Avebury
Peter Fowler looks at the varied spiritual and physical landscapes of a twenty-eight-and-a-half acre site in Wiltshire which contains one of the most important megalithic monuments in Europe
Mightiest of prehistoric temples in Britain, Avebury arguably acquired its particular interest between AD 500-1000. It was then that Avebury the English village, symbolised today by its Anglo-Saxon church, impinged on Avebury the ancient British ruin, symbolised by its megaliths. Only 60 metres, but nearly 3500 years – from about 2500 BC to about AD 900 – lie between stones and church yet, despite the different belief systems behind each, both express ideas of cult, worship and religiosity. At Avebury they fused into a remarkable monument of the living and the dead in the same place. The shades of the Ancient Britons mingled with the lives of the early English. Today Avebury is a monumental British World Heritage Site; it is also an English village with people in it, living.
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