This volume describes the results of the Longstones Project , a joint-universities programme of excavation and survey designed to develop a fuller understanding of the context and dynamics of monument construction in the later Neolithic (3rd millennium BC) of the Avebury region, Wiltshire. Several elements of this internationally important prehistoric monument complex were investigated: an early-mid 3rd millennium BC enclosure at Beckhampton; the recently re-discovered Beckhampton Avenue and Longstones Cove; a section of the West Kennet Avenue; the Falkner's stone circle; and the Cove within Avebury's Northern Inner Circle. The research sheds new light on the complexities and development of this monument rich area and consideration is given to the questions of how and why ceremonial centres such as that at Avebury came into being in the 3rd millennium BC. The importance of understanding the agency - the affective and perceived inherent qualities - of materials and landscapes is stressed; and the unusual character of the Wessex monument complexes is highlighted by comparison with the format and sequences of other ceremonial centres in southern Britain. The second part of the monograph tracks the later, post-prehistoric, lives of Avebury's megalithic monuments including a detailed account of the early 18th-century records of the Beckhampton Avenue made by the antiquary William Stukeley.

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• 1 - Introduction:
  • The legacy of research and how it shaped the project
  • The research questions
  • Organisation of fieldwork
  • Landscape of the Megaliths
• 2 - Monumentality in the third millennium BC –the Beckhampton Complex
  • 2.1 The Longstones Enclosure and associated features
  • 2.2 The Beckhampton Avenue and Longstones Cove
• 3 - Monumentality in the third millennium BC –the West Kennet Avenue and Falkner’s Circle
  • 3.1. The West Kennet Avenue
  • 3.2. The Falkner’s Circle
• 4 - Monumentality in the third millennium BC –the Avebury Cove
  • Excavation results
  • Discussion
• 5 - Landscape, environment and monumentality
  • Wider context and chronology
  • Schematic representations
  • The Avebury landscape
  • Monuments in their landscape
• 6 - Monumentality in the 3rd millennium BC –Avebury and beyond
  • The sequence and chronology of monuments in the later Neolithic of the Avebury region
  • Avebury in context
  • Theme and diversity in later Neolithic ceremonial centres
  • Monuments, cosmology, materiality and non-human agency
  • Coda: a return to the Avebury landscape
• 7 - Later Prehistoric, Roman and early Post-Roman activity in Longstones Field
  • The later prehistoric ditch system
  • Roman and early post-Roman activity at the Longstones Cove
  • Discussion
  • Roman activity elsewhere in the region
• 8 - Bounding the Avebury landscape
  • The interior of Avebury
  • The Beckhampton Avenue
  • The West Kennet Avenue
  • Ownership
  • Stones and boundaries
• 9 - Stone burial
  • Early encounters with buried sarsens
  • The excavations of Keiller
  • Excavations on the Beckhampton Avenue
  • Excavations on the West Kennet Avenue
  • Finds from the burial pits
  • The practices of stone-burial
  • Dating the burials
  • The impact of stone burial
  • Motivations
  • Stone burial in the Avebury landscape
  • Conclusions
  • Notes
• 10 - Stone-breaking
  • Destruction and depredation
  • Ad hoc usage and the pragmatic breaking of stones
  • Documentary evidence for deliberate stone breaking
  • Archaeological evidence for stone destruction
  • The unpublished Keiller records
  • After Keiller
  • Stone destruction at Millbarrow
  • Excavations on the Beckhampton Avenue 1999–2003
  • Excavations at the Falkner’s Circle, 2002
  • Medieval and post-medieval artefacts from the Beckhampton Avenue and Falkner’s Circle
  • Analysis of the destruction debris associated with Beckhampton Avenue setting L10
  • After the destruction
  • The process of destruction
  • Variations in practice
  • Dating the destructions
  • Techniques revisited
  • Which stones were destroyed?
  • The pace of destruction
  • Who was breaking the stones and why?
  • Conclusions: stone destruction in the Avebury landscape
  • Postscript: stone burning today
  • Notes
• 11 - Burial and burning in context
  • Introduction: seeking parallels
  • Burial and burning: a capsule summary
  • The Sarsen Stones Project
  • ‘Wrecking’ Stonehenge
  • The Devil’s Quoits
  • Burial, breaking and the Medway megaliths
  • Stanton Drew
  • Conclusions: a unique phenomenon?
  • Notes
• 12 - Antiquarian encounters with the Beckhampton Avenue
  • Thomas Twining’s account of the Beckhampton Avenue
  • William Stukeley and the Beckhampton Avenue
  • Note
• Appendix 1: Stukeley manuscripts relating to the Beckhampton Avenue held in the Bodleian Library. A summary list and transcription of notes
• Appendix 2: The social and economic relationships between individuals named by Stukeley within early 18th-century Avebury
• Appendix 3: Concordance between the Avebury stone numbering schemes adopted by Keiller (unpublished excavation records) and Smith (1965)
• Bibliography