This book is a companion volume to Dames’ previous The Silbury Treasure: The Great Goddess Rediscovered. Unfortunately, I hadn’t read that one, but I
gather that the gist of it is that Silbury Hill, near the famed circle complex
at Avebury, England, conceals additional birth-goddess imagery in addition to the
obvious pregnancy/womb implications of its shape.
This 1977 work is a more comprehensive study of the
entire Avebury complex. It helps if one
has actually visited the area (as I did in 2002), or has some familiarity with
the various monuments that were built there.
Avebury consisted of a henge with bank, ditch, and stone circle
approximately 1300 feet in diameter, containing two smaller stone circles. Into
this henge proceeded two stone-lined “avenues”: West Kennet Avenue to the
southeast connecting to a former wooden henge called The Sanctuary, Beckhampton
Avenue (now virtually obliterated) connecting to a now-lost corresponding
monument to the WSW. Silbury Hill itself
is slightly west of south of Avebury, close to a major seasonal spring on the
River Winterbourne called the Swallowhead (designated “K1”). Downstream of this is the smaller Waden
Spring, named after the hill of the same name, joining the Winterbourne close
by at a point designated “K2” to form the River Kennet. K1 and K2 line up perfectly with sunsets and moonrises
at Candlemas (Imbolc) and Martinmas (Nov. 11, effectively Samhain). West Kennet
Long Barrow sits on the hill above and slightly east of Silbury and the
Swallowhead.
Sadly, many of the stones were broken up and taken down
in the early 18th Century, at a time when communal property was
being divided into enclosures by rich farmers emphasizing private profit. Many
were used as building material in Avebury itself. In more modern times, the sites of stones and
post holes were marked with concrete markers, and in some cases attempts have
been made to reconstruct stones from their pieces.
Dames attempts to derive the ritual cycle, the
“Wheel of the Year”, that took place at Avebury at the agricultural
cross-quarters during Neolithic times. Using contemporary descriptions of the
site, artifacts, archeological studies of the monuments, and cross-cultural
comparisons, Dames theorizes that in Neolithic times, harvest rituals were held
at Silbury for the pregnant mother-goddess in early September. With the beginning
of the winter quarter in early November, activities moved to the nearby West
Kennet Long Barrow for mysteries of death and rebirth. While West Kennet’s
oblong dimensions suggest a “long form” Crone goddess, the five inner chambers
of its tomb suggest a squatting Mother goddess, so that the tomb is also the
womb. Long bones like femurs were notably missing from the remains, apparently
sculpted into “long form” goddess figures.
The stone forecourt to West Kennet, as with other monument in the area,
are arranged to suggest an Ox goddess, underlining the cattle cull that took
place at that time of year. Givers of meat and milk, bovine goddesses abound in
many cultures.
In early February, Dames says that separate women’s and
men’s mysteries were held respectively at the Sanctuary, and the now-lost
Beckhampton site, at the end of their snake-like avenues. There’s some
suggestion that the respective female and male snakes were coiled in their
burrows, awaiting renewal.
The ritual cycle culminated with the separate processions
of women and men from the Sanctuary and Beckhampton sites up the mile-long avenues to
Avebury. Dames concludes that the women formed the wide jaws of the female
snake on the southeast side of the henge, while twin lines of men extended their
procession to touch a D-shaped figure made of several stones in the south inner
circle of the henge, making the phallus of the male snake. An obelisk stood at the tip of the D, and was
replaced with seasonal Maypoles after it fell prior to 1723. The ditch around the Avebury great circle was
engineered to form a water-filled moat at that time of year, and Dames speculates that women
bathed in it prior to the seasonal fertility rites. Cattle were again
slaughtered near the “Cove” dolmen in the north inner circle at this time.
Dames ties all these monuments together, citing that
the distances and dimensions between and within them are proportionate to the
distance between Silbury Hill and the Swallowhead, and between the Waden Spring
and its K2 confluence. The space between the two inner circles at the Avebury
henge is equivalent to the diameter of the Sanctuary.
In line with theories of other, largely discounted,
massive-scale monuments (e.g. the Glastonbury zodiac), Dames further speculates
that 27 Neolithic monuments in the area (some now-vanished, others indicating
pre-Avebury ritual use), and their absence outside of this design, suggest and
emphasize a giant birth-goddess figure in the landscape. A chalk escarpment west
of Avebury forms its two lengthy arms, hills its head and breasts, and the River
Kennet flows from between its outspread legs.
It’s difficult to know what to make of Dames’
conclusions in this 40 year-old book, written almost 10 years after von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods? Dames has done his scholarship, as the book
is copiously footnoted, with an extensive bibliography. It also features many
photographs and illustrations of the monuments and related artifacts. Pagan
scholarship has progressed considerably since that time, and I’d be curious to
see if more recent interpretations of the sites’ ritual use exist. The best
that can be said is that is provides a model for contemporary pagan worship,
and would lend itself to a fictional treatment. I would like for this to be
true, but not entirely convinced that it is. I rate it 3 pentagrams out of 5.
