Michael Hanlon: Pagan burial site? Too boring. UFO landing pad? Too bonkers. So what IS the secret of Silbury Hill? Terry the Druid reveals all Can there be anything more po-faced than a health and safety briefing? We are about to enter some rather iffy tunnels dug into Silbury Hill, in Wiltshire, a 4,400-year-old man-made pyramid constructed entirely from chalk. It will be wet, dark and nasty in there, so we need to take precautions. There is talk of wearing hard hats, stout footwear and highvisibility jackets. But what makes our briefing slightly less catatonic than the average health and safety lecture is the presence of Terry Dobney. He looks, well, different from the other officials. For a start, he is wearing a long white robe. And he sports facial hair of Biblical proportions. He is carrying a piece of antler, and a long wooden staff with a crystal in the top. Terry, you see, is an official site druid. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have to wear a hard hat like everyone else. It seems appropriate that our expedition should be accompanied by one of the more bizarre manifestations of officialdom, because we are at one of the most extraordinary and impressive ancient monuments in Britain, if not the world. The hill is actually a truncated grasscovered pyramid about 120ft high and more than 600ft across, weighing an estimated half a million tonnes. Silbury, just south of Avebury, took more than 100 years to build and work began, according to the radiometric dating that has been carried out on bits of vegetation and other material recovered from its innards, about 4,400 years ago.

Over the centuries, various lunatics have riddled the ancient chalk construction with tunnels, mostly in an attempt to find treasure. The latest was in 1968 and was at, quite extraordinarily, the behest of the BBC. They hacked into this unique national treasure with impunity to make a series of gimmicky history programmes.

View: Full Article | Source: Daily Mail

I may just be lost here, but is it just a pyramid shaped mound of dirt? Or is it an actual structural pyramid underneath the dirt?

Aren't there other pyramid shaped dirt mounds in the world? What are we saying those are?


Even as an Anthropology/Archeaology student, I'm still having trouble understanding what the fuss is. Mound of dirt. If the ancient peoples took the time to build it, I'd assume it's ceremonial of some sort. One of those closer to the sky for our ceremony kind of things. Like the mounds in the USA, like Cahokia? Maybe it's similar to that...





..........I'll still vote aliens every time though...




Kidding and Confused,
Rice

Is that you in the picture, Saruman? Are you the one and only 'Terry the Druid'? What a name.

That's how I kinda imagine you in real life. Am I Close?

Haha ...throw him in a wickerman for that one Saruman!

Oops...I can't help but get the feeling that I've performed a great sacrilege. Are the villagers after me now?

It's all good Rhungobains! (but you are lucky the Beltane is six months away)lol

That's cool - six months to get into his good books. Perhaps some flowers are in order...

"If you don't want it, give it back."

TeraLink Was Here!

I'm just watching a programme on this - it is a mound of dirt, the biggest in Europe.

It was interesting to hear that some of the turf that has been placed amongst the rubble and the chalk, looks like it has been brought from other areas, like other people have come along with their turf from miles away and contributed towards the hill... why?

Someone once summised that maybe it was a viewing platform for the wonderful stone monuments all around that area, an interesting thought.

It's a mound of chalk built up in at least three stages according to current archaeological thinking. It was built as a landing pad for extraterrestrial craft who visited the druids prior to 9000bc.

That makes no sense what you said.

... okayyyy. Thanks for that.

This programme kind of debunked the old 1960's theory that it was built in three stages as was originally believed, they said that it was steadily built up over time and showed how the layers were added steadily.

They also said, which I find really cool, was that as all this work that was going on in the region, the people in the surrounding area were trying to out do one another with more impressive and bigger and better ceremonial sites, kind of like keeping up with the Jones stoneage style.

mmm....i watched a documentary on it last week and they were definately showing the three stages it was built in. they were analysing grass seeds from the different layers and allsorts.

Religion makes people do crazy things

I think the british sense of humour could explain away some of these ancient structures.

I've been to Silbury Hill, Avebury, Stonehenge and even as an English person it is absolutely awesome... I can't get my head around their motivations and methods used. Amazing place, if you ever get a chance to visit - go, you'll be amazed.

Paid a 2am visit to stonehenge a couple of years ago and it was quite magical. When you put your hands on the stones it's like you can feel some kind of prescience.
Do plan to visit avebury, silbury, the long man and others at some point.

Yes we did Silbury, Avebury and Stonehenge in one day - a glorious summers day in 2005. Each one of them is magical in it's own right.

You could see a great crop circle from the top of Silbury

I was surprised by how moving it was to go there, you think sure, old stones - but it is amazing.

Quick question: were Stonehenge, Silbury Hill, Avebury Rings all constructed in the same period? Is Silbury Hill in fact just a spoil heap from all the other building going on. Perhaps somebody just said "what we going to do with the dirt and chalk from the other sites", and some other bright spark just said " I know, lets build a hill!"! Makes sense to me....

Back in the early 80's I was involved with the Women's Peace Camp at Greenham Common...if anyone
has heard of it? It was quite a big deal at the time....and an amazing adventure.

Once...a group of us walked down the old pathways from Silbury Hill to Stonehenge...camping out at
night on Salisbury Plain....the police (large numbers of them) made half-hearted attempts to stop us.

The group of friends I was with...well we weren't very well organised...and didn't have any food...so
we made nettle soup and got draught guiness in plastic containers from a near-by pub...there we were
sitting at our campfires with loud explosions going on all around....bizarre! (the military do training
exercises on Salisbury Plain)

When we got to Stonehenge we went into the stones....sang songs and generally hung out...enjoying the
moon and the vibe. Someone said 'I could do with some fish and chips right now'.....we were amazed when
a fish and chip van came down the road right after they said it. It was actually sent so that the police
could have their food break...but they were well cheesed off when they had to join the long queue of
women also waiting for chips.

These were just a couple of funny bits....but the whole experience was magical mayhem!

There is definitely something very special about Silbury Hill...Avebury..Stonehenge and the whole area.
Not to forget it is also a crop-circle hot-spot.

Why did your group camp on Salisbury Plain, was it because of the training base near by?

Someone had a map with the little dotty line showing the old paths/route from Silbury to
Stonehenge...it took a couple of days...and Salisbury Plain was the overnight camp. It just
worked out that way.

Fascinating article...You guys across the ocean have the most interesting sites to visit...Question, probably a dumb one, but can someone explain exactly what the "crop circle" is...thanks...

They also built similar mounds in Ireland by the newgrange burial tomb. probably the same people.

Shame Waden Hill blocks the view to the Avebury henge and circles...