ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the evidence for both mortuary practice and monument construction in the late Neolithic period. It includes some of the most iconic forms of Neolithic monumentality found in Britain and Ireland including stone circles and henges. The chapter also considers stone circles, timber circles, pit circles, henges and complexes containing some or all of these separate monument types. Late Neolithic inhumation burials are rare in the archaeological record although when they are found they are often of children suggesting that inhumation might have been reserved for the deaths of specific sectors of society. A distinctive form of monument constructed in both Britain and Ireland in the late Neolithic was the timber circle. The relationship between stone circles and timber circles needs to be considered, since there is an obvious similarity in form, if not in building material. The Avebury landscape saw the dense concentration of late Neolithic monument building, incorporating monuments of timber, earth and stone.
