Falkner's Circle

About

Falkner's Circle was a stone circle near the village of Avebury in the south-western English county of Wiltshire. Built from twelve sarsen megaliths, it measured about 37 metres (121 ft) in diameter, although only one of these stones remains standing. The ring was part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread throughout much of Britain, Ireland, and Brittany during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, over a period between 3300 and 900 BCE.

The purpose of such monuments is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that the stones represented supernatural entities for the circle's builders. Positioned in a dry valley, the circle was erected on the southern end of a field that contained a range of natural sarsens. It is possible that the megaliths were erected very close to where they were naturally found.

The site had previously seen human activity in the Mesolithic period and may have been symbolically meaningful for local communities for a long time before the circle was created. The ring was located close to other Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age monuments, such as the West Kennet Avenue and Avebury stone circle, although its precise relationship to these is...