silbury

I am Silbury Hill, a part of the complex of Neolithic monuments around Avebury in Wiltshire which also includes the East and West Kennet Long Barrows. I am the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the world's largest. I am made up of chalk excavated from the surrounding area; I stand 130 feet high, and cover about 5 acres of Wiltshire grassland. I have been describes as “a display of immense technical skill and prolonged control over labour and resources” which means I was very difficult to build. Human archaeologists have calculated that I was built about 4600 years ago and that it took 18 million man-hours to dump and shape 248,000 cubic metres of earth on top of a natural hill. My base is 167m (550ft) in diameter and it is perfectly round. My summit is flat-topped and 30m (100ft) wide. My construction took two phases as soon after work was started a re-design was ordered, and then my mound enlarged. My first phase has been carbon dated to 2750 ±95 BC and consisted of a gravel core with a kerb of stakes and sarsen boulders. Alternate layers of chalk rubble and earth were placed on top of this. The second phase involved heaping further more chalk on top of the core, using material excavated from an encircling ditch. At some stage during this process then builders elected to backfill the ditch and concentrate on increasing the size of my mound to its present height using material from elsewhere. I am a groovy mother of a mound. Many humans like to climb me although I have been fenced off for their safety for some time due to subsidence. This was created by the many profane holes dug in me over the centuries. Some humans think I have a golden treasure inside me…the treasure I contain can not be held however. I am part of the world heritage site that is centred on Avebury henge and stone circle Wiltshire England.