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| Silbury
Archive 2002 |
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 Silbury Hill news, views and archive brought to you by Weird Wiltshire Introduction Latest News News Archive Excavations The Hole Beaker People What is it for? What Next? Postcards Forum Wallpaper Links 
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First published on March 14, 2002 ARCHIVE TV film is being used to investigate world famous Silbury Hill, in Wiltshire. Archaeologists from English Heritage have been using BBC film and the latest seismic technology to investigate why the ancient mound collapsed twice in May and December 2000. In 1968, cameras recorded the fullest contemporary account of the last archaeological investigation into the centre of the hill, led by Professor Richard Atkinson. Atkinson was following the line of an earlier tunnel dug in 1849 by Dean John Merewether. The moment when Dr John Taylor, the mining engineer working with Atkinson, broke into the line of the Merewether tunnel and crawled down the unsupported 19th century tunnel to the centre of the mound is preserved in the BBC Chronicle programme, narrated by Mastermind legend Magnus Magnusson. Amanda Chadburn, the English Heritage Inspector of Ancient Monuments with responsibility for Silbury, has viewed the footage and finds it helpful in gauging particular problems which could be prevalent inside the hill. Amanda, who has been through boxes of Professor Atkinson's papers held at Avebury, said: "When we come to repair the hill for good, I want to be sure I know everything there is to know about Silbury." Missing from the archive were detailed plans of what Atkinson and Taylor found when they reached the centre of the mound. But, fortunately, John Taylor has kept his detailed drawing of the centre of the hill safe for over 30 years. Amanda said: "This is a unique record. We do not have anything like this in the archive. To have this scale drawing is amazing." Over the past months a new generation of engineers has been penetrating the hill, this time not with shovels but with sound waves. Commissioned by English Heritage, Cementation Skanska has been using cutting edge seismic technology to build up a three dimensional full body scan of Silbury, looking for evidence of voids or weaknesses. Of particular interest is an area in the centre. Merewether, however, was not the first to penetrate to the heart of the prehistoric mound. In 1776, the Duke of Northumberland sank a shaft from the top of the mound down through its centre. When the hole opened up in May 2000, the suspicion was that the Northumberland shaft had collapsed. Alun Price Jones, technical manager at Skanska, said: "This 3DT technology has moved seismic geophysics methods a long way forward. It removes a lot of the black art of looking at wiggly lines." The recent collapse set another investigator thinking. Brian Edwards, an independent historian, remembered seeing a drawing in Devizes museum made in the 19th century by William Lukis, who had visited Merewether. The picture shows a dotted line at the summit suggesting there might have been a hole then. But the picture Brian remembered was a copy, not the original, and the question for Brian is where is the original and did it have a hole drawn at the surface too? Back to 2002 index |
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