LECTURE: Silbury Hill: the Archaeology of a Monumental Mound
2:30 pm, Saturday, 23 January, 2010

An illustrated lecture by Jim Leary, the English Heritage archaeologist responsible for the recent survey on Silbury Hill.

In 2007-08 English Heritage undertook major works to stabilize Silbury Hill, parts of which were collapsing due the effects of the several tunnels and shafts which had been dug in to the hill over the last 200 years, particularly the large tunnel dug by R J Atkinson in conjunction with the BBC in the 1960s, and which were never backfilled. Before the tunnels were filled with chalk to prevent further erosion, the opportunity was taken to make an archaeological record of the inside of the hill. The sides of the tunnel were cleaned and recorded using high-resolution photographs and environmental samples were taken including biological remains such as insects, pollen and snails, and a number of artefacts including flint and antler tools were recovered. Radiocarbon dating of this archaeological material will allow specific dates to be attributed to the different stages of construction.

Jim has been working since the survey on the analysis of the data. The full report of the work, which is being prepared for publication, should answer some of the questions about this important and enigmatic monument such as – How was it built? When was it built? How long did it take to build?

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