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Negotiating Avebury Project. September 1st - 28th Longstones Project: 2003 Project Design

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Last revised: 6 October 2008

Map of Avebury Negotiating Project Introduction
Aims
Beckhampton Avenue
West Kennet Avenue
Falkner's Circle
References
All Cannings Cross Project
Avebury Proposed Excavations map

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1.Introduction

The excavations planned for summer 2003 will represent the final field season of the project. The work will largely be directed at resolving a number of out-standing questions raised during previous field seasons. The intention is to return to the Beckhampton and West Kennet Avenues, along with Falkner's Circle, in order to resolve remaining ambiguities relating to the structure and setting of these monuments.

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2.Aims

The principal aims are to:

seek confirmation of the termination of the Beckhampton Avenue at Longstones Cove

determine the precise course of the Beckhampton Avenue through the area of Avebury Trusloe (i.e. the course of its middle section)

to complete the area excavation of the West Kennet Avenue begun during summer 2002

extend the area of the existing geophysical survey at the Falkner's Circle

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3.Beckhampton Avenue

3.1. South-west corner of Longstones Field

Fieldwalking, geophysical survey and excavation undertaken during November 2001 and Easter 2002, in the east end of Beckhampton Field and the southern area of Longbarrow Field respectively, failed to produce any convincing evidence for the continuation of the Beckhampton Avenue. This suggests that Stukeley's claims for a south-westerly continuation of the Avenue beyond Longstones Field may have been based on a 'misreading' of naturally occurring sarsens as fallen megaliths. Such an interpretation is supported by an examination of his primary field records, which for this hypothesised stretch of the avenue are considerably more ambiguous and speculative than those relating to the stretch from Avebury to the Longstones Cove. We are therefore faced with the possibility that the termination (or start, depending on orientation) of the Avenue was in the area of the Cove examined in 2000. In order to finally confirm or refute this, it is necessary to 'back-track' to the last know point of the Avenue (i.e. the Cove) and open a further area immediately to the south-west. We therefore intend to excavate a 50 x 50m area immediately to the south-west of Trench 24 of 2000. This area has already been intensively covered by the geophysical surveys undertaken by the AML, and we see no need for additional survey prior to excavation.

3.2. Avebury Trusloe

Through a combination of excavation, observation and documentary research it is now possible to trace the course of the Beckhampton Avenue from the western entrance of the Avebury henge along the High Street and as far as Truslow Manor Farm. In addition, excavation in Longstones Field during 1999 and 2000 established the course of the Avenue here over a 160m stretch as it approached Longstones Cove. However, the precise line of the Avenue between these two points - a distance of c.700m - remains unclear. The stones having been removed prior to 1719, Stukeley's records provide little reliable detail relating to this stretch. It is not even certain whether the paired-stone format of the Avenue continues over this section, or even if the Avenue is continuous.

Further excavation, preceded by geophysical survey, is therefore required to locate the mid section of the Avenue adjacent to Avebury Trusloe. This could be most economically achieved by focussing investigation on the eastern end of Longstones Field in the area immediately north of Truslow Cottages. Geophysical survey would be required over an area of perhaps 40 x 100m running parallel to the eastern field edge. Dependent upon the results of the survey, a targeted area of c.40 x 40m would be subjected to excavation; following a programme of gridded test pitting in order to establish ploughsoil artefact densities. Given the difficulty sometimes encountered in detecting stone burials and destruction pits through geophysical survey, excavation might prove the only effective means of detecting Avenue features. In this scenario, the stripped area (with a 40m width) would have to be extended until features were encountered or all projected lines of the Avenue course investigated.

The rationale for the excavation (as opposed to detection) of any additional features relating to the Avenue stone settings is provided by the need to secure dates for the construction of the monument, and to further explore the complexities of its destruction during the medieval and early post-medieval periods. To date, none of the excavated Avenue stone sockets has provided material suitable for radiocarbon dating. If this again proves to be case, the application of OSL dating will be seriously explored.

3.3. Methodology

As before, topsoil will be removed by machine and the exposed area subjected to hand cleaning. All non-linear features will be subject to a minimum 50% sampling, and linear features to 20% excavation. Standard excavation and recording methodologies will apply.

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4.West Kennet Avenue

During summer 2002 a 40 x 25m area on the projected line of the West Kennet Avenue was investigated to the north of farm buildings adjacent to New Cottages, West Kennet. Due to the considerable difficulties experienced in removing by hand resilient turf and topsoil from the trench, only two 25 x 12m areas were eventually excavated. The results were highly ambiguous. A single buried stone was encountered in the northern area; its position corresponding to that of a suspected Avenue stone buried in 1923 in order to preserve it from agricultural clearance. It was not, however, associated with a socket, and may have been dragged some distance from its original position. No other Avenue features were encountered.

The absence of any solid evidence for the Avenue in this area could be due to an unexpected deviation in its course, or a radical change in its format; perhaps here reduced to a single line of stones with spacing at a different interval. Alternatively, features may be present in the remaining unexcavated 25 x 16m area. This clearly needs to be investigated, but is only realistically feasible if the turf and topsoil can be removed by machine. We will therefore seek an amendment to the conditions of the SMC which stipulates that such work should only be undertaken by hand. Given that the overburden comprises a former ploughsoil, and that this has already been sampled through a programme of test-pitting, we cannot see how any objections to careful machine stripping can be sustained on archaeological grounds.

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5.Falkner’s Circle

Geophysical survey by the AML followed by excavation during the summer of 2000 revealed an arc of stone destruction features and possible stone sockets incorporating and running to the north of the surviving standing stone. If projected, this arc of features appears to describe a circle c.45m in diameter, much as described by Mr Falkner in 1840 (Long 1858, 345). However, this valley bottom location was also the setting for the clearance of naturally occurring sarsens. We need to be certain that the arc of features is part of a genuine stone circle, rather than a fortuitous pattern comprising some artificial stone settings and features related to the clearance of ‘natural’ sarsens. Given the success of detecting features by geophysical survey, it would be desirable to extend the existing survey across the zone immediately to the north-west of that covered in 2002, perhaps encompassing an area of 60 x 30m.

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References

Gillings, M., Pollard, J. & Wheatley, D. 2000. The Beckhampton Avenue and a ‘new’ Neolithic enclosure near Avebury: an interim report on the 1999 excavations. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 93, 1-8

Gillings, M., Pollard, J. & Wheatley, D. 2002. Excavations at the Beckhampton Enclosure, Avenue and Cove, Avebury: an interim report on the 2000 season. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 95, 249-58 Long, W. 1858. Abury. Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine 4, 309-63 Longstones Project February 2003

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Avebury Proposed Excavations map

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