Flooding at Silbury Hill

Silbury Hill is a part of the complex of Neolithic monuments around Avebury in Wiltshire (which includes the West Kennet long barrow and the Sanctuary). It was built around 2,600 - 2,400 BC, which is later than the other sites in the area.

To design, organise, and construct this mound shows the technical skill of the age and reveals strong and prolonged control over labour and resources. At 129 ft high, Silbury Hill is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world. There is nothing inside it other than chalk, clay, rubble and soil, and there is no big hole to account for the materials used in construction. It would have taken 500 labourers 15 years to complete. The flattened top is 100ft in diameter.

The area immediately surrounding the monument is lower than the level of the land around it. The presence of natural springs indicate a moat or reservoir. In fact, the mound sits in a dip in the landscape; it would have been an unusual choice for a strategic defensive site. Perhaps the site itself was important to the builders.