Avebury og gudinden
En Lady in Waiting: En forklaring af Avebury Complex
4.500 år siden på, hvad der nu er kendt som Avebury i Wiltshire, stenaldermand rejst en stor sten cirkel (Great Circle) mange gange større end de mere omtalte Stonehenge tyve miles mod syd. Omkring ydersiden af disse 100 eller så sarsen sten er en stor delvist sandet op droppe nogle 30 meter dyb dermed klassificere det i dag som en Henge site. Så stor var den kreds, at meget af den moderne landsby Avebury indeholder i sin omkreds på fire femtedele af en mile. At sige det er kun imponerende, er at undervurdere sin pragt.
Tilmeldt til Great Circle var to dobbelte rækker af stående sten i dag kendt som West Kennet og Beckhampton Avenues. The West Kennet Avenue var næsten halvanden miles i længden, men nu alt, men mangler Beckhampton Avenue opsigelse punkt er på nuværende tidspunkt ukendt, selvom menes at have været ens i længden.
I den fjerneste ende af West Kennet Avenue og forbundet til det, er stedet for en nu ødelagt sæt af sten og træ kredse kendt som Sanctuary og denne ligger på Overton Hill sammen med den ældste og længste bane-vej på De Britiske Øer - Ridgeway Sti.
Tre fjerdedele af en mile syd for Great Circle blev bygget den gådefulde Silbury Hill, den største menneskeskabte bakke i Europa med en stor omgivende 20ft dyb grøft nu hovedsagelig tilsandet. Dækker et grundareal på fem og en halv hektar er det 130ft høj med nogle skøn påstår det tog omkring 18 millioner mandetimer at bygge ved hjælp af andet end tak picks og skulderblade okser og træ værktøjer. Kørsel nord til syd fra Avebury er Avebury Winterbourne bæk, der smelter sammen med floden Kennet syd for Silbury Hill.
Også lige under Silbury Hill ligger de Swallowhead Springs, hvor de vigtigste floden Kennet stiger. En kvart mil længere mod syd på toppen af stigende jord er West Kennet Long Barrow, mente en kamre Tidlig neolitiske kamre begravelse graven for at have været i brug omkring 1.000 år før opførelsen af de øvrige megalitter i området.
Disse kombinerede menneskeskabte konstruktioner er kendt kollektivt som Avebury Complex, og det er blevet klassificeret som et World Heritage Site sådan er dens betydning. Men har selv efter mange udgravninger fundet sted på Great Circle, de muligheder, den Sanctuary og Silbury Hill, ingen praktiske eller konkrete teorier eller forståelse af, hvorfor de blev bygget, og hvad de blev brugt til ved afslutningen er blevet fremsat - indtil nu det er! De havde været lige så meget et mysterium, som da den første kendte officielle udgravninger begyndte tilbage i det 17 århundrede.
Efter nogle 30 år undersøger Complex, har stensætning forsker Roy Goutte nået nogle fantastiske konklusioner, han siger, vil ændre vores forståelse af neolitiske mand i Storbritannien og deres tro for altid, hvis korrekt. Ikke længere vil storcirkel på Avebury, eller Stonehenge for den sags skyld, kan ses som "stand alone" strukturer, men en del af store komplekser. Det er ved at nå denne forståelse, at vi nu kan begynde at dechifrere deres sande betydning.
Arbejde systematisk gennem otte individuelle syntetiske eller naturlige dele af Avebury Complex, som han ser det, har han nu uløseligt forbundet dem til at vise, at de alle var forbundet med hinanden til at danne en enorm hidtil ukendt Kvinde Jorden figur lagt ud over flere hundrede acres af Wiltshire landskab og har skrevet en bog om sine opdagelser. The Work er titlen 'A Lady In Waiting' og viser tydeligt, at dette tal blev designet og bygget i slutningen af bondestenalderen. Roy Goutte overbevist om, det blev bygget med ét mål for øje ... at føre dødes sjæle i deres Efterlivet og hans bog guider læseren gennem de forskellige stadier i den neolitiske overgangen fra denne verden til den næste!
Moderne med bygningen af den store pyramide ved Giza og den egyptiske tro i Efterlivet, har Roy Goutte været i stand til at vise, at det ikke kun var hierarkiet i sin tid som nydt godt af løftet om et efterliv i Avebury, men alle, for han mener, at Jorden figur blev bygget af folket, for folket. Hvordan det fungerede, og hvordan det hele fungerede i den tankegang af stenaldermand fremgår klart af den indviklede layout af figuren, og hvordan den har anvendt de naturlige vandveje, som løb gennem figurens krop til at bringe det 'live' til dem ved at repræsentere sit hjerteblod.
Den Swallowhead Springs var en repræsentation af fødselskanalen med New Life vej fra moders liv, som selv var repræsenteret ved Silbury Hill med sin vandfyldte grøft symbolsk repræsenterer farvande 'omkring ufødte Ånden, mens de afventer sin opståen i Efterlivet. De Stone Avenues var armene på figuren og helligdommen ved afslutningen af Vesten Kennet Avenue Indsamling Hand langs Ridgeway sti, hvor gravplads, lighus hus og udtørring platforme blev placeret, og hvorfra Efterlivet rejse begyndte. The Ridgeway Path was the route that led directly to the Sanctuary and would have been witness to much sadness as dead or dying people were carried or walked to their last earthly resting place prior to beginning their journey into the Afterlife.
The Great Circle was of course the Head of the Figure and the two smaller stone circles within it the Eyes. It had a Mouth which ringed a Sacred Well that is still in evidence today.
In all it is an astounding discovery and the actual layout of the Figure showing all the relevant parts can quite clearly be seen on the overdrawn map within the book or on the Lady In Waiting website along with over 50 photographs of those component parts. In all, the book is innovative and groundbreaking and more importantly, very plausible if one reverts to a way of thinking not seen since Neolithic times.
Roy Goutté concludes his book with the words:-
'Nearly everything that should be there still is – the only things really missing are the people and their beliefs'.
And he's right and I'm sure that after reading this book you too will think again about the true meaning of the Avebury Complex.
More details about the book can be found at the Lady In Waiting website:- http://aveburyaladyinwaiting.co.uk/
About the Author
Roy Goutté was born in the Channel Island of Jersey, but now lives in Cornwall on the edge of Bodmin Moor with his wife and their two sons.
His interest in the past began as a child when growing up in the south-east of the island where many of his early boyhood days were spent playing around such important sites as the passage graves at La Hougue Bie in the parish of Grouville; La Pouquelaye de Faldouet in the parish of St Martin; Mont Ubé at St Clement and the gallery grave Le Dolmen du Couperon at St Martin. At the time they were just places to have fun in on days out, but as he matured he began to take more interest in them for what they really were and not just as playgrounds.
After leaving Jersey he became a regular visitor to Stonehenge and Avebury as his interest had moved to mainly investigating stone circles. Access to Stonehenge then became so limited that he felt it restricted his investigations there, so he concentrated solely on Avebury. He had been working on a theory that both Stonehenge and Avebury were not 'stand-alone' sites like many thought, but part of huge complexes, so this gave him good reason to investigate Avebury fully and without distraction.
Working alone, his dedicated research into the Avebury Complex has resulted in this – A Lady In Waiting - his first archaeological style book investigating an ancient wonder that has captured the imagination of people since the days of such notable antiquaries as John Aubrey in the 17 th century and William Stukeley in the 18th.
Roy Goutté is also the author of eight previously published books in the Principal Lines series on the bloodlines of the Border Collie in various disciplines – and an Obedience dog training book – Get It Right .
There can't be many of us who really thought that Avebury was built by aliens and at last, we have a plausible theory as to how and why it was built. I was totally fascinated as Mr.Goutte' let the theory unfold into the most plausible explanation I have yet heard as to the reason for it all being there.
Referring regularly to the map of the Avebury area which had been “overdrawn”, the daylight suddenly dawned and I was hooked! Why on earth hasn't somebody come up with this before as it appears to be an obvious man-made figure and not a natural phenomena. I have all the books on Avebury that I have been able to find so far and not one has seen any relevance to the 'causeways' adjoining Silbury Hill as Mr. Goutte' does other than as a means of reaching the hill during its construction. This huge mound that he sees as a symbolic representation of the uterus is accompanied by a drawing showing a full-term baby about to leave the uterus and pass through the birth canal being represented by the Swallowhead Springs. As the baby is departing the uterus it expands into what looks remarkably like the causeways to the south of Silbury Hill which leads directly toward the Springs. Quite remarkable that he made this fantastic connection and so obvious once explained and seen!
Archaeologists only deal only with actual facts, things they can find, see, handle and date, whereas Mr. Goutte will have spent many many hours simply wandering over the Complex while continually asking himself the same question. Why was it built and as it was, there MUST have been a reason. Tying it in chronologically with the Egyptian belief in an afterlife gave him the lead he was looking for.
Well now he knows and so do I! I'm sure that taking his father's advice that he should “think Neolithic” will have gone a long way towards helping him to reach his astonishing conclusion.
Unlike many books of this genre, Mr. Goutte's is written in plain English and is therefore very easy to read – something you can't always say about many archaeological books, which, quite frankly are boring by continually going off on a tangent to 'help' us understand more, which they seldom do. I am minded to recall a famous quote by John Steinbeck who just “opened the pages and let the stories crawl in by themselves”. As I turned each page of the book, the more the theory unfolded and the more fascinated I became.
I shall be taking another trip to Avebury in the Autumn and I know that I'll see things in a completely different light now, thanks to Mr. Goutte's determination and enquiring mind.