A Buried Stone in the Kennet Avenue. 13 



of the stone, and as it did not seem likely that an undisturbed 

 burial would be found, it was not thought worth while to carry 

 the work further. It is known that many of the stones of the 

 avenue and of the circles have been buried at various times by the 

 farmers to get them off the land, and it is very probable that this 

 was one of the avenue stones that was got rid of in this way. 



To account for the human bones one can only suggest that a 

 burial at the foot of, or near the stone, was disturbed when the 

 hole in which it was buried was dug, and that the bones were 

 thrown in again with the rubble in filling up the hole. It is a 

 curious and suggestive circumstance that a burial should actually 

 have been found at the foot of another stone connected with 

 Avebury, namely, that at Longstone Cove, described above. 1 



As the stone was not completely uncovered its full dimensions 

 could not be taken, but one of the exposed sides (that furthest from 

 the road) was 7ft. long, and the other (that in the trench) 4ft. long, 

 It was 2ft. thick and irregular in shape, like the other stones of 

 the avenue, of which Stukeley said they were "of all shapes, sizes, 

 and height that happened." The top of the stone is now 2ft. 9in. 

 below the surface of the ground, and it lies 12ft. from the 

 edge of the road on the right-hand side from Avebury to Kennet. 

 It lies between the single stone standing in a cottage garden just 

 outside the Kennet entrance to Avebury, and the single stone 

 standing close to the left side of the road nearer Kennet; and it 

 is eighty yards on the Avebury side of the last-mentioned stone. 

 If at any time it was desired to uncover this stone again it might 

 be easily found by the fact that the water pipes actually pass 

 under its end nearest Kennet, at a distance of 12ft. from the edge 

 of the road. 



None of the human bones were found whole, but only parts of 

 the following: one humerus, two ulnas, one radius, one tibia, one 

 femur, one vertebra, a piece of the sternum, and of a pelvis, and 

 three small bones of the foot. The ulnas are a right and left, and 



1 A considerable number of burials seem to have been found outside the 

 " Sanctuary" in which the Kennet avenue, ended on Overton Hill. Stuke- 

 ley's Abury, p. 33. See also Long's Abury. W. A. M., iv., 327. 



