Carbon Date. 3780BC. Early Neolithic Carbon Dates

Report: Charcoal, ref SQUARE 2, from posthole 1 in occupation area on West Kennet Avenue at Avebury, Wiltshire, England. Subm M Pitts 1987. Comment (subm): must be rejected. [Ed: NGR not given, estimated only.]

ID: 8811, C14 ID: HAR-9694 Date BP: 5780 +/- 80, Start Date BP: 5700, End BP: 5860

OS Letter: SU, OS East: 9, OS North: 69

Archaeologist Name: A Keiller (age 44) 1934

Reference Name: Radiocarbon, 34, 1992, 61-2; Proc Prehist Soc, 58, 1992, 203-12; Archaeologia, 84, 1935, 99-162; Smith I, 'Windmill Hill and Avebury' (Oxford, 1965)

Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767

Carbon Date. 2280BC. Early Bronze Age Carbon Dates

Report: Antler, AML 831787, from pit in occupation area on West Kennet Avenue at Avebury, Wiltshire, England. Subm M Pitts ?. Comment (subm): agrees with finds from occupation, but does not date erection of stones in Avenue. [Ed: NGR not given, estimated only.]

ID: 8809, C14 ID: HAR-10501 Date BP: 4280 +/- 100, Start Date BP: 4180, End BP: 4380

OS Letter: SU, OS East: 9, OS North: 69

Archaeologist Name: A Keiller (age 44) 1934

Reference Name: Radiocarbon, 34, 1992, 61-2; Proc Prehist Soc, 58, 1992, 203-12; Archaeologia, 84, 1935, 99-162; Smith I, 'Windmill Hill and Avebury' (Oxford, 1965)

Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767

Carbon Date. 2260BC. Early Bronze Age Carbon Dates

Report: Charcoal, ref SQUARE 3, from Hole 4 in the occupation area on the West Kennet Avenue, Avebury, Wiltshire, England. Subm M Pitts 1987. Comment (subm): agrees with finds from occupation, but does not date erection of stones in Avenue.

ID: 8802, C14 ID: HAR-9695 Date BP: 4260 +/- 80, Start Date BP: 4180, End BP: 4340

OS Letter: SU, OS East: 9, OS North: 69

Archaeologist Name: A Keiller (age 44) 1934

Reference Name: Radiocarbon, 34, 1992, 61-2; Proc Prehist Soc, 58, 1992, 203-12; Archaeologia, 84, 1935, 99-162; Smith I, 'Windmill Hill and Avebury' (Oxford, 1965)

Council for British Archaeology (2012) Archaeological Site Index to Radiocarbon Dates from Great Britain and Ireland [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1017767

Colt Hoare 1812. KENNET AVENUE. "The whole length of this avenue consists of a hundred stones on each side, reaching from the vallum of Abury town to the circular work on Overton hill. Measuring the breadth of it in several places, where I had the opportunity of two opposite stones being left, I found a difference, and the like by measuring the incervral of the stones side-ways; yet there was the same proportion observed between breadth and interval, which I found to be as two to three: so that here by Abury town, in that part which represented the belly of the snake, the breadth of the avenue was thirty-four cubits, ( fifty-six feet and a half,) and the intervals of the stones sideways, fifty cubits, (eighty-six feet, five inches and a half) the proportion of two to three, twice seventeen being thirty-four; thrice seventeen, fifty. These thirty-four cubits (or fifty-six feet and a half) take in the entire space of two intervals of the stones of the outer great circle of the Temple of Abury within the ditch, together with thc intermediate stone which is the entry of the avenue to the Temple. When we mount up Overton hill, the avenue grows much narrower; and this observation helped me in the discovery of the purport and design of the whole figure of the Snake, and in the nature of the scheme thereof."¹

"When abode here for some time on purpose for several summers together, I was very careful in tracing it out, knew the distinct number of each stone remaining, and where every one stood that was wanting, which often surprised the country people, who remembered them left on the ground or standing, and told me who had carried them away.

Note 1. Two stones now only remain opposite to each other in the Kennet avenue, by which I am enabled to give the distance between them, which was fifty-one feet. The breadth lessens as it approaches towards the head of the Snake, and increases as it approaches towards tho body. The lateral distances between the stones of this avenue are more equal than I expected, being upon an average seventy-three feet asunder, the broad sides being placed facing the avenue. H.

Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1857 V4 Pages 307-363. The Kennet Avenue

Of the Kennet avenue, the eastern part of which represented the neck of the serpent, and which narrowed as it mounted, Kennet Hill to join the head, Stukeley says, "Mr. Smith living here, informed me that when he was a schoolboy, the Kennet avenue was entire, from end to end." As however the stones composing it covered a few feet of ground which the Greens and Griffins coveted, a war of extermination was waged against them; and when the stubborn blocks refused to succumb to fire and the hammer, they were buried in pits dug about them; "Two of them lie six feet under ground in the premises of Mr. Butler of Kennet, and over another the Bath road passes."¹ The work of destruction has been so successfully carried out that only 19 stones, or their stumps, are now visible between West Kennet and Abury; four in the bank on the left hand side of the road from Marlborough as it enters Kennet, and which can only be seen by going into the adjoining field;² two on the Abury side of Kennet, between which the road passes; eleven in the field on the left of the road; one on the brow of the hill by the road side; and one close to the turnpike gate outside the vallam. Measuring the breadth of the avenue in several places, where Stukeley "had an opportunity of two opposite stones being left, he found a difference; and the like by measuring the interval of stones sideways; yet there was the same proportion preserved between breadth and interval, which he found to be as 2 to 3. So that by Abury town in a part that represented the belly of the snake, the breadth of the avenue was 34 cubits (564 feet) and the intervals of the stones sides 50 cubits (863 feet,) the proportion of 2 to 3.'

Note 1. The Rev. J. B. Deane's "Worship of the Serpent traced throughout the World," p. 381, 1833.

Note 2. These four stones lie about 30 paces apart. That these were the original, or nearly the original distances, seems confirmed by Stukeley's 20th plate.

Note 3. Stukeley, p. 29. In the Charter of Athelstane quoted hereafter, will be found the earliest notice (probably) of this avenue, or indeed of any part of Abury.

Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 1878 V17 Pages 327-335. The Kennet Avenue and "Sanctuary [Map]."

The inaccuracies in Aubrey’s sketch (plate ii. fig 2), entitled by him "The whole view of Aubury with the Walkes and the lesser Temple appendant to it,’ are best explained by accepting it as a "draught of it donne by memorie only." of the avenue appears to have been interrupted; and this interruption, His more careful survey he says, "hindered me from measuring it,’ and the survey seems never to have been resumed. His sketch is probably too rectilinear, and inaccurate therefore as regards the angle which it makes at West Kennet, before ascending Overton Hill, to join the circles there, called the "Sanctuary." "From Kynet," he says, "it turnes with a right angle eastward crossing the river and ascends up the hill to another monument of the same kind." Aubrey, who tells us he " writt upon the spott from the monuments themselves," must here indeed have "writt,’’ as he says, " as he rode a gallop; "the statement that the avenue crossed the river being at variance with his own plan (perhaps we should read "crossed the road," instead of "crossed the river"). The angle must certainly have been very w from a right angle. The stones which formed it near the village West Kennet had many of them in Stukeley’s time been removed and destroyed, as he himself tells us (p. 30). Notwithstanding ese defects, Dr. Stukeley had clearly sufficient evidence for his statement that the avenue "makes a mighty curve to the left" (i.e., the east, p. 31). This, in his "Scenographic view" of the whole temple,is represented as a very gradual curve, which, if produced to an angle, would be a very obtuse one. Stukeley’s draught of this avenue from Abury to Kennet, in the sketch book before mentioned, is very like that given by Aubrey, and running in a straight line to " Kennett Town,’ would require as complete a right angle as Aubrey’s to connect the avenue with the circles on Overton Hill. Stukeley alludes to Aubrey’s description of this avenue, which had been printed in Gibson’s Camden, and says of it, "he [Aubrey] did not see that ’tis but one avenue from Aubury to Overton Hill, having no apprehension of the double curve it makes." It is, very possibly, a copy of Aubrey’s own sketch of this avenue, made by his friend, Edward Llwyd, to which Stukeley, at a subsequent page, refers, when he says, " he did not discern the curve of it," but "has drawn [it] as a straight line." An error, the reverse of that of Aubrey, is found in Crocker’s plan, in 1812, in which the bold curve of the avenue at Kennet is entirely overlooked, and its course represented as a very slight curve, entirely on the east side of the village, whereas it must have passed through its very centre. This is clear enough from Stukeley’s description, and is even now confirmed by the large stone in the garden opposite the brewery, which was buried there by Mr. Butler, who, with reason, believed it to have formed part of the avenue, and who pointed out the situation of a second stone in a hedge-bottom a little farther to the west. The existence of these stones we may conclude was not known to Sir Richard Hoare, or Mr. Crocker.¹

Note 1. With reference to these Kennet stones, which would, in great measure, determine the character of the angular curve made at this part of the avenue, I find the following among my Abury memoranda, The first is a communication from Mr. W. Cunnington: "The late Mr. Butler, of Kennet, a good antiquary, and an early supporter of the ‘ Wiltshire Topographical Society,’ gave me, a few months before his death, in 1873, the following information relating to the Kennet Avenue. He remembered a stone which stood near Mr. Kemm’s house, at West Kennet. When the road was altered some years ago, as this stone was standing in the middle of the proposed route, it was thrown down, and buried under the road, where it, no doubt, still exists. Further on, where there are now two cottages, at the foot of Overton Hill, on the right-hand side of the road, stood two stones, which he remembered were broken up by order of the road-commissioners early in the present century. Mrs B. told me that while this work of destruction was going on, two gentlemen from London, in a post chaise, saw the men thus engaged. They drew up and expressed their disapproval in warm language; one of them winding up by telling the foreman that a man who would undertake such work, ought not to die in his bed. The man's name was Shipway, he lived at Avebury; and, added Mr. B., the saying of the gentleman was fulfilled, for the man hung himself." The following letter from Mr. Butler appears to have been addressed to Dr. Thurnam:—

Kennet Brewery, near Marlborough, Wilts',

January 21st, 1858.

Sir, I am sorry you did not send in your man Then you was here. Though I was very unwell, I was not so much but I could have seen you, and J could have explained what I knew of the stone (better) than I can on paper. I only know ot one stone now the Bath Road, and that lies a few feet on the Marlborough side of the cottage which is nearly opposite Mrs. Kemm's house. I do noi remember its being buried, but from what I have heard it must have been-about 1807-8, or 9. There vas a stone broke in the winter of 1824-5, on the north side of the road further on towards Marl. borough, and which there is no doubt was one of the avenue. It had fallen and was buried by the scraping of the road, and was broke to make the present foot-path, as partly buried in the bank on the south side of the road is some of the stones which is believed to be a part of the avenue. I know of no other stones round, except it is one I had buried in my garden, which from the sizes and situation, I believe must have been one of the avenue.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

George Butler."

In a memorandum in Dr. Thurnam's handwriting, dated April 20th, 1860, I find as follows: Stone in Mr. Butler's garden buried seven feet deep, about two yards within door, and about thirty paces from edge of road opposite easternmost window of Mr. B.'s house. A second stone was discovered in burying a horse, three years ago, in a sort of paddock, close to garden to west. This shown by charcoal and ashes such as left by old-fashioned destruction of sarsens. The place of this about four times as far from road, and opposite to end of west wall of Mr. Butler's brewery and house. A third stone a little to north, north-west, in bank of hedge in same field (once line of Kennet and Abury road, until early in the century.) This looked for in bank of hedge, but not found. The sort of curve made by junction with two stones remaining of avenue clearly seen. A stone opposite to Mrs. Kemm's house in road below path and another nearer to cottage very near in Marlborough road, as before described,"