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Littlestone L
Littlestone Sep 2, 2012 19:06:51
Replying to tiompan

...but it is actually sited on a slightly higher natural platform could also have been sited even lower in the Kennet valley with greater" multiple sightings " points.
Not quite. The confluence of the Winterbourne and the Kennet is maybe the lowest point in the immediate area, and then the land gradually falls away from the Swallowhead. It’s not much of a fall, and I’m not sure how much of a difference it would make to seeing Silbury from the many vantage points you can see it from today, but I bet you’d no longer be able to see Silbury from within the Avebury circle if Silbury had been constructed in the field between the road and the Swallowhead.

Not sure if that’s terribly important though (and we don’t know how high Silbury was originally) but given its present position, and today’s landscape, constructing Silbury in the field would almost certainly have taken the sighting from where Avebury is now out of the equation.

T tiompan
tiompan Sep 2, 2012 19:34:25
Replying to Littlestone

Littlestone wrote:
...but it is actually sited on a slightly higher natural platform could also have been sited even lower in the Kennet valley with greater" multiple sightings " points.
Not quite. The confluence of the Winterbourne and the Kennet is maybe the lowest point in the immediate area, and then the land gradually falls away from the Swallowhead. It’s not much of a fall, and I’m not sure how much of a difference it would make to seeing Silbury from the many vantage points you can see it from today, but I bet you’d no longer be able to see Silbury from within the Avebury circle if Silbury had been constructed in the field between the road and the Swallowhead.
Silbury is sited not only on the slighly higher raised natural platform (the field between the road and Swallowhead as you suggest is lower )but being closer to the watershed it is higher than the many potential sites down the Kennet valley e.g. East kennet either side of the river ,West Overton .Lockeridge ,Clatford etc are all lower and would provide "multiple sightings " from most directions ,certainly more than where it is presently sited .