West Kennet Long Barrow

The West Kennet Long Barrow is a prehistoric burial mound and is one of the largest and best preserved monuments of its kind in the UK.  There exist five empty stone cavities in which the dead were buried from 3700 to 2000 BC.

The structure appears to have been built in two stages.  First, the earthen long barrow part constructed in Earlier Neolithic times and secondly the stone passage and chamber from the Neolithic period.  There are several burial mounds of this type in the Avebury area and it is plausible that each of them served a particular clan and as such may have held great significance in terms of ancestry to those that built them.

The remains of approximately 46 individuals were buried in West Kennet and arranged in groups.  The west chamber for male adults, the northeast and northwest for mixed adults, the southeast for the old and southwest for children.   The tombs also contained grave items such as pottery, beads and flint tools and animal bones.

The chamber was sealed up around 2200 BC.

Images

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