Our visit to Silbury Hill yesterday was wonderful. The archaeologists were so friendly, showing children various artifacts recovered from inside the hill and gave us all the opportunity to sift through the chalk removed from inside mound 1 of Silbury. To our delight we discovered broken antlers; tools used by our ancestors so so long ago. To hold the antlers was such an amazing and exiting feeling knowing how old they were, and were they had come from. We were advised that after sifting the original chalk it was to be put back inside the hill along with new chalk from Westbury so that it is local to the area. We spent about 1 1/2 to 2 hours at Silbury before returning to the N.T. Education centre to discuss the Time Capsule.
We were priveliged enough to handle the original material recovered from the 1849 capsule put inside the hill following the Mereweather excavations. The Time Capsule going inside this time is to be a glass cookie type jar, big enough to hold few things that the 19 children of Avebury school and the 20 or so year 5 children of Kennett Valley school feel to be appropriate ie photos, newspaper cuttings, poems , stories etc along with information regarding the work being carried out to restore the hill and fill in the tunnels and shaft in an attempt to preserve the hill.
I can only admire what is going on to try and preserve Silbury Hill. As for the Time Capsule; why is it wrong, why all the objections? History is here and now as well time past. We can't prevent another excavation in 50 years , 100 years whatever, so why not give future generations an insight into our here and now. The capsule is glass which will not erode or damage Silbury.
Myself and my two children lucky enough to be involved in all this feel proud to be part (be it a very small part) of the work being carried out by English Heritage.
Scousemaiden xxx