Silbury Sun Roll. | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

N

nigelswift May 7, 2011 16:33:42

Replying to tiompan

Oh blimey you had me going there!

Actually, I bet it DOES get adopted as a.... well, you know the rest.

I suppose the sun adopts a different roll angle every day so it was bound to happen one day in the year. Ditto all of Tesco's roofs.

S

Sanctuary May 7, 2011 17:20:50

Replying to tiompan

tiompan wrote:

A wee reminder that next Sunday through to Tuesday should be good days , weather permitting , for the Silbury sun roll . This phenomena involves the sun “rolling “ down the side of the man made mound when seen from the site of the contemporaneous palisaded enclosures . This demonstrates that the ancestors were not just a bunch of mound building navvies , and as there is no corresponding “roll up “ the hill , it is obvious they were actually creating a topographical metaphor for their future “descendents “and it has taken until now for us to appreciate it , there is so much more to decode .
Coat , cough ,seriously though . It is a perfectly natural phenomena , there has been little change to the hill since and the what is seen today is no different from what it would have looked like approx 4500 years ago when the hill was completed , if it was ever noticed .
Fortunately it wasn’t discovered by those who’s agenda might construe such an event as something archaeoastronomically salient , otherwise we would never hear the end of it .

Damnation..I'd booked that week off as well :D

T

tjj May 7, 2011 19:42:15

Replying to tiompan

tiompan wrote:

A wee reminder that next Sunday through to Tuesday should be good days , weather permitting , for the Silbury sun roll . This phenomena involves the sun “rolling “ down the side of the man made mound when seen from the site of the contemporaneous palisaded enclosures . This demonstrates that the ancestors were not just a bunch of mound building navvies , and as there is no corresponding “roll up “ the hill , it is obvious they were actually creating a topographical metaphor for their future “descendents “and it has taken until now for us to appreciate it , there is so much more to decode .
Coat , cough ,seriously though . It is a perfectly natural phenomena , there has been little change to the hill since and the what is seen today is no different from what it would have looked like approx 4500 years ago when the hill was completed , if it was ever noticed .
Fortunately it wasn’t discovered by those who’s agenda might construe such an event as something archaeoastronomically salient , otherwise we would never hear the end of it .

This was an impressive piece of work Tiompan ... I've still got my copy of the Fortean Times in which it first appeared. Just to remind anyone who didn't know, Steve Marshall wrote up the article as a collaboration with yourself and Pete Glastonbury, which later appeared in an expanded version for 'Time and Mind'.

Note: Steve is also doing the driving for the inaugural Henge Hopper bus-trip tomorrow.

N

nigelswift May 8, 2011 05:56:38

Replying to tiompan

See this -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IsOPkfWYBI&feature=channel

As predicted, said to be deliberate. Great sequence though. Shame they moved the camera to preserve the effect. Suggests the roll isn't quite parallel - but if they'd shown the sun a little above the slope like the other one does it would have worked without needing to shift position. You can tell that by referencing the position of the tree lined up with the extreme left edge of Silbury which stays the same through most of the sequence.

C

Chris Collyer May 8, 2011 11:47:17

Replying to tiompan

There's apparently a sun roll down the slope of Win Hill visible from Hordron Edge circle in Derbyshire that occurs around 11th November and 2nd February. I've never managed to see it myself but it was recorded by John Barnatt in the late 70's.

-Chris