246 



Recent Explorations at Silbury Hill. 



existence of the primary heaping- of the mound, through the centre 

 of which, or very nearly so, the elevated tunnel was cut. 



" At the floor of this, was traceable the line of the original turf 

 of the natural hill, and it was clear to demonstration that this had 

 not been cut through. No cist, therefore, had been found beW 

 that line in any part yet examined. One thing is manifest, that 

 the examination of 17 77 did not hit the actual centre of the tumulus, 

 whilst we had excavated its very core' 3 



Now, had this mound been erected simply as a monument, we 

 should expect to find it placed on an elevated situation, where it 

 could be seen from afar; but, on the contrary, it was erected upon 

 very low ground, at the very bottom of a gently rising down, and 

 this fact has been referred to by Duke, who, in his " Druidic 

 Temples/' says :— « This peculiar spot is a hollow nearly surrounded 

 on all sides with moderately rising ground/' and also by the Rev. : 

 A. C. Smith, who, in his " Silbury/' says « Standing as it does 

 on comparatively low ground, and surrounded with undulating 

 downs, which tower above it, very limited indeed is the view from 

 the summit.- Had it been raised on the summit of one of these 

 "undulating downs » it would have been visible for many miles 

 around. The barrows in this neighbourhood are situated on the 

 hill tops, and form remarkably prominent objects in the landscape. 



A special survey of Silbury Hill has been made for me by 

 Messrs. Ashmead & Son, of Bristol, and the accompanying plates 

 are copied from the plans prepared by them. It will be seen that 

 the boundary line of the excavated area (from whence all the ma- 

 terial used for building the hill was obtained) extends in the form 

 of a circle nearly surrounding the base of Silbury Hill at a distance 

 of about a hundred feet on the north and east, but on the west it 

 includes a much larger area. The southern boundary of the meadow 

 west of the hill, is a steep escarpment formed by the removal of the i 

 chalk from the rising down. Here chalk has been removed to a 

 deptn of over 40ft. from the original surface of the down (as shown 

 on Plan 2). 



On the south of the mound, a deep trench separates the mound 

 from the adjacent high ground, but across this trench a narrow 



