The West Kennett Long Barrow is situated on a ridge one-and-a-half miles south of Avebury in Wiltshire.

.The site was recorded by John Aubrey in the 17th century and by William Stukeley in the 18th century. Aubrey describes it as "On the Brow of the hill, south from the west Kennett" (i.e. the River Kennet, see Silbury Hill for some comments on this stream), and adds that it is "without any name." Stukeley observes that "It stands east and west, pointing to the dragon's head on Overton-hill." The barrow is marked on Stukeley's drawing of the 'great stone serpent' of Avebury in which one can also see Overton Hill (also called The Sanctuary by Stukeley).

Silbury hill

 

The barrow was dug into in 1859,When it was excavated in the 1950s, the remains of between 40 and 50 people were discovered - some of which were children. Together with many pottery Shards, flint implements, beads and other objects, were discovered in the course of excavation. The oldest of the remains were dated back to 2570 BC and the barrow itself was in use for around a thousand years.

Looking towards the entrance

The burials evidently took place over a considerable period of time. It appears that a number of the bones, mainly skulls and thigh bones, were abstracted from the tomb at different times, possibly for ritual purposes

It originally consisted of a trapezoid mound 330 feet long formed of a core of sarsen boulders and a capping of chalk rubble from two flanking quarry ditches. At the eastern end of the mound is an elaborate megalithic structure of five chambers opening off an axial passage. The entrance passage is fronted by a semicircular forecourt with a flanking facade of massive sarsen uprights aligned along a north-south axis.

Entrance

At some point the chambers and passage were filled with chalk rubble and the semicircular forecourt blocked with a filling of sarsen boulders. At this time, it seems, a 'false entrance' of twin uprights was erected, and three massive blocking stones placed in line across the entrance to the forecourt. This final blocking and closure of the tomb appears to have occurred around 1600 B.C.E.