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Alexander Keiller's Avebury
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Littlestone
Littlestone
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Re: Alexander Keiller's Avebury
Jan 22, 2013, 15:55
Interesting Brit Arch feature Rhiannon.

What come across strongly is just how much restoration/research has already been done – beginning (?) with the re-erection of Adam (no corny jokes please) in 1913 after the stone fell two years earlier. That re-erection yielded not medieval archaeology but, “...an exceptional 150 packing stones in its pit.

"Likewise, when we [the team] excavated what was left of the pit that once held its facing megalith, which with others had been burnt and broken up, we found 80 such stones, small sarsen boulders thrown in to help keep the upright in place. These were truly monumental structures.”

In other words it was the re-erection of Adam that yielded archaeological evidence not a status quo situation which would have yielded nothing.

Realistically (though many would like to see it) a complete restoration of the Avebury complex is not going to happen – at least not in or lifetimes. But, to quote the authors of the article, “Even with the Avebury henge itself there remain numerous questions relating to the sequence of stone erection and the form of the original earthwork that could be answered through targeted excavation. Let us hope this work will happen.”

Indeed, let us hope this work will happen, and that we have the pleasure of seeing at least some of the stones excavated/re-erected as well as perhaps also learning a little more of the monument, and our past, in the process.
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