they are believed to be the remains of ritual sites that existed centuries before the avenue was built.

Like the impressive Stonehenge, Kennet Avenue is a testament to the wealthy and well-developed society that built these monuments.

construction

Cuboid and diamond-shaped stone pair

Stones

The avenue originally consisted of over 100 pairs of standing stones. The height of the stones varies greatly, from about 1.20 meters to just under 4 meters; the average height is 3 meters.

The stones described a corridor over the entire length of 2.5 kilometers, with a width of 15 meters, which, however, probably narrows towards the sanctuary . The stone pairs were each about 24.5 meters apart.

The stones often appear as a pair of different, opposing types: one is slender and cuboid , the other wide and diamond-shaped . This was interpreted as the embodiment of male (cuboid) and female (diamond-shaped) aspects.

Course of the road

The course was sometimes difficult to reconstruct because it was interrupted by farmland. In the 1990s, attempts were made to trace the course using modern research methods, which was partially successful.

At first glance, the winding course of the road seems careless and incomprehensible. One explanation for this is the discovery of prehistoric sites that surround the avenue and whose settlements and buildings are taken into account by the course of the street. Another possible explanation is the surprise effect that the curves have on the viewing angle, which should make the sight of the sanctuary appear even more spectacular.

Missing stones

Some stones were already missing when John Aubrey first described the avenue in the 17th century. William Stukeley then only described 72 stones in 1724. In 1912 Maud Cunnington led the first work on Kennet Avenue, in the course of which she began to erect stones again.

However , in 1932 Alexander Keiller found only four standing stones. Keiller was able to show that the custom of tearing down stones and burying them had existed since the Middle Ages, probably because they were considered the work of the devil. In addition, the stones were used as building material by neighboring farmers.

Thanks to the work of Keiller, in the context of which stones were found and erected, 27 stones are now upright and 37 more have been replaced by cement pillars.

Four stones in the vicinity of the area are now also included in the avenue.

tomb

In addition to showing the way, the stones appear to have served as clues to the burial sites of some members of the Avebury Ward. Some time after the avenue was built, several shallow burials were performed at the foot of the stones. The burials are associated with the bell-cup culture that came from the continent at the beginning of the Bronze Age. In the 1930s, Stuart Piggott and Keiller opened four of the graves, three of which contained the remains of one person and the fourth of three. It is believed that the buried were either highly respected personalities or served as an offering. Further excavations along the avenue also revealed bones, probably also from funerals.

vandalism

In the recent past, some stones were smeared with red paint by vandals, which can only be removed with great difficulty.

Ownership

West Kennet Avenue is owned by the National Trust and is under the preservation order of English Heritage .

Web links

Commons : West Kennet Avenue  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

literature

  • A. Thom, A. Strand: Avebury: The West Kennet Avenue . Journal for the History of Astronomy, 7, 1976
  • Julian Thomas: Understanding the Neolithic . Routledge Chapman & Hall; Edition: Rev., 2000, ISBN 0415207665

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Translated from: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/west-kennet-avenue/history-and-research/ (English) accessed March 9, 2012
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Translated from: http://www.avebury-web.co.uk/wk_avenue.html (English) accessed March 9, 2012
  3. ↑ a b c d e Translated by: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/west-kennet-avenue/history-and-research/ Section: Description. (English) accessed March 9, 2012
  4. ↑ www.avebury-web.co.uk quoted: New Scientist Magazine, April 1991
  5. ↑ a b Translated by: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/west-kennet-avenue/history-and-research/ Section: Lost stones. (English) accessed March 9, 2012
  6. ↑ http://heritageaction.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/avebury-focus-on-18th-century-vandalism/ (English) accessed March 9, 2012
  7. ^ Brian Edwards: Not So Prehistoric Avebury History Today, Volume 51, Issue 2, 2001
  8. ↑ http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/west-kennet-avenue/ (English) accessed March 9, 2012

Coordinates: 51 ° 25 ′ 21.4 "  N , 1 ° 50 ′ 52.1"  W.