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Location:
Wiltshire, England.
(O/S - SU 100 685) |
Grid Reference:
51° 24’ 50’’ N,
1° 51' 24" W |
The largest artificial earth mound (pyramid)
in Europe. Conical in shape, and rising to a height of 130 ft, with a
circular base more than 200 yards in diameter and a flattened top. Its total volume has been
estimated at 400,000 cubic feet. Excavations at the top and sides have
revealed no skeletal or funerary remains. There are indications that a large
pole may have once topped the hill.
(1).
The flattened top is 100ft in diameter, the same as the
exterior diameter of the Stonehenge
sarsen stones.
Located exactly 4/7th's of the way from the Equator to the Pole.
(Click here for Map of
site)
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Silbury Hill.
Description - Silbury Hill
is a
part of the complex of Neolithic monuments around
Avebury in Wiltshire (which
also includes
the
West Kennet
long barrow). It reveals an immense technical skill and
a prolonged control over labour and resources. Archaeologists calculate that
Silbury Hill took 18 million
man-hours to dump and shape 248,000 cubic metres (8.75 million cubic ft) of
earth on top of a natural hill.
The
base of the monument is 167m (550ft) in diameter and it is perfectly
round. Its summit is flat-topped and 30m (100ft) wide. The area
immediately surrounding the monument is lower than the level of the land
around it. The presence of natural springs offers the suggestion that in
the past the lowered area may have been filled in with water on occasion
creating a 'moat' effect as at
Glastonbury Tor.
Extract From British Archaeology, Issue 70, 2003 -
'Archaeologists have come to see that ditches, even massive
ditches around henges or hillforts, need not always be just utilitarian
structures but may have had a metaphysical function too - for example, to
keep evil spirits at bay. The rectangular extension at Silbury, if
water-filled, would have served as a cistern or reservoir. Elsewhere in
the world, cisterns have often been the focus of ritual and ceremony. The
mirror-like quality of standing water may have had symbolic implications
too.
For just three days in early summer
2001, as the water-filled ditch dried out, a huge vegetation mark,
straight-edged and some 10m wide, appeared to extend across the ditch
floor for some 50m towards the mound. Its orientation, however, was
curious, running diagonally across the ditch extension towards a
position off-centre of the mound. The feature definitely seems
man-made. It may be that the hill's Neolithic builders dug a deeper
channel here to collect water from local springs and bring it to the
deep ditch encircling the mound.
It seems likely, then, that Silbury
Hill's ditches were intentionally filled with water. Furthermore, the
hill itself was built next to water, close to the River Kennet. The
siting of this monumental mound in a valley - so that its summit
barely attains the level of the surrounding hilltops - has often
raised comment. Why not build higher up? The answer must be that the
place itself was as important as the mound.' (4)
Chronology -
Silbury hill is estimated to have been constructed around 2,600 - 2,400
BC. It is now suggested
that the construction took two phases: soon after work was started, a
re-design was ordered, and the mound enlarged. It is constructed in steps,
each step being filled in with packed chalk, and then smoothed off.
Two small trenches cut on the summit
revealed a fragment of antler from a secure context, lying against a
chalk wall in a deposit of chalk rubble. This produced a secure
radiocarbon date of between 2490-2340 BC, placing the mound firmly in
the Late Neolithic (4).
Excavations -
There have been three major excavations of the mound: the first when a team of
Cornish miners led by the Duke of Northumberland sunk a shaft from top to
bottom in 1776, another in 1849 when a tunnel was dug from the edge into the
centre, and a third in 1968-70 when professor Richard Atkinson had another
tunnel cut into the base. Nothing of any significance has ever been found on Silbury Hill: at
its core there is only clay, flints, turf, moss, topsoil, gravel, freshwater
shells, mistletoe, oak, hazel, sarsen stones, ox bones, and antler tines.
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Archaeological excavations (2007)...
Following the appearance of a hole in
the top in 2000, English Heritage began to organise an excavation to explore
and repair the Hill.
The cause of the hole
was determined to be a collapse from the unsatisfactory back-fill from
earlier excavations. It was decided to enter the tunnel dug by a team of
archaeologists in 1968 and back-fill it with chalk, also filling in the
voids created during the various excavations of the mound since the 1776
tomb-raiding exploits of the Duke of Northumberland.
A seismic survey was commissioned by National Heritage in
February 2002. it showed that the hill was stable, and unlikely to suffer
any further serious collapse. It also showed that before it was covered over
and smoothed, it had been built in the shape of a spiral, probably to assist
in the construction process. This same design has recently been determined
to have been used to construct the Great pyramid of Giza. (Ref: English
Heritage)
Porta-cabin compound at base of
Silbury hill (2007).
Work compound and light machinery on top of Silbury-Hill (2007).
'The most enigmatic find is sarsen stones, the same stone
as in nearby Avebury and Stonehenge, carefully incorporated in every stage,
some which would have taken two men to drag up to the very top of the mound'.
(3)
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Tradition and Myth
-
According to legend, this is the last resting place of King Sil. Another legend states that the mound
holds a life-size solid gold statue of King Sil and yet a third, that the
Devil was carrying an apron of soil to drop on the citizens of
Marlborough, but he was stopped by the priests of nearby Avebury.
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What was the Purpose of
Silbury Hill.
Being the largest
prehistoric mound of its kind in Europe, we can assume that the
construction of this hill was one of the most important
undertakings of its time but we are often reminded that there have
been no discoveries of funerary remains, chambers or any other
evidence that might explain its construction so how are we to
explain the presence of this monumental structure?
Geographically,
the mound sits in dip in the landscape, almost disguised by the
surrounding folds in the hills, yet its specific location must
have been an important consideration so it is likely for some
reason that this was a deliberate choice. At the same time, we are
reminded that the hill would have originally been white from the
chalk which would have made the hill shine like a beacon to those
who could see her. A White covering is also suspected on the three
henges at the Thornborough
Complex in Yorkshire suggestive of a ceremonial function.
Although there are several
other significant prehistoric structures in the area (including
the largest stone circle in the world at
Avebury), they sit in effective
isolation from each other. It is only from the top of the adjacent
Wodin hill that they can be viewed together, and a glimpse of the
larger ceremonial landscape can be imagined.
Silbury hill is
just one in a line of natural and artificial mounds along the St.
Michael's ley, which itself has a strong association with
astronomy. Perhaps it is a coincidence then that Silbury Hill and
Stonehenge combine with
Glastonbury, the 'Sacred
heart of England', to form a vast right-angled triangle across
the landscape (see below). At the same time as the Hypotenuse
of this triangle reaching from Avebury/Silbury to Glastonbury, the
Opp. side is also part of a large geometric alignment,
being one of the edges of the great Decagon
first observed my J. Michell. while the Adj. side continues north
to Arbor Low, and south to
Mont St. Michel in France.
Although we are
left with no clear idea as to its original purpose, we know that
it was built after other sites in the area such as Avebury
and West-Kennet which could mean that it was built to reinforce
the sanctity of the area. While there is no questioning its
importance on the prehistoric landscape, the debate over its
actual function will have to remain academic until our
understanding of the Neolithic mind improves. |
 Archaeo-Astronomy
-
Silbury hill and Avebury sit it on the St. Michaels ley-line, which crosses
the longest stretch of England on the azimuth of the may-day sunrise.
This
famous Ley runs from
St. Michael's mount to Brent tor, Cadbury, Trull, Creech St Michael,
Lyng, Othery, Burrowbrigde, Glastonbury, Buckland dingham, Avebury,
Ogbourne St George, East Hendred and Bury St Edmonds (All these sites
have or had churches dedicated to the dragon-killing Saints Michael and
George).
(More about the St. Michael's
Ley-line)
The suggestion that a pole may have once topped the hill (9), is an
indication that the site could have served as a means of determining the
time of year (i.e. by the shadow cast), a similar theory to that proposed
for the
pyramids of Egypt by
Davidson (2).
From the top of nearby Waden/Wodin hill, it is possible to
see how the setting may-day sun would have been viewed as it set below both
the horizon line and apparently into Silbury simultaneously.
In this photo it is possible to see how the eastward
facing West Kennet long-barrow and the
top of Silbury Hill are also on the same elevation.
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Geometric Alignments:
Alignments
-
The Silbury/Avebury
complex together with
Stonehenge
and Glastonbury,
combine to form a right angled triangle across the English landscape.
The Hypotenuse is formed by the St. Michael's ley-line, which crosses
England along the zenith of the May-day sun.
Silbury hill sits on
latitude
51° 24’ 50’’ N, which is incidentally 4/7th's of the distance
from the Equator to the Pole. Other important sites such as
Delphi (3/7 th's), and
Karnak (2/7 th's), appear to share this
specific placement.
(Other Geometric Alignments)
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(Other Prehistoric English sites)
(Return to Top) |
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