The Big Avebury Pigpen

Avebury 222

Image by Chance

Littlestone May 28, 2005 01:30:18

Perhaps we need to 'scale back' our perception of places like Avebury; perhaps scale back our perception of other stone circles and 'henges' as well. Perhaps we should see these places more as places to corral livestock or, in the case of Avebury, perhaps see it as the market mecca of its day rather than a 'mysterious temple' or 'megalithic observatory' (though it was certainly some of that as well).

The Avebury mound and ditch is a bit of a puzzle to say the least, it couldn't function as a defence structure because the mound is higher than the inner circle. I know the theories about a 'false horizon' etc and wouldn't dismiss those theories out of hand but why not just get a bit more practical? What, after all, if the ditch at Avebury was no more than a big pigpen; a place where swine herders could corral their livestock during festive/religious/market times of the year? Avebury is situated very close to the Ridgeway; the Ridgeway was the Neolithic equivalent of the M4 and, where you've got a major highway you've got towns, religious centres, markets and all the other structures and functions associated with those things - what we see at Avebury today fits the marketplace/market town bill pretty well in those respects.

Swindon (a few miles up the road from Avebury) derives it's name from 'swine-down' and, though the words 'swine' and 'down' stem from Old English, I wonder if the place name of Swindon and the peculiar ditch and bank configuration at Avebury (a configuration that suggests that things were being kept <i>in</i> rather than being kept <i>out</i> of the circle) doesn't hark back to a very ancient swine-herding tradition at Avebury and the surrounding area?

Just a thought (plus of course, even now we've still got the tradition of excellent Wiltshire ham) - now how far back does that tradition go?

Jo-anne May 28, 2005 03:22:21

Replying to Littlestone

Uh why would I want to lug a megalith into a pigpen?

Also the individual megaliths (individual meaning to each stone) pre date the circles as you mention with the uniform banks and ditches.

It is most unlikely to have been used for the swineherder as swineherds where very small, proberly the last in row of the animals to be held tame and free ranging, also there would have been alot more 'domestic' waste in the henges. A market brings more waste about than an event.

I find it a good approach to choose a time like say 3300bc - 3000bc put down the monuments with a mental map, then fill in as much as you can, like the two Thornborough Ladybridge sherds are very important to the understanding, every single artifact and/or samples are needed here, also the interaction and museum knowledge together with all archaeological data, read and study all and you will be suprised how much interesting stuff is out there, ... don't forget to put together the society and you'll be well on the way to making a good theory.
You must choose one timeframe as every timeframe is different.
The 2500bc timeframe say's there was copper, gold, silver? Boats worthy of crossing Oceanus (Now named the channel) Trade, river travel routes, clearings, woodlands, sealhunting, etc.
What was the society like?
Reasonable uniform I would think as there are 40.000 stones scattered all over Europe.
Reasonable prosperous and peaceful ... a condition to build large structures.
My guess is that there was the tail-end of the seasonal residing by a population that was more mobile. Stable settlements where already in place 6000bc.
Mobility being less commen perhaps other factors started playing a roll, like more varied professional specialism or lawmaking, or because people where well settled, messengers became important people, story tellers and masters of ceremony went from one location to the other. I think that all the monuments that pre date 1350bc have a high learned value, ... these people are on their own intellectual binge.
The upright period is the calculative period. Proberly every person has a wide selection of knowledge, talent is an individual thing and that is what would make someone outstanding, following into the henge period with more emphasis on competition to who is fastest, strongest, best at felling trees, having the best sheep and wool.
Because of more varied specialism's and professions a lot of cumulative knowledge and theory was carried by less and less people but came into it's own right proberly by lectures in henges. In other words henges where the places where knowledge was exchanged from presenting new discoveries, celebrations and ceremonies, competition, travel trade, also entertainment like the theater of the ancients has always started off as a learning tool for people who's concentration is less. But proberly also people who's knowledge has become more focussed than widespread.
In other words, the henges where proberly a study centre of cumulative knowledge of the highest standard.