for rituals that left archaeologically visible evidence, but may have been deliberately left as "silent and empty monuments". The archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson suggests that in Neolithic Britain, stone was associated with the dead, and wood with the living. Other archaeologists have suggested that the stone might not represent ancestors, but rather other supernatural entities, such as deities. In the area of modern Wiltshire, various stone circles were erected, the best known of which are Avebury and Stonehenge. All of the other examples are ruined, and in some cases have been destroyed. As noted by the archaeologist Aubrey Burl, these examples have left behind "only frustrating descriptions and vague positions". Most of the known Wiltshire examples were erected on low-lying positions in the landscape. There are four smaller stone circles known from the area surrounding Avebury: The Sanctuary, Winterbourne Bassett Stone Circle, Clatford Stone Circle, and Falkner's Circle. Archaeologists initially suggested that a fifth example could be seen at Langdean Bottom near the village of West Overton, although further investigation has reinterpreted this as evidence for a late prehistoric hut circle or a medieval feature. Burl suggested that these smaller stone related to Avebury in a manner akin to "village churches within the diocese of a cathedral". Clatford Stone Circle shares various characteristics with Falkner's Circle in that both contained comparatively few stones, were located in valleys, and had a diameter akin to that of the outer ring of The Sanctuary. Antiquarian and archaeological investigation Knowledge of Clatford Stone Circle derives almost entirely from antiquarian sources. The archaeologists Joshua Pollard and Andrew Reynolds thought that the documentation of Clatford Stone Circle had been "marginally better" than that at Falkner's Circle. Pollard and Reynolds stated that there was a "real need" for archaeologists to establish whether Clatford Stone Circle really was a human-built structure or whether it had been a scatter of natural stones mistaken for the former. References Footnotes Bibliography Further reading Aubrey I, 50-51 R. Gay, c. 1660 in Legg 1986, p. 26 Stukeley, 1776, I, 140 WAM 52, 1947–48, 390-92 WAM 56, 1955, 192-3 External links Broadstones (Clatford Circle) at The Megalithic Portal Broad Stones (Clatford) at The Modern Antiquarian Broad Stones, Clatford, Wiltshire at The Northern Antiquarian History of Wiltshire Stone Age sites in England Archaeological sites in Wiltshire