[Stones] The Great Bank

[Ric]

i think [personal opinion] that at High Summer, when
the brumal springs stopped flowing, the Avebury People
moved their cattle into the Vale of Pewsey (water
source), via the droves which lead to Tan Hill (fair),
which is the origin of this livestock fair, only
discontinued in the CE 1930's. Tan or Saint Ann's Hill
is as much a part of the prehistoric ritual complex
here as Silbury Hill and Avebury, and it is completely
overlooked today - it is a key feature, a key player
in the seasonal round, i believe;

i've got an EH map of the Avebury region - based on
o/s - produced by one *Nick Burton* [nd / publication
unknown] which shows about three round barrows / ring
ditches where the 'Silbaby' bluff occurs: this is
obviously what Stukeley recorded on Littlestone's map;
the bluff looked out onto the West Kennet Palisade
Enclosures, which could well explain the sacred
atmosphere touching this location, and its suitability
for (later) barrows?

R

Swallowhead is still just flowing, btw, testament to
the wettest summer on record :-o ?


--- Thelma Wilcox <thelmawilcox at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> 
> 
>     What I find fascinating is (as with Silbury
> itself) that the Great Bank is situated on land
> liable to flood. If the Great Bank was a
> proto-Silbury that water feature is something that
> links them.
>    
>    
>   So taking water as the key, water which because of
> the chalk, has the capacity to appear suddenly but
> also disappear leaving the river dry, water becomes
> a vital resource that you have then to 'create' a
> landscape for its retention? Following through, i.e.
> the moat round Silbury, echoed in the moat round
> Avebury.  The creation of course is symbolic, but
> the one underlying feature of chalk country is
> probably drought like conditions in summer - water
> was at a premium in Neolithic times....