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Silbury Hill

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	Topics Silbury Hill Topic Home Silbury Hill is a 40-metre high man-made moundMound ----A mound is a general term for an artificial heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris.... near Avebury in the EnglishEngland Summary England is the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom.... county of WiltshireWiltshire Wiltshire is a large southern English county.... . Silbury Hill is the largest man-made earthen moundMound ----A mound is a general term for an artificial heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris.... in EuropeEurope Summary Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth.... . There are many NeolithicNeolithic \| style="border-bottom:3px solid; background:#efefef;" \| This time period is part of theHolocene epoch.... monuments in the area, including the West Kennet Long BarrowWest Kennet Long Barrow ... and StonehengeStonehenge Stonehenge is a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument located near Amesbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about... . Structure Composed principally of chalk excavated from the surrounding area, the mound stands 40 metres (130 feet) high and covers about 5 acres (2.2 hectares). It is a display of immense technical skill and prolonged control over labour and resources. Archaeologists calculate that Silbury Hill was built about 4750 years ago and that it took 18 million man-hours, or 500 men working 15 years (Atkinson 1974:128) to deposit and shape 248,000 cubic metres (8.75 million feet³) of earth and fill on top of a natural hill. Euan W. Mackie asserts, that no simple late Neolithic tribal structure as usually imagined could have sustained this and similar projects, and envisages an authoritarian theocratic power elite with broad ranging control across southern Britain. The base of the hill is circular and 167 m (550 feet) in diameter. The summit is flat-topped and 30 m (100 feet) in diameter. A smaller mound was first constructed, and in a later phase much enlarged. The initial structures at the base of the hill were perfectly circular and surveying reveals that the centre of the flat top and the centre of the cone that describes the hill, lie within a metre of one another (Atkinson 1974:128). The first phase, carbon-dated to 2750 ±95 BC (Atkinson 1969), consisted of a gravel core with a revetting kerbMegalithic architectural elements ForecourtIn archaeology, a forecourt is the name given to the area in front of certain types of chamber tomb.... of stakes and sarsenFacts About Sarsen Sarsen stones are stone blocks found in quantity on Salisbury Plain, the Marlborough Downs, in Kent, and in smaller quantiti... boulders. Alternate layers of chalk rubble and earth were placed on top of this, 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. Location Silbury Hill is located in the Kennett Valley, at Ordnance SurveyOrdnance Survey Ordnance Survey is an executive agency of the United Kingdom government.... mapping six-figure grid reference SU100685 . It is close to the A4A4 road The A4 is a major road in England, portions of which are known as the Great West Road and Bath Road.... , also the route of a Roman road, between Beckhampton and West Kennett. Biology The hill's vegetation is species-rich chalk grassland, dominated by Upright BromeBromus *Bromus* is a large genus of the grass family Poaceae with about 160 species.... and False Oat-grass, but with many species characteristic of this habitat, including a strong population of the rare Knapweed BroomrapeBroomrape Broomrape is a genus of about 150 species of parasitic herbaceous plants in the family Orobanchaceae, native to the temperat... . This vegetation has led to a 2.3 hectareHectare A hectare is a unit of area, equal to 10,000 square metres, commonly used for measuring land area.... 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. See also European Megalithic CultureFacts About European Megalithic Culture The European Megalithic Culture was a prehistoric civilisation based primarily in Western Europe, that has left a legacy of ... External links -- a short BBC report on the archeological work at Silbury Hill