1. at Avebury, West Kennet and Harestone,

SARSENS, HEADS AND ALIGNMENTS

- THE AVEBURY MEETING OF SATURDAY 7 AUGUST 1999 -

This meeting of megalith enthusiasts at Avebury to examine the megaliths and lesser stone monuments south of Avebury was the internet-led idea of Andy Burnham. Those present included Andy Burnham (with daughter Chloe), Gail Higginbottom, Katy Jordan, Terence Meaden, David Mitchell, Richard Pederick and friend, Gerald Ponting, David Staveley, Steve (Gyrus) Taylor (?), Frank Wayman, and a couple of others (sorry, names forgotten for the moment).

At 10.30 we walked to the North Circle Cove where the sunshine was splendidly illuminating a vast human head carved in profile on the south-west side of the biggest megalith. This well-proportioned left-facing head exactly faces the midwinter sunset, but is easily seen only when the sun shines obliquely on it --- which can happen only between 10.30 and 11.15 BST, or 9.30 and 10.15 GMT. Terry explained that there is a head on each of the four sides of this megalith (visible at other times of the day) and that one of them faces the midsummer sunrise while the others approximate to the midwinter sunrise and midsummer sunset. He emphasised that the cove was built to face quite squarely the midsummer sunrise, while the Beckhampton Cove (not visited by us) faces the midwinter sunrise. Moreover, following the proposal introduced in the 1930s by Alexander Keiller and Stuart Piggott, the biggest of the Cove stones is seen to be female and its companion male because gender is determined by the stone's shape for which purpose each stone must be regarded from the direction intended by the builders. In this case, because the cove awaits the midsummer sunrise, that direction is the factor deciding the axis of the setting which then determines the gender of the stones.

The cove is at the centre of the 27-stone North Circle. One of the surviving perimeter stones is Stone 206, now known to be notable for its enormous head which faces the Imbolc sunrise. This head has a huge rounded cranium, a deep right eye, and a definitely carved nose, mouth and chin. This is certainly a true sculpture, the result of improving some of its pre-existing natural features. As for the mouth, that is easily seen to be wholly artificial (this picture is on the cover of The Secrets of the Avebury Stones). Without prompting, most observers then spotted the left-sided image of an elderly, probably-female, head on the opposite side of the megalith facing the early-May or Beltane sunset.

We then moved to the South Circle, which is centred by the concrete replacement of the destroyed male Obelisk. There is a remarkable alignment here. Stone 106, which is an explicitly female stone, receives the full shadow of the Obelisk at the Beltane sunrise. It therefore marks, calendrically, the great start-of-summer fertility festival of the agricultural year as it was 4000 years ago. Exactly in line, and over a mile away on Hackpen Hill, exists a distant marker --- a fallen megalith with a yoni deeply cut into it, so the feminine fertility symbolism for this orientation is noteworthy. In all, fifteen megaliths from those constituting the perimeter of the South Circle are likely to have performed calendrical functions. For instance, the circular-shaped Stone 105 faces the midsummer sunrise and the Obelisk, besides simultaneously the midwinter sunset. All the stones of the Z-feature have heads too, and while we were there (11.15 - 11.30) the left-facing Snake-type head or Crone-Goddess type head on Z-Stone v displayed itself well. .

With everyone sitting on the grass Gerald Ponting then gave an enjoyable half-hour talk on his life with megaliths at Callanish and other archaeological sites in Lewis in the Western Isles (11.30-12). We then crossed to the Barber's Stone (Stone 9), and admired the plainly obvious, very huge left-profile head and neck on Stone 10, and continued to the grassy area in front of Stone's Restaurant where we sat for lunch. About 1.30 Gail Higginbottom from Australia summarised her research work on stone-circle analysis in western Scotland. This is a master's degree project which is turning itself into doctorate-research.

Before leaving the henge, we looked at the female torso that is Stone 32 and the possible Crone-Goddess or Snake-Goddess head that dominates Stone 35; however, this is best seen when lit by the sun before 11 in the morning. (Kathy Jones of Glastonbury will recall being shown this in advance by Terry in September 1997). Terry emphasised that of the 100 heads found at Avebury 81 face to the left while only 19 face to the right. This great imbalance suggests a deliberate policy favouring left-handedness over right-handedness.

We next went, in four cars, to the lay-by of the Kennet Avenue, to curse the despoilers of Stones 37B and 36B who painted them in June, and to admire the polissoir which must have been ground into Stone 19B at some earlier date than the stone's erection in the Avenue. The great head on Stone 26A particularly impressed those who knew anything about art and sculpture because half of the entire north-eastern side of this megalith has received the attentions of the hammer-wielding sculptor. This is one of several fine stones which need to be seen by those who may wish to claim, without field study, that "the stones have never been worked" .

Richard Pederick left at this stage while the remaining twelve squeezed into three cars and continued to West Kennet Long Barrow to see more secrets of the Avebury People's stones. This barrow faces the equinoctial sunrises. There is a huge yoni feature cut medially and vertically on the centre blocking stone in line with the east-west gallery. In the western end-chamber there is at the left (Stone 21) a magnificent human-head carving whose left-profile proportions precisely match those of real human heads. The sculpture has never been exposed to weathering and arguably dates from about 3600 BC. By contrast, 4000 years of weathering have hindered, not helped, the carved features on Avebury's standing stones. Also inside the barrow, low down on the northern side of the gallery, is a careful rendering of a sheep's head (Stone 25). This was well carved in relief to a depth of an inch or two.

The party then drove to East Kennet Farm for which purpose we had obtained permission to walk to Langdean Stone Circle and to examine other sarsens on this farmland. As we walked, we could see the unexplored East Kennet Megalithic Long Barrow in sight on the ridge to the west. Although Langdean is a small stone circle ( measured as 6 metres diameter) it has not the character of the familiar ceremonial stone circles. It looks more like the remains of a Bronze Age building or, perhaps as Gerald Ponting said, a species of cairn.

A long uphill climb then commenced in the direction of Harestone Down and its stone circle. David Mitchell had brought with him an item from a 1904 book that mentions "two cistvaens" known as "the Hareholes (near) Lockeridge". Because of the name we wondered whether Harestone Down might be near enough to Lockeridge to qualify. Certainly there was a heavily-damaged site on a neighbouring hill to Harestone that might be one; in addition, on the eastern side of Harestone Down were two dismal piles of fine sarsens that could have been the stones of destroyed "cistvaens". Much excavation is needed up here.

We finally reached the stone circle on Harestone Down. It appears to be the disturbed remains of a 9-stone circle. Five deeply-earthfast stones of the possible nine remain, in addition to which there is a splendid pyramidal stone at the circle centre which had been easily visible as a false-crest feature from a mile away. Nearby is a 3-stone setting but fallen, which looks like the remains of a cove. Re-erected it would face either the pyramidal centre stone on the midsummer sunrise, or it would face the midwinter sunset. David Mitchell correctly remarked that one of the side stones has exactly the same inverted L-shape as a side stone of the cove at Stanton Drew. Whatever this may mean it raises considerably the plausibility of this being a Neolithic Cove. Then before Andy could video-film this last setting a herd of 19 cows with an exhausted-looking bull in their midst came over the ridge-top to stare at us. Somehow this prompted a progressive withdrawal of our group from the area, and five minutes later found everyone on the other side of the fence heading down to East Kennet. The time was now after 6 p.m. As we looked back the cattle were standing in the stone circle, in charge and black against the skyline.

It had been a great day with good hot weather, and everyone liked the thought of further outdoor meetings whenever possible. Proposed next is a Saturday trip to the Stanton Drew Circles and Cove (near Bristol and Bath) and the Bathampton Down megalithic remains on high ground near Bath University.

The next meeting was on Saturday 25 September --- the morning at Stanton Drew, the afternoon at Bathampton Down.

Sat 25 October. 10 of us met at Stanton Drew, arriving between 1030 and 11. Present were Gaylan and Denise from the US, Andy Burnham and Ruth (+children), Neil Mortimer, Sarah Seymour, Alistair, Gerald Ponting, Katy Jordan and Terence Meaden. After so much rain we were treated to a pleasant warm morning with good sunny intervals and we were there until 1
o'clock. Most of the time was spent in the great circle, NE circle and avenue, and then we went altogether to the more isolated SW circle. Terence made a strong point about the fact that two megaliths of the great circle were lozenge-shaped and because conglomerate brecchia does not split naturally into any particular shape, then these shapes were the intended result of deliberate quarrying. As proposed for Avebury and elsewhere, the lozenge
shape appears to be a symbolic pointer to the female gender . We then went to the Cove in the garden of the Druids Arms. The right-hand cove stone has a sort of inverted L-shape. No-one knows what this might mean, but Terence said that the putative cove close to the Harestone Stone Circle (south of Avebury) has a right-hand megalith of similar shape. The Harestone 'Cove' aligns with the centre stone of the Harestone Circle and the midsummer sunrise. By then it was time for lunch but the Druids Arms would not allow children inside -- nor did the food look so appealing -- so Andy and Ruth were keen to take the opportunity of going to the charming Angelfish restaurant at Monkton Combe which is about a mile below the megaliths of Bathampton Down which we were to inspect next. This pretty, licensed French-style brasserie by the waterside and viaduct in the Limpley Stoke Valley is open all day, serving all kinds of freshly-prepared food at fair prices (tel 01225.723483). Terry has made it into a local "megalithic meeting house". We stayed until 3.15 p.m. and then went megalith-hunting on the Down.
Over 50 megaliths were quite easily found, of which only about 4 remain standing. Andy (who had to leave before then) might put a couple of pictures on his web-site (please announce this if it happens, Andy). The megaliths seem to be spread out over a vast distance, suggesting that there had once been an avenue of standing stones 1 to 2 kilometre slong. Several stones had natural perforations. At least a couple looked like sarsens rather than the limestone which the majority plainly are (sarsens are, by the way, known for the district on lower ground a few miles to the south-east. More attention needs to be given to the stones in this area, especially knowing that there are more megalithic sites in the region. A return visit is likely --- later in the autumn hopefully.