were recovered by the Cunningtons, indicating that the site saw some degree of occupation activity. Recent excavation by Mike Pitts has given greater credence to the Cunningtons' original interpretation of freestanding posts. The site was largely destroyed in around 1723, although not before William Stukeley was able to visit and draw it. The 1930 excavation revealed the body of a young girl buried alongside the eastern stone of the inner stone circle. She had been interred with a beaker and animal bones. Her body would have been aligned with the equinoctial sunrises, and Burl suggested that she may have been a sacrifice. It remains uncertain what purpose(s) the structures were put to. As a site that was in use for many hundreds of years it is likely that the purpose, like the form of the structures, changed considerably over the years. Antiquarian investigation The Sanctuary was observed by the antiquarian William Stukeley. He drew it on 8 July 1723, calling it the "Temple of Ertha". This was Stukeley's own variant of "Hertha", a name that was current among 17th and 18th-century antiquarians, and which was based on a reading of Tacitus's Germania, a first-century book which claimed that the Suebi of northern Europe worshipped a goddess named Nerthus. When Stukeley returned and did more fieldwork at the Sanctuary on 18 May 1724, he referred to it instead as the "Temple on Overton Hill". Stukeley noted that local people called it "The Sanctuary". The archaeologist Stuart Piggott later noted that this was "a rather improbable name for rural folklore, and suggesting some seventeenth-century antiquarianism at work". Stukeley's drawings of the Sanctuary depicted them as ovals, whereas later excavations revealed them to be almost perfect circles. He later presented the idea that the circles represented the head of a large serpent marked out in megaliths across the landscape. Stukeley also recorded the destruction of the Sanctuary by local farmers. References Footnotes Bibliography External links Places To Visit: The Sanctuary – English Heritage Avebury Sanctuary Stroll – National Trust 1-mile walk English Heritage sites in Wiltshire History of Wiltshire Stone Age sites in England Archaeological sites in Wiltshire