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Amid the gently sloping chalk escarpments of the Marlborough Downs, stands a strange sight. Incongruous with the rest of the landscape, stands Silbury Hill. A short walk from the village of Avebury where the ancient stones stand tall, the man-made mound maintains its own counsel about why it is there. Silbury Hill is thought to have been built around 2500BC, making it the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe. It is also one of the largest such mounds in the world. On a base covering over two hectares (five acres), it rises 39.6m (130ft) high. 
Archaeologists calculate that Silbury Hill was built about 4600 years ago and that it took 18 million man-hours to dump and
shape 248,000 cubic metres (8.75 million cu ft) of
earth on top of a natural hill. Every man, woman and child in Britain today could together build such a mound if they each contributed one bucketful of earth. It is a display of incredible technical skill and perseverance over labour and resources. Whoever it was that completed this mammoth task, must have persevered through hardship to construct this incredible sight. Perhaps they believed that it would bring prosperity, or good luck, or some kind of benefit to their community. But who was it and what is it for? |
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