landscape, including the West Kennet Long Barrow, East Kennet Long Barrow, and Windmill Hill. Excavation revealed that the Sanctuary consisted of two concentric rings with an overall diameter of circa 40 metres. The inner stone circle was encompassed by six concentric rings of post holes, marking where timber posts had once stood. The first stage of activity at the site, some time around 3000 BCE, consisted of a ring of eight wooden posts across, with a central post, presumed to be a round hut. Within 200 years the first ring was enlarged to 6m and a second ring was added, also of eight posts, but this time , perhaps creating a large hut or an enclosure. Phase three, some time in the later Neolithic, a third ring of 33 posts were added, in a circle across, and at the same time an inner stone circle of 15 or 16 sarsen stones was introduced alongside what was by that point the middle ring, making an almost solid wall of stones and posts. The final phase was of 42 sarsen stones forming a boundary ring across, which replaced all the timber structures. This may have been built at a similar time to the Avebury stone circle, and had an entrance way that led into the Kennet Avenue, two parallel lines of stones running the from The Sanctuary to Avebury. Links to the West Kennet Avenue The Sanctuary connects to the West Kennet Avenue, a line of stones stretching for 2.4 kilometres to the Avebury henge. The point where the West Kennet Avenue connects with the Sanctuary may have been seen as the start of the Avenue or as its finish. Form and purpose When the site was first excavated by Maud and Ben Cunnington in 1930, it was interpreted as a timber equivalent to Stonehenge. 162 postholes were excavated, some with double posts and the remains of postpipes still visible. Later interpretations have made much of The Sanctuary's link with Avebury via the Avenue, and suggested that the two sites may have served different but complementary purposes. The timbers may have supported a roof of turf or thatch, to form a high-status dwelling serving the ritual site at Avebury, although this can only be conjectural. Another interpretation is that it served as a mortuary house where corpses were kept either before or after ritual treatment at Avebury. Neolithic pottery and animal bone