Winterbourne Bassett Stone Circle is the remains of a stone circle near the village of Winterbourne Bassett in Wiltshire, South West England. Investigations in the 18th and 19th centuries found evidence of an outer and inner ring, and a single central stone; today six stones are visible although none remain upright. Description Winterbourne Bassett Stone Circle was part of a tradition of stone circle construction that spread through much of Great Britain, Ireland, and Brittany between 3,300 and 900 BCE, during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. The stone circle tradition was accompanied by the construction of timber circles and earthen henges, reflecting a growing emphasis on circular monuments. The purpose of such rings is unknown, although archaeologists speculate that the stones represented supernatural entities for the circle's builders. Burl called the monument "the most problematical of the Wiltshire rings", but also "the most impressive of the lesser" stone circles found in the area around Avebury. The site is 5.5 km to the north of Avebury, and thus would have been approximately an hour's walk from there. The circle would have been approximately two-thirds the size of the Avebury Stone Circle. The circle site is on an eastern spur of a low ridge, about northwest of Winterbourne Bassett village. By 1881, all of the circle's stones were lying prone. The Reverend A. C. Smith visited that year, and probed the ground to determine the location and dimensions of the stones; he returned the following year, accompanied by the Reverend W. C. Lukis. The only physical evidence of the monument left are a "jumble of stones" in a field located at the corner of two lanes between the eastern downs and the land to its west. An earthen long barrow was found nearby. The site was designated as a scheduled monument in 1924. Context While the transition from the Early Neolithic to the Late Neolithic in the fourth and third millennia BCE saw much economic and technological continuity, there was a considerable change in the style of monuments erected, particularly in what is now southern and eastern England. By 3000 BCE, the long barrows, causewayed enclosures, and cursuses which had predominated in the Early Neolithic were no longer built, and had been replaced by circular monuments of various kinds. These include earthen henges, timber circles, and stone circles. Stone circles are found in most areas of Britain where stone is