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| Apologies if I've missed it but there doesn't seem to have been too much discussion on TMA about the Swallowhead Spring (though I note that goffik, megalith6 and C33 mention it in their Fieldnotes, and Jane in her Weblogs). I'm not really into 'mystical experiences' but the first time I went to the Swallowhead was five or six years ago; I was alone, the place was quiet and still and it felt very, very, very ancient indeed - ancient not in an abstract way but ancient in a way that had held meaning for the generations of people who had gone there before - and had gone there for a purpose. Mark Gillings and Joshua Pollard, writing about the Roman settlement(s) around Avebury say that, "...a pre-existing cult complex related to a shrine or <i>temenos</i> centred upon Silbury and the Swallowhead Springs."* suggests that the Swallowhead was still important to people when the Romans arrived in the area. Michael Dames devotes several pages to the Swallowhead, writing that, "The sixteenth-century topographer John Leland emphasised the connection: 'Kennet riseth at Selbiri hill bottom', while Stukeley again and again links Swallowhead to Silbury..."** Strangely, Aubrey Burl in his <b>Prehistoric Avebury</b> does not seem to mention the Swallowhead at all. So, I was just wondering what folks thought about the Swallowhead Spring; feelings/impressions when they were there, snippets of information they'd picked up or read about, ideas or theories about the Spring's place in the grand scheme of the Silbury landscape. * <b>Avebury</b> by Mark Gillings and Joshua Pollard. ISBN 0 7156 3240 X. pp 99. ** <b>The Silbury Treasure</b> by Michael Dames. ISBN 0 500 27140 2. pp 107. Reply | with quote |  20th January 2006ce 05:10 |
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