Avebury in Winter: A Photographic Essay

AVEBURY in

Winter

A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY

MICHAEL ALLEN 1

Copyright © Michael Allen 2004 First published in 2004 by Kingsfield Publications www.kingsfieldpublications.co.uk ISBN 1 903988 09 8

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CONTENTS How to View This Book..............4 Introduction...............................6 Sketch Map...............................12 Photographs..............................13 Technical Notes........................33

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HOW TO VIEW THIS BOOK This ebook is available only in PDF format. So, if you are reading these words on screen, you must be using a version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you are not already familiar with the Reader, please consult the Help file to find out how to navigate around this document. The book is designed to be viewed at a magnification of 100% or a little more. Theoretically, the book should open automatically at that magnification, but if it has not done so then you should click on the toolbar button which provides an ‘actual size’ view. If you wish, you can try using the ‘fit in window’ button, which may enlarge the picture somewhat. The third option, using the ‘fit width’ button, will normally provide an even bigger magnification, but you may notice a deterioration in the quality of the pictures. The main purpose of the photographs in this book is to give readers an impression of the grandeur of the Avebury

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stone circle. But you won’t be seeing the pictures at their best unless your monitor is correctly adjusted. Take a look at the 21-step wedge below. It runs from pure black on the left to pure white on the right. You should be able to see a small but clear difference between each step on the way. (For the purpose of this exercise, it will help if you increase the magnification of the Adobe Acrobat Reader to 400%.) If you can’t distinguish between some of the steps, you should adjust the brightness control on your monitor. If that still doesn’t do the trick, some excellent advice on monitor adjustment can be found on the Northlight Images Gallery. For those who are interested in the technical aspects of photography, information on how the images were prepared for this book can be found on page 33.

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INTRODUCTION Avebury in Winter is primarily a collection of black and white photographs; these can be found from page 13 onwards. In a sense, the photographs tell their own story, but a few facts and figures will nevertheless be useful in setting the scene. Avebury is a small village in the county of Wiltshire, England, and it is the site of an impressive prehistoric monument – a monument which is sometimes said to be the greatest of its kind in the world. The principal feature of the Avebury site is a circle of standing stones. These stones were erected some 4,500 years ago; they are less famous than the constructions at Stonehenge, which lie some 17 miles to the south, but they are often considered to be more memorable. From an archaeological point of view, Avebury is important enough to have been declared a World Heritage Site. The original designers and builders of Avebury created

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a massive circular ditch, some 30 feet deep and about 400 yards in diameter. This ditch was dug with nothing more than picks made from red-deer antlers and shovels formed from the shoulder blades of oxen. The earth removed from the ditch was thrown up on the outside of the circle to form a surrounding mound, which again was some 30 feet high. The area enclosed by this ditch and mound is about 28 acres. The sheer size of the Avebury earthwork is perhaps its most striking feature, and there is no one point from which the whole of it may be surveyed. Immediately inside the ditch, the builders erected a circle of about 100 huge stones, a few yards apart. Some of these sarsens, as they are called, weigh forty tons each; they were transported to the site from the nearby downs, where they lie on the surface. A fair number of these stones still stand where they were originally placed, though many have been lost with time. Within the main circle there were two smaller circles of stones, each of which had further stones inside them.

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These ‘smaller’ circles, of 25 to 30 stones each, are themselves among the ten largest stone rings in the country. Entry to the grassy area within the mound and ditch was via four causeways, located roughly at the four main compass points: north, south, east and west. Modern roads, making use of these causeways, now divide the area into four quadrants. (The main features of the Avebury monument are shown in the sketch map on page 12.) In the prehistoric past, the main stone circle was approached by two avenues, each of them flanked with yet more stones. One avenue, giving access from the southeast, largely remains in position; it contains about 100 sarsens. The avenue from the west has almost disappeared. What was the site used for? The short answer is that we do not know, and we can never know, because there are no written records from the time when Avebury was built or used. But there are, of

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course, numerous elaborate theories about the great circle’s purpose, many of them based on little or no evidence. Some writers have claimed that the site was a Druid temple, which is not the case; the Avebury stones were erected a thousand years before the Druids were first heard of in Britain. Others maintain that the stones were an astronomical device, an amphitheatre, or a burial ground. All that can be said for certain is that Avebury was built by a community which had sufficient stability and wealth for its leaders to be able to organise manpower on a massive scale. The work of creating the ditch, mound, and stones must have occupied hundreds if not thousands of labourers for a good many years. Avebury is surrounded by yet more famous archaeological sites, such as West Kennett Long Barrow and Silbury Hill; the latter is the largest man-made neolithic mound in Europe. To the east lies the Ridgeway, an ancient road which is even older than Avebury itself. It seems that, as the centuries passed, and particularly

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after the advent of Christianity, the monument gradually ceased being used for its original purpose (whatever that may have been). The site slowly fell into decay. In the middle ages, a small village grew up in the centre of the circle, and the villagers were not averse to making use of some fallen stones for building their houses. The village church was tactfully built just outside the pagan circle. In the seventeenth century, Avebury was ‘discovered’ by John Aubrey, who took King Charles II to see the site. In the eighteenth century, William Stukeley published a book about the area, complete with maps and sketches. Stukeley’s illustrations show that, even then, more stones remained in position than survive today. In the 1930s, much of the land was bought by the Scottish industrialist, Alexander Keiller, who did his best to restore the stones to their original condition. The land is now owned by the National Trust, and is administered by English Heritage. The photographs contained in this book were all taken in the course of a single day. Snow is not common in

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Wiltshire, and it has the great advantage of making the stones more readily visible than they normally are. Avebury differs from Stonehenge not least in that the visitor can walk freely among the stones. There are no gates or fences, and no admission charge. I encourage you to go there yourself. The pictures which follow are an unashamed mixture of the documentary and the pictorial. In other words, some of them are provided simply to illustrate features of the Avebury site, while others have been manipulated for maximum visual effect. Technical information about the techniques used to create this ebook may be found on page 33. Any reader who wishes to purchase a high-quality print of an image in this book can find a current contact address for me on the publisher’s web site: www.kingsfieldpublications.co.uk

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Modern road to Swindon

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= Approximate position of remaining stones or markers

Mound Ditch

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North Inner Circle

High Street

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South Inner Circle

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Modern road to Devizes 12

Start of the Avenue

SKETCH MAP of the Avebury Stone Circles Not to scale

An ‘establishing shot’, showing some of the main features of the Avebury site. Taken from the mound, just east of the southern causeway, across which the main road runs. Deep ditch, running away to the right. Mound and further ditch visible to the left, beyond the road. The main stone circle lies just beyond the ditch, with the south inner circle on the right, and Avebury village in the background. 13

At the south end of the Avenue, looking north. The modern (minor) road to West Kennett is on the right. The nearest stone on the right was covered in canvas to hide recent graffiti. The smaller stones in the left-hand line are modern markers to indicate where full-size stones originally stood. Waden Hill on the left. 14

Taken about halfway up the Avenue, looking south, to the point where the previous photograph was taken. Modern road to West Kennett on the left. Waden Hill on the right.

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Further up the Avenue, towards the north end, looking south again. The far end of the Avenue is now hidden over the brow of the hill. For reasons unknown, the Avenue does not run in a straight line, and at this point it has curved round to the west, moving away from the road on the left of the picture. 16

Large stone at the top of the Avenue. Road on the left. Waden Hill on the right. In the previous summer, there was a crop circle on Waden Hill; and, if you look carefully, you can still see the outline of the circle, showing through the snow. I have no idea why this is so. 17

Standing on the south causeway, looking north. Main road to Swindon, with traffic, on the left. Ditch falling away to the right. The two huge stones in the foreground are known as the Portals. Stones of the south inner circle can be seen beyond them, with part of Avebury village in the background.

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Closer view of the Portals, looking east.

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The Portals seen from the other side. The ditch and mound now lie behind them. The Avenue is beyond the trees.

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Inside the south inner circle, looking south towards the Portals and the mound. Waden Hill in the background, far right. Once again, the outline of the former crop circle is visible on the hillside at larger magnifications.

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Standing inside the south inner circle, looking south-west. The large stones on the far side of the road are those of the outer circle; mound beyond. Waden Hill in the far distance. Once again the outline of the previous summer’s crop circle is faintly visible on the hillside.

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View of the south inner circle (left of centre), taken from a point towards the centre of the great circle, looking south. This picture gives some impression of the size of the central area. Stones of the outer circle on the right, beyond the road. Waden Hill (and crop circle) in the background. 23

The three large stones in the foreground are those of the south inner circle. Some of the stones at the centre of the south circle are visible on the far left.

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We now begin a circular tour of the site, using the footpath on top of the mound. This first shot is taken from the south-east point on the mound, looking back to the southern causeway, marked by the trees. Ditch falling away to the right.

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A little further round the circle, near the most easterly point. The present size of the mound and ditch are clearly visible. Over the last three thousand years or so, the mound has gradually eroded, and the ditch has slowly filled up with debris.

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View from the north-east point on the mound footpath, looking towards Avebury village. Ditch in the foreground. At this point, most of the stones in the outer circle are missing, as are the stones in the north inner circle, but one or two can just be glimpsed on the right, near the houses.

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At the northernmost point of the site, looking south-west. Road to Swindon crosses the northern causeway in the foreground. In the north-west quadrant, on the far side of the road, many more stones are still in position. Parts of Avebury village in the background.

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Stones of the north-west quadrant, seen from the most westerly point on the mound.

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The stones of the north-west quadrant, this time seen from a point within the great circle. The main road to Swindon passes through the gap in the mound.

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With the light almost gone, a view of the stones in the south-west quadrant. The stone on the far right is known as the Barber Stone. The two stones on the left are the Portals, on the opposite side of the main road.

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On the way to the car park, at dusk; a final view of the south-west quadrant. Across the road, the stones of the south inner circle, with Avebury village behind them. At the far right: the Portals. This concludes our tour of the Avebury site.

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TECHNICAL NOTES This section is provided for readers who are interested in the technical side of photography. All the photographs in this ebook were taken with an Olympus OM4 camera, using Kodak T400 CN film. Black and white film was chosen because of the nature of the subject. A 28mm lens was used. The light levels varied between blindingly bright and almost dark. Given the presence of snow, and the fast speed of the film, there was almost too much light about at times. After development, the films were scanned on to Kodak Photo CD discs. The scanned images were then manipulated in the ‘digital darkroom’, using Photoshop 3; this program does all that I require of it, and more. When preparing this ebook, I used the Serif PagePlus 8 layout program. This I would describe as ‘cheap and

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cheerful’ – effective enough for the average piece of desktop publishing, but not a professional tool. In the past, many photographers found it difficult to get their work published because of the high cost of printing. Few book publishers were prepared to invest many thousands of pounds/dollars on any but the biggest of established names. Result: frustration. With the advent of digital photography, all that has changed – at least in theory. For several years now it has been possible for photographers to offer their work to the public in digital formats at a much reduced cost. In some respects, however, the ‘multimedia’ revolution never quite got off the ground. For a while, the publishing industry hoped that the CD-ROM would become as ubiquitous as the printed book. But that simply hasn’t happened – mainly, I suspect, because the public just didn’t like the format. Today we have the ebook, which can be purchased online and downloaded immediately (provided you choose the right supplier), without the trouble of buying a

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CD. But the key word in that sentence is ‘downloaded’. Most internet users are not yet using a broadband connection, and probably won’t be for several years. And the problem with ebooks, as you doubtless realise, is that the bigger the file, the longer it takes to be transferred to your PC. The reality, therefore, is that the photographer’s dream format, permitting the cheap and quick distribution of images, is still not available. Yes, it is now possible (in 2004) to create and publish a photographic essay or monograph in ebook form, and to do so at a fraction of the cost of printing a book. But for the moment there are practical limitations on the number of photographs which can sensibly be included in such an ebook, and on the file size of each image. My own conclusion, when preparing this particular ebook, was that it would be unwise to offer a publication which was more than 5 MB in size. A file any larger than that would, I suspected, alienate the potential buyer.

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As for the individual images... Well, of course, I would have liked to provide pictures at, say, 300 pixels per inch; this would fill the viewer’s screen and allow for zooming in to examine areas of detail if so desired. But, at present, that simply is not practical. After a number of experiments, I decided that images with a nominal size of 6 inches wide would be a reasonable compromise. Resolution has had to be limited to 96 pixels per inch. In a few years’ time, of course, everything will change. We shall all have a broadband connection, and our computers will work faster than ever. And then, perhaps, photographers the world over will be able to offer their work to viewers in fabulous detail and at a very modest cost.

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