Tonight I'm giving another talk with photographs to the DEG, the Deutsch/Englisch Gesellschaft, the other half of the Bath/Braunschweig Twinning Group in Bath, England. I will speak about Avebury Stone Circle and Neolithic man, who populated the area 2,500 years ago. I've spent the morning finalising the photo display and checking my facts, as I'm no historian, but have a general interest in the World Heritage Site, which is only 6 miles from my home in Devizes. The map left, shows the circular ditch, with stones erected around the edge. The A361 main road runs through the site, and the ancient monument is the only place in the UK that contains a pub and chapel. The site was excavated in the 1830's by Sir Alexander Keiller, who moved the inhabitants out of the circle and built a separate new village for them called Avebury Trusloe, (bottom left but off the map.) He then excavated the site and re erected many of the fallen stones. The site had been robbed for building materials over the centuries, and where no stone could be found, Keiller replaced it with a stone post. Sir Allexander was a member of the "Keiller Marmalade" family, and used his fortune to buy Avebury Manor and the site.
Much discussion continues about the purpose of the stone circle. It took centuries to construct, and was started 400 years after neighbouring Silbury Hill and West Kennet Long Barrow were built. Below you can see my PowerPoint presentation in the process of having more photos added. On the keyboard rests a National Trust leaflet, a guide for visitors and giving a brief history of the site. I am very lucky to live in Wiltshire, a county that contains so many world famous prehistoric sites, Stonehenge being the most well known.
The weather is better today, the sun appeared for a few minutes, but it is not raining "cats and dogs" as it did yesterday all day! Where is summer 2012, I need some sun.
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