63-623: The Gypsey Race is a winterbourne stream that rises to the east of Wharram-le-Street and flows through the villages of Duggleby , Kirby Grindalythe , West Lutton , East Lutton , Helperthorpe , Weaverthorpe , Butterwick , Foxholes , Wold Newton , Burton Fleming , Rudston and Boynton . The stream flows into the North Sea in Bridlington harbour. It is the most northerly of the Yorkshire chalk streams. The Gypsey Race rises in
126-430: A Scheduled Ancient Monument , as well as a World Heritage Site , in the latter capacity being seen as a part of the wider prehistoric landscape of Wiltshire known as Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites . About 480 people live in 235 homes in the village of Avebury and its associated settlement of Avebury Trusloe, and in the nearby hamlets of Beckhampton and West Kennett. At grid reference SU10266996 , Avebury
189-492: A grassland environment from damp, heavy soils and expanses of dense forest was mostly brought about by farmers, probably through the use of slash and burn techniques. Environmental factors may also have made a contribution. The long grassland area formed a dense vegetational mat which eventually led to the decalcification of the soil profile. In the Mesolithic period, woodland was dominated by alder, lime, elm and oak. There
252-466: A "religious revival" at the time, which led to huge amounts of resources being expended on the construction of ceremonial monuments. Archaeologist Aaron Watson highlighted the possibility that by digging up earth and using it to construct the large banks, those Neolithic labourers constructing the Avebury monument symbolically saw themselves as turning the land "inside out", thereby creating a space that
315-430: A common theory to explain the positioning of the stones at Avebury. The relationships between the causewayed enclosure, Avebury stone circles, and West Kennet Long Barrow to the south, has caused some to describe the area as a "ritual complex"—a site with many monuments of interlocking religious function. Based on the scale of the site and wealth of archaeological material found in its ditches, particularly animal bone, it
378-425: A huge scale could have been one of the purposes of the monument and would not necessarily have been mutually exclusive with any male/female ritual role. The henge, although clearly forming an imposing boundary to the circle, could have had a purpose that was not defensive as the ditch is on the inside (this is the defining characteristic of a henge ). Being a henge and stone circle site, astronomical alignments are
441-466: A large henge (a bank and a ditch) with a large outer stone circle and two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the centre of the monument. Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremony. 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 . By
504-597: A special case of an intermittent stream . Winterbourne is a British term derived from the Old English winterburna ("winter stream"). A winterbourne is sometimes simply called a bourne , from the Anglo-Saxon word for a stream flowing from a spring, although this term can also be used for all-year water courses. Winterbournes generally form in areas where there is chalk (or other porous rock) downland bordering clay valleys or vales . When it rains,
567-497: A week directing excavations in fourteen places, including around the Cove; they found no human bones. In 1894 Sir Henry Meux sponsored excavations which put a trench through the bank of the south-east sector, which gave the first indication that the earthwork was built in two phases. The site was surveyed and excavated intermittently between 1908 and 1922 by a team of workmen under the direction of Harold St George Gray , on behalf of
630-405: Is a major decline in pollen around 4500 BC, but an increase in grasses from 4500 BC to 3200 BC and the first occurrence of cereal pollen. Pollen is poorly preserved in the chalky soils found around Avebury, so the best evidence for the state of local environment at any time in the past comes from the study of the deposition of snail shells. Different species of snail live in specific habitats, so
693-560: Is evidenced by flint, animal bones, and pottery such as Peterborough ware dating from the early 4th and 3rd millennia BC. Five distinct areas of Neolithic activity have been identified within 500 m (1,600 ft) of Avebury; they include a scatter of flints along the line of the West Kennet Avenue —an avenue that connects Avebury with the Neolithic site of The Sanctuary . Pollard suggests that areas of activity in
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#1732771874518756-641: Is respectively about 6 and 7 miles (10 and 11 km) from the modern towns of Marlborough and Calne . The monuments at the Avebury World Heritage Site cover about 8 + 3 ⁄ 4 square miles (23 square kilometres). Avebury lies in an area of chalkland in the Upper Kennet Valley that forms the catchment for the River Kennet and supports local springs and seasonal watercourses. The monument stands slightly above
819-503: Is theorised that the enclosure on Windmill Hill was a major, extra-regional focus for gatherings and feasting events. In 1829, the foot of the Cove stone was dug to a 'yard' in depth, and in 1833 Henry Browne claimed to find evidence for 'burnt human sacrifices' also at the Cove in the north-east sector. in 1865, the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society supported A. C. Smith and W. Cunnington to spend
882-454: The Barber surgeon of Avebury . Coins dating from the 1320s were found with the skeleton, and the evidence suggests that the man was fatally injured when the stone fell on him whilst he was digging the hole in which it was to be buried in a mediaeval "rite of destruction". As well as the coins, Keiller's team found a pair of scissors and a lancet , the tools of a barber-surgeon at that time, hence
945-583: The Great Wold Valley through a series of springs and flows intermittently between Duggleby and West Lutton where it runs underground in the chalk aquifer before re-surfacing in Rudston. It has been known during very wet conditions for the stream to re-appear at Wold Newton some 4.3 miles (7 km) north-west of Rudston. Water from the aquifer running between West Lutton and Wold Newton also heads south to re-appear at Elmswell feeding West Beck and
1008-670: The Iron Age , the site had been effectively abandoned, with some evidence of human activity on the site during the Roman period . During the Early Middle Ages, a village first began to be built around the monument, eventually extending into it. In the late medieval and early modern periods, local people destroyed many of the standing stones around the henge, both for religious and practical reasons. The antiquarians John Aubrey and William Stukeley took an interest in Avebury during
1071-619: The River Hull . According to folklore, when the Gypsey Race is flowing in flood (The Woe Waters), bad fortune is at hand. It was in flood in the year before the Great Plague of 1665–66, the restoration of Charles II (1660) and the landing of William of Orange (1688), before both World War One and World War Two , plus the bad winters of 1947 and 1962. The stream also badly flooded the village of Burton Fleming in 2012 when
1134-479: The Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site . The monuments are preserved as part of a Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape for the information they provide regarding prehistoric people's relationship with the landscape. Radiocarbon dating and analysis of pollen and occasionally insects in buried soils have shown that the environment of lowland Britain changed around 4250–4000 BC. During
1197-470: The 17th and 18th centuries, respectively, and recorded much of the site between various phases of destruction. Archaeological investigation followed in the 20th century, with Harold St George Gray leading an excavation of the bank and ditch, and Alexander Keiller overseeing a project to reconstruct much of the monument. Avebury is owned and managed by the National Trust . It has been designated
1260-480: The 18th century. The remaining sections of its arc now lie beneath the village buildings. A single large monolith, 5.5 metres (18 ft) high, stood in the centre along with an alignment of smaller stones. In 2017, a geophysical survey by archaeologists from the Universities of Leicester and Southampton indicated 'an apparently unique square megalithic monument within the Avebury circles' which may be one of
1323-585: The British Association. The discovery of over 40 antler picks on or near the bottom of the ditch enabled Gray to demonstrate that the Avebury builders had dug down 11 metres (36 ft) into the natural chalk using red deer antlers as their primary digging tool, producing a henge ditch with a 9-metre (30 ft) high bank around its perimeter. Gray recorded the base of the ditch as being 4 metres (13 ft) wide and flat, but later archaeologists have questioned his use of untrained labour to excavate
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#17327718745181386-716: The Neolithic became important markers in the landscape. "After over a thousand years of early farming, a way of life based on ancestral tombs, forest clearance and settlement expansion came to an end. This was a time of important social changes." Archaeologist and prehistorian Mike Parker Pearson on the Late Neolithic in Britain (2005) During the Late Neolithic, British society underwent another series of major changes. Between 3500 and 3300 BC, these prehistoric Britons ceased their continual expansion and cultivation of wilderness and instead focused on settling and farming
1449-419: The Neolithic period, argillic (clayey) brownearths reigned in the landscape formed by the acidifying conditions of a closed woodland, becoming more chalky as a result of clearance and anthropogenic (human-made) interference. The area was originally a mix of deep argillic brownearths on clay-rich areas along with calcareous (chalky) brownearths that were "predisposed" to transforming into grassland. The change to
1512-534: The Neolithic. Its monuments comprise the henge and associated long barrows , stone circles, avenues and a causewayed enclosure . These monument types are not exclusive to the Avebury area. For example, Stonehenge features the same kinds of monuments, and in Dorset there is a henge on the edge of Dorchester and a causewayed enclosure at nearby Maiden Castle . According to archaeologist Caroline Malone , who worked for English Heritage as an inspector of monuments and
1575-645: The North West sector of Avebury in 1937; the South West sector in 1938, and the South East sector in 1939. It can reasonably be said that "Avebury today is largely Keiller's creation", as Keiller directed his team to find and re-erect fallen or buried stones, and to build concrete ' pylons ' in the place of missing stones. Stuart Piggott co-directed excavations; local archaeologist William E. V. Young served as Foreman; Doris Emerson Chapman illustrated
1638-618: The Sanctuary, Silbury Hill and West Kennet Long Barrow had been intentional, commenting that "the Avenue carefully orchestrated passage through the landscape which influenced how people could move and what they could see, emphasising connections between places and maximising the spectacle of moving between these monuments." The purpose which Neolithic people had for the Avebury monument has remained elusive, although many archaeologists have postulated about its meaning and usage. Many suggest that
1701-409: The area. The most important of these discoveries is a densely scattered collection of worked flints found 300 m (980 ft) to the west of Avebury, which has led archaeologists to believe that that spot was a flint working site occupied over a period of several weeks by a group of nomadic hunter-gatherers who had set up camp there. The archaeologists Mark Gillings and Joshua Pollard suggested
1764-651: The circle. During the British Iron Age , it appears that the Avebury monument had ceased to be used for its original purpose, and was instead largely ignored, with little archaeological evidence that many people visited the site at this time. Archaeologist Aubrey Burl believed that the Iron Age Britons living in the region would not have known when, why or by whom the monument had been constructed, perhaps having some vague understanding that it had been built by an earlier society or considering it to be
1827-418: The construction of large wooden or stone circles, with many hundreds being built across Britain and Ireland over a period of a thousand years. The chronology of Avebury's construction is unclear. It was not designed as a single monument, but is the result of various projects that were undertaken at different times during late prehistory. Aubrey Burl suggests dates of 3000 BC for the central cove, 2900 BC for
1890-413: The ditch and suggested that its form may have been different. Gray found few artefacts in the ditch-fill but he did recover scattered human bones, amongst which jawbones were particularly well represented. At a depth of about 2 metres (7 ft), Gray found the complete skeleton of a 1.5-metre (5 ft) tall woman. Alexander Keiller financed and led excavations on West Kennet Avenue in 1934 and 1935;
1953-646: The dwelling of a supernatural entity. In 43 AD, the Roman Empire invaded southern Britain, making alliances with certain local monarchs and subsuming the Britons under their own political control. Southern and central Britain would remain a part of the Empire until the early 5th century, in a period now known as Roman Britain or the Roman Iron Age. It was during this Roman period that tourists came from
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2016-484: The earliest structures on this site. 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. The archaeologist Aaron Watson, taking a phenomenological viewpoint to the monument, believed that the way in which the Avenue had been constructed in juxtaposition to Avebury,
2079-581: The effect. For an example, see the River Pang in Berkshire. Winterbournes occasionally give their names to settlements. Many of the United Kingdom's 'Winterbournes' are villages in Dorset , such as Winterbourne Abbas , Winterborne Monkton , Winterborne St Martin , Winterborne Zelston , Winterborne Houghton and Winterborne Whitechurch . In north Wiltshire , north of Avebury , there are
2142-468: The first monuments to be seen in the local landscape, an activity interpreted as evidence of a change in the way people viewed their place in the world. Based on anthropological studies of recent and contemporary societies, Gillings and Pollard suggest that forests, clearings, and stones were important in Neolithic culture, not only as resources but as symbols; the site of Avebury occupied a convergence of these three elements. Neolithic activity at Avebury
2205-693: The foot of the South Downs through a park, a housing estate and a public garden, ending at the Railway Land Nature Reserve where it meets the River Ouse. It is a clear and verdant stream, much frequented by ducks. Another winterbourne stream is the River Lavant found In Chichester, West Sussex. Avebury Avebury ( / ˈ eɪ v b ər i / ) is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles , around
2268-441: The full report. Smith completed the publication in 1965, reorganised the stone numbering system for the landscape, and put Windmill Hill, Avebury and West Kennet Avenue into context. When a new village school was built in 1969 there was a further opportunity to examine the site, and in 1982 an excavation to produce carbon dating material and environmental data was undertaken. In April 2003, during preparations to straighten some of
2331-478: The henge could have been a meeting place for the citizens of the area for seasonal fairs or festivals. During that time the people would have been watching ceremonies or standing on the earthen banks. A lack of pottery and animal bone from excavations at Avebury suggest that the entrance to the henge was prohibited. The lack of "mess" and archaeological finds indicates "sanctity". Many of the stones had former uses before being transported to Avebury. For instance, many of
2394-461: The henge is a great outer circle. With a diameter of 331.6 metres (1,088 ft), this is one of Europe's largest stone circles, and Britain's largest. It was either contemporary with, or built around four or five centuries after, the earthworks. It is thought that there were originally 98 sarsen standing stones , some weighing in excess of 40 tons. The stones varied in height from 3.6 metres (12 ft) to 4.2 metres (14 ft), as exemplified at
2457-458: The henge is uncertain, because little datable evidence has emerged from modern archaeological excavations . Evidence of activity in the region before the 4th millennium BC is limited, suggesting that there was little human occupation. What is now termed the Mesolithic period in Britain lasted from circa 11,600 to 7,800 BP , at a time when the island was heavily forested and when there
2520-484: The importance of gender in Neolithic Britain with the taller stones considered "male" and the shorter ones "female". The stones were not dressed in any way and may have been chosen for their pleasing natural forms. The human bones found by Gray point to some form of funerary purpose and have parallels in the disarticulated human bones often found at earlier causewayed enclosure sites. Ancestor worship on
2583-447: The inner stone circle, 2600 BC for the outer circle and henge, and around 2400 BC for the avenues. The construction of large monuments such as those at Avebury indicates that a stable agrarian economy had developed in Britain by around 4000–3500 BC. The people who built them had to be secure enough to spend time on such non-essential activities. Avebury was one of a group of monumental sites that were established in this region during
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2646-484: The local landscape, sitting on a low chalk ridge 160 m (520 ft) above sea level; to the east are the Marlborough Downs , an area of lowland hills. The site lies at the centre of a collection of Neolithic and early Bronze Age monuments and was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in a co-listing with the monuments at Stonehenge, 17 miles (27 km) to the south, in 1986. It is now listed as part of
2709-490: The middle, its entrance facing northeast. Taking experiments undertaken at the megalithic Ring of Brodgar in Orkney as a basis, the archaeologists Joshua Pollard , Mark Gillings and Aaron Watson believed that any sounds produced inside Avebury's Inner Circles would have created an echo as sound waves reflected off the standing stones. The southern inner ring was 108 metres (354 ft) in diameter before its destruction in
2772-461: The most agriculturally productive areas of the island: Orkney, eastern Scotland, Anglesey, the upper Thames, Wessex, Essex, Yorkshire and the river valleys of the Wash. Late Neolithic Britons also appeared to have changed their religious beliefs, ceasing to construct the large chambered tombs that are widely thought by archaeologists to have been connected with ancestor veneration . Instead, they began
2835-449: The name given to the stone. Alexander Keiller and Stuart Piggott published short reports from the excavations, however the outbreak of World War II, Keiller's failing health and dwindling finances, and Piggott's career which took him abroad during the war and into new archaeological projects post war, meant that they did not publish a full report. The archeologist Isobel Smith was commissioned by Gabrielle Keiller to synthesise and complete
2898-606: The nearby towns of Cunetio , Durocornovium and the villas and farms around Devizes and visited Avebury and its surrounding prehistoric monuments via a newly constructed road. Evidence of visitors at the monument during this period has been found in the form of Roman-era pottery sherds uncovered from the ditch. In the Early Middle Ages , which began in the 5th century following the collapse of Roman rule, Anglo-Saxon tribes from continental Europe migrated to southern Britain , where they may have come into conflict with
2961-561: The north and south entrances. Radiocarbon dating of some stone settings indicate a construction date of around 2870–2200 BC. The two large stones at the Southern Entrance had an unusually smooth surface, likely due to having stone axes polished on them. Nearer the middle of the monument are two additional, separate stone circles. The northern inner ring is 98 metres (322 ft) in diameter, but only two of its four standing stones remain upright. A cove of three stones stood in
3024-473: The porous chalk holds water in its aquifer , releasing the water at a steady rate. During dry seasons the water table may fall below the level of the stream's bed, causing it to dry out. Exploitation of chalk aquifers as a domestic water source in Britain has had the effect of converting many streams and rivers into artificial winterbournes. This effect is controversial, and local campaigns have often been successful in reducing aquifer abstraction and reversing
3087-539: The possibility that Avebury first gained some sort of ceremonial significance during the Late Mesolithic period. As evidence, they highlighted the existence of a posthole near the monument's southern entrance that would have once supported a large wooden post. Although this posthole was never dated when it was excavated in the early 20th century, and so cannot definitely be ascribed to the Mesolithic, Gillings and Pollard noted that its positioning had no relation to
3150-403: The presence of a certain species indicates what the area was like at a particular time. The available evidence suggests that in the early Neolithic, Avebury and the surrounding hills were covered in dense oak woodland, and as the Neolithic progressed, the woodland around Avebury and the nearby monuments receded and was replaced by grassland. The history of the site before the construction of
3213-421: The rest of the henge, and that it may therefore have been erected centuries or even millennia before the henge was actually built. They compared this with similar wooden posts that had been erected in southern Britain during the Mesolithic at Stonehenge and Hambledon Hill , both of which were sites that like Avebury saw the construction of large monuments in the Neolithic. In the 4th millennium BC, around
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#17327718745183276-468: The sarsens had been used to polish stone axes, while others had been "heavily worked". Archaeologist Aubrey Burl believed that rituals would have been performed at Avebury by Neolithic peoples in order "to appease the malevolent powers of nature" that threatened their existence, such as the winter cold, death and disease. In his study of those examples found at Orkney , Colin Richards suggested that
3339-404: The start of the Neolithic period in Britain, British society underwent radical changes. These coincided with the introduction of domesticated species of animals and plants, as well as a changing material culture that included pottery. These developments allowed hunter-gatherers to settle down and produce their own food. As agriculture spread, people cleared land. At the same time, they also erected
3402-516: The stone and wooden circles built in Neolithic Britain might have represented the centre of the world, or axis mundi , for those who constructed them, something Aaron Watson adopted as a possibility in his discussion of Avebury. A great deal of interest surrounds the morphology of the stones, which are usually described as being in one of two categories; tall and slender, or short and squat. This has led to numerous theories relating to
3465-474: The stones and facial reconstructions for the human remains found across the landscape; and Denis Grant King created illustrations, plans and section drawings. Upwards of 50 men from across Wiltshire served as 'hands' during the excavations over the 6 year period, doing the hard work of digging and re-erecting stones. During excavations in 1938, Keiller's team excavated the skeleton of a man from beneath Stone 38 (Stone 9 using Isobel Smith's system), now known as
3528-559: The stones, one was found to extend at least 2.1 metres (7 ft) below ground. It was estimated to weigh more than 100 tons, making it one of the largest found in the UK. Later that year, a geophysical survey of the southeast and northeast quadrants of the circle by the National Trust revealed at least 15 of the megaliths lying buried. The survey identified their sizes, the direction in which they are lying, and where they fitted in
3591-402: The third millennium BC. The top of the bank is irregular, something Caroline Malone suggested was because of the irregular nature of the work undertaken by excavators working on the adjacent sectors of the ditch. Later archaeologists such as Aaron Watson, Mark Gillings and Joshua Pollard have, however, suggested that this was an original Neolithic feature of the henge's architecture. Within
3654-519: The village of Avebury in Wiltshire , in south-west England. One of the best-known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in the world. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary pagans . Constructed over several hundred years in the third millennium BC, during the Neolithic , or New Stone Age, the monument comprises
3717-419: The villages of Winterbourne Monkton and Winterbourne Bassett , and in south Wiltshire, north-east of Salisbury , Winterbourne Dauntsey , Winterbourne Earls and Winterbourne Gunner . In South Gloucestershire there are the villages of Winterbourne and Winterbourne Down . There is a winterbourne stream in a suburban area of Lewes , East Sussex. The area is also called Winterbourne. The stream runs from
3780-560: The water was 2 feet (0.61 m) deep in places. Villagers in Boynton have an annual duck race on the stream in May. Hundreds of yellow plastic ducks are paid for and race the Race in aid of funds for the village hall. [REDACTED] Media related to Gypsey Race at Wikimedia Commons Winterbourne (stream) A winterbourne is a stream or river that is dry through the summer months,
3843-400: Was "on a frontier between worlds above and beneath the ground." The Avebury monument is a henge , a type of monument consisting of a large circular bank with an internal ditch. The henge is not perfectly circular and measures 347.4 metres (380 yd) in diameter and over 1,000 metres (1,090 yd) in circumference. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the henge was made by the middle of
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#17327718745183906-501: Was still a land mass, called Doggerland , which connected Britain to continental Europe. During this era, those humans living in Britain were hunter-gatherers , often moving around the landscape in small familial or tribal groups in search of food and other resources. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that there were some of these hunter-gatherers active around Avebury during the Late Mesolithic, with stray finds of flint tools , dated between 7000 and 4000 BC, having been found in
3969-472: Was the curator of Avebury's Alexander Keiller Museum, it is possible that the monuments associated with Neolithic sites such as Avebury and Stonehenge constituted ritual or ceremonial centres. Archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson noted that the addition of the stones to the henge occurred at a similar date to the construction of Silbury Hill and the major building projects at Stonehenge and Durrington Walls . For this reason, he speculated that there may have been
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