The Barber Stone
This stone earnt its name at a time in Avebury's history when the powerful church waged war on this site full of pagan "demons" and "witchcraft". Many stones were broken up, or were pushed into pits. This particular stone was resposible for the death of a surgeon-barber who was involved in its toppling.
The stone has of course now been restored to its original standing position.
The skeleton of the surgeon-barber has recently been re-discovered in a museum vault. Read the full story here.
Kennet Avenue
Lots of megaliths in an avenue from Avebury looking towards West Kennet Long Barrow.
Another megalith avenue (Beckhampton) has recently been rediscovered outside Avebury.
Stone 19 B
You didn't suppose for a minute that Terry would stop talking about head stones, did you?
Here's another left-hand profile ( = female) head, this time from Kennet Avenue. Terry pointed out that other features of stones could be used to reinforce the gender interpretation, so shorter, wider stones and lozenge shaped stones are female, and taller thinner stones are male.
These other marks on Stone 19B have nothing to do with any rituals at Avebury. They were made in this particular sarsen before it was erected into its current position in the Avenue.
Early Avebury residents seem to have found that the hard sarsen rock was ideal for sharpening and honing stone tools, and evidence for this was easily seen in the five deep diagonal marks for sharpening arrowheads and larger smooth concave area for polishing stone axes.
There is no reason to suggest that this stone was used for tool sharpening after its positioning in the avenue, and it would have been very awkward to do this anyway.
Crop Circles
These crop circles were visible when we visited Avebury.
