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A long earthen mound about 100 meters (330 feet) long and up to 20 meters (66 feet) wide exists in England (1)(2)
It is a chambered long barrow, with ditch flanking each side (3), from the south-west. It belongs to a localized regional variant of barrows in western Britain, known as the Cotswold-Severn group.
Constructed around 3650 BCE, it predates Stonehenge by several centuries
It was probably a communal burial and ritual site for early farming communities.

The structure itself was a long mound, with a stone façade at one end, and a series of burial chambers
The interior contains five stone chambers accessed by a narrow passages
The barrow was made from earth, local sarsen megaliths, and neolitic limestone imported from the Cotswolds
The stone chamber has been characterised as being “more elaborate” than most other examples in the ‘CS’ group (4)
It was built from sarsens, and extends for 12 metres inside the barrow. The roof is set between 1.7 metres and 2.2 metres above the chamber floor. (5) Allowing taller people to stand up.
Orientation Faces east, possibly aligning with celestial or also ritual significance
In the Late Neolithic, the entrance to the long barrow was blocked up with the addition of large sarsen boulders
West Kennet LB was not used for quick burials. Some people were buried in phases, and bones were moved or rearranged
There maybe remains of around 40 individuals (men, women, and children) buried over centuries.
The chambers were eventually sealed with chalk and stones, indicating a shift in use or belief.
Sitting on a ridge overlooking Silbury Hill, the tallest prehistoric mound in Europe. WKLB is a part of the Avebury sacred landscape, which includes: Avebury stone circle, Silbury Hill, The Sanctuary, West Kennet Avenue, and more.
Check it out with some more neolithic architecture today!
Cite: 1) Historic England. “West Kennet long barrow (1010628)” (https://HistoricEngland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1010628?section=official-list-entry). National Heritage List for England
2) Darvill, Timothy (2004). Long Barrows of the Cotswolds and Surrounding Areas. Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 978-0752429076 Pg. 73
3) Bayliss, Alex; Whittle, Alasdair; Wysocki, Michael (2007). “Talking About My Generation: The Date of the West Kennet Long Barrow” (http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/10754/1/10754_wysocki.pdf) (PDF).
Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 17 (1): 85–101. doi:10.1017/S0959774307000182 (https://
doi.org/10.1017%2FS0959774307000182 Pg. 85.
4) Pollard, Joshua; Reynolds, Andrew (2002). Avebury: The Biography of a Landscape. Stroud: Tempus. ISBN 978-0752419572 Pg. 65
5) Darvill 2004, p. 108
Bibliography: Bayliss, Alex; Whittle, Alasdair; Wysocki, Michael (2007). “Talking About My Generation: The Date of the West Kennet Long Barrow” (http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/10754/1/10754_wysocki.pdf) (PDF).
Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 17 (1): 85–101. doi:10.1017/S0959774307000182 (https://
doi.org/10.1017%2FS0959774307000182).
West Kennet Long Barrow (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/west-kennet-long-barrow/) at the English Heritage website
Thurnham, John (1861). “On the Examination of a Chambered Long-Barrow at West Kennet, Wiltshire” (https://zenodo.org/record/1629977). Archaeologia. 38 (2): 405–421. doi:10.1017/
S0261340900001521 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0261340900001521).
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