Exploring Avebury

EXPLORING AVEBURY  The Essential Guide

Steve Marshall (The History Press, 2016) pp143

A SNIP @ £14.99!

This remarkable book, beautifully illustrated with over 400 photographs, maps, diagrams & timelines, would be well worth purchasing for the pictures alone: the stunning photography complements & enhances the text,  while the  figures are thoughtfully conceived & finely executed.

The author has preferred to see the Avebury Circles as part of an extensive ritual landscape stretching from Calne in the West to Marlborough, & as far South as the Vale of Pewsey – a compelling thought. He introduces what is to me a new discovery, the West Kennet Palisaded Enclosures: ‘South of the A4 road at West Kennet there was once a vast complex of timber structures, ranging across an area  almost half a mile square – nearly twice the size of the Avebury Henge.’ They were built about the same time Silbury Hill was completed: 2000 hitherto unsuspected oak posts, many 80cms in diameter, have been located by the wonders of modern archaeology. And for the umpteenth time we find ourselves wondering  ‘What were they up to? And Why? (And HOW? – so much WORK!) Were they in fact the slightest bit like US at all, Our Ancestors?’

I urge you to read this book, an exhaustive & beautifully presented account of all the latest from Avebury.

~ Arthur Billington

For more information and to buy this wonderful book, go to the website: www.exploringavebury.com