West Kennet Long Barrow

rdf:langString West Kennet Long Barrow

rdf:langString West Kennet Long Barrow

rdf:langString Champion

rdf:langString Hutton

rdf:langString Reynolds

rdf:langString Whittle

rdf:langString Hayman

rdf:langString Malone

rdf:langString Pollard

rdf:langString Wysocki

rdf:langString Bayliss

rdf:langString Burl

rdf:langString Smith

rdf:langString Hutton

rdf:langString Malone

rdf:langString Wallis

rdf:langString Brickley

rdf:langString Blain

rdf:langString Ashbee

rdf:langString Darvill

rdf:langString Hutton

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString View of the outside of West Kennet Long Barrow

rdf:langString WHS

rdf:langString Region

rdf:langString Cultural

rdf:langString Wiltshire, England

rdf:langString Map showing location in Wiltshire

rdf:langString United Kingdom Wiltshire

rdf:langString The clearings in which these barrows were sited seemed to have accrued significance over time. In each case initial utilisation of these places may have been fairly routine - for occupation, cultivation, grazing, or simply acting as nodal points in networks of paths. But the body of stories, memories and associations these places held would have grown, some perhaps eventually being imbued with even mythical significance. That led to many becoming the focus for ritual or special activity sometime before the barrows were constructed.

rdf:langString — Joshua Pollard and Andrew Reynolds on the long barrows of northern Wiltshire

rdf:langString Tumulus

rdf:langString The West Kennet Long Barrow, also known as South Long Barrow, is a chambered long barrow near the village of Avebury in the south-western English county of Wiltshire. Probably constructed in the thirty-seventh century BC, during Britain's Early Neolithic period, today it survives in a partially reconstructed state. Archaeologists have established that the monument was built by pastoralist communities shortly after the introduction of agriculture to Britain from continental Europe. Although representing part of an architectural tradition of long barrow building that was widespread across Neolithic Europe, the West Kennet Long Barrow belongs to a localised regional variant of barrows in Western Britain, now known as the Cotswold-Severn Group. Of these, it is part of a cluster of around thirty centred on Avebury in the uplands of northern Wiltshire. Built out of earth, local sarsen megaliths, and oolitic limestone imported from the Cotswolds, the long barrow consisted of a sub-rectangular earthen tumulus enclosed by kerb-stones. Its precise date of construction is not known. Human bones were placed within the chamber, probably between 3670 and 3635 BC, representing a mixture of men, women, children and adults. There is then an apparent hiatus in the use of the site as a place of burial, probably lasting over a century. Between 3620 and 3240 BC it likely began to be re-used as a burial space, receiving both human and animal remains over a period of several centuries. Various flint tools and ceramic sherds were also placed within it during this time. In the Late Neolithic, the entrance to the long barrow was blocked up with the addition of large sarsen boulders. During the Later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, the landscape around West Kennet Long Barrow was subject to the widespread construction of ceremonial monuments, among them the Avebury henge and stone circles, the West Kennet Avenue, The Sanctuary, and Silbury Hill. During the Romano-British period, a small coin hoard was buried in the side of the long barrow. The ruin attracted the interest of antiquarians in the 17th century, while archaeological excavation took place in 1859 and again in 1955–56, after which it underwent reconstruction. Now a scheduled monument under the guardianship of English Heritage, it is classified as part of the "Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites" UNESCO World Heritage Site and is open without charge to visitors all year round.

rdf:langString i, ii, iii