The purpose of Stanton Drew Stone Circles

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Stanton Drew Stone Circles The site I am studying is the Stanton Drew stone circles. These are located North East of the village see figures one and two. Stanton Drew is in the South West of Britain around 6 miles south of Bristol. The stones survived from a Neolithic period carbon dated to around 4,000 years ago. The site consists of three stone circles: The Grand Circle, The North East Circle and The South East Circle which is inaccessible as it is in a private garden. There are other features including The Cove and Hautville's Quoit see figure 2. The Great circle consists of 28 stones though it looks like there could have been at least 30 originally. These stones don't have a pattern to where they are placed as shown in diagram 3. The Diameter from North to South is around 115m and slightly less from East to west. The average distance between the stones (along a straight line) was 7.4m and the average height of the stones (the four remaining standing) was 2.47m. The Stones themselves seem to be from Dundry, 3 miles north as the same stone is found there, oolite or from local sources and made of Conglomerate. The stones are believed to represent male and female genitilier although as you can see from the photos they can hardly be recognised as 2 different types and it is doubtful the stones themselves were meant to represent this, however the site as a whole may represent fertility due to the nearness of the river and there being a connection with death, due to the bones found in the site there is a strong possibility that birth and life have a connection with the site. An Avenue extends from the Grand Circle heading do... ... middle of paper ... ...er. On balance the evidence suggests that the sight was not built purely for religious reasons. The evidence suggests that the Stone Circles have multiple uses. Theses include evidence of sacrifices and rituals. The stone circles also seem to have practical uses from information on farming about when to harvest and other times of farming significance to fertility and information on when to try and have children in order to increase the likelihood of survival. Other unjustified uses of the stones would be to impress neighbouring tribes and general socialisation is quite likely. Overall it seems that the site was built partly for religious and partly for other reasons and so based on the evidence the answer is most likely no the site was not built for purely religious reasons but for many different varied reasons.

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