Avebury

Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in south-west England [1]. 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 [1]. By the Iron Age, the site had been effectively abandoned, with some evidence of human activity on the site during the Roman period [1]. The Avebury monument is a henge, a type of monument consisting of a large circular bank with an internal ditch [1]. The henge is not perfectly circular and measures 347.4 metres in diameter and over 1,000 metres in circumference [1]. Radiocarbon dating of some stone settings indicate a construction date of around 2870–2200 BC [1]. The West Kennet Avenue, an avenue of paired stones, leads from the southeastern entrance of the henge; and traces of a second, the Beckhampton Avenue, lead out from the western entrance [1].