Julian Richards to lead series of walks around the World Heritage site of Avebury

Lewis Cowen writing in the The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald today reports that -

TV archaeologist Julian Richards is to lead a series of walks around the World Heritage site of Avebury this summer and autumn. Dr Richards, who presented BBC’s Meet the Ancestors, is a noted expert on the archaeology of Avebury and Stonehenge and will be leading the Wessex Walks on Wednesday, June 6, Saturday, September 1, and Sunday, October 21.

The Wessex Walks are part of a programme of study days running at museums, galleries and sites all over Britain throughout 2012.

More here.

Prehistoric Wiltshire: An Illustrated Guide and talk by Bob Clarke

Prehistoric Wiltshire: An Illustrated Guide by Bob Clarke. Foreword by Francis Pryor

Wiltshire contains some of the most important archaeological sites in Britain and its Prehistoric remains range from the splendour of Stonehenge to the awesome Avebury stone circle, with Silbury Hill and the Kennet Long Barrow being other noted megalithic monuments in the county.

Among these important sites are also found smaller, perhaps lesser known monuments to the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages, including the cursus barrow cemetery at Fargo Plantation and Woodhenge.

Bob Clarke, author of numerous books on military archaeology and history, takes us on a tour of the prehistoric sites in this archaeologically rich county, using aerial photography and outstanding images, which accompany the informative text and diagrams.

Amberley Publishing. ISBN 9781848688773. Paperback. 128 pages. b&w and colour illustrations throughout.

Bob Clarke will also be talking about his book this Sunday (6 November) at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum. The talk will be followed by a book signing.

Venue: Sunday 6 November, 2:30 - 4:30. Entrance fee £3 which includes tea/coffee and cakes.

The Marlborough Mound: Prehistoric origins confirmed!

Writing in The Guardian yesterday Maev Kennedy reports that -

“For generations, it has been scrambled up with pride by students at Marlborough College. But the mysterious, pudding-shaped mound in the grounds of the Wiltshire public school now looks set to gain far wider acclaim as scientists have revealed it is a prehistoric monument of international importance. After thorough excavations, the Marlborough mound is now thought to be around 4,400 years old, making it roughly contemporary with the nearby, and far more renowned, Silbury Hill. The new evidence was described by one archeologist, an expert on ancient ritual sites in the area, as "an astonishing discovery. Both neolithic structures are likely to have been constructed over many generations.”



William Stukeley’s 1723 image of Marlborough “Mount”


More here and here.

On this day William Stukeley (1687-1765) died

“Stukeley was an English antiquary and one of the founders of field archaeology, who pioneered the investigation of Stonehenge.

“William Stukeley was born at Holbeach in Lincolnshire, and studied medicine at Cambridge University. While still a student he began making topographical and architectural drawings as well as sketches of historical artefacts. He continued with this alongside his career as a doctor, and published the results of his travels around Britain in 'Itinerarium Curiosum' in 1724.”

More here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/stukeley_william.shtml

A rude race of hunters...

“...I have ascertained that Silbury Hill was originally surrounded by a deep trench or moat. Also, that it was erected by a people, probably a rude race of hunters, so little advanced in civilisation that they were using flint implements a long time after the hill was built. This discovery places the date of the erection of Silbury Hill at a very early period, possibly many centuries before the arrival of the Romans in Britain.”

From Recent Excavations at Silbury Hill by Alfred C Pass. Read to the Clifton Antiquarian Club on 15 December 1886. More here -

David Attenborough's big dig

Quoting from a recent Guardian article, “Silbury Hill is as ancient and enigmatic as Stonehenge. David Attenborough tells Jonathan Jones why he set out to crack it.”*

Crack it? An unfortunate use of the word ‘crack’ in this context (though perhaps an unwittingly accurate one). And as much as I like and respect David Attenborough, the 1960s tunnel into Silbury should categorically never have been dug; it contravenes just about every conservation (and possibly archaeological) rule in the book. The 'dig' was a shambles from start to finish, with little respect for the integrity (archaeological, structural or otherwise) of the monument. The televised dig was a 1960s archaeological equivalent of Big Brother voyeurism, only in this case it was Silbury that was in the firing line and about to suffer the worst attack on its structural integrity in over 4,000 years.

Has anyone asked, for example, where all the 1960’s spoil from the Atkinson/BBC tunnel (an intrinsic part of the structure itself) was dumped? It’s gone, vanished, along with any archaeological evidence it may have contained. If stones from the Great Pyramid had been dug out and discarded in this way there would have been an international outcry. But not here. Silbury might not be as high, nor as old as the Pyramids, but treating it as it was treated by Atkinson and the BBC was cultural vandalism. Vandalism touched with egotism, and akin to scraping off a 13th century church mural in order to find out what a 12th century mural under it might look like. But that’s only part of the story; when Atkinson and the BBC crew left Silbury at the end of the 60s the tunnel was not even backfilled. Metal tunnel struts were never removed, just allowed to corrode, and all kinds of junk, including old car tyres, ended up in the monument’s interior. The whole project (if it can be called that) is hardly different to the barrow and tomb wreckers of slightly earlier centuries who had little more in mind than the possibility of finding buried treasure and didn’t care a jot for the structures they were damaging or, in some cases, totally destroying.

For David Attenborough to argue that, ‘far from failing, TV's first live dig triggered an unlikely chain of events that recently led to the tunnel being reopened and re-examined, using modern techniques’ is surprisingly naive for a man of such distinction. Silbury very nearly collapsed at the beginning of this century; that collapse was partly due to rain seeping into the structure from the vertical shaft and weakening further the Atkinson/BBC tunnel. It’s a miracle the structure did survive (and is perhaps testimony to the genius of its builders that it did) but it now contains dozens of metal struts from the 1960’s ‘dig’ and hundreds of plastic sacks from English Heritage’s most recent ‘conservation’ project.

In the 18th century William Stukeley witnessed the almost complete destruction of many of the stones that went up to make the nearby Avebury Henge; he writes of that destruction, “And this stupendous fabric, which for some thousands of years, had brav'd the continual assaults of weather, and by the nature of it, when left to itself, like the pyramids of Egypt, would have lasted as long as the globe, hath fallen a sacrifice to the wretched ignorance and avarice of a little village unluckily plac'd within it.”

Likewise, if Silbury had been ‘left to itself’ it would not have come so perilously close to collapse, would not now be so riddled with hastily backfilled tunnels, a shaft and the detritus of recent ‘investigations’. And, if left to itself, it would, in time, undoubtedly have benefited from scientific and archaeological advances – advances which would almost certainly have given us an insight into its construction, use and meaning - without, it should be said, the use of the destructive and invasive ‘techniques’ which almost destroyed it.

* http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/oct/25/david-attenborough-silbury-hill-bbc

Silbury Hill 'not always a hill'

In an interview* with Evan Davis this morning on Radio 4’s Today programme, Jim Leary makes (and repeats several times) the extraordinary statement that, “The received wisdom that we had when we went into the tunnel in 2007, was that the hill was constructed as a single construct...”

What! A single construct! I’m no expert but anyone with even a passing interest in Silbury knows it was constructed in at least three phases. Perhaps Leary means he was surprised at how many phases it was constructed in, but that isn’t the impression he gives here. He's certainly keen to push his book though (see below) and the interview concludes with Leary urging millions of Radio 4 listeners to go out and buy a copy...

* http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9126000/9126720.stm

Observations on The Story of Silbury Hill

Below are observations, and some background information, by Fachtna McAvoy (formerly an archaeologist with English Heritage) for readers of the book, The Story of Silbury Hill: written by Jim Leary and David Field. The views below are those of Fachtna McAvoy and do not necessarily represent the views of this blog.

I was on the Board of the Silbury Hill Conservation Project since its inception and I managed and carried out archaeological excavation and recording at Silbury from 2000 until the 15th June 2007. This was the day that I was dismissed from the on-going conservation work and tunnel re-excavation and then replaced as ‘director of fieldwork’ by Jim Leary, hitherto a (relatively recently appointed) member of the project team. The manner of my removal and replacement was and remains controversial (described at http://sites.google.com/site/anotherstoryfromsilburyhill/ ).

In these circumstances, although I was kindly offered an opportunity to review this book here, I feel it would be more appropriate instead to simply make a few observations on the reporting of events during that part of the Conservation Project for which I had responsibility and have first-hand knowledge. There are a number of factual inconsistencies in the portrayal of these events in the book ie:

1.

‘…. while Jim Leary directed the excavations in 2007 and 2008.’ (page xii).

The text quoted above gives the reader the impression that Jim Leary directed all of the excavations in 2007. This is incorrect as I directed the excavations at Silbury from 2000 onwards and in 2007 until the 15th June.

2.

‘For archaeologists specialising in prehistory, any trepidation at being lowered into the hole was tempered by sheer excitement at the thought of seeing the interior of one of Europe’s most important prehistoric monuments.’ (page 70).

The text quoted above gives the reader the impression that archaeologists specialising in prehistory, like Mr Leary for example, were present at this very early stage in the project. This is an incorrect portrayal. I was one of the very few people who were lowered into the hole and none of us was a specialist in prehistory. On a slightly different tack the thing I found astonishing in this experience was not that the shaft was square but that people had been down the open shaft before us and had left offerings like tea-lights and a small model bull. I am surprised that the authors did not mention this to illustrate the compelling attraction of the monument. One of the things that I found most interesting was the evidence for differing stages in the construction of the mound which could be clearly seen in the walls of the shaft. Here distinctly differing types of mound deposits were separated by a white continuous band of crushed or trampled chalk.

3.

‘On Friday 11 May 2007, the large green door that had been closed nearly 40 years previously was opened.’ (page 90).

The text quoted above gives the reader the impression that this was the first time that the tunnel door had been opened for nearly 40 years. This is incorrect and omits to mention that the tunnel door had been opened in the previous year (2006) by Skanska.

4.

‘…. it could be seen that the tunnel had been filled with pink, Type 1 roadstone.’ (page 91).

The text quoted above reinforces the impression for the reader that this was the first time that this roadstone fill had been observed. This is incorrect. The fact that the tunnel had been filled with pink roadstone had been established in a partial re-exposure of the tunnel entrance by English Heritage in 2004.

The above passages seem to me to reveal a willingness by their author (Mr Leary I believe) to re-write and misrepresent facts from even very recent history. I recognise that this view is based upon a limited set of observations but there is very little other material in the book which refers to matters of which I have first-hand knowledge. I was forbidden to visit Silbury during the engineering and archaeological work which took place from mid-June 2007 onwards.

Fachtna McAvoy

25 October 2010

Silbury from the south-east quadrant of the Avebury Henge


A view of Silbury not possible all year due to crop growth. The monument can just be seen on the skyline between the stone on the left in the south-east quadrant of the Avebury Henge and the stone on the right in the south-west quadrant. If Silbury were originally higher it would have been more easily seen from this point in the circle. It might be argued however that Waden Hill was slightly higher in the Neolithic and is now somewhat reduced due to heavy ploughing. If Waden Hill was also wooded at that time that too would have cancelled out the view of the monument from within the circle.

Rethinking Silbury

"One of the advantages of living on the edge of a World Heritage Site, is that you occasionally get to see the latest activity and research in action."

An excellent (independent) report here -
http://thehword.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/rethinking-silbury/ on English Heritage's excavations at 'Later Silbury'. It rather puts to shame the sporadic, lack of detail, and very lack lustre 'reports' on the official EH team blog (see below).

Memorabilia. Silbury Golden


Silbury Golden. An organic beer once brewed by Ushers of Trowbridge

Perhaps not quite a piece of memorabilia but certainly a very memorable drink. Silbury Golden was an organic bitter brewed at the end of the 20th century by Ushers Brewery of Trowbridge, Wiltshire (the brewery closed in 2000). Sold in bottles of 500ml with an alc of 4.5% and a UKS Organic Certificate, the bitter was brewed from an Ushers' recipe which used, "...organically grown malt and hops to create a golden beer with a delicate hop aroma, refreshing light bitterness and clean crisp finish." The label on the back of the bottle goes on to read, "A mystery amidst the fertile plains of Wiltshire, Silbury Hill is the largest man-made mound in Europe. Started in 2660BC, it rises to 130 feet and covers 5 acres. It's purpose has been lost over the ages; one theory suggests it was a solar observatory, and another links it with "Lammas" (Harvest Festival) as the mound becomes most visible when nearby grain crops have been gathered."

The Romans at Silbury


One of two trenches in the water meadows below Silbury


Fragment of a Roman brooch?

Unconnected with the ungoing English Heritage excavations at Silbury, this fragment (possibly of a Roman brooch) is from the West Kennet Long Barrow area. Compare this fragment with the two Roman brooches from Beckhampton Down (Merewether 1851) illustrated on pp153 of Pollard and Reynolds' Avebury: The biography of a landscape.


More here - http://latersilbury.wordpress.com/ and here -
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/research/archaeology/silbury/roman-period/

Field trip to the archaeological excavation near the Monument


Trenches in the arable field opposite Silbury

Field trip to the English Heritage archaeological excavation near Silbury Hill, Wiltshire and the Alexander Keiller Museum, Avebury.

Wednesday 1 September 2010.
10.30am – 4pm.

"The Icon Archaeological Group field trip will be visiting a research excavation being undertaken by the Archaeological Projects team at English Heritage. The excavation is evaluation the recently revealed Romano-British settlement located in the fields surrounding Silbury Hill. The day will include a guided tour of the excavation by the project manager as well as the opportunity to hear about the recent Silbury Hill conservation project.

"In the afternoon the field trip will move on to the site of Avebury and a guided tour of the Alexander Keiller Museum.

"A buffet lunch will be provided at the Red Lion Pub, Avebury. "

More here –

Resolving the Enigma. The reviewer is reviewed

In the latest edition the CBA British Archaeology magazine, Jim Leary begins his ’review’ of Michael Dames’ book, Silbury: Resolving the Enigma (see below) with the rather dismissive statement that, “Let us first be very clear: despite the words “English Heritage” in the opening line on the back cover, this book has nothing whatsoever to do with the recent English Heritage project at Silbury Hill.”

I’m sure it doesn’t, and I’m sure Michael Dames would be the last to claim that it does. Leary however goes on to complain that, throughout the book, “…Dames portrays archaeologists as feckless academics, over-reliant on science and closed to the outside world.” Ehm… yes… that does sound about right with regard to much of the ’archaeological’ activity at Silbury over recent decades. Leary however rants on and then concludes (without actually having reviewed the book at all) with the somewhat condescending statement that, “This well-written but ultimately frustrating book would have benefited greatly from a little communication with archaeologists. Perhaps then it would not have been so full of factual errors.” Hmm… we look forward to reviewing your book, Jim, when it’s published later this year; no doubt it will be free of any factual errors and will shown that you (and English Heritage) have fully communicated with conservators (and others) on the optimum methods and materials needed to ensure the future stability of Silbury, and have also taken on board the advice offered to you by such professionals (as well as the concerns of those in the pagan community).

It is not our role to promote current archaeological theories, nor the alternative theories of those outside the archaeological establishment. Perhaps, however, a little more communication from English Heritage archaeologists with other concerned bodies and individuals, and a little less self-aggrandisement of some individual archaeologists, would not go amiss. If a luminary like Professor Ronald Hutton of Bristol University can write of Dames’ latest book that, “This is a colourful, readable and fascinating personal reinterpretation of a unique monument. As a set of hypotheses it is credible, and as a piece of literature it is a joy. Michael Dames knows and loves our land itself at least as well as anybody else alive.” we can surely expect the same degree of magnanimity (and diversity of perspective) from those public servants whose wages we pay.

Silbury: Resolving the Enigma by Michael Dames is published by The History Press Ltd. Paperback: 192 pages.
ISBN-10: 0752454501. ISBN-13: 978-0752454504.

English Heritage on their consolidation project at Silbury

English Heritage has released four films (the first three produced in 2007) on Silbury under its Conservation Projects banner. Some footage, but not all, has previously been shown.*

The first film, entitled Silbury Hill: The Conservation Project Begins, is narrated by Julian Richards and shows the temporary capping, with polystyrene blocks, of the shaft dug by the Duke of Northumberland in 1776. Fachtna McAvoy, who managed the archaeological element of the English Heritage Silbury Conservation Project between 2000 and September 2007, shows core samples from the ground level of the Monument when it was first built some 4,400 years ago. Also shown is the Atkinson/BBC tunnel door being opened for the first time since it was sealed in 1969. Strangely, the spoil that was seen spilling out of the tunnel in an earlier version of the film, is not visible in this version.**

The second film, A Walk through the Tunnel, shows Jim Leary, Fieldwork Director of the project for English Heritage, talking about, “…a few of the discoveries made inside the tunnel.” The film concludes with a, “…walk along the main tunnel from its start at the surface of Silbury three to its end at the central core of Silbury one”. Note how the number of small boulders on the tunnel floor increase towards the central core.

The third film, Collapse and Discoveries, shows engineers led by Mark Kirkbride (Project Manager from Skanska) discussing problems, and some of the archaeology revealed by a collapse inside Silbury, with Amanda Chadburn from English Heritage. Chadburn’s statement with regard to a collapse that, “If we just leave this it will eventually migrate up to the surface we’ll end up with Silbury with a kind of little valley or something [gestures]… which is not good…” is a little understated to say the least.

The fourth film, Filling the Silbury Hill Tunnel, begins with the somewhat premature claim that, “…the Hill has been stabilised and the future of this important monument assured.” Note there is no mention of the sensors still monitoring the interior, nor the possible deleterious effect foreign bodies in the form of iron arches and plastic sacking within the Monument might have on it. In the film English Heritage also glosses over their idea for a time capsule by saying, “During the project English Heritage involved local schools in a number of projects…” One such project was, in fact, for a time capsule containing, among other things, items made by local schoolchildren which would have then been placed within the Monument. The idea was opposed by Lord Avebury (owner of Silbury), by Heritage Action and by others and was eventually abandoned. The film opens with a pagan ceremony followed by Mark Kirkbride and Jim Leary describing the final days of engineering and archeological work at Silbury. The film concludes with an advertisement for Jim Leary and David Field’s forthcoming book (foreword by David Attenborough***) The Story of Silbury Hill.

Putting aside the slow release of the films, together and in this format, the lack of detail contained within them, and what looks like a sleight of hand re: the editing out of the opening of the Atkinson/BBC tunnel door; not to mention the somewhat premature claim that, “…the Hill has been stabilised and the future of this important monument assured.” there is much food for thought contained within all four films and especially the last one where it is revealed that various stages of the construction of Silbury are far more complex than hitherto thought.

After watching the films I am yet again struck by the beauty and sheer complexity of Silbury, both as a structure and as a monument (I wish English Heritage would stop calling it a hill) and deeply saddened by all it has suffered in recent times. Let’s hope that English Heritage’s claim that, “…the Hill has been stabilised…” holds true.


* Films here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxkXdK2hcs4 (04:40 minutes in). It’s difficult to reconcile that footage with what seems to be a ‘cleaned up’ version of the opening here -
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/multimedia-library/conservation-projects/ (Holes in The Hill: The Conservation Project Begins. 03:00 minutes in). Perhaps English Heritage would like to explain the difference?

*** David Attenborough was Controller of BBC2 when the Silbury Dig programme was filmed for the channel in 1968 and 1969. Silbury Dig was one of several programmes in BBC2′s Chronicle series. It seems the young, and perhaps overly enthusiastic, controller invited Richard Atkinson to tunnel into Silbury and ‘reveal its mysteries’ to the nation on television. Let’s hope that David Attenborough uses the forward to this book to state clearly that the Silbury Dig programme should never have been made, that it was a shambles from beginning to end (the tunnel was not even backfilled after Atkinson and the television crews left) and that it went against the accepted conservation (and probably archaeological) standards of the time.

Silbury Films

Silbury Dig: The Heart of the Mound.

BBC 2 Chronicle Series.
First Broadcast 27 July 1968.
Duration 39 minutes 12 seconds.

"Silbury is one of the largest prehistoric earthworks in Europe, possibly dating to 2400BC. In this programme, originally broadcast live, Magnus Magnusson meets the archaeologists who have uncovered a tunnel that leads into the heart of the mound."


Channel 4 News. 24 Oct 2007.
Duration 4 minutes 31 seconds.

http://www.channel4.com/player/v2/player.jsp?showId=9817

The Hill with a Hole (or The Silbury Hill Conservation Project).

English Heritage. 10 June 2010.
Duration 9 minutes 5 seconds.

"A film produced by Chris Corden Productions for English Heritage that includes work taking place within the re-opened 1849/1968/69 tunnels at Silbury Hill."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxkXdK2hcs4

See also -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVxKI0bKdk4

Book reviews. Silbury: Resolving the Enigma by Michael Dames


"This is a colourful, readable and fascinating personal reinterpretation of a unique monument. As a set of hypotheses it is credible, and as a piece of literature it is a joy. Michael Dames knows and loves our land itself at least as well as anybody else alive."

Professor Ronald Hutton, Bristol University.

Published by The History Press Ltd. Paperback:192 pages.
ISBN-10: 0752454501. ISBN-13: 978-0752454504.

Silbury Hill - new find in the archive!

"New information has emerged from letters written in 1776 about excavations at Silbury Hill and published for the first time in the new volume of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine.

"Local historian, Brian Edwards tracked down two letters, written in 1776 by Edward Drax to his friend, Lord Rivers, about excavations at Silbury Hill. Edward Drax from Bath , had hired a team of miners from the Mendips to dig a shaft from the top of Silbury Hill, to the centre of the hill, 125 feet below.

"The letters record that at first, the miners found little but large chalk blocks and deer antler. However, at 95 feet, some 30 feet above they expected the base of the mound to be, the miners discovered what Drax records as a 'perpendicular cavity' that was 6 inches across, and that 'we have already followed it already about 20 feet, we can plumb it about Eleven feet more'. He says that ‘something now perished must have remained in this hole to keep it open’."

Silbury Dig: The Heart of the Mound


BBC2's Chronicle series "...filmed excavations at the Silbury Mound from 1968 to 1970, one of the largest operations mounted by the programme. This 1968 dig was not, however, the first attempt to uncover the secrets of Silbury Hill. The Duke of Northumberland sank a shaft into the mound in 1777. A tunnel was dug in 1849, while in 1922, Sir William Flinders Petrie cut a large trench into the base of the mound. This trench was reopened and re-examined as part of the 'Chronicle' series in 1969."

Silbury in Wintertime. Image credit Bozzer

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