A view over the Marlborough Downs taken from the West Kennet Long Barrow
The Marlborough Downs span across a large portion of Wiltshire in Southern England. These Downs were obviously very sacred to the megalithic builders as the Downs are home to many archaeological sites of the Neolithic period. Every feature in this symbolic landscape would have had some special meaning to a people dedicated to a form of goddess worship.
The Downs are rich in springs and rivers, such as the River Kennet, which flows close to Silbury Hill and the West Kennet Long Barrow, sanctifying their monuments. Barrows (or tumuli) are dotted across this landscape, confirming the importance of this place as a centre of Neolithic burial rites as 148 of Britain's 260 long barrows are in Wiltshire.
The Downs are best known, however, for the gigantic complex of related sites that are concentrated around the stone circle at Avebury. This was a holy place of pilgrimage. Some of the major ancient trackways pass near here, including the important Ridgeway. They pass though lands that seem to be laid out in a ritualistic pattern as if the pilgrimage itself was part of the rite.
I have not been able to cover all of the sites in this fascinating area, although I hope to expand these pages beyond the most important of the local features. So find out more about some of the sites in this landscape that was so sacred to our ancestors:
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Avebury