In myth Silbury Hill was created when local Avebury wizards deterred the Devil himself from burying the entire population of the town of Marlborough under an enormous pile of earth he had dug out of Cheddar when he was creating the gorge, persuading him instead to leave it where it is now, forming Silbury Hill.
More scientifically experts believe it was constructed in stages, taking anything from 100 to 400 years to finish back around the year 2400BC. Archaeologists have estimated that it took in excess of 4 million man hours to complete. If 80 persons worked 8 hours day, 5 days a week I estimate they’d have managed it in about 25 years.
I prefer the devil story myself!
If there ever was one, the purpose of Silbury Hill is lost in the tendrils of time. But what remains is a very special, unique and magical place.
Someone at some point invested enormous amounts of time and effort into it and there’s surely must have been a reason for such labour and dedication. There are tales of it being the final resting place of King Sil. Some have him permanently interred on horseback clad in golden armour, others that he’s at rest in a golden coffin.
There are legends that it is in fact a giant treasure trove or th it is in fact the remains of a giant sundial. Possibly it was a site for great theatre or religious rituals
There have been efforts to realise the mysteries of the mound a vertical shaft was dropped from the top in 1776 and a horizontal one dug out in 1849, both revealed nothing but did create instability in the prehistoric structure causing a partial collapse in 2000. Flints and antler tools have been recovered and three significant areas of construction were uncovered but the earlier explorations may well have destroyed areas of significance that weren’t understood back in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Today archaeologists are able to analyse artefacts like flints and antler tools as well as holistically finds such as buried insects, detritus and pollen which are able to be better carbon dated than previously.
All of this aside the one thing we do know is that we don’t know why Silbury Hill was built.
Opposite Silbury and from the same free parking spot you can walk out to one of the oldest, largest and most easily accessible burial chambers of the area. Kenneth barrow dates back to around 3500BC and makes for a pretty spectacular adventure. It was the site of some fifty burials back in the Neolithic period and it’s incredible to still be able to visit it nowadays.
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