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      3 General description

    The first timber circle to be identified was Woodhenge, Wiltshire,
    discovered by aerial photography in 1925 and subsequently excavated
    by Mrs Cunnington between 1926 and 1928. This timber circle proved
    to within a henge monument, but shortly afterwards, in 1930, the
    site of the Sanctuary near Avebury in Wiltshire was discovered and
    found to be a timber circle not set within a henge or other
    earthwork (Cunnington 1931). The first synthesis of timber circles
    was by Piggott (1939) who advanced the theory that the known sites
    had been roofed buildings. Subsequent discussions of the class are
    provided by Wainwright and Longworth (1971, 204-225) following work
    at Durrington Walls, Wiltshire, Burl (1976), and Wainwright (1979)
    following excavations at Mount Pleasant, Dorset. The Sanctuary
    remains the only discrete timber circle to have been excavated.

    Timber circles are generally round or oval in plan, anything from
    20m to 60m in overall diameter, and containing between two and six
    rings of postholes. The rings are generally concentric, although not
    necessarily evenly spaced and rarely all with the same size of posthole.

    The most distinctive component of any timber circle is its series of
    posthole rings. Each ring may contain between 6 and 60 individual
    posts either singly in a posthole or as pairs within the same hole.
    The number of posts is loosely related to the diameter of the ring.

    The postholes themselves are of variable diameter and depth but are
    usually cut into bedrock to depths greater than 0.5m and when
    excavated reveal a central post-pipe surrounded by packing material.
    Some of the of the larger postholes have ramps to facilitate the
    erection of the posts they were to contain. There may also be signs
    of post replacement and recutting.

    In many postholes there is an upper sag-fill. This is generally
    thought to result from the collapse into the void left by the rotted
    post of floor levels that were once around the post. Since these
    sag-fills often contain quantities of pottery, flintwork, and animal
    bone it is possible that such material had been heaped-up or placed
    around the posts during the use of the monument.

    Entranceways through the posthole rings are usually marked by wider
    than average gaps in the spacing of the postholes and/or the
    presence of larger than average postholes either side of a gap. A
    corridor may be identified where entrances through concentric
    posthole rings line up and provide access through the structure.

    Isolated postholes not forming part of the posthole rings are
    present at some excavated sites, either between the posthole rings
    or outside the structure proper. At the Sanctuary such postholes
    were found up to 10m beyond the outer ring of the timber circle proper.

    Floors must be expected within timber circles, although none have
    been found to date because of heavy erosion to the excavated examples.

    Graves have been found at Woodhenge and the Sanctuary, although at
    the latter site it is probable that the grave was connected with the
    construction of the stone circles on the site and is therefore later
    than the timber circle. In both cases the graves were simple pits
    containing inhumations.

    No typology of timber circles has been published, and this is hardly
    surprising given the relatively small number of examples known. On
    the basis of the overall ground plan of recorded examples, however,
    two general types may provisionally be suggested:

        A. Round: Timber circles with a strictly circlular plan (eg. The
        Sanctuary, Wiltshire)

        B. Oval: Timber circles with an oval or egg-shaped plan (eg.
        Catholme, Satffordshire)

    Figure 1 shows the ground plans of examples representing each these
    types.

    Timber circles variously seem to have retained their significance as
    important places after the timber structures themselves had gone
    because in some cases the timber settings were replaced by stone
    monuments. This is most clearly seen at the Sanctuary where a stone
    circle represents the last identified phase of the monument. At
    Mount Pleasant the timber circle was replaced by a stone cove in
    early Bronze Age times.

    The status and function of timber circles is not precisely known. It
    is generally agreed that they are not burial monuments as such,
    those burials present being interpreted as dedicatory deposits. The
    size, positioning and associations of these sites suggest that they
    are somehow rather different from ordinary domestic structures and
    accordingly have been seen as communal buildings of some sort.
    Various reconstructions have been put forward including roofed
    buildings, partly roofed structures with an open central area, and
    rings of free-standing posts. Analysis of the distribution of finds
    from the sag-fills of postholes at Durrington Walls suggests that
    feasting was a significant part of the activities undertaken within
    this timber circle at least (Richards & Thomas 1984, 215).