Re: Developments at Avebury | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

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Developments at Avebury

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Sanctuary Nov 22, 2011 08:12:11

Replying to hedgeling

hedgeling wrote:

I miss the tree avenues, perhaps more tree planting would be popular? If Avebury is the great nemeton,sacred grove of the druids then would of been loads more trees, woods,groves and clearings with the cove in middle. Maybe a big hedge on the top of the banks? They found the shrines to Nemotina godess of the moon and Mars appollo at Bath, known to be the site of another Nemeton. Miss the trees though. Keiler in his clearance restoration Zeal dynamited trees i seam to remember.
Dont like the white rendering, but whats underneath? you may find there was a good reason for putting it on and the brickwork is dodgy.
the social club maynot be too attractive but hiding it would certainly not improve its profitability.
Would advocate putting up the buried stones though.

I'd love to see the stones re-erected for what I consider three good reasons. Firstly, other than being returned to their rightful place after being hauled off the Downs or wherever they originated from, it would give us a further opportunity to carry out live experiments in the lifting, moving (for more than a few feet in some cases) and erecting of them in what we believe could have been the methods used by our great ancestors. Thirdly, and maybe the most important, the pure archaeology involved in the finding and re-escavating of the stone holes. And wouldn't it look great to see more pieces of the jigsaw in place.

tjj Nov 22, 2011 09:19:56

Replying to Sanctuary

Sanctuary wrote:

hedgeling" wrote:

Would advocate putting up the buried stones though.

I recall hearing a 'very good argument' why they should be left where they are but can't recall what the rationale was - perhaps it was to preserve the archaeology for the future generations when hopefully advancements in dating and conservation methods have been made.

I would like to ask an 'Avebury' question. In the Alexander Keiller Museum it says that one of the worst offenders for smashing up the stones was someone from Berwick Bassett and I noticed on my last walk that the church at Berwick Bassett is built of sarsen. Does anyone know know if these were Avebury stones?

hedgeling Nov 24, 2011 12:53:10

Replying to Sanctuary

The only real way we will ever be afford to get a complete picture what avebury looked like would be if you could write a feature film and get them to pay for the models and computer generated reconstructions. id go with the arthur merlin saga. The main criticism of the Athurarian saga has always been that it is set in a norman/medieval setting as everyone knows there were no castles until norman times. Well this is blantantly not true as Silbury had a tower on it in saxon times and probably earlier, and marden had ramparts, and a mound and tower perhaps. So if you make a leap of faith as say Stonehenge is the roundtable of myth, and marden is camelot and Avebury is the great nemeton and Merlin the archdruid. They found " the slaughter stones" near Avebury flat stones marking mass graves, the skeletons hacked about. if there was a battle maybe during the 2nd roman invasion then we have the roman taking avebury, burning stonehenge and sacking marden. Arthur injured in the last battle(Liddington) as the kingdom falls, and fleeing first to bath with the romans on their heals. The romans take bath and the druids flee west to bristol and take ship to angelsea, whist arthur sails for avalon to get healing. then you have the roman invasion of angelsea and bouddican revolution, the rumour is arthur lives and will lead then in the final battle against the romans, but arthur is dead and the day is lost. Get the guy who directed Lord of the Rings to be the director and were sorted. Anyway if wishes were tenners id be rich.