Posted on 05/16/2008 3:42:40 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Jim Leary, the archaeological director for English Heritage throughout the work, thinks he has solved a riddle which archaeologists have fretted over for centuries: why thousands of people piled up 35 million baskets of chalk into the largest artificial hill in Europe, now part of the Stonehenge World Heritage site. It wasn't the final structure, but the staggering contribution of work which was important, he now believes, marking a site of immense but only guessable significance to the hunters and farmers of Bronze Age Wiltshire... the archaeologists and engineers are convinced there is no secret chamber, prehistoric passage or treasure hoard, only the hill itself rising 40 metres above the Wiltshire watermeadows, by the shoulder of the modern A4 following the line of the Roman road which jinked to avoid it.the archaeologists and engineers are convinced there is no secret chamber, prehistoric passage or treasure hoard, only the hill itself rising 40 metres above the Wiltshire watermeadows, by the shoulder of the modern A4 following the line of the Roman road which jinked to avoid it... Post excavation work will continue for years on the land snails and broken sarsen stones, wisps of still green grass and beetle wings taken from the heart of the hill. Nothing has been left behind except a cable to monitor movement - which they hope will lie idle. They hope that a job begun 4,500 years ago is complete, and no man will ever set foot inside Silbury Hill again.
(Excerpt) Read more at arts.guardian.co.uk ...
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Okay, yes, it's not the same hill as in that song. :') Thanks Renfield. |
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Ancient Hill’s Holes To Be Filled (Silbury)
BBC | 11-29-2005
Posted on 11/29/2005 3:09:00 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1530796/posts
Roman clues found at ancient hill (UK).
BBC | Saturday, March 10, 2007
Posted on 03/10/2007 7:42:54 AM PST by Jedi Master Pikachu
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1798602/posts
Work Begins To Uncover Secrets Of Silbury Hill
The Telegraph (UK) | 5-12-2007 | Richard Savill
Posted on 05/12/2007 10:43:08 AM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1832542/posts
In pictures: Inside Silbury Hill
BBC | Wednesday, October 24, 2007 | unattributed
Posted on 11/03/2007 10:05:42 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1920515/posts
My guess is that the lime allowed good healthy grape vines to grow, and the vineyards produced vino.
Especially not something that size, in that era. I’d like to know what kind of actual, minimally invasive techniques were used to probe this big pile of chalk. And speaking of minimally invasive, who cares, it’s a big pile of chalk. :’)
“Silbury, just south of Avebury, took more than 100 years to build and work began, according to the radiometric dating that has been carried out on bits of vegetation and other material recovered from its innards, about 4,400 years ago.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=491447&in_page_id=1770
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1920515/posts
RC dating on material dug out of a long term burial in chalk?
I posted along time ago about a dig in Anatola. I went out to dinner with an Archaeologist at that time and we discussed that dig, I thought that it was a Neolithic VFW by the finds rather than a temple, me bad, we don’t know intent.
Are you thinking of this one?
How about that guy that wraps bridges in Saran Wrap or whatever?
Okay. I know that one, Peter Gabriel.
this enigmatic structure has fascinated me since I first saw it (with no previous knowledge) heading towards avesbury, but the article really doesn’t say much at all. I would assume a great deal was/will be learned from studies on excavated items, but not of the nature that works for journalism.
Sounds like a great way to first learn about its existence, really. Very cool. See the link in message 8.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2017093/posts?page=8#8
It’s claimed that Silbury Hill isunique in the UK (and indeed in Europe),however it does appear to have at least
one extant relative, and a close one geographcically
( and in terms of scale), at that, laying only a few miles to it’s east in the sleepy town of Marlborough.
The Marlborough Mound is Located in the private grounds of Marlborough College, and has suffered Much more over the course of history Than it’s more famous cousin, utilized By the Normans after the conquest as a
Motte for a castle (as was Silbury), used As a garden feature (the “shell grotto” is Still there), covered with trees, boxed in By the college buildings(making it virtually Invisible)…….and the final indignity, The placing of a water tank on its summit!.
It’s re-use as a motte appears to Have led to it’s being ignored as a contempory of Silbury Hill, although plenty of evidence to it’s pre-historic origin is extant.
Isn’t it about time a serious and Extensive archaeological investigation was Carried out on Silbury’s “twin”, even with the damage done to the Marlborough Mound it could Well shed light on the origins and uses of
Silbury Hill and of course it’s self.
further thought led me to think of
Dragon Hill, by the uffington white horse, some 16 miles to the North East of Silbury.
Although this hill is almost certainly a natural chalk mound ( though almost perfectly conical), the summit WAS at some time in antiquity levelled to produce a truncated cone similar in appearance to Silbury Hill and Marlborough Mound.
this is of course purely conjecture on my part......but perhaps it was modified to appear like the two man made mounds or they were created to look like it.
Furthermore, There is something Silbury Hill, Marlborough Mound and Dragon Hill all have in common, they all appear to have been utilised as mottes in the early Norman period, or forts in earlier periods........
And in various places around the UK I’ve seen surviving mottes(with or without surviving stonework) with strikingly similar profiles and of a similar scale.
which leads me to posit a tentative theory: were these man made mounds common in the landscape, and most just were utilised as mottes, leading historians/archaeologists to assume they were purpose built during the Norman period Silbury being a lucky exception.
before it’s assumed i’m a crank....laughs....I’m not promoting this theory, which I personally find unlikely(though possible)....just throwing it out there a discussion.
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