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Trailblazers: Virtual Tours

[Solomon]

This is one of my favourite sites in England.



The village and parish of Avebury lies a short distance north, north east of the centre of the county and it was very much the centre of a hugely important area in Neolithic times. Here is an ancient landscape; more ancient than Stonehenge and much greater. Among just some of the prehistoric sites within the parish are Silbury Hill, Windmill Hill and West Kennet long barrow as well as the stone circle and avenues of Avebury itself. For good measure there is also a part of the early routeway of the Ridge Way, and part of a straight Roman road in which there is a kink to enable it to avoid Silbury Hill.

The earliest known settlement in the area was an early Neolithic one on Windmill Hill, which was replaced by a causewayed camp around 3,250 B.C. The West Kennet long barrow is the longest chambered tomb in the country and was first started around 3,000 B.C. and seems to have remained in use for a thousand years. Silbury Hill is the largest prehistoric man made mound in Europe and was begun around 2,750 B.C. in July or August as has been found because there are the remains of winged ants under the lowest layer of the mound. The first phases of the stone circle were begun about 2,500 B.C., or a little later, and culminated in the massive megalithic monument with the Kennet Avenue leading to the Sanctuary on Overton Hill and the recently rediscovered Beckhampton Avenue. Later there was a Pagan Saxon settlement and there is a Viking burial in Silbury Hill. No wonder that Avebury is a World Heritage Site and is arguably the most important in the United Kingdom.

[Diving Doc]

They dated it by winged ants? I would like to know more about the dating process.
I haven't visited these places but now I plan to, fascinating, simply fascinating.
Thanks for the History,
Doc

[Solomon]

The winged ants indicate the summer months.
I once stayed in a lovely, ancient pub there. Great time in the private bar after the doors were locked for the night. The bed's mattress was stuffed straw - something I'd only ever read about in history books.
I find Stonehenge booring: there are so many stone henges around that many are ignored. Also, the general understanding of them is very poor. In contrast, Avebury, Silbury Hill, the long barrow and the avenues are both visually stunning and more accessible.

[Bart]

Gorgeous pic! Are those terraces on the grade just behind you? are they old or recent, and what is their significance?

[Solomon]

Gorgeous pic! Are those terraces on the grade just behind you? are they old or recent, and what is their significance?

Hmmm. You've got me, there, Bart. It looks like either tracks of sheep, or 'ridge and furrow':

Ridge & furrow farming

Ridge and furrow was a medieval farming technique where peasants worked the land with a wooden plough, drawn by a team of oxen.

The ploughs were very heavy and difficult to control in comparison to the farming methods of today.

The ploughing created a ridge, which was small at first but grew in size as the soil was always turned the same way by the plough.

This in turn created a furrow, or ditch, along the length of the ploughed land. The furrows helped with water drainage in wet weather.

More:
http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/willen99/w_employment/ridgefurr/ridgfur.html

More thinking... I reckon they're just sheep tracks. Too shallow for ridge and furrow.

Sol

[Bart]

Hi Sol, By sheep tracks you would mean that that is the way sheep would normally graze a grade of that sort, horizontally vs vertically or haphazardously, I presume.  Thank you.

[Solomon]

Sheep on hillsides tend to create horizontal paths. I don't know for sure what created those tracks, but they do look like those I've seen often made by sheep and sheep have grazed Avebury for a long time.





Sol

[Sovereign]

Yes, I've seen the sheep there, too.

[Solomon]

The largest man-made mound in Europe, huge and mysterious Silbury Hill is comparable in height and volume to the roughly contemporary Egyptian pyramids. Probably completed by about 2350 BC and part of the Avebury 'sacred landscape', it apparently contains no burial or shrine, and was clearly important in itself: but its purpose and significance remain enigmatic.

"The investigation and analytical survey of Silbury Hill" by David Field

Very shortly after the collapse at the top of the shaft in June 2000 and at an early stage in our multi-disciplinary investigation, English Heritage's Landscape Investigation Team undertook an analytical survey - remarkably, the first of its kind - of the earthworks of the mound and its surrounding area. This has produced some very intriguing results!

Modelling of the surface earthworks using GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite mapping equipment, together Digital terrain model of the Silbury mound viewed from the south-east with more traditional survey techniques, has resulted in a series of new plans of the monument. These not only allow the mound and its surrounding area to be digitally modelled, but also ensure greater understanding of the development of the monument in its landscape context. The survey suggests, for example, that the mound is not in fact truly circular: on the summit it appears to be more angular than circular, while at the base it is almost octagonal in form.

Silbury Hill Review (PDF 111Kb)
Interpreting the seismic tomography data  By Professor Michael Worthington  And 
Silbury Hill: geotechnical work and investigation of voids  By Professor Richard Chandler

[Solomon]

English Heritage is conducting stabilisation work at the site

Roman finds at Hill site
By Wiltshire Times Reporter

ENGLISH Heritage today announced the startling discovery of a Roman settlement around the base of Silbury Hill, part of the Avebury World Heritage Site in Wiltshire.

The 5,000-year old Hill is the largest man-made prehistoric monument in Europe, and its original purpose and use over the millennia since still mystifies archaeologists.

Today's revelation proves that a Roman community were living in the shadow of the Neolithic Hill, some 3,000 years after it was initially built.

The new data shows a village-sized settlement, equivalent in area to around 24 football pitches.

It straddled the Roman road from London to Bath, shadowed today by the A4, and lies where the main road crossed the Winterbourne River, an obvious stop-over point for travellers.

The research reveals that it was laid out in a typically Roman ladder settlement design, with buildings and small streets lying perpendicular to a central North-South thoroughfare.

The discovery was made using an array of highly sensitive caesium magnetometers, developed by the English Heritage Geophysical Team.

Using these sensors, the team can pick up localised anomalies in the earth's magnetic field caused by the influence of human activities, particularly the use of fire on naturally occurring iron oxides in the soil.

The magnetometers can sense soil disturbances up to 1.5 metres below the modern surface level and identify magnetic anomalies due to the most subtle features, such as an individual prehistoric timber post-setting.

Dr Neil Linford, English Heritage Geophysicist, said: "We are really excited by this discovery because we had no idea that a Roman village of such a size lay this close to Silbury Hill.

"Up until now, we have only been aware of some isolated Roman finds across the site, including what might be two wells, and the small Roman settlement on Waden Hill, 300 metres to the East of Silbury."

Dr Bob Bewley English Heritage Regional Director for the South West added: "To have found such a substantial and organised settlement is amazing. Without further investigation it is difficult to say, but it could be that what we have here is something like a roadside-village, where Roman travellers would have changed horses and stayed overnight on the way to Bath, but also a place of pilgrimage focused on the Hill." The discovery was made using an array of highly sensitive caesium magnetometers, developed by the English Heritage Geophysical Team.

[Diving Doc]

Solomon,

All well and good but the kit involved doesn't "see" very deeply into the soil, does it?
I wonder how much more might lie deeper.
Cheers,
Doc

[Solomon]

Doc:

Archaeological excavation will reveal the answer to what archaeology, if any, lies beneath the Roman cultural strata.

It is proper practice to dig through cultural strata until virgin - i.e. undisturbed - soil is reached.

Solomon

[Diving Doc]

Solomon,
I understand that. My point is that if they were able to "See" deeper with their equipment then they could better plan how to go about the archaeology. One meter and a half isn't very deep in my experience with geophysical kit. I also understand about removing down to virgin soil. If they knew the actual depth of virgin soil and the dispersal of artifacts then they could really fine tune the dig, couldn't they? Solomon, with your experience maybe you could help me understand this a bit better?
Cheers,
Doc

[Solomon]

Doc:

I think I understand you to be saying that the kit used by History Hunters looks deeper then that used by English Heritage and if there were to be a cultural layer beneath that of the Roman, would produce an image of it.

In this case, the answer would be 'no'.

If depth was an issue, then GPR can look a lot deeper than 1.5 m, depending on soil conditions.

Geophysical surveying technology available in England enables a 3D view of subsurface structures, which can then be viewed in horizontal slices. We cannot do this.

The Roman structures here do not appear to me to be very deep and this is quite usual. I do not know if there is anything beneath the Roman layer. If there is, I doubt it would be substantial, or available to any geophysical survey.

This sites seems to me to be suitable for standard surveying kit such as our TR/CIA Resistance Meter.

Solomon

[Diving Doc]

Solomon,
Then English Heritage does have something similar to to the Zond GPR unit?
Doc