Silbury Hill forum 180 room
Image by photobabe
close
more_vert

Sounder wrote:
Hi All
thought this might be of interest - about 2/3 down:

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba110/letters.shtml

I thought there was other evidence apart from winged ants that pointed to which season some of the phases of Silbury were built in or am I wrong?

I can't think of any other evidence, in the Writtle book (Sacred Mounds, Holy Rings) there is a report on the seeds and fruit identified on the land surface beneath the mound, and the turf stack, over 1100 species, mostly very familar wild flowers of today. I think it was the vicar Smith, when Silbury was opened by the miners, he found what he thought was mistletoe laid on the stones around the original mound....
A practical builder would say, its easier to work in the dry summer months than wet winter months, so the argument could still stand. Notice Leary disses Dames and others because of the folklore mythology they have built up around Silbury - probably means Leary is bringing out a book with his theory ;)

There are only two things about Wiltshire that are known throughout the world - Stonehenge was built by the Druids and winged ants prove Silbury was built in the Summer.

Jim's wasting his breath. There are kids yet to be born in Arkansas that will find those two facts as soon as they can Google. Even Wiltshire County Council thinks ants are the main evidence for when Silbury was built http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getcom.php?id=11

Myths are great. They give lots of pleasure and do little harm. I think we should concoct an outrageous one right here and see if we can get it to go viral on Google.