Winterbourne Bassett Stone Circle facts for kids

Lua error in Module:Coordinates at line 614: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). The Winterbourne Bassett Stone Circle is an ancient site in Wiltshire, South West England. It is what's left of a large circle made from stones. This circle is near the village of Winterbourne Bassett.

People explored the site in the 1700s and 1800s. They found signs of two stone rings, one inside the other. There was also a single stone in the middle. Today, you can still see six stones, but none of them are standing upright.

What is the Winterbourne Bassett Stone Circle?

The Winterbourne Bassett Stone Circle is part of a big tradition. People built stone circles all over Great Britain, Ireland, and France. This happened between 3,300 and 900 BCE. This time is known as the Late Stone Age and the Early Bronze Age.

Building stone circles became very popular. People also built wooden circles and earthen henges. These round monuments were very important. We don't know exactly why these rings were built. Some experts think the stones might have stood for special spirits or gods.

A historian named Aubrey Burl called this site "the most puzzling" of the Wiltshire stone circles. But he also said it was "the most impressive" of the smaller circles near Avebury. The site is about 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) north of Avebury. It would have taken about an hour to walk there. The Winterbourne Bassett circle was about two-thirds the size of the famous Avebury Stone Circle.

Where is the Stone Circle Located?

The circle sits on a low hill, about 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) northwest of Winterbourne Bassett village. By the year 1881, all the stones in the circle had fallen over. A local reverend, A. C. Smith, visited the site that year. He used a probe to find where the stones were buried. He also measured their size. He came back the next year with another reverend, W. C. Lukis.

Today, you can still see a "jumble of stones" in a field. This field is at the corner of two roads. An ancient earthen mound, called a long barrow, was also found nearby. The site was officially protected as a scheduled monument in 1924.

Why Were Stone Circles Built?

The time from the Early Stone Age to the Late Stone Age (around 4000 to 2000 BCE) saw many changes. People started building different kinds of monuments. This was especially true in what is now southern and eastern England.

By 3000 BCE, older monuments like long mounds and large enclosures were no longer built. Instead, people started making circular monuments. These included earthen henges, timber circles (made of wood), and stone circles. Stone circles are found in most parts of Britain where there is natural stone. They are very common in southwest Britain and northeast Scotland. People built these circles for a very long time, from 3300 to 900 BCE. Most of them were built between 3000 and 1300 BCE.

What Was Their Purpose?

Archaeologists have found that these stone circles often show little sign of people visiting them right after they were built. This suggests they were not places for noisy rituals. They might have been left as "silent and empty monuments."

One archaeologist, Mike Parker Pearson, thinks that in the Stone Age, stone was linked to the dead. Wood, on the other hand, was linked to the living. Other experts suggest that the stones might not have been for ancestors. They could have represented other powerful spirits or gods.

In the area of modern Wiltshire, many stone circles were built. The most famous ones are Avebury and Stonehenge. Most of the other circles are now ruined or have been destroyed. As archaeologist Aubrey Burl noted, we only have old descriptions of them. Most of the Wiltshire circles were built in low-lying areas.

There are four smaller stone circles known around Avebury. These are The Sanctuary, Winterbourne Bassett Stone Circle, Clatford Stone Circle, and Falkner's Circle. Experts once thought there was a fifth circle near West Overton. But later research showed it was likely a different type of ancient structure. Burl thought these smaller circles were like "village churches" around a main "cathedral" like Avebury.

The Winterbourne Bassett Stone Circle was "very different" from Falkner's Circle and Clatford Stone Circle. It had a unique location and size. It's possible that these three circles started as wooden circles. Then they might have been changed into stone ones. Or perhaps the stone circles themselves included wooden parts.

How Do We Know About the Stone Circle?

Most of what we know about the Winterbourne Bassett Stone Circle comes from old records. These records were made by people who studied ancient sites a long time ago. For example, a man named William Stukeley recorded two stone rings, one inside the other. He also noted an extra stone to the west.

A plan made by Reverend Smith in the 1880s showed the outer circle was about 71 meters (233 feet) across. The inner circle was about 45 meters (148 feet) across.

Archaeologists Joshua Pollard and Andrew Reynolds said it was important to find out for sure. They wanted to know if the Winterbourne Bassett Stone Circle was truly built by humans. Or if it was just a group of natural stones that looked like a circle.

In 1998, a special survey was done using ground-penetrating radar. This survey confirmed that at least seven stones were in the places Smith had marked. However, the results were still a bit unclear.