| Transcript |
| 0:02 | · | July 2007 and one of the wetest July on record Amanda Chadburn would receive a phone |
| 0:09 | · | call hello oh hi David Amanda yes um silvery Hill has collapsed oddly this |
| 0:22 | · | wasn't the first phone call uttering those exact [Music] |
| 0:27 | · | words Amanda and the team have been working on the conservation of the mound securing its integrity |
| 0:35 | · | and safety after centuries of shafts and tunnels had been dug by drilling from the top and points |
| 0:42 | · | on the side this collapse could be a major setback for that project as it turned out though this |
| 0:48 | · | collapse gave English Heritage the opportunity to understand silbury Hill more than anyone had done |
| 0:54 | · | in the last half [Music] Millennia so Hill is an artificial chalk Mound mainly chalk Su clay |
| 1:04 | · | in fact it's completely man-made Now by and large the mound was built using chalk from the immediate |
| 1:11 | · | vicinity I sat here for Millennia confusing the random passer by the antiquarian of old |
| 1:22 | · | and perhaps even the more modern scientific and academic world that was until just a few |
| 1:27 | · | years ago 1663 and John Abrury draws the first known image of this Monument |
| 1:33 | · | he writes about silbury and the surrounding monuments publishing Monumenta Britannica he |
| 1:39 | · | mused at the notion that this could be very old pre-s Saxon pre-roman |
| 1:44 | · | prehistory 1740 it insteps William stukeley and he publishes his work on silbury and the |
| 1:53 | · | entire avebury landscape and he does a very iconic famous picture with aere Stone Circle |
| 2:00 | · | sat top in the middle and an Avenue either side Beck Hampton to the West and West kennet |
| 2:07 | · | Avenue to the east now and behold center stage at the bottom is of course silbury |
| 2:13 | · | Hill William stukeley saw this as a viewing platform a centerpiece for this |
| 2:22 | · | landscape back to the claps but not that claps you see there was another 7 years |
| 2:32 | · | prior May the 29th 2000 the first collapse and Amanda Chadburn receives the first phone |
| 2:39 | · | call hello Amanda silbury Hill has collapsed it appears that a large hole has appeared in |
| 2:49 | · | the top of silbury hill now knowing the approximate age of this place to you and |
| 2:54 | · | I that sounds quite odd but to Amanda it didn't because she knew the history |
| 2:59 | · | of this place place in great detail the largest artificial mound in the northern |
| 3:04 | · | hemisphere Amanda and her team needed a plan they needed a task which would |
| 3:12 | · | ensure the long-term security and integrity of this Monument it wouldn't be an easy task but |
| 3:18 | · | perhaps for the first time in two or 300 years it would be about conservation not |
| 3:24 | · | archaeology so how exactly was there a collapse the monument we knew had been there for a few |
| 3:32 | · | thousand years at least more importantly how was it that the collapse was just a hole in the top |
| 3:39 | · | that sunk down to answer that we need to go back some time in fact 1776 the Duke of Northumberland |
| 3:48 | · | employed a team of miners to open up a shaft on the mound now the nature of his reputation |
| 3:55 | · | really preceded the good Duke in fact some would refer to him as a treasure hunter rather than an |
| 4:01 | · | early archaeologist nonetheless he sunk a shaft right down very long way expecting to find all |
| 4:09 | · | kinds of Untold treasures and he found absolutely nothing other than chalk now you'd have to wait |
| 4:18 | · | for another 75 years before another excavation took place the archaeological Institute newly |
| 4:24 | · | formed tasked a man called Mereweather to Tunnel once again but this time in from the side once |
| 4:31 | · | again expecting to find all kinds of artefact's and things that they could use to perhaps date |
| 4:36 | · | this but once again he found absolutely nothing a century would now pass until a very keen BBC 2 |
| 4:46 | · | director by the name of David Attenborough would ask Richard Atkinson to conduct a further dig now |
| 4:52 | · | Atkinson would tunnel once again and would try and unearth silbury Hills mystery he did use new |
| 4:58 | · | techniques and new standings and he did report something that the previous tunnellers had not |
| 5:04 | · | now Atkinson was probably the first to suggest as far as I can tell that Sil was built in three |
| 5:10 | · | different stages first of all the original Turf Mound followed by another chalk Mound followed |
| 5:16 | · | by choke Mound on top of that now as far as I can tell again the funding was cut for Atkinson and |
| 5:22 | · | he suggested that they should leave his Tunnel open for future Generations kind of made sense |
| 5:28 | · | but also English Heritage or the history of works at the time so that was probably unsafe |
| 5:32 | · | so they should look at backfilling at least part of it so was stukeley right was this a platform |
| 5:38 | · | on the landscape it is such a curious place for this to be positioned we aren't high up at all in |
| 5:43 | · | fact we're in a valley the valley that this mound sits in allows it to rise up to the height of the |
| 5:49 | · | surrounding Hills it's like the centerpiece of a bowl or a dish with the center meeting up to the |
| 5:56 | · | surrounding edges and if we travel across to West kennet long Barrow on the horizon while something |
| 6:01 | · | even more Curious greets [Music] us top of this hill we have West kennet longbarrow and that gives |
| 6:11 | · | us an entirely different view of silbury Hill but not the physical view you see West kennet |
| 6:17 | · | longbarrow in its first Inception its first form was built just over 1, 1,200 years before silbury |
| 6:27 | · | Mound [Music] so why is that date so important how does it relate to silbury Hill well the first |
| 6:39 | · | burial here as we said 1,200 years before silbury Hill but then it was continued to be used the |
| 6:46 | · | graves were infilled reused and perhaps for the next thousand years or so it was used as maybe a |
| 6:53 | · | ceremonial Place one Theory by Mike Parker Pearson is that because of the timing of the final closure |
| 7:02 | · | of West kennet longbarrow with these huge sarsons around a thousand years after its first use well |
| 7:09 | · | they came at almost the same time as the first stages of silbury Hill Mike goes on to suggest |
| 7:16 | · | the uh the change in society the change in people burial practices the the incoming of this new |
| 7:24 | · | technology brought about by the Bronze Age or maybe just maybe that this was the last stand |
| 7:30 | · | for the near liic people back to the claps Amanda and her team have been working hard planning the |
| 7:37 | · | conservation work for years now the involvement of the company scanska is vital for their work |
| 7:43 | · | and supporting Amanda and the team they find the 1968 lintel and when they start digging in early |
| 7:50 | · | 2007 so theyd found a number of voids started to open up above that tunnel so they started to uh |
| 7:57 | · | sure it up and uh brace it a bit further they also found some uh more antlers and again this |
| 8:04 | · | time now they could radiocarbon date these with a lot more accuracy by specialist Alex bayliss so |
| 8:10 | · | why was this July 2007 collapse so important well it actually created a void closer to the center of |
| 8:19 | · | silbury Hill a tip a top stage two or phase two of silbury Hill was now exposed with organic matter |
| 8:32 | · | Jill Campbell analysed grass stems from this tip of Silbury 2 and found a specific species |
| 8:38 | · | of grass that takes 10 to 15 years to establish this means it was now possibly growing on the |
| 8:46 | · | hill at that point after Phase 2 snail shells also present implies that this was left for |
| 8:52 | · | some period of time they were also able to reaffirm the start date 2400 BC based |
| 8:59 | · | on the original turf or grass layer before any of this took place any construction here |
| 9:05 | · | the turf Mound 2,400 BC give or take one or two generations how specific is that |
| 9:12 | · | based on the numerous new results the almost per chance opportunity to date the different |
| 9:17 | · | silbury Hills that formed its overall One Construction we have a new set of data to |
| 9:23 | · | help nothing really other than construction tool tools and material were found within |
| 9:31 | · | it to uh give us an indication of the purpose of its build we do now have that 20400 BC start date |
| 9:40 | · | which is the main thing that can help give us the context of this Monument within the surrounding |
| 9:45 | · | landscape maybe just maybe as short as a 100 years or maybe even one person's lifetime would |
| 9:52 | · | have seen the entirety of this built however that could be as much as 3 or 400 years so |
| 9:59 | · | phase one was built within a generation of the 2,400 BC date Phase 2 was built and then phase |
| 10:07 | · | three and we now know as well there was at least a 10 or 15E period at least between Phase 2 and |
| 10:16 | · | phase three because of that organic matter that was found Jim leary suggests that because of this |
| 10:21 | · | Gap this potential minimum 10 to 15 years between Phase 2 and three silbury was constructed over a |
| 10:28 | · | long period of time time perhaps centuries based on this standstill period it indicates that it |
| 10:34 | · | was not a continuous progress and perhaps as Mike Parker Pearson suggests that this was a Last Stand |
| 10:42 | · | by the neolithic in the face of new technologies emerging around them we may never truly understand |
| 10:49 | · | the purpose of silbury Hill when it was built but the story of the collapses the story of the 17th |
| 10:55 | · | century antiquarians through to the more modern archaeologists and of of course Amanda Chadburn |
| 11:00 | · | and her team help us give a much better sense of the the place of this monument in the landscape |
| 11:07 | · | today potentially what it was for perhaps those that built it did see a huge change in the way of |
| 11:15 | · | life new technologies evolving and this was their their Last Stand now if you like the prehistory |
| 11:21 | · | type videos we do you can go and watch this one just here AC Smith mapped all of this area |
| 11:26 | · | on Horseback and he found many secrets that we wouldn't have known about if it wasn't for him |
| 11:42 | · | [Music] |
