210 



Excavations at Avebury. 



labourers and all the materiel required for carrying out the work. 



To these gentlemen as well as to Mr. Robert Smith, who suffered 

 us to dig an extensive trench across one of his fields, we beg at the 

 outset to tender our hearty thanks, as without their permission and 

 assistance, we could of course have done nothing. 



The main object of our excavations was not so much the expec- 

 tation of making any new discoveries, or of bringing to light any 

 hidden archseological treasures, as the desire to thoroughly ascertain 

 the sites of certain of the great sarsen stones which had been 

 removed in former days, and whose position was as yet more or 

 less defined by depressions in the ground where they once stood : 

 and more particularly to set at rest the question of late years 

 rashly (as we think) ventured on by certain writers, and advocated 

 by Mr. Fergusson in a recent number of the Quarterly Review, 1 

 that the area of Avebury was a vast burial ground, and that human 

 bones would be found in abundance by any one who would take 

 the trouble by digging, to examine the ground below the surface. 



Excavations at the Northern Circle. 



We began our operations at the north of the area in the meadow 

 just beyond the " Cove " of the northern circle, and dug a trench 

 on either side of the great stone marked " e " in Mr. Long's map, 

 (see Wiltshire Magazine, vol. iv., p. 18) but there were not any 

 traces of any burial deposit whatever. In the mould just under 

 the turf were two or three fragments of British pottery, bones of 

 sheep, and a small piece of burnt micaceous sandstone — not sarsen. 



Our next point, and one of considerable interest, was at the Cove, 

 within the circle : here we sunk four large holes, within the rick- 

 yard : Mr. Brown in the most obliging manner having a small 

 straw rick removed which stood in our way. The first hole was 

 sunk at the foot of the large massive western stone of the Cove 

 (marked "a" in the map), on its eastern side. Here we discovered a 

 layer of blocks of sarsen stones, var}dng in size from a few inches 

 square, to fourteen or eighteen inches in length, by eight or nine 

 inches in diameter. These were evidently placed there, and rammed 



i No. 215, July, 1860, p. 209. 



