The Avebury Papers: digitisation, exploration and creative re-use of a uniquely important archaeological archive.

埃夫伯里文件：对独特重要的考古档案的数字化、探索和创造性再利用。

• 批准号: AH/W003619/2
• 负责人: Mark Gillings
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FW003619%2F2
• 关键词: Avebury; Papers; digitisation; exploration; creative

Context: The proposed research focuses upon the dramatic phase of monument construction that characterises the later Neolithic of the British Isles. This is a period that saw the creation of a wide and varied range of megalithic, timber and earth structures, alongside the development of extensive landscapes of linked and interwoven monuments. Nowhere is this more apparent than Avebury, north Wiltshire. A key component of the UNESCO Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site, the Avebury henge is one of the pre-eminent megalithic monuments of the European Neolithic, sitting alongside Stonehenge, the Boyne Valley passage graves and Carnac alignments. Its 420m diameter earthwork encloses the world's largest stone circle, which in turn encloses two smaller (yet still colossal) megalithic circles of c.100m diameter - the northern and southern inner circles. Within each of the latter are further complex stone settings. From two of its four entrances lead avenues of paired standing stones that together extend for c.3.5km linking with other monumental constructions. It sits at the heart of a landscape rich in later Neolithic monuments, among them Silbury Hill and the West Kennet palisade enclosures. Avebury has stood at the heart of developing narratives of the Neolithic period in the British Isles - a period of remarkable transformation in the ways in which people understood and engaged with the world. Avebury's history has a resonance that extends far beyond the British Isles, informing research on a range of fundamental questions concerning the European Neolithic such as: what sparked this remarkable period of monument construction? What was the inspiration for the monumental forms we observe? Why were specific locations chosen to monumentalise? Aims & Objectives: Despite its international importance, detailed knowledge of Avebury is sorely lacking. The only large-scale excavations to take place at Avebury were carried out in the first half of the 20th Century, with an ambitious programme of open area excavation brought to an abrupt end by the outbreak of WWII. As a result, we have only a partial understanding of the range, character and relationships between the features present at Avebury. This lack of understanding is due to a failure to synthesise, integrate and make available the full detail encoded in the archives resulting from this extensive early 20th century work - much of which was methodologically exemplary - as well as much smaller ad-hoc investigations that took place after. This has lead to only partial understandings of this pivotal site, circular arguments, repeated rediscoveries and a serial forgetting of the results of previous work. To rectify this we will complete the work that ended so abruptly in 1939: carrying out unfinished programmes of detailed post-excavation analysis and synthesising the mass of unpublished detail that survives only in archive form. Most critically, we will make the full set of data available and accessible through the design and implementation of an ambitious, open access digital archive, that will provide a baseline from which all future engagements with Avebury can proceed. This will not only support future archaeological and Heritage studies, but is expressly designed to stimulate, foster and nurture innovative public and creative engagement. Applications & Benefits: The results will have enormous significance for the general public, creative industries and all academic students of prehistory, revealing in detail the origins and subsequent life-history of one of Europe's most important prehistoric sites. They will also allow for effective heritage management (through a fuller understanding of the WHS and its history) as well as enhanced education and tourism potential. Avebury has always been an object of fascination, and as international media interest in recent discoveries has demonstrated, public interest in Avebury is global.

背景：拟议的研究重点是纪念碑建造的戏剧性阶段，这是不列颠群岛晚期新石器时代的特征。在这个时期，出现了各种各样的巨石、木结构和土结构建筑，同时也发展了由相互联系和交织的纪念碑组成的广阔景观。这一点在威尔特郡北部的埃夫伯里最为明显。埃夫伯里巨石阵是联合国教科文组织巨石阵和埃夫伯里世界遗产的重要组成部分，是欧洲新石器时代杰出的巨石纪念碑之一，与巨石阵、博因河谷通道坟墓和卡纳克路线相邻。其直径 420m 的土方工程包围了世界上最大的石圈，石圈又包围了两个直径约 100m 的较小（但仍然巨大）的巨石圈 - 北部和南部内圈。后者中的每一个内部都有更复杂的石头镶嵌。四个入口中的两个通往成对的立石大道，这些大道总共延伸约 3.5 公里，与其他纪念性建筑相连。它坐落在风景如画的中心地带，这里有丰富的新石器时代晚期遗迹，其中包括锡尔伯里山和西肯尼特栅栏围墙。埃夫伯里一直处于不列颠群岛新石器时代叙事发展的核心——这是一个人们理解和参与世界的方式发生显着转变的时期。埃夫伯里的历史引起的共鸣远远超出了不列颠群岛，为有关欧洲新石器时代的一系列基本问题的研究提供了信息，例如：是什么引发了这一非凡的纪念碑建设时期？我们观察到的纪念性形式的灵感是什么？为什么选择特定地点来纪念？目的和目标：尽管埃夫伯里具有国际重要性，但人们对埃夫伯里的详细了解却非常缺乏。埃夫伯里唯一一次大规模发掘是在 20 世纪上半叶进行的，一项雄心勃勃的露天发掘计划因第二次世界大战的爆发而戛然而止。因此，我们对埃夫伯里存在的特征的范围、特征和之间的关系只有部分了解。这种理解的缺乏是由于未能综合、整合和提供档案中编码的全部细节，这些细节是由 20 世纪初这项广泛的工作（其中大部分在方法论上堪称典范）以及规模小得多的临时调查得出的。放置在之后。这导致了对这个关键地点的部分理解、循环论证、重复的重新发现以及对先前工作结果的一系列遗忘。为了纠正这个问题，我们将完成 1939 年突然结束的工作：执行未完成的详细挖掘后分析计划，并综合大量仅以档案形式保存的未发表的细节。最重要的是，我们将通过设计和实施一个雄心勃勃的开放获取数字档案，提供全套数据并可供访问，这将为未来与埃夫伯里的所有合作提供一个基准。这不仅将支持未来的考古和遗产研究，而且明确旨在刺激、培育和培养创新的公众和创造性参与。应用和好处：研究结果将对公众、创意产业和所有史前史专业学生产生巨大的意义，详细揭示欧洲最重要的史前遗址之一的起源和随后的生活史。它们还将促进有效的遗产管理（通过更全面地了解 WHS 及其历史）以及增强教育和旅游潜力。埃夫伯里一直是令人着迷的对象，正如国际媒体对最近发现的兴趣所表明的那样，公众对埃夫伯里的兴趣是全球性的。