Silbury BBC News 24 report 24th October
Channel 4 News item
Photographic Prints for sale
November 21st
The Tunnel and top are now being filled with crushed chalk.
November 1st
Silbury Tunnel.
October 23rd
Silbury Moon (HDR).
but few clues about the enigmatic site's original purpose
Maev Kennedy
Thursday October 25, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
The dank chill tunnel slopes down through 4,400 years of history into the heart of a mystery.
The ground is slippery underfoot with sodden chalk dug as the pyramids were rising in Egypt.
Archaeologists have reached the core of Silbury Hill in Wiltshire - and still have no idea
what the most enigmatic prehistoric monument in Europe was for.
They know now there is no burial chamber for a Celtic king, no treasure hoard, nothing but a
shallow bed of gravel, over which three ever larger mounds were raised until 35m baskets
of chalk later, the monument stood 40 metres high, dominating the surrounding landscape,
the largest artificial hill in Europe.
A few privileged visitors have been allowed to venture in cautiously, through a rusty door
in the hillside now gaping open like something out of Tolkien, but the archaeologists intend
that nobody will ever follow in our footsteps. By the end of this year the tunnel dug by Welsh
mining students in 1969, and others left by generations of treasure seekers, will have been
filled as solidly as modern engineering can contrive.
"We know that something about this site was incredibly special and sacred to generations
of people - but we have no idea what," said Jim Leary, the English Heritage archaeologist
who has led the investigation.
They found a time capsule left by the television crew which followed the 1969 excavation,
but will leave nothing behind themselves: "We don't want to do anything that might tempt
anyone else to disturb this monument."
They went in to repair the damage caused by torrential rains in 2000, when a great chasm
opened at the summit. Water streamed down a shaft driven through the core of the hill by
the Duke of Northumberland, and then into the remains of the 1969 and 1849 tunnels, all
believed backfilled long ago. Further collapses followed, and in this summer's floods,
the site became so dangerous that it was abandoned. The new props specially engineered
to support the tunnel, and the scale of the repairs, have almost doubled from the
estimated £600,000 to at least £1m.
What they have found is treasure only to archaeologists: blades of grass still green
after almost 5,000 years from the turf sods which covered the original mound, evidence
of a pit which may have been the earliest ritual activity on the site, the chalk boulders
used to strengthen the heaps of chalk rubble, and a huge ditch which was carefully filled
before the final phase was built. The most enigmatic find is sarsen stones, the same stone
as in nearby Avebury and Stonehenge, carefully incorporated in every stage, some which
would have taken two men to drag up to the very top of the mound.
The distinctive flat top of the hill has led to some of the wildest theories, that it was
an observatory or a platform for ritual sacrifice. In fact it now appears to be
comparatively modern, carved flat to take a massive timber Saxon or Norman building -
one posthole was a metre in diameter - presumed to be a military lookout.
The original builders left the site scoured clean: the only manmade finds, bits of
medieval pottery and arrowheads, come from millennia later. "It's almost been made a
surgically sterile site, it can't be accidental," Mr Leary said. "There's no rubbish,
no broken pots, only the antler picks themselves have been thrown into the fill, but
they haven't left the bones from their lunch or their food containers, anything that
might contaminate it."
The archaeologists and engineers will clear away the evidence of their own activity
equally scrupulously, leaving only pit props from the older tunnels which would cause
too much damage to remove. The chief project engineer for Skanska has only won
temporary acclaim, not immortality: the sign halfway down the slope in the dripping darkness,
reading "Mark Kirkbride's tunnel, please wipe your feet", will go.
September 15th
Silbury Hill HDR (High Dynamic Range).
7:00 pm Doctor Who and the Daemons
First 3 episodes of the series aired in 1971.
The Doctor and Jo sense something is wrong with an archaeological dig at Devil's End.
With Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning.
8:10 pm The Treasures of Tutankhamun
Documentary about the Egyptian King's last exhibition in London in 1972.
9:00 pm Digging the Past: Time Shift
Archaeology was a surprise hit in the early days of television.
This documentary traces the genre from its early studio-based origins to today's televised digs.
10:00 pm Silbury: The Heart of the Hill
Exploring the final archaeological exploration of the interior of the largest
man-made mound in Europe, a journey to the heart of one of our most mysterious landmarks.
11:00 pm Sir Mortimer Wheeler: A Life in Ruins
For over 40 years Sir Mortimer Wheeler was the public face of British Archaeology.
And with the arrival of television in the 1950s he became a TV personality.
in Europe in a one-off documentary for BBC4.
In Lion Television's Silbury Hill, the archaeologist will team up with social
anthropologist and Castaway presenter Mary-Ann Ochota in his attempt to find out why
Silbury Hill was built and to uncover the story of the people who helped build it.
English Heritage granted Lion access to the Wiltshire mound and the work of its
archaeologists and engineers for the 60-minute doc.
Silbury Hill was commissioned by BBC specialist factual commissioner Martin Davidson.
George Williams directed and produced the doc for Lion, with Chris Corden as co-producer
and Bill Locke as executive producer.
Silbury Hill HDR Panoramic (Big file)
August 7th
Silbury Hill Sunset.
August 2nd
Mike Parker-Pearson at Silbury filming for BBC4's Silbury Night.
Vital work to protect Silbury Hill from collapse has been halted after experts discovered potentially disastrous
new holes inside the mound.
And specialists tunnelling into the 4,600-year-old manmade mound, described as Europe's answer to the Great Pyramid,
say the situation has been compounded by the recent downpours.
The team involved in a £600,000 project to make the mysterious Wiltshire landmark safe were on Tuesday
told to stop work by Health and Safety officials because it had become too dangerous.
Now it is having to completely reassess the operation to safeguard the 130ft-high monument, with the
project likely to be extended by several weeks and cost many thousands more than planned.
Project manager Robert Harding yesterday admitted it had been a blow and the team was now looking to
introduce new methods of completing the unique scheme.
He said: "Unfortunately, there are voids inside the hill that are much bigger than we expected both
near tunnel we have been following and around the central chamber."
He said some material had collapsed into the tunnel and chamber, possibly as a result of the wet
weather dampening the clay.
The project to make safe the hill, which occupies five- and-a-half acres of the Avebury World Heritage
Site, was launched in 2000 when a gaping hole opened at the summit.
Heavy rains had exposed the top of a vertical, 100ft mining shaft dug by treasure hunter the Duke of
Northumberland and his team of Somerset miners in 1776.
Hi-tech studies have since revealed further problems as a result of horizontal tunnels dug by
John Merewether, the Dean of Hereford, in 1849, and archaeologist Professor Richard Atkinson in 1967-68.
The aim of the new project was to properly backfill all the previous tunnels and voids inside.
Since May, Mr Harding's team has been burrowing into the side of the hill following the Atkinson
tunnel and using some of the arches installed 70 years ago.
After 85 metres it reached a central chamber in the heart of the structure where it became apparent
that there were gaps that could prove dangerous, both to the hill's stability and the project team.
Mr Harding said team members would probably have to dig a new tunnel within the Atkinson tunnel
using their own supports.
This would extend the project for several weeks until well into October, he said.
An English Heritage spokesman said: "Our expert archaeologists and engineers are developing a
solution to take the project forward, with the aim to stabilise the hill for the long-term.
We will issue a new programme for the completion of the works as soon as possible."
Last night Lord Avebury, whose grandfather permanently leased Silbury Hill to the nation more
than a century ago, said: "Obviously, it's a very worrying situation. English Heritage told me
they have had to stop because of technical reasons.
"The rains cannot have helped the situation. The stability of Silbury Hill is of greater concern
now than ever."
Floods threaten ancient and historic site.
Rain was falling remorselessly on Silbury Hill yesterday,
pooling on the sodden fields at its foot, and dangerously seeping down
into the core of the most enigmatic prehistoric monument in Europe.
The entire hill near Avebury in Wiltshire is artificial, built around
4,500 years ago by mstupendous human effort with an estimated 35m baskets of chalk.
Yesterday, archaeologists and engineers were engaged in urgent discussions on how
to save Silbury, after the torrential rain caused further damage to a structure
already weakened by earlier floods.
The engineering contractors Skanska, who were carrying out structural repairs for
English Heritage, pulled its miners off the hill on Monday, fearing that the
40-year-old tunnel in which they were working might collapse.
A few days ago their temporary access track was under a metre of water.
"We cannot go back in until the weather improves, but we fear there have been
further collapses within the voids left by earlier archaeological investigations,
" project director Rob Harding said yesterday. "Ironically, I consulted local
rainfall records in planning this work, to choose the driest part of the year,
but we have really had a huge amount of rain, and we believe it has caused further
damage." At best, work originally planned to finish within weeks has been delayed
by months. At worst, the stability of the whole structure has been weakened.
Silbury's purpose - observatory, ritual platform or simply awe-inspiring
demonstration of power and wealth - is still guesswork. No original chamber
or passage has ever been detected. The site is wreathed in folklore of
treasure hoards, which have attracted centuries of treasure-hunters.
In floods five years ago, a chasm opened at the top of the hill, where a poorly
filled 200-year-old shaft collapsed, and water poured down into the structure,
seeping into voids left by generations of later diggers, including the tunnels
from a major excavation in the 1960s. The plan, now left in chaos by the weather,
was to empty those tunnels completely of their previous loose fill, and then
pack them solidly again with chalk. Instead rain is still seeping into the mound,
from the summit where the earlier domed repair has already partly washed away,
causing damage which can't even be fully assessed until the rain stops.
Maev Kennedy (The Guardian)
July 26th
STATEMENT
Temporary halt to Silbury Hill conservation project.
English Heritage have had to temporarily halt the repair works at Silbury Hill
because of
complications caused by instability above the central Atkinson chamber within the centre of
the Hill,
which has also been exacerbated by the volume of rainfall in the last week or so.
Our expert archaeologists and engineers are developing a solution to take the
project forward, with the aim to stabilise the Hill for the long term.
We will issue a
new programme for the completion of the works as soon as possible.
July 18th
A trench is opened on top of the hill where large sarsen stones have been uncovered.
June 29th
A view of the chalk capping ontop Silbury.
The Westbury quarry where the chalk to fill Silbury has come from.
June 25th
A crash over the weekend destroys the bollards in the layby.
June 20th
The collapse scars above the tunnel are roped off ready for filling with chalk.
June 12th
The Monorail from the North.
June 11th
A Monorail is put in place by Skanska ready for work on top the hill in July.
June 3rd
Silbury at night.
June 1st
Archaeologists sift through all the Atkinson backfill.
June 2nd
Deposits left by the 1971 team that backfilled the tunnel.
Prof Tabbs.
May 29th
Archaeologist Fachtna McAvoy points out the missing parts of the Atkinson plans from the 1968 dig.
A dumper brings the next load of infill for sieving.
May 24th
Archaeologists examine everything coming out of the hill for finds.
May 24th
The visitors centre opens with leaflets, display boards and a DVD to watch.
May 23rd
Material from the tunnel is sifted for archaeological finds.
The chalk is from Westbury quarry and will be compacted for infilling the tunnel.
May 21st
The entrance is covered up.
May 21st
The visitors centre is still closed.
The 1968 door with S logo.
The backfilling from the 1968 dig is removed.
Mini diggers begin to remove the backfilling.
More Scaffolding is erected.
Scaffolding goes up around entrance to the 1968 tunnel.
The Silbury layby is closed off leaving only the West Kennet Longbarrow layby
open.
The Silbury Car park is also closed off to the public.
Visitors are expected to park in the National Trust car park and pay £5
before walking across the fields to Silbury
May 1st.
"Hooray! Hooray! the First of May!
The Sibury dig began today!
Skanska prepare to start digging and clearing the 1968 BBC tunnel dug by Prof Richard Atkinson
and left inadequately filled for over 30 years.
The Silbury Story so far