My Original Realization That Avebury Stone 50 Is A Bull's Head!

 

There should be no surprise that Avebury should contain such a magnificent representation of a bulls head as the animal had an enormous significance for Neolithic people.  Other important instances of bulls heads in the wider Avebury landscape include 3 ox skulls buried in Beckhampton Long Barrow (Mann p.164) and the beautiful sculpture of a young calf carved into the lintel of West Kennet Long Barrow, discovered by Professor Meaden

My own identification here of henge Stone 50 as a bull reminds me forcibly of a passage in Burl (p276) - I believe he is talking about the later times at Avebury:

"In the great circles of Avebury inside the derelict settlement rites that emphasised the unity of the tribe, the strength of the chief, the power of the tribal gods remained important parts of the ceremonies, possibly led by witch-doctors dressed in bull hides, wearing bull masks, dancing in mimes of the tribe's ancestors and their heroic deeds.   Peasants, warriors, women with their children and the brightly clothed and glittering chieftan all came to this ring of stones by the river where the land sloped, spread with sarsens, from the downs, the people coming at a time of death."