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Silbury Hill — Dr Brown from EH writes

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nigelswift N
nigelswift Apr 25, 2004 09:34:45
Replying to BlueGloves

"There was a general viewing point of maybe an eighth of a mile by an eighth of a mile where the profile of the little hill, the cairn, and the big hill, the drumlin, were the same."

I hereby coin the phrase "reverse viewshed" for that viewing area. It's a concept that ought to be studied, but isn't, so far as I know.
I have intended if I ever get round to it, to try to plot a reverse viewshed for Silbury. Starting with the hypothesis that as seen from Avebury South circle Silbury just peeping over Waden might be a deliberate effect, and the further assumption that if so, they'd intended it to be for a particular spot, you could plot all the points where it's just not visible, and if that formed an arc that was centred on the obelisk, for instance, it would be strong evidence to suggest it was deliberate.

Stone Rowing it ain't, but it amuses me.

L Littlestone
Littlestone Apr 25, 2004 17:31:08
Replying to nigelswift

Tend to follow the theory that Silbury and Avebury belong to two different traditions. If the Avebury builders wanted to incorporate Silbury into their 'visual' view of the world they could have easliy done so by siting the Avebury circle complex half a mile or so west from its present location. The fact that they chose not to suggests that by the time Avebury was built Silbury was already regarded as irrelevant to the new tradition of circle builders

S Steve Gray
Steve Gray Apr 25, 2004 18:58:36
Replying to nigelswift

Rather than examining what Silbury looks like from various other places, what about how those other places look from the top of Silbury? Was it built that height so that someone standing on top of had a particular view of somewhere else?