Spring has finally sprung, the birds are singing, flowers are blooming. Winter has been banished for another year and overtaken by sprightly Spring with its banqueting table of delights:
Violets
Insects of different species for the birds as they build their nests and later to feed their recently fledged young.
Goldfinches
Flowers such as newly opened forsythia, early tulips, primroses, violets, magnolias and early azaleas.
Camellias
happily as they fly from one flower to the next drinking their nectar.
Primroses
Newly born lambs are leaping around and kicking their heels in the fields with the joy of being alive. A sylvan scene.
Lambs
The brownness of trees and hedges has been eclipsed by green; glorious green everywhere and one finds oneself marvelling at the myriad of different shades of green.
As a photographer I sometimes come across a scene that is so wonderful, I want to eat or drink it yet at the same time wanting to preserve it for eternity. As a result I end up taking masses of pictures from every angle. Later when I come to look through them, many are identical! I have two friends who seem captivated and take endless photographs of wonders of our ancient land, Stonehenge built in many stages from c.2300 BC standing majestically in the Wiltshire countryside. Photographs taken from all angles, all weather conditions; also astronomical events and solar activity such as eclipses, full moon, waning moon etc.
Another friend feels the same about Silbury Hill (c. 2400 BC); he too has taken endless photographs of the Hill from all the different angles and seasons; in snow, in Spring when the hill is surrounded by water for a short time from an underground spring.
Courtesy - Simon Young
Summer when the sun has scorched the grass. His name is Simon Young and he has recently learnt more about the hill in the 19th Century and has been delving into the archives. He has kindly sent me his photographic findings, including pictures which took us both by surprise, one being a garage alongside the hill. (There is no sign today that it ever existed!) I will include several herewith.
Courtesy - Simon Young
Courtesy - Simon Young
The Saturday Magazine of the 19th November 1836 produced a rather gloomy article regarding our mortal remains. This I believe was a subject that much preoccupied people of that time.
SILBURY HILL
"Barrows — Antient Modes of Burial — Burning the Dead.
"Among all nations with which we are as yet acquainted, some method has been adopted, to show respect to the ashes of the deceased. The most simple and natural kind of sepulchral monument, and therefore the most ancient and universal, consists in a barrow, or mound of earth, a cairn, or heap of stones, raised over the remains of the dead. Of such monuments, mention is made in the book of Joshua, and in the poems of Homer, Virgil, and Horace; and instances of these occur in every part of this kingdom. These earthen monuments of mortality have received various names, according to their form.
"In recording the funeral obsequies of Patroclus, ordered by Achilles, the Poet says,—
"The Greeks obey, where yet the embers glow, Wide o'er the pile the sable wine they throw, And deep subsides the ashy heap below. Next the white bones his sad companions place, With tears, collected in the golden vase. The sacred relics to the tent they bore, The urn a veil of linen covered o'er. That done, they bid the sepulchre aspire, And cast the deep foundations round the pyre: High in the midst they heap the swelling bed Of rising earth, memorial of the dead.
"Silbury Hill, the barrow represented in the engraving, is the largest mound of the kind in England; it is about a mile south of Abury, in Wiltshire; the next in size is Marlborough Mount, in the garden of an inn at Marlborough. No history gives us any account of this hill; the tradition only is, that king Sil, or Zel, as the country-folk pronounce it, was buried here on horseback, and that the hill was raised while a posset of milk was seething. Its name, however, seems to have signified the great hill.
"The diameter of Silbury Hill at top is 105 feet, at bottom it is somewhat more than 500 feet; it stands upon as much ground as Stonehenge, and is carried up to the perpendicular height of 170 feet, its solid contents amounting to 13,558,809 cubic feet. It covers a surface equal to five acres and thirty-four perches. It is impossible, at this remote period, to ascertain by whom, or for what precise purpose, this enormous mound of earth was raised; but from its proximity to the celebrated Druidical temple at Abury, it is supposed to have had some reference to the idolatrous worship of the Druids, and, perhaps, to contain the bones of some celebrated character.
"According to Sir Richard Colt Hoare, who has investigated this subject with great diligence and care, we may divide tombs of this description into, first, the long barrow, which is the largest of all, and generally of a long oval form; the circular barrow, shaped like an inverted bell, a bowl, and the Druid barrow, which is large and circular, seldom of any great elevation, and surrounded by a ditch and embankment. Within the area of this embankment are generally found small conical heaps of earth, which in some instances have contained small articles, such as cups, lance-heads, amber, jet, and glass beads. Although these have had the name of Druid barrows imposed on them, Sir Richard Hoare is inclined to believe that they were not formed by the Druids, but that they were intended as burial-places for the female portion of the British tribes.
"Sometimes two of these barrows were enclosed in one circle; they are then supposed to have been the tombs of two friends, or near relations. The manner in which the ancient Britons buried their dead varied at different periods. The author we have already noticed, says, "I am of opinion that the method of burying the body entire, with the legs gathered up, was the most ancient; that the custom of burning the dead succeeded, and continued along with the former; and that the mode of burying the body entire, and extended at full length, was of the latest adoption."
"The most primitive method of disposing of the ashes of the dead, was by depositing them on the floor of the barrow, or in a little hollow, cut in the native chalk. The funeral-urn in which the ashes of the dead were secured, was the refinement of a later age. The bones, when burnt, were collected, and placed within the urn, which was deposited, in almost all cases, with its mouth downwards, in a hollow cut in the chalk; of these urns, which are far from uncommon, the larger are found to contain the burnt bones of the deceased, and the smaller are supposed to have held some description of food.
"Herodotus gives the following account of the funeral ceremonies of the ancient kings of Scythia. The body having been transported through the different provinces of the kingdom, they come at last to the Gerrhi, who live in the remotest parts of Scythia, and among whom the sepulchres are. Here the corpse is placed upon a couch, round which, at different distances, daggers are fixed; upon the whole are disposed pieces of wood covered with branches of willow. In some other parts of the trench they bury one of the deceased's concubines, whom they previously strangle, together with the baker, the cook, the groom, his most confidential servant, his horses, the choicest of his effects, and finally, some golden goblets, for they possess neither silver nor brass. To conclude all, they fill up the trench with earth, and seem to be emulous in their endeavours to raise as high a mound as possible."
During the time I lived in Jamaica for a short while, I remember that up in the hills, the medieval measurements were still used when building wonderful stone walls to the very highest standard, such as we find in the Cotswolds etc.
Silbury Hill remained a mystery containing several tunnels and shafts; surely something special must be hidden within the great mound. Atkinson in 1968 was one of those who were to be disappointed but all who attempted to find treasure, despite their disappointment, made invaluable discoveries such as information regarding the construction of the interior.
There is a recent excellent article: Silbury Hill: A Last Look Inside
I have taken a small paragraph from the above article:
"The main new evidence we can expect from the recent work at Silbury Hill will be in the dating. Already the preliminary results, when combined with Bayesian statistics, have enabled the dates to be made considerably more specific and firmly place Silbury in context with the surrounding UNESCO World Heritage site monuments.
"The latest thinking is that the original turf mound was probably constructed within a century of 2400 BC. This was a pinch-point of prehistory, when the Beaker People were arriving and the first stone Stonehenge was being constructed. However, there continues to be some dispute as to when the third and final phase was constructed. One interpretation suggests that the third phase may have followed quickly after the second, and it could all have been completed by 2400 BC. However, a clearly apparent standstill phase after Silbury 2 indicates that there may have been a pause of perhaps a couple of hundred years, making the final phase of construction as late as 2100 to 2000 BC."
It seems that several excavations have been made over the years, including one led by the Duke of Northumberland in 1776, using miners to dig; it came to an early end when nothing of any value was discovered.
In 2006, there was great concern when a message reached Amanda Chadburn, the English Heritage Inspector of Ancient Monuments for the South-Western Region, to say that Silbury Hill had collapsed. Routine restoration work on the hill had already been planned but this was something of a different magnitude and involved an excavation rather than a restoration. It took several years to complete the work, during which time there was a pause. Due to three previous excavations, the hill was in a more fragile state than before and in order to preserve it, it was realised that a drastic solution was needed to save the hill.
"I feel the responsibility every day, when I'm in the tunnel. I realise that what we are doing inside is the last chance anyone will ever get and no one will ever go back in. It weighs heavily on my mind."
— Jim Leary, English Heritage Site Director
"Backfilling is scheduled to begin on 15 November 2007, when over 500,000 pounds of crushed and liquified native chalk will be pumped into the tunnels and void areas; Silbury Hill will be fully consolidated, never to collapse again."
Rhiannon May also discusses King Zel and his golden horse.
King Zel
Credit: Rhiannon May, 2002
Aubrey noted that "No history gives any account of this hill; the tradition only is, that King Sil or Zel, as the countrey folke pronounce, was buried here on horseback, and that the hill was raysed while a posset of milke was seething."
[IMAGE: KING ZEL — C: RHIANNON MAY]
Or you could believe the story that it was dumped there by the devil — it's a story found all over Britain about various mysterious mounds and hills. The people of Marlborough hated the people of Devizes, and somehow they'd got the devil to agree to smother them with a big spadeful of earth, to get them out of their hair for good. A cobbler (or St John?) was walking towards Marlborough with a cartload of worn-out shoes, which he was going to mend. He asked the devil what he was doing. On hearing the reply he explained that he'd set out from Devizes a very long time ago, and pointed to all the shoes in his cart — explaining that he'd worn them out along the way. The devil's very lazy, so he decided he couldn't be bothered to walk such a distance. He dropped the spadeful of earth by the side of the road in disgust, and it became Silbury Hill.
On a moonlit night you might see King Sil in golden armour ride by the hill. Perhaps that's because he's buried on horseback — or maybe in a golden coffin. A headless man is also sometimes seen. Many questions remain to be explored. Foremost among them is: why? What was the purpose of Silbury Hill — what did it represent, what function did it perform, what was its meaning to the people who went to such great efforts to build it? Folklore places it as the burial mound of King Sil; other theories attach it to the Goddess, and still others propose that it was an observatory or sundial — by means of the shadows cast by the mound on the plain to the north towards Avebury — used to track the seasons. It is certainly tied to the other monuments nearby through sight lines and other alignments, and Silbury is an integral part of this constructed sacred landscape. Perhaps the mound was aping a natural hill: Jim Leary points to the similarity of the final phase of Silbury Hill with Picked Hill — a prominent hill in the nearby Vale of Pewsey. In a flat area like the Vale of Pewsey, a feature such as Picked Hill would have stood out and may have had symbolic value — was Silbury an attempt to emulate it in the Kennet Valley? Jim also points to the Hill's lowland setting and proximity to a river and spring. These are important features in the landscape and may well have been sacred for generations of earlier inhabitants — was Silbury marking them for all to see and ensuring their sanctity was never forgotten? Was the mound a response to the influx of new Beaker ideologies, materials and know-how — a way for the local population to assert their identity?
"The concentration of different local materials — clay, gravel, chalk, turfs, topsoil, and even small sarsen boulders — found in Silbury 1 suggests that the builders were bringing their landscape into the construction; was this a way of focussing their landscape and creating a microcosm of their world in one place?"
In her Ghosts and Legends of the Wiltshire Countryside, she recounted how she'd been told these legends when she was a small girl, by an old stone-breaker, Worthy Gaisford.
It was during this time that a strange event happened. A householder aligned with Silbury Hill and Windmill Hill sent me a report:
"Silbury Hill's subsidence was discovered on May 29th 2000. It took English Heritage and all interested parties another seven years to formulate the appropriate measures for repairing the hill.
"On site from May 11th 2007 Skanska Engineering reached the core of the hill on September 27th. Shortly thereafter a house located on a sightline between Silbury Hill and Windmill Hill found its electricity meter registering nearly double its normal electrical usage. There followed several visits from Head-Office, always charming but 'because the computer can't be wrong' unconvinced that Silbury Hill was to blame, installed a control meter. However that too recorded an impossibly high usage. Only then was it agreed to review the matter once the hill was closed. Whereupon, with yet another new meter installed, normal readings immediately resumed on May 7th 2008! Head-office remaining unwilling to recognise 'the Silbury effect' but still charming, decided that 'exceptionally — the excess charges stored on their computers would be cancelled'."