What future for Avebury?

Abstract

Towards the end of 1989, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Chairman of English Heritage, announced that detailed planning had started on a visitor centre at Stonehenge. For someone not touched by the generations of wrangling over this site, or spared the depressing squalor with which a visit deftly obliterates any preconceptions of mystery or romance, what could be more appropriate than good visitor facilities at one of the world’s top heritage attractions? What could be simpler to construct in an open landscape of not particularly valuable farmland?Of course, Stonehenge is not like that. This small group of standing stones by a road has provoked one of the most complex, bitter, and long-running archaeo-political stories of all time. It will run and run – make no doubt about that – but Lord Montagu’s announcement has a real significance for anyone with an interest in our past. Someone is actually trying to do something about the place.

A late Neolithic complex at West Kennet, Wiltshire, England

“…Excavation, however, was not ;attempted (Whittle & Smith 1990). The new circuit in the farmyard was promptly scheduled in advance of the ensuing planning enquiry, which has led to permission to develop being refused (Pitts 1990;Chippindale 1991: 5).…”

“…The roll-call of great names is impressive, and there have been many excavations. Plotted out, the list appears formidable (Pitts 1990 : table 1). Yet, most excavations have been episodic at best in duration.…”

Romancing the stones

“…physical survey and aerial photography have alerted us to the unsuspected structural c o mplexity of the monument (Ucko et al 1991,157-235;Bewley et al 1996); the earthwork and stone settings have been given context through a radiocarbon chronology (Pitts and Whittle 1992); and a programme of fieldwork within the environs of the monument provides a background of social, monumental and environmental change within which the late Neolithic henge and megalithic settings can be better understood (Whittle 1993). Archaeological work has proceeded against a backdrop of controversy over proposed development, the implementation of new management plans, and a resurgence of 'alternative' o r ' N e w Age' interest (Fielden 1996;Gingell 1996;Pitts 1990;. And visitors keep arriving, in ever increasing numbers, drawn by the fascination of the stones.…”