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Silbury Hill (grid reference SU100685), part of the complex of Neolithic monuments around Avebury in the English county of Wiltshire (which includes the West Kennet Long Barrow), is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the world's largest. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 796 KB) Silbury Hill, GB, UNESCO World Heritage Site, picture taken by me. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 796 KB) Silbury Hill, GB, UNESCO World Heritage Site, picture taken by me. ...
The British national grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in Great Britain, different from using latitude or longitude. ...
An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools. ...
Avebury Village framed by the Stone Circle Avebury (the traditional local pronunciation is Abury) is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire. ...
Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto)1 Unified - by Athelstan 927 AD Area - Total...
Wiltshire (abbreviated Wilts) is a large southern English county. ...
View of the outside of West Kennet Long Barrow View of the inside of West Kennet Long Barrow The West Kennet Long Barrow is a Neolithic tomb or barrow, situated on a prominent chalk ridge, near Silbury Hill, one-and-a-half miles south of Avebury in Wiltshire. ...
Look up mound in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
World map showing the location of Europe. ...
Structure
Composed principally of chalk excavated from the surrounding area, the mound stands 40 metres (130 feet) high, and covers about 5 acres (2 hectares). It is a display of immense technical skill and prolonged control over labour and resources. Archaeologists calculate that Silbury Hill was built about 4600 years ago and that it took 18 million man-hours to deposit and shape 248,000 cubic metres (8.75 million ft³) of earth and fill on top of a natural hill.
The base of the monument is 167 m (550 ft) in diameter and perfectly round. Its summit is flat-topped and 30 m (100 ft) wide. The construction took two phases: soon after work was started on phase 2, a re-design was undertaken, and the mound enlarged.[citation needed]
The first phase, carbon dated to 2750 ±95 BC, consisted of a gravel core with a revetting kerb of stakes and sarsen boulders. Alternate layers of chalk rubble and earth were placed on top of this. // In archaeology, a forecourt is the name given to the area in front of certain types of chamber tomb. ...
Sarsen stones are sandstone blocks found on Salisbury Plain and elsewhere. ...
The second phase involved heaping further chalk on top of the core, using material excavated from an encircling ditch. At some stage during this process the ditch was backfilled and work was concentrated on increasing the size of the mound to its present height using material from elsewhere.
Investigations
Silbury Hill: in the field behind there are green crop circles. There have been several excavations of the mound, which attracted the notice of the seventeenth-century antiquary John Aubrey, whose notes in his Monumenta Britannica still await publication.[1]. Later, William Stukeley wrote that a skeleton and bridle had been discovered during tree planting on the summit in 1723. It is probable that this was a later, secondary burial, however. The first purposeful excavation came when a team of Cornish miners led by the Duke of Northumberland sunk a shaft from top to bottom in 1776. In 1849 a tunnel was dug from the edge into the centre. Other excavations were undertaken in 1867 and 1886, and William Flinders Petrie investigated the hill after the First World War. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 524 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 671 pixel, file size: 464 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) all rights reserved on page [1] File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 524 pixelsFull resolution (1024 × 671 pixel, file size: 464 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) all rights reserved on page [1] File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
This article is about the band, Crop Circles, for information about the controversial phenomenon, see crop circle. ...
John Aubrey. ...
William Stukeley (November 7, 1687–March 3, 1765) was an English antiquary who pioneered the archaeological investigation of Stonehenge and Avebury. ...
The title Duke of Northumberland was created in 1551 for John Dudley. ...
Egyptologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (3 June 1853 - 28 July 1942) was a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology. ...
In 1968-70 professor Richard Atkinson undertook work at Silbury in front of BBC television cameras. This last work revealed most of the environmental evidence known about the site including the remains of winged ants which indicate Silbury was begun in an August. Atkinson dug numerous trenches at the site and reopened the 1849 tunnel, where he found material suggesting a Neolithic date, although none of his radiocarbon dates are considered reliable by modern standards. He argued that the hill was constructed in steps, each tier being filled in with packed chalk, and then smoothed off or weathered into a slope. Others [2] have identified a spiralling path climbing to the top and prefer to see the construction as being more incremental with the benefit of also providing a processional route to the summit. Richard John Copland Atkinson (1920–1994) was a British prehistorian and archaeologist. ...
The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ...
Radiocarbon dating is the use of the naturally occurring isotope of carbon-14 in radiometric dating to determine the age of organic materials, up to ca. ...
Few prehistoric artefacts have 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. Roman and medieval items have been found on and around the site since the nineteenth century and it seems that the hill was reoccupied by later peoples. In archaeology, an artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human culture, and often one later recovered by some archaeological endeavor. ...
After heavy rains in May 2000, a collapse of the 1776 excavation shaft caused a hole to form in the top of the hill. English Heritage undertook a seismic survey of the hill to identify the damage caused by earlier excavations and determine the hill's stability. Repairs were undertaken, though the site remains closed to the public. 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1776 (MDCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). ...
English Heritage is a United Kingdom government body with a broad remit of managing the historic environment of England. ...
Seismic reflection data Reflection seismology (or seismic reflection) is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earths subsurface from reflected seismic waves. ...
English Heritage's archaeologists also excavated two further small trenches as part of the remedial work and made the important discovery of an antler fragment, the first from a secure archaeological context at the site. This produced a reliable radiocarbon date of c. 2490-2340 BC, dating the second mound convincingly to the Late Neolithic. Other recent work has focused on the role of the surrounding ditch which may not have been a simple source of chalk for the hill but a purpose-built water-filled barrier placed between the hill and the rest of the world. In archaeology, not only the context (physical location) of a discovery a significant fact but the formation of the context is as well. ...
An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools. ...
The moated manor house of Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire, England Moats (also known as a Fosse) were deep and wide water-filled trenches, excavated to provide a barrier against attack upon castle ramparts or other fortifications. ...
In March 2007, English Heritage announced that a Roman village the size of 24 football pitches had been found at the foot of Silbury Hill. It contained regularly laid out streets and houses. [3] Year 2007 (MMVII) is now the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ...
On 11 May 2007, Skanska under the direction of English Heritage began a major program of stabilisation work to Silbury Hill with the tunnels and shafts being filled with hundreds of tonnes of chalk. Concurrent with the repair work a new archaeological survey will be conducted using modern equipment and techniques. [4] is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 2007 (MMVII) is now the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ...
Skanska, is a multinationaland corrupt construction and development company based in Sweden. ...
Purpose The exact purpose of the hill is unknown. Moses B. Cotworth stated at the beginning of the twentieth century that Silbury was a giant sundial to determine seasons and the true length of the year. More recently, the writer Michael Dames has identified Silbury Hill as the winter goddess, but he acknowledges that the monument remains finally a stupendous enigma. Wall sundial-a vertical direct south dial Wall sundial in Warsaws Old Town- a vertical south west decliner dial A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. ...
According to legend, this is the last resting place of a King Sil, represented in a lifesize gold statue and sitting on a golden horse. A local legend noted in 1913[5]states 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. In 1861 it was reported[6] that hundreds from Kennet, Avebury, Overton and the neighbouring villages thronged Silbury Hill every Palm Sunday. Satan frozen at the center of Cocytus, the ninth circle of Hell in Dantes Inferno. ...
Marlborough is a market town in the English county of Wiltshire on the Old Bath Road, the old main road from London to Bath. ...
Palm Sunday is a moveable feast in the Christian calendar which falls on the Sunday before Easter. ...
Michael Dames (see References) put forward a composite theory of seasonal rituals, in an attempt to explain Silbury Hill and its associated sites (West Kennet Long Barrow, the Avebury henge, The Sanctuary and Windmill Hill), from which the summit of Silbury Hill is visible. View of the outside of West Kennet Long Barrow View of the inside of West Kennet Long Barrow The West Kennet Long Barrow is a Neolithic tomb or barrow, situated on a prominent chalk ridge, near Silbury Hill, one-and-a-half miles south of Avebury in Wiltshire. ...
Avebury Henge and Village Avebury is the site of a large henge and several stone circles in the English county of Wiltshire at grid reference SU103699, surrounding the village of Avebury (its geographical location is 51°25′43″N, 1°51′15″W). ...
The Sanctuary is a prehistoric site on Overton Hill located around 5 miles west of Marlborough in the English county of Wiltshire. ...
Windmill Hill is a Neolithic causewayed enclosure in the English county of Wiltshire, situated around 3 miles north of Avebury. ...
Paul Devereux (see References) observes that Silbury and its surrounding monuments appear to have been designed with a system of inter-related sightlines, focusing on the step several metres below the summit. From various surrounding barrows and from Avebury, the step aligns with hills on the horizon behind Silbury, or else with hills in front of Silbury, leaving only the topmost part visible. In the latter case, Devereux hypothesises that ripe cereal crops grown on the intervening hill would perfectly cover the upper portion of Silbury with the top of the corn and the top of Silbury coinciding.
Location Silbury Hill is located at Ordnance Survey mapping six-figure grid reference SU100685 (51°24'56"N 1°51'27"W). It is close to the A4 between Beckhampton and West Kennett. Part of an Ordnance Survey map at 1 inch to the mile scale from 1945 Ordnance Survey (OS) is an executive agency of the United Kingdom government. ...
The A4 at Hotwells in Bristol The A4 crosses Picadilly Circus in central London The A4 is a major road in England, also known as the Great West Road. ...
Biology The hill's vegetation is species-rich chalk grassland, dominated by Upright Brome and False Oat-grass, but with many species characteristic of this habitat, including a strong population of the rare Knapweed Broomrape. This vegetation has led to a 2.3 hectare area of the site being notified as a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, this notification initially being given in 1965. The site is unique in that its slopes have 360-degree aspects, allowing comparison between growth of the flora on the differently-facing slopes of the hill. Binomial name (L.) P.Beauv. ...
A hectare (symbol ha) is a unit of area, equal to 10 000 square metres, commonly used for measuring land area. ...
A Site of Special Scientific Interest or SSSI is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. ...
A Site of Special Scientific Interest or SSSI is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. ...
See also Development of the European Megalithic Culture The European Megalithic Culture was a prehistoric (and preliterate) civilisation based primarily in Western Europe, that has left a legacy of large stone monuments, or megaliths, scattered widely across the continent. ...
References - Vatcher, Faith de M and Lance Vatcher, 1976 The Avebury Monuments - Department of the Environment HMSO
- Devereux, Paul, 1999 Earth Memory: Practical Examples Introduce a New System to Unravel Ancient Secrets Foulsham
- Dames, Michael, 1977 The Avebury Cycle Thames & Hudson Ltd, London
- Dames, Michael, 1976 The Silbury Treasure Thames & Hudson Ltd, London
- SSSI Citation sheet at English Nature website
External links Coordinates: 51°24′56″N, 1°51′27″W Image File history File links Commons-logo. ...
The Wikimedia Commons (also called Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ...
Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...
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