ABSTRACT
The chalk downs of northern Wiltshire have seen some of the most significant field research on Neolithic sites in Britain, including Maude Cunnington’s excavations at the Sanctuary, Alexander Keiller’s work at Windmill Hill and Avebury, Stuart Piggott’s at the West Kennet long barrow, Richard Atkinson’s at Silbury Hill, and Alasdair Whittle’s recent campaign of fieldwork (Cunnington 1931; Piggott 1962; Smith 1965a; Whittle 1993; 1997c). These investigations have contributed much to our understanding of the period, and at the same time have been instrumental in constructing a particular image of the British Neolithic. This is unavoidable, but it may have had the effect of masking some of the singularity of the Neolithic sequence in the Avebury district. Many of the monuments of the area are unique, while the ways in which particular artefacts were used and deposited appear to have been equally distinctive.
