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Stonehenge, Avebury And Associated Sites
Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) in Wiltshire, England. The WHS covers two large areas of land separated by about , rather than a specific monument or building. The sites were inscribed as co-listings in 1986. Some large and well known monuments within the WHS are listed below, but the area also has an exceptionally high density of small-scale archaeological sites, particularly from the prehistoric period. More than 700 individual archaeological features have been identified. There are 160 separate scheduled monuments, covering 415 items or features. Stonehenge and associated monuments The Stonehenge area of the WHS is in south Wiltshire. It covers an area of 26 square km and is centred on the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. Ownership is shared between English Heritage, the National Trust, the Ministry of Defence, the RSPB, Wiltshire Council, and private individuals and farmers. Monuments in the Stonehenge WHS *Stonehenge * St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones, held in place with mortise and tenon joints, a feature unique among contemporary monuments. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice. The stones are set within Earthwork (archaeology), earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of Neolithic British Isles, Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred ''tumuli'' (burial mounds). Stonehenge was constructed in several phases beginning about 3100 BC and continuing until about 1600 B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Trust
The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the permanent preservation for the benefit of the Nation of lands and tenements (including buildings) of beauty or historic interest". It has since been given statutory powers, starting with the National Trust Act 1907. Historically, the Trust acquired land by gift and sometimes by public subscription and appeal, but after World War II the loss of country houses resulted in many such properties being acquired either by gift from the former owners or through the National Land Fund. One of the largest landowners in the United Kingdom, the Trust owns almost of land and of coast. Its properties include more than 500 historic houses, castles, archaeological and industrial monuments, gardens, parks, and nature reserves. Most properties are open ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Longstones
The Longstones are two standing stones, one of which is the remains of a prehistoric 'Cove (standing stones), cove' of standing stones, at , close to Beckhampton in Avebury parish, in the English county of Wiltshire. Two stones are visible, known as 'Adam' and 'Eve' although the latter is more likely to have been a stone that formed part of the Beckhampton Avenue that connected with Avebury. The avenue probably terminated here, although it may have extended further to the south-west beyond the stones. William Stukeley recorded the site in the 18th century when it was only partially destroyed, and suggested it extended further, although modern excavation and archaeological geophysics have not confirmed this. Adam is the larger of the two stones, weighing an estimated 62 tons, and along with three others formed a four-sided cove. Excavations carried out jointly by the Universities of Leicester, Newport and Southampton in 2000 revealed the socket holes for the other stones which w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avebury Manor
Avebury Manor & Garden is a National Trust property consisting of a Grade I listed early-16th-century manor house and its surrounding garden. It is in Avebury, near Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, in the centre of the village next to St James's Church and close to the Avebury neolithic henge monument. History The manor house was built on or near the site of Avebury Priory, a Benedictine cell or priory of the Abbey of Saint-Georges, Boscherville, Normandy, founded in 1114. Subsequently, the estate passed into the ownership of Fotheringhay College, Northamptonshire, in 1411. Fragments of the religious foundation were incorporated into the later house. William Sharington bought and surveyed the manor in 1548, suggesting alterations to the existing building. The earliest parts of the present house were probably built after William Dunch of Little Wittenham in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) purchased the estate in 1551. It was some distance from most of his lands which centred on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Windmill Hill, Avebury
Windmill Hill is a Neolithic causewayed enclosure in the English county of Wiltshire, part of the Avebury World Heritage Site, about 1 mile (2 km) northwest of Avebury. Enclosing an area of , it is the largest known causewayed enclosure in Britain. The site was first occupied around 3800 BC, although the only evidence is a series of pits apparently dug by an agrarian society using Hembury pottery. During a later phase, c. 3700 BC, three concentric segmented ditches were placed around the hilltop site, the outermost with a diameter of 365 metres. The causeways interrupting the ditches vary in width from a few centimetres to 7 m. Material from the ditches was piled up to create internal banks; the deepest ditches and largest banks are on the outer circuit. In the same period there was also a rectangular mortuary enclosure. The site was designated as a scheduled monument in 1925. It came into the ownership of the National Trust in 1942 and is under the guardianship of Englis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avebury Henge And Village UK
Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in south-west England. One of the best-known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in the world. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary pagans. 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. Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremony. The Avebury monument is a part of a larger prehistoric landscape containing several older monuments nearby, including West Kennet Long Barrow, Windmill Hill and Silbury Hill. By the Iron Age, the site had been effectively abandoned, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robin Hood's Ball
Robin Hood’s Ball is a Neolithic causewayed enclosure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, approximately northwest of the town of Amesbury, and northwest of Stonehenge. The site was designated as a scheduled monument in 1965. Etymology Robin Hood's Ball is unrelated to the folklore hero Robin Hood. 19th-century maps indicate that Robin Hood's Ball was the name given to a small circular copse of trees just to the northwest of the earthworks; it is probable that over time the name came to be associated with the enclosure instead. Greenwood's map of 1820 shows the copse named as Robin Hood's Ball and the enclosure as Neath Barrow. Context A causewayed enclosure consists of a circuit of ditches dug in short segments, leaving 'causeways' passing between them to the centre. Whilst some have three or four causeways, Robin Hood’s Ball has only one, cutting through two circuits of ditches with low banks behind them. If it is assumed that the area was free of woodland in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bush Barrow
Bush Barrow is a site of the early British Bronze Age Wessex culture (c. 2000 BC), at the western end of the Normanton Down Barrows cemetery in Wiltshire, England. It is among the most important sites of the Stonehenge complex, having produced some of the most spectacular grave goods in Britain. It was excavated in 1808 by William Cunnington for Sir Richard Colt Hoare. The finds, including worked gold objects, are displayed at Wiltshire Museum in Devizes. The finds from Bush Barrow have been described as "the Crown Jewels of the King of Stonehenge". Description Bush Barrow lies around 1 kilometre southwest of Stonehenge on Normanton Down. It forms part of the Normanton Down Barrows cemetery. The surviving earthworks have an overall diameter of and comprise a large mound, with breaks in the slope suggesting three phases of development. The barrow currently stands 3.3 metres high and its summit measures 10.5 metres in diameter. The barrow is one of the "associated sit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winterbourne Stoke
Winterbourne Stoke is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about west of Amesbury and west of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. The village is on the River Till at the southern edge of Salisbury Plain, on both sides of a single-carriageway stretch of the busy A303 trunk road. History Especially in its east part, the parish is rich in archaeological remains, beginning in the Neolithic period. The easternmost part of the parish (beyond the A360/B3086) is within the Stonehenge section of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage site. This area includes the Lesser Cursus earthwork and adjacent barrows, and the western tip of the Greater Cursus (which predates Stonehenge) and the nearby Cursus Barrows. North of the village, on the slopes of the Till valley, are two cemetery sites with round barrows and later earthworks. A Romano-British settlement, medieval earthworks and a field system have been identified on Winterbourne Stoke Down, northeast of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coneybury Henge
Coneybury Henge is a henge which is part of the Stonehenge Landscape in Wiltshire, England. The henge, which has been almost completely flattened, was only discovered in the 20th century. Geophysical surveys and excavation have uncovered many of its features, which include a northeast entrance, an internal circle of postholes, and fragments of bone and pottery. Location Coneybury Henge is around 1.4 kilometres east-by-southeast of Stonehenge, which can be seen from the site. The location has extensive views southeast across the Avon valley, and west towards Normanton Down. The henge is difficult to identify on the ground, having been levelled by ploughing, but has been identified on aerial photographs, geophysical survey, and by excavation. The absence of any mention of the henge in historical records suggests that it may have been levelled in medieval times or soon after, and this theory is supported by ridge and furrow marks visible on some aerial photographs. Discovery and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuckoo Stone
The Cuckoo Stone is a Neolithic or Bronze Age standing stone. The stone, which is now fallen, is in a field near to Woodhenge and Durrington Walls in Wiltshire, England (). It is part of the wider Stonehenge Landscape. Description The Cuckoo Stone is a squat sarsen stone which lies on its side. It is the same type of stone as the largest stones used in the Stonehenge circle. The site of Woodhenge is around 500 metres to the east of the Cuckoo Stone, with Durrington Walls to the northeast. Stonehenge is around 2.5 kilometres to the southwest. The Cuckoo Stone was recorded by Richard Colt-Hoare on his 1810 map of the Stonehenge landscape. The nearest other known sarsen stone is that found within Woodhenge during excavations in 1926–1928. Excavations The site was excavated in 2007 as part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project. The excavations revealed the pit in which the stone once sat immediately to the west. The stone was originally a natural feature, which sometime before 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lesser Cursus
The Stonehenge Cursus (sometimes known as the Greater Cursus) is a large Neolithic cursus monument on Salisbury plain, near to Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. It is roughly long and between and wide. Excavations in 2007 dated the construction of the earthwork to between 3630 and 3375 BCE, several hundred years before the earliest phase of Stonehenge in 3000 BC. The cursus, along with adjacent barrows and the nearby 'Lesser Cursus' are part of the National Trust's Stonehenge Landscape property, and is within the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. Etymology Cursus comes from the Latin for 'racecourse'. Early antiquarians who first discovered cursuses believed them to be Roman racing tracks. Context Radiocarbon dating of a red deer antler pick discovered at the bottom of the western terminal ditch suggests that the Stonehenge Cursus was first constructed between 3630 and 3375 BCE. It is just under 3 km long, and is roughly 100 m wide. Because o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
