Nine Stones, Winterbourne Abbas

The Nine Stones is a stone circle in the southwestern English county of Dorset. It consists of nine irregularly spaced sarsen megaliths, with a small opening on its northern side. Two of the stones on the northwestern side of the monument are considerably larger than the other seven. Local folklore has grown up around the circle, associating it with the Devil and with children petrified into rock.

About Nine Stones, Winterbourne Abbas in brief

The Nine Stones is a stone circle in the southwestern English county of Dorset. Archaeologists believe that it was likely erected during the Bronze Age. It consists of nine irregularly spaced sarsen megaliths, with a small opening on its northern side. Two of the stones on the northwestern side of the monument are considerably larger than the other seven. This architectural feature has parallels with various stone circles in southwestern Scotland. Local folklore has grown up around the circle, associating it with the Devil and with children petrified into rock. The Nine Stones are regarded as a sacred site by local Druids, who perform religious ceremonies there. The circle is adjacent to the A35 road and encircled by trees. The site is owned by English Heritage and is open without charge to visitors. These stone circles typically show very little evidence of human visitation during the period immediately following their creation. This suggests that they were not sites used for rituals that left archaeologically visible evidence, and may have been deliberately created to serve as what the historian Ronald Hutton describes as ‘silent and empty monuments’. The tradition of their construction may have lasted for 2,400 years, from 3300 to 900 BCE, with the major phase of building taking place between 3000 and 1,300 BCE. All but one of the Rempstone Stone Circle on the Isle of Purbeck are located on the west of Dorchester—on the chalk hills west of the sea. The Dorset circles have a simplistic typology and are a comparatively small size in comparison to other British stone circles, with none exceeding 28 metres in diameter.

All are oval in shape, although they perhaps have been altered from their original form from the original form of Remp stone, although the original shape of the original Remp Stone Circle has been altered. They are all located within five miles of the coast, and all but one are located within the county’s boundaries, with nine possible examples within modern Dorset’s boundaries. Some archaeologists have suggested that the stone. circles might not represent ancestors, but rather other supernatural entities, such as deities. These stone rings are found in most areas of Britain where stone is available, with exception of the southeastern corner of the island’s southeastern corner. These circles are most densely concentrated in southwestern Britain and on the northeastern horn of Scotland, near Aberdeen. They are smaller than those found elsewhere in Great Britain and are typically built from sar’sen stone. The purpose of such rings is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that the stones represented supernatural entities for the circle’s builders. It has not been excavated, although it later received archaeological attention, but it has not yet been examined by archaeologists. It is believed to have been built during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, between 3,300 and 900 BCE. By 3,000 BCE, the long barrows, causewayed enclosures, and cursuses which had predominated in the Early Neolithic had ceased being built, and were replaced by circular monuments.

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