The Avebury Papers: digitisation, exploration and creative re-use of a uniquely important archaeological archive.

背景：拟议的研究侧重于不列颠群岛新石器时代晚期纪念碑建设的戏剧性阶段。在这一时期，人们看到了各种各样的巨石、木材和土结构建筑的诞生，同时也看到了相互联系和交织的纪念碑的广阔景观的发展。这一点在北威尔特郡的埃夫伯里最为明显。作为联合国教科文组织巨石阵和埃夫伯里世界遗产的重要组成部分，埃夫伯里巨石阵是欧洲新石器时代最杰出的巨石纪念碑之一，与巨石阵、博因谷通道坟墓和卡纳克排列并列。其直径420米的土方工程包围着世界上最大的石圈，石圈又包围着两个直径约100米的较小的（但仍然巨大的）巨石圈——北部和南部的内圈。在后者的每一个都有更复杂的石头设置。从它的四个入口中的两个通往成对站立的石头的道路，共同延伸约3.5公里，与其他纪念性建筑相连。它坐落在新石器时代晚期遗迹丰富的景观中心，其中包括锡尔伯里山和西肯内特栅栏围栏。埃夫伯里一直站在不列颠群岛新石器时代叙事发展的核心，新石器时代是人们理解和参与世界的方式发生显著变化的时期。埃夫伯里的历史产生的共鸣远远超出了不列颠群岛，它为有关欧洲新石器时代的一系列基本问题的研究提供了信息，例如：是什么引发了这一非凡的纪念碑建设时期？我们观察到的纪念性形式的灵感是什么？为什么要选择特定的地点来纪念？目的和目标：尽管它的国际重要性，详细的知识埃夫伯里是严重缺乏的。在埃夫伯里进行的唯一一次大规模挖掘是在20世纪上半叶进行的，当时一项雄心勃勃的开放区域挖掘计划因第二次世界大战的爆发而戛然而息。因此，我们对埃夫伯里的范围、特征和特征之间的关系只有部分的了解。这种缺乏理解是由于未能综合、整合和提供档案中编码的全部细节，这些细节是由20世纪早期的广泛工作产生的——其中大部分在方法上堪称典范——以及之后进行的规模小得多的特别调查。这导致了对这个关键地点的部分理解，循环的争论，反复的重新发现和对先前工作结果的一系列遗忘。为了纠正这一点，我们将完成在1939年突然结束的工作：执行未完成的详细挖掘后分析计划，并综合大量未发表的细节，这些细节仅以档案形式存在。最关键的是，我们将通过设计和实施一个雄心勃勃的、开放获取的数字档案，使全套数据可用和可访问，这将为未来与埃夫伯里的所有合作提供一个基线。这不仅将支持未来的考古和遗产研究，而且明确旨在刺激、培养和培育创新的公众和创造性的参与。应用和好处：研究结果将对公众、创意产业和所有研究史前史的学术学生产生巨大的意义，详细揭示了欧洲最重要的史前遗址之一的起源和后来的生活史。此外，这些规划有助有效地管理文物（更全面地了解世界文物古迹及其历史），以及提升教育和旅游潜力。埃夫伯里一直是一个迷人的对象，正如国际媒体对最近发现的兴趣所表明的那样，公众对埃夫伯里的兴趣是全球性的。

Context: The proposed research focuses upon the dramatic phase of monument construction that characterises the later Neolithic of the British Isles. This is a period that saw the creation of a wide and varied range of megalithic, timber and earth structures, alongside the development of extensive landscapes of linked and interwoven monuments. Nowhere is this more apparent than Avebury, north Wiltshire. A key component of the UNESCO Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site, the Avebury henge is one of the pre-eminent megalithic monuments of the European Neolithic, sitting alongside Stonehenge, the Boyne Valley passage graves and Carnac alignments. Its 420m diameter earthwork encloses the world's largest stone circle, which in turn encloses two smaller (yet still colossal) megalithic circles of c.100m diameter - the northern and southern inner circles. Within each of the latter are further complex stone settings. From two of its four entrances lead avenues of paired standing stones that together extend for c.3.5km linking with other monumental constructions. It sits at the heart of a landscape rich in later Neolithic monuments, among them Silbury Hill and the West Kennet palisade enclosures. Avebury has stood at the heart of developing narratives of the Neolithic period in the British Isles - a period of remarkable transformation in the ways in which people understood and engaged with the world. Avebury's history has a resonance that extends far beyond the British Isles, informing research on a range of fundamental questions concerning the European Neolithic such as: what sparked this remarkable period of monument construction? What was the inspiration for the monumental forms we observe? Why were specific locations chosen to monumentalise? Aims & Objectives: Despite its international importance, detailed knowledge of Avebury is sorely lacking. The only large-scale excavations to take place at Avebury were carried out in the first half of the 20th Century, with an ambitious programme of open area excavation brought to an abrupt end by the outbreak of WWII. As a result, we have only a partial understanding of the range, character and relationships between the features present at Avebury. This lack of understanding is due to a failure to synthesise, integrate and make available the full detail encoded in the archives resulting from this extensive early 20th century work - much of which was methodologically exemplary - as well as much smaller ad-hoc investigations that took place after. This has lead to only partial understandings of this pivotal site, circular arguments, repeated rediscoveries and a serial forgetting of the results of previous work. To rectify this we will complete the work that ended so abruptly in 1939: carrying out unfinished programmes of detailed post-excavation analysis and synthesising the mass of unpublished detail that survives only in archive form. Most critically, we will make the full set of data available and accessible through the design and implementation of an ambitious, open access digital archive, that will provide a baseline from which all future engagements with Avebury can proceed. This will not only support future archaeological and Heritage studies, but is expressly designed to stimulate, foster and nurture innovative public and creative engagement. Applications & Benefits: The results will have enormous significance for the general public, creative industries and all academic students of prehistory, revealing in detail the origins and subsequent life-history of one of Europe's most important prehistoric sites. They will also allow for effective heritage management (through a fuller understanding of the WHS and its history) as well as enhanced education and tourism potential. Avebury has always been an object of fascination, and as international media interest in recent discoveries has demonstrated, public interest in Avebury is global.