Sacred Mound, Holy Rings : : Silbury Hill and the West Kennet palisade enclosures: a Later Neolithic complex in north Wiltshire / / A. W. R. Whittle, J. Best.

• VerfasserIn: Whittle, A. W. R.,; Best, J.,
• TeilnehmendeR: Best, J.,
• Place / Publishing House: Oxford, England : : Oxbow,, 1997.
• Year of Publication: 1997
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xii, 176 pages)

The excavations at Silbury Hill in the late 1960s were broadcast to the world on television and generated a huge amount of excitement, but until now have not been published. This report gives a full account of the excavation and discusses the archaeological and environmental evidence from the tunnel, the ditch section and the cuttings on the top of the mound, as well as the radiocarbon dates. Neolithic enclosures at nearby West Kennet have been the subject of research excavations since 1987, carried out by Cardiff university. One is a nearly circular double enclosure that straddles the present Kennet, the other is a larger elliptical enclosure. The character of the palisades, their construction, the finds and the radiocarbon dates are fully reported. Very importantly there is an extensive discussion of the interpretation of Silbury Hill and the enclosures and of their relation to each other and to the other features of the Neolithic landscape: the Sanctuary, the West Kennet Avenue and Avebury itself.

Table of Contents

Foreword v -- Preface ix -- Acknowledgements xi -- Archive xii -- Radiocarbon dates xii -- Summary 1 -- Part One: The Silbury Hill monumental mound 5 -- Location and setting 5 -- The present state of the site 7 -- History of previous investigations 8 -- Excavations in 1968-70: aims and progress 11 -- The tunnel 13 -- The top and upper part of the mound 20 -- The ditch 22 -- The nature and sequence of construction and the date of the mound 24 -- Soils 26 -- Pollen 29 -- Macroscopic plant remains 32 -- The insects 36 -- Mollusca 47 -- Vertebrates and small vertebrates 47 -- Plates 51 -- Part Two: The West Kennet palisade enclosures 53 -- Location and setting 53 -- The sequence of discovery and the aims of research 54 -- Palisade enclosure 1 57 -- The palisade ditches 57 -- Interior features 70 -- Palisade enclosure 2 76 -- The palisade ditch 76 -- Radial ditches 82 -- Interior features 83 -- Other ditches 86 -- A natural channel and valley history 86 -- Finds 90 -- Flint 90 -- Stone 93 -- Pottery 93 -- Animal bone 117 -- The wood charcoal 129 -- Charred plant remains 134 -- Part Three: A Later Neolithic complex in north Wiltshire 139 -- Dating and sequence 139 -- Environments and the settlement context 140 -- Silbury Hill: interpretations and comparisons 142 -- The West Kennet palisade enclosures: interpretations and comparisons 151 -- The social and the sacred: settlement and monumentality in the Avebury area and beyond 164 -- Appendix: The Marlborough Mound 169 -- Bibliography -- 171.