{"it":{"id":"BRI-001","kind":"site","sub":"British Isles","name":"Avebury","place":"United Kingdom","lat":51.429,"lon":-1.854,"date":"Constructed over several hundred years in the third millennium BC, during the…","mat":"clay;earth;sarsen","nfacts":44,"tags":["Britain"],"sum":"Avebury's great henge, a circular bank and ditch, is about 347 m across (single source). Its outer ring once held 98 standing stones, some over 40 tonnes, making it the largest stone circle known. It was built over several centuries in the 3rd millennium BCE.","why":"It is only about 30 km from Stonehenge, and why so much monument-building clustered here is still an open question.","src":[280,620,621],"nsrc":4,"yt":"What drew people to this patch of England?","rel":["STO-HEN","CAR-CAR"],"hook":"Avebury's stone circle is the largest known, with 98 outer stones once standing, some over 40 tonnes."},"S":{"280":["Wikipedia: Avebury","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury"],"620":["UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites","https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/373"],"621":["English Heritage: History of Avebury","https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/avebury/history/"]},"rec":{"id":"BRI-001","alias":[],"ms":[{"f":"henge","a":"diameter","v":"347.4","u":"m","o":"347.4 m","unc":"","by":"Malone","yr":"2011","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0543"},{"f":"henge","a":"circumference","v":">1000","u":"m","o":">1000 m","unc":"","by":"Burl","yr":"2002","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0544"},{"f":"outer circle","a":"diameter","v":"331.6","u":"m","o":"331.6 m","unc":"","by":"Burl","yr":"2002","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0545"},{"f":"outer circle","a":"number of stones (original)","v":"98","u":"count","o":"98 count","unc":"","by":"Burl","yr":"2002","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0546"},{"f":"outer circle sarsens","a":"mass (max)","v":">40","u":"t","o":">40 t","unc":"","by":"Burl","yr":"2002","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0547"},{"f":"outer circle sarsens","a":"height","v":"3.6-4.2","u":"m","o":"3.6-4.2 m","unc":"","by":"Burl","yr":"2002","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0548"},{"f":"northern inner ring","a":"diameter","v":"98","u":"m","o":"98 m","unc":"","by":"Burl","yr":"2002","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0549"},{"f":"southern inner ring","a":"diameter","v":"108","u":"m","o":"108 m","unc":"","by":"Burl","yr":"2002","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0550"},{"f":"Obelisk (central monolith)","a":"height","v":"5.5","u":"m","o":"5.5 m","unc":"","by":"Smith","yr":"1965","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0551"},{"f":"ditch","a":"depth","v":"11","u":"m","o":"11 m","unc":"","by":"Gray","yr":"1935","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0552"},{"f":"ditch","a":"base width","v":"4","u":"m","o":"4 m","unc":"","by":"Gray","yr":"1935","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0553"},{"f":"bank","a":"height","v":"9","u":"m","o":"9 m","unc":"","by":"Gray","yr":"1935","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0554"},{"f":"ditch","a":"antler picks found","v":">40","u":"count","o":">40 count","unc":"","by":"Gray","yr":"1935","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0555"},{"f":"buried stone","a":"mass (est.)","v":">100","u":"t","o":">100 t","unc":"","by":"BBC report","yr":"2003","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0556"},{"f":"buried stone","a":"depth below ground","v":">=2.1","u":"m","o":">=2.1 m","unc":"","by":"BBC report","yr":"2003","m":"excavation/survey as summarised","c":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0557"},{"f":"henge","a":"dating (radiocarbon)","v":"2900-2600 cal BC","u":"","o":"2900-2600 cal BC ","unc":"","by":"Pitts & Whittle","yr":"1992","m":"radiocarbon","c":"see Wikipedia refs","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"separate rows kept: published ranges differ","id":"M0558"},{"f":"henge","a":"dating (radiocarbon)","v":"3040-2780 cal BC","u":"","o":"3040-2780 cal BC ","unc":"","by":"Cleal","yr":"2001","m":"radiocarbon","c":"see Wikipedia refs","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"separate rows kept: published ranges differ","id":"M0559"},{"f":"henge","a":"dating (radiocarbon)","v":"2840-2460 cal BC","u":"","o":"2840-2460 cal BC ","unc":"","by":"Pollard & Cleal","yr":"2004","m":"radiocarbon","c":"see Wikipedia refs","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"separate rows kept: published ranges differ","id":"M0560"},{"f":"henge","a":"dating (radiocarbon)","v":"stone settings 2870-2200 BC","u":"","o":"stone settings 2870-2200 BC ","unc":"","by":"Cleal & Montague","yr":"2001","m":"radiocarbon","c":"see Wikipedia refs","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury","b":"S","bb":"one secondary source (Wikipedia) naming the primary citation","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"separate rows kept: published ranges differ","id":"M0561"},{"f":"local landscape sitting on a low chalk ridge","a":"elevation","v":"160","u":"m","o":"The monument stands slightly above the local landscape, sitting on a low chalk ridge 160 m above sea level; to the east are the Marlborough Downs, an area of lowland hills.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0886"},{"f":"site chronology","a":"dating (as stated)","v":"hown that the environment of lowland Britain changed around 4250–4000 BC","u":"","o":"Radiocarbon dating and analysis of pollen and occasionally insects in buried soils have shown that the environment of lowland Britain changed around 4250–4000 BC.","unc":"","by":"per cited source","yr":"","m":"documentary: auto-extracted sentence","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary)","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"","id":"M0887"},{"f":"thumb Aerial lidar topography shows the","a":"diameter","v":"347","u":"m","o":"thumb|Aerial [[lidar topography shows the 347m-diameter circular bank and ditch surrounding the stones]]","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0888"},{"f":"site chronology","a":"dating (as stated)","v":"w termed the Mesolithic period in Britain lasted from circa 11,600 to 7,800 BP, at a time when the island was heavily for","u":"","o":"What is now termed the Mesolithic period in Britain lasted from circa 11,600 to 7,800 BP, at a time when the island was heavily forested and when there was still a land mass, called Doggerland, which connected Britain to continental Europe.","unc":"","by":"per cited source","yr":"","m":"documentary: auto-extracted sentence","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary)","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"","id":"M0889"},{"f":"a densely scattered collection of worked flints found","a":"distance (not a site dimension)","v":"300","u":"m","o":"REF9 The most important of these discoveries is a densely scattered collection of worked flints found 300 m to the west of Avebury, which has led archaeologists to believe that that spot was a flint working site occupied over a period of several weeks by a group of nomadic hunter-gatherers who had set up camp there.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0890"},{"f":"areas of Neolithic activity have been identified within","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"500","u":"m","o":"Five distinct areas of Neolithic activity have been identified within 500 m of Avebury; they include a scatter of flints along the line of the West Kennet Avenue—an avenue that connects Avebury with the Neolithic site of The Sanctuary.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0891"},{"f":"The henge is not perfectly circular and measures","a":"diameter","v":"347.4","u":"m","o":"The henge is not perfectly circular and measures 347.4 m in diameter REF23 and over 1000 m in circumference.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0892"},{"f":"347 4 m in diameter REF23 and over","a":"circumference","v":"1000","u":"m","o":"The henge is not perfectly circular and measures 347.4 m in diameter REF23 and over 1000 m in circumference.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0893"},{"f":"With a diameter of","a":"diameter","v":"331.6","u":"m","o":"With a diameter of 331.6 m, this is one of Europe's largest stone circles, REF29 and Britain's largest.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0894"},{"f":"sarsen standing stones some weighing in excess of","a":"mass","v":"40","u":"tons","o":"It is thought that there were originally 98 sarsen standing stones, some weighing in excess of 40 tons.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0895"},{"f":"The stones varied in height from","a":"height","v":"3.6","u":"m","o":"The stones varied in height from 3.6 m to 4.2 m, as exemplified at the north and south entrances.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0896"},{"f":"varied in height from 3 6 m to","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"4.2","u":"m","o":"The stones varied in height from 3.6 m to 4.2 m, as exemplified at the north and south entrances.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0897"},{"f":"site chronology","a":"dating (as stated)","v":"some stone settings indicate a construction date of around 2870–2200 BC","u":"","o":"Radiocarbon dating of some stone settings indicate a construction date of around 2870–2200 BC.","unc":"","by":"per cited source","yr":"","m":"documentary: auto-extracted sentence","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary)","t":"INTERPRETATION","n":"","id":"M0898"},{"f":"The northern inner ring is","a":"diameter","v":"98","u":"m","o":"The northern inner ring is 98 m in diameter, but only two of its four standing stones remain upright.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0899"},{"f":"The southern inner ring was","a":"diameter","v":"108","u":"m","o":"The southern inner ring was 108 m in diameter before its destruction in the 18th century.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0900"},{"f":"A single large monolith","a":"height","v":"5.5","u":"m","o":"A single large monolith, 5.5 m high, stood in the centre along with an alignment of smaller stones.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0901"},{"f":"At a depth of","a":"depth","v":"4","u":"feet","o":"At a depth of 4 feet a \"curious box-like structure formed of chalk blocks was uncovered which contained twenty deer horn picks of large size, all worn down by use, the tines being almost gone\".","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0902"},{"f":"Gray went down","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"17","u":"ft","o":"Gray went down 17 ft. from the present bottom to the original one.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0903"},{"f":"demonstrate that the Avebury builders had dug down","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"11","u":"m","o":"REF50 The discovery of over 40 antler picks on or near the bottom of the ditch REF51 enabled Gray to demonstrate that the Avebury builders had dug down 11 m into the natural chalk using red deer antlers as their primary digging tool, producing a henge ditch with a 9 m high bank around its perimeter.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0904"},{"f":"digging tool producing a henge ditch with a","a":"height","v":"9","u":"m","o":"REF50 The discovery of over 40 antler picks on or near the bottom of the ditch REF51 enabled Gray to demonstrate that the Avebury builders had dug down 11 m into the natural chalk using red deer antlers as their primary digging tool, producing a henge ditch with a 9 m high bank around its perimeter.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0905"},{"f":"recorded the base of the ditch as being","a":"width","v":"4","u":"m","o":"Gray recorded the base of the ditch as being 4 m wide and flat, but later archaeologists have questioned his use of untrained labour to excavate the ditch and suggested that its form may have been different.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0906"},{"f":"At a depth of about","a":"depth","v":"2","u":"m","o":"At a depth of about 2 m, Gray found the complete skeleton of a 1.5 m tall woman.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0907"},{"f":"m Gray found the complete skeleton of a","a":"height","v":"1.5","u":"m","o":"At a depth of about 2 m, Gray found the complete skeleton of a 1.5 m tall woman.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0908"},{"f":"stones one was found to extend at least","a":"dimension (unspecified)","v":"2.1","u":"m","o":"In April 2003, during preparations to straighten some of the stones, one was found to extend at least 2.1 m below ground.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0909"},{"f":"It was estimated to weigh more than","a":"mass","v":"100","u":"tons","o":"It was estimated to weigh more than 100 tons, making it one of the largest found in the UK.","unc":"","by":"per cited source (see citation)","yr":"","m":"documentary: verbatim sentence auto-extracted from Wikipedia revision","c":"no inline ref in article","pg":"","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123","b":"S","bb":"auto-extracted, Wikipedia rev 1381310123 (tertiary); unit/attribute classified by keyword - check context in value_original","t":"MEASUREMENT","n":"","id":"M0910"}],"lab":[{"k":"Materials","mat":"circle stones","m":"documentary geology","v":"local sarsen silcrete, undressed","by":"Burl 2002","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury"},{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"The monument stands slightly above the local landscape, sitting on a low chalk ridge 160 m above sea level; to the east are the Marlborough Downs, an area of lowland hills.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123"},{"k":"Materials","mat":"site material (as stated in article)","m":"documentary mention (Wikipedia, auto-extracted)","v":"It is thought that there were originally 98 sarsen standing stones, some weighing in excess of 40 tons.","by":"no inline ref in article","b":"S","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123"}],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[{"a":"slope_face_angle","r":"no published face/slope angle in sources reached (often n/a for non-pyramidal sites)"},{"a":"wall_batter","r":"no published batter survey in free sources"},{"a":"orientation","r":"no published azimuth reached"},{"a":"corner_precision","r":"no published precision survey in free sources"},{"a":"quarry_source","r":"not found in free sources reached"},{"a":"mortar","r":"dry-stone construction or no binder analysis in free sources"},{"a":"volume_labor","r":"no volume/labour estimate in sources opened"},{"a":"hydrology_acoustics","r":"no published hydrology/acoustic measurement in sources opened"},{"a":"magnetic_radiation","r":"no published magnetic/radiation survey found (searched site name + magnetometry/radiation; Wikipedia, Google Scholar snippets)"},{"a":"excavation_history","r":"no excavation history row yet"},{"a":"artifacts_found","r":"no finds row yet"}],"dat":[],"aa":[],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"sub":[],"site":{"age":"Constructed over several hundred years in the third millennium BC, during the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, the monument comprises a large henge (a bank and a ditch) with a large outer stone circle and two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the centre of the monument.","dm":"[see dating_excerpt; method not extracted]","lab":"NO: inference only (style/context/king list/textual)","weak":"no direct lab result on the structure in our records; date from stylistic, contextual or textual inference","unesco":"","dens":"CENSUS"},"co":{"lat":"51.42861111","lon":"-1.85416667","src":"Wikidata P625 only + curated wave0 value agrees","agree":"agree","b":"V","note":"two independent sources agree; max delta 0.0025 deg (~0.27 km)","osm":"https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/353244910"},"src":[{"id":"S0429","t":"Gray 1935 Archaeologia 84; Burl 2002; Malone 2011 (via Wikipedia)","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury"},{"id":"S0262","t":"no inline ref in article","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avebury&oldid=1381310123"},{"id":"S2621","t":"UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites","u":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/373"},{"id":"S2622","t":"English Heritage: History of Avebury","u":"https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/avebury/history/"},{"id":"VBRI-001-5","t":"UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites","u":"https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/373/"},{"id":null,"t":"National Trust, History of Avebury","u":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wiltshire/avebury/history-of-avebury"}],"sum":"In 1938 archaeologists working in an English village lifted a fallen stone and found a man underneath it. He had lain there for more than six hundred years. At his side was a leather pouch, and in the pouch were three silver coins struck around 1320 to 1325, a pair of iron scissors and a lancet, the small blade used for letting blood. From those tools they guessed his trade: a travelling barber-surgeon, walking between market towns, cutting hair and treating the sick. Somehow, in the early 14th century, he had ended up beneath one of the great stones of Avebury as it came down.\n\nHe was not the victim of an accident of nature. The villagers of Avebury were pulling their monument apart, and he seems to have been caught in the work. After his death, it appears, they stopped. Perhaps they feared that the stones had taken revenge. Long afterwards, in the 18th and 19th centuries, people in the village were still telling the story of a man crushed by a falling stone.\n\nWhat they had been trying to destroy is one of the largest prehistoric monuments in Europe. Avebury lies in Wiltshire, in southern England, on a low chalk ridge about 30 kilometres north of Stonehenge. It is a henge: a vast circular bank with a ditch on its inner side, roughly 347 metres across and more than a kilometre around. A village now sits inside it. Inside the bank stood the largest stone circle known anywhere, 98 great stones of sarsen, a hard local sandstone, in a ring about 330 metres across. Many stood between 3.6 and 4.2 metres high, and some weighed more than 40 tonnes, as much as half a dozen elephants. Inside that ring stood two more circles, about 98 and 108 metres across, and at their hearts a cove of three stones and a tall single monolith of about 5.5 metres.\n\nThe ditch is its own astonishment. Excavating between 1908 and 1922, Harold St George Gray found that the builders had cut down 11 metres into solid chalk, as deep as a three-storey house is tall, and heaped the spoil into a bank 9 metres high. On and near the bottom of the ditch lay more than 40 picks made from red deer antler. That was how it was done: with antlers, baskets and an immense supply of human effort. The archaeologist Aaron Watson has suggested that the diggers may have seen themselves as turning the land inside out, making a place \"on a frontier between worlds above and beneath the ground.\"\n\nAvebury was not built in a season, nor even in a lifetime. English Heritage dates the complex to about 2850 to 2200 BC, built and altered over many centuries. The archaeologist Aubrey Burl proposed a rough sequence: the central cove first, around 3000 BC, then the inner circle, then the outer ring and the henge around 2600 BC, then two stone avenues around 2400 BC. One avenue, the West Kennet, ran south as a double line of about a hundred pairs of stones to a site called the Sanctuary. The other led west toward Beckhampton. Around them rose Silbury Hill, the largest prehistoric mound in Europe, and the West Kennet Long Barrow. Mike Parker Pearson has noted that the stones went up at about the same time as Silbury Hill and the great building works at Stonehenge, and wondered whether a kind of religious revival swept the region. Timber circles may have stood inside the henge before any stone, and in 2017 ground-penetrating radar found a square setting of stones inside one inner circle that may be among the earliest structures on the site. The order of building is still not fully understood.\n\nThen the people left. English Heritage dates the abandonment of the monuments to about 1800 BC. For some three thousand years the stones stood, largely ignored. Christianity came, and with it a new reading of the old stones: the largest became the Devil's Chair, others the Devil's Quoits and the Devil's Brand-Irons. In the early 14th century the villagers began to dig pits beside the stones, topple them in and bury them. Aubrey Burl suggested that a local priest may have urged them on. English Heritage links the burials to fears of pagan and devil worship; the National Trust says there is no real evidence either way, and that the stones may simply have been in the way of farming. About three hundred years ago a second destruction began, more practical than the first. Stones were broken up with fire and water and carted off to build houses.\n\nTwo men saved the memory of what was lost. In 1649 the antiquarian John Aubrey came upon the site while out hunting and was, in his words, \"wonderfully surprised at the sight of those vast stones of which I had never heard before.\" King Charles II heard of it, summoned Aubrey to describe it, visited with him and ordered him to dig under the stones for burials, an order Aubrey never carried out. His plan recorded stones that would soon vanish. Between 1719 and 1724 William Stukeley visited six times, mapped the site with care, watched the destruction in disgust and named the farmers responsible. He called the monument a temple of the druids, and in his 1743 book he deliberately altered some of his own measurements to fit his theory. The druid reading is long abandoned; his drawings remain invaluable.\n\nThe last great intervention came from a fortune in marmalade. Alexander Keiller, heir to the Keiller family business, bought much of the site between 1924 and 1939, cleared away buildings and dug through the late 1930s. He found buried stones, raised them upright, and set concrete markers where others had stood. English Heritage says the site's present look \"owes much\" to him. Some have put it more bluntly: Avebury today is largely Keiller's creation.\n\nThe mainstream explanation of the monument itself is careful. English Heritage describes a landscape shaped for rituals of procession, inclusion and exclusion, perhaps public theatres for rites that expressed a community's idea of world order: its place in that order, its gods and who held authority. The avenues steered how people moved and what they saw. Experiments at a similar circle in Orkney led archaeologists to suggest that sound inside Avebury's inner circles would have echoed off the stones.\n\nAnd still the core question has no answer. Why here? Why did farmers with antler picks spend centuries digging a ditch eleven metres deep and raising stones of forty tonnes on this patch of chalk, so near to Stonehenge, as if the whole region were bound by one plan? Some of the stones they set are still in the ground. One buried stone, reported in 2003, was estimated at more than 100 tonnes and lies at least 2.1 metres down.\n\nThe circle the barber-surgeon died in is partly ancient, partly restored, partly marked by concrete posts, and every visitor walks through a monument rebuilt by people trying to understand it. What did its first builders know about this place that made it worth centuries of labour, and what is still lying under the turf, waiting for someone to lift it?","qs":["What drew people to this patch of England?","Much of Avebury was re-erected in the 1930s. How much restoration can a monument take before it becomes a reconstruction?","Why would medieval villagers bury stones instead of breaking them up?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Wiltshire-Avebury.jpg/1280px-Wiltshire-Avebury.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiltshire-Avebury.jpg","title":"Wiltshire-Avebury.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 4.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0","by":"MikPeach","cap":"Avebury henge and stone circles .mw-parser-output .messagebox{margin:4px 0;width:auto;border-collapse:collapse;border:2px solid var(--border-color-progressive,#"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/ASC_10_db.jpg/1280px-ASC_10_db.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ASC_10_db.jpg","title":"ASC 10 db.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/","by":"Unknown","cap":"","alt":"Avebury"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/ASC_7_db.jpg/1280px-ASC_7_db.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ASC_7_db.jpg","title":"ASC 7 db.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/","by":"Unknown","cap":"","alt":"Avebury"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/ASC_Allee_1_db.jpg/1280px-ASC_Allee_1_db.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ASC_Allee_1_db.jpg","title":"ASC Allee 1 db.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/","by":"Unknown","cap":"","alt":"Avebury: ASC Allee 1 db"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Avebury%2C_Stens%C3%A4ttningen_i_ursprungligt_skick%2C_Nordisk_familjebok.png/1280px-Avebury%2C_Stens%C3%A4ttningen_i_ursprungligt_skick%2C_Nordisk_familjebok.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Avebury,_Stens%C3%A4ttningen_i_ursprungligt_skick,_Nordisk_familjebok.png","title":"Avebury, Stensättningen i ursprungligt skick, Nordisk familjebok.png","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"Unknown","cap":"","alt":"Avebury, Stensättningen i ursprungligt skick, Nordisk familjebok"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"100+","u":"t","h":"One stone weighed over 100 tons, among the largest found in the UK","s":[35]},{"v":"98","u":"stones","h":"Originally ~98 sarsens in the great circle, some over 40 tons","s":[35]},{"v":"2870 BC","h":"Radiocarbon dating puts construction c. 2870–2200 BC","s":[35]},{"v":"5.5","u":"m","h":"A single great monolith once stood at the centre","s":[35]}],"hs":{"35":["Wikipedia: Avebury (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/BRI-001.webp","w":1280,"h":853,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Wiltshire-Avebury.jpg/1280px-Wiltshire-Avebury.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}