West Kennet Long Barrow
The West Kennet Long Barrow is a prehistoric burial mound. The Neolithic Long Barrow, situated near to the man-made Silbury Hill (Avebury) 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.
John Aubrey recored the site in the 17th century, and William Stukeley later in the 18th century. West Kennet Barrow has been classified by archaeologists as a chambered long barrow, one which forms part of the Severn-Cotswold tombs. The entrance to the barrow consists of a concave forecourt, which acted to seal the entry made from sarsen stones.
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.
