Re: Aliens at Avebury | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

Silbury Hill 180

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Aliens at Avebury

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Littlestone Aug 17, 2007 11:16:04

Replying to Littlestone

English Heritage's Ask the Experts page at http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.17513 has a feature entitled, What plant remains have been found inside Silbury Hill? Can't help wondering if everything necessary is being done to prevent degradation of those plant remains or if EH's methods here are the most appropriate.

Littlestone Aug 17, 2007 17:26:05

Replying to Littlestone

To which we might add, "...have any new species of plant or mollusc remains been discovered, or does the evidence match that found in the original Skanska core samples?"

Rhiannon Aug 18, 2007 07:17:37

Replying to Littlestone

I think probably the plant remains are going to be tiny tiny scraps with identifiable bits, like pollen or seeds, only noticeable by squinting down a microscope.. so anything dug out and sampled is going to be used or stuck in a freezer, and anything still in the hill will be safe in its hilly environment. As for the rest, you'd only want to take a few samples from all the earth moved as they'd statistically show pretty much any species present. so my point is, when you say

Can't help wondering if everything necessary is being done to prevent degradation of those plant remains

, what do you mean by that? most of the earth being moved is backfill / new so that won't be of interest because it's not got the context, and has been exposed to air anyway.