Kennet Avenue
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2010) |
| UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
|---|---|
 Kennet Avenue in 2014 | |
| Location | Wiltshire, United Kingdom |
| Part of | Avebury Section of Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites |
| Criteria | Cultural: (i), (ii), (iii) |
| Reference | 373bis-002 |
| Inscription | 1986 (10th Session) |
| Extensions | 2008 |
| Coordinates | 51°25′23″N 1°50′53″W / 51.423°N 1.848°W |
  Location of Kennet Avenue in Wiltshire | |
Kennet Avenue or West Kennet Avenue is a prehistoric site in the English county of Wiltshire. It was an avenue of two parallel lines of stones 25m wide and 2.5 km in length, which ran between the Neolithic sites of Avebury and The Sanctuary.
Excavations by Stuart Piggott and Alexander Keiller in the 1930s indicated that around 100 pairs of standing stones had lined the avenue, dated to around 2200 BC from finds of Beaker burials beneath some of them.[1] Many stones have fallen or are missing, however. A second avenue, called Beckhampton Avenue, led west from Avebury towards Beckhampton Long Barrow.[2]
Maud Cunnington righted some of the stones during her work there in the early 20th century. Keiller restored the northern third of the avenue in 1934–1935.[3] There are currently 27 upright stones and 37 concrete pillars marking original stone locations.[1]
The avenue is within the Avebury section of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. It is in the freehold ownership of the National Trust, and a scheduled monument in English Heritage guardianship.[4] It is managed by the National Trust on behalf of English Heritage, and the two organisations share the cost of managing and maintaining the property.[5]
Occupation site
[edit]The West Kennet Avenue occupation site, discovered by Keiller in 1934 and re-excavated by Joshua Pollard and Mark Gillings from 2013–15, are the remains of Neolithic settlement activity.[6] The more recent excavations recovered 16,399 pieces of worked flint with dating ranging from the Mesolithic to the Early Bronze Age.[7]
Images
[edit]-
'Male' and 'Female' stones in the Avenue -
A megalith showing repairs
References
[edit]- ^ a b "History of West Kennet Avenue". English Heritage. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
- ^ Gillings, Mark; Pollard, Joshua; Wheatley, David; Peterson, Rick; Cleal, Rosamund; Cooper, Nicholas; Courtney, Paul; Coward, Fiona; David, Andrew (2008). Landscape of the Megaliths: Excavation and Fieldwork on the Avebury Monuments, 1997-2003. Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1-84217-971-0.
- ^ Orbach, Julian; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (2021). Wiltshire. The Buildings Of England. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-300-25120-3. OCLC 1201298091.
- ^ Historic England. "West Kennet Avenue and an earthwork bank east of West Kennett Farm (1015547)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
- ^ "West Kennet Avenue, Avebury". English Heritage. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
- ^ Chan, Ben (5 September 2024). "What lies beneath as you walk along the West Kennet Avenue". The Avebury Papers. Archived from the original on 12 December 2024. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
- ^ Chan, Ben (1 September 2024). "Settling the argument: The contribution of use-wear studies to understanding artefact scatters in Neolithic Britain". Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 57: 104686. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104686. ISSN 2352-409X.
External links
[edit]
Media related to West Kennet Avenue at Wikimedia Commons
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