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Silbury Hill

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tiompan T
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 .

L Littlestone
Littlestone Sep 2, 2012 20:56:11
Replying to tiompan

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 .
Are you sure about that Mr t? I dunno – the further downstream you go from the Swallowhead the less vantage points surely. But I really don’t know – we’d have to get a cartographer or someone with the right expertise to verify that. The fact remains, however, that Silbury really does seem to be sited at a place that gives it the optimum visibility from the most available vantage points – a fact, surely, that suggests that was part of its builders’ original intent.