Facts about Avebury

Another explanation argues that Silbury Hill could have been used as an accurate solar observatory by means of the shadows cast by the mound itself on the carefully leveled plain to the north, towards Avebury.

In 1938 he discovered the famous barber surgeon of Avebury skeleton in the south west quadrant.

Various legends have been attached to Silbury Hill, part of the Avebury complex, which is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe.

A large part of the small village of Avebury, complete with public house, and a small library and museum containing artifacts found at the Avebury site, the Alexander Keiller Museum, are enclosed within the monument.

Avebury is the site of a large henge and several stone circles, dating to around 5000 years ago.

By the beginning of the Victorian period, the majority of Neolithic standing stones at Avebury had gone.

Being a henge and stone circle site, astronomical alignments are a common theory to explain the positioning of the stones at Avebury.

Silbury also appears prominently in Stukeley's drawing of the great stone serpent of the Avebury complex.

Stukeley spent much of the 1720s recording what remained of Avebury and the surrounding monuments.

The very top of the mound can also be discerned from the village of Avebury in what has been described as a precise geomantic relation with the so-called 'Obelisk' in the Avebury complex.

Avebury is seen as a spiritual center by many who profess beliefs such as Paganism, Wicca, Druidry, and Heathenry, and indeed for some it is regarded more highly than Stonehenge.

Keiller opened a museum that year, to display finds from the Windmill Hill, West Kennet, and Avebury excavations.

Avebury is increasingly important for tourism today, and how visitors relate to Avebury is part of the study of the Sacred Sites, Contested Rites/Rights project.

In 1934, he began a two-year excavation of the West Kennet Avenue, which led south east from the Avebury stone circle.

The Second World War ended the excavations and in 1943, Keiller sold his holdings in Avebury to the National Trust.

The only known comparable sites of similar date (Stonehenge and Flagstones in Dorset) are only a quarter of the size of Avebury.

Keiller began a major excavation at Avebury in 1937, the first of three seasons over the ensuing years.