THE 



WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. 



" MULTOEDM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUE ONUS." — Ollid. 



June, 1915. 



THE RE-ERECTION OF TWO FALLEN STONES, AND 

 AND DISCOVERY OF AN INTERMENT WITH 

 DRINKING CUP, AT AVE BURY. 1 

 By Mrs. M. E. Cunnington. 

 Between 8 and 9 o'clock on the morning of December 2nd, 1911, 

 one of the standing stones at Avebury fell. The stone is one of 

 the two remaining stones of the three which are believed to have 

 once formed a kind of cell, or cove, on the northern side of the 

 Beckhampton, or western avenue, that issued from the great circle 

 of Avebury. The third stone fell and was broken up many years 

 ago. The group was known as "Longstone Cove," or the "Long- 

 stones," but the two remaining stones are now sometimes spoken 

 of locally as " Adam and Eve." The cove is described by Stukeley 2 



1 These notes, so far as they relate to the discovery of the skeleton and 

 drinking cup, were printed in Man, Vol. xii., No. 12, Dec, 1912, pp. 200 — 

 203, and the Society is indebted to the Council of the Royal Anthropological 

 Institute for the loan of the two blocks ■which illustrate the paper. 



2 The Rev. W. C. Lukis, in a report on Stonehenge and Abury, printed 

 in Proc. Soc. Ant., IX., 131, says (p. 155) of the Longtones Cove, "Stukeley 

 says this cove is ' composed of three stones like that most magnificent one 

 we described in the centre of the northern temple at Abury. They are set 

 upon the arc of a circle regarding each other, with an obtuse angle,' and are 

 placed on the north side of the avenue, one of the stones of that side making 

 the back of the Cove. . . . Twining saw two stones only in 1723, 

 therefore Stukeley saw no more ; and his knowledge of a third stone must be 

 derived from Aubrey, whose sketch given in his ' Monumenta Britannica ' 

 shows how unfaithful his drawings are as to the form and position of the 

 stones. It is altogether an assumption on Stukeley's part that one of the 

 stones of the Cove was one of the supposed avenue. . . . My own opinion 

 is that these stones are the remains of a large circle— a monument entirely 

 distinct from Avebury." 



VOL. XXXVIII. — NO. CXIX. B 



