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Silbury Hill

King Sil IS in Silbury, probably.

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nigelswift N
nigelswift Oct 5, 2007 16:34:29
Replying to Littlestone

I presume not.
The very large voids that have developed at the centre don't seem to have been known about. The tomography results weren't exactly ideal...

"In the sections of the mound where good quality crosshole data were recorded, the frequency content was high enough to provide image resolution of approximately 2 metres. However, the major short-coming and disappointment of the survey was the quality of the crosshole data above the water table, due to extremely poor coupling between the hydrophones and the chalk hill."

Plenty of scope for missing a body or twenty there.

L Littlestone
Littlestone Oct 7, 2007 16:55:23
Replying to nigelswift

The very large voids that have developed at the centre don't seem to have been known about. The tomography results weren't exactly ideal...
And a chamber may have collapsed and its contents deposited elsewhere. Or a chamber may have collapsed, stayed in place and been filled with material from above. We'll never know until more sophisticated tomographical/volumetric techniques are available. Then what? If what looks like a chamber is discovered then an excavation is on the cards meaning further tunnelling, and as much as I hate that idea the possibility of advancing our understanding of Silbury and the possibility of learning more about the people who built it won't/can't be ignored.

M'be the last word on that should go to A C Smith himself, "I would bespeak the respect of all Wiltshiremen for Silbury, which deserves our reverence from its antiquity, our admiration from its size, and our awe from the mystery which envelopes it."