Another Centre Of The Universe

[poliphilo]

Silbury Hill really is a mystery. They've recently completed a dig which established that it was built in three stages- over a period corresponding to a long lifetime- but they're still no closer to establishing what it's for- or how it relates to the rest of Avebury's neolithic landscape. 

Michael Dames- whose books first got me interested in Avebury- argues that the hill represents the pregnant belly of the Mother Goddess. His work is unscholarly and largely discredited now, but his guess remains as good as any.  Maybe it's a centotaph (we can rule out burial mound because there's nothing buried there) or a ritual platform or an observatory or merely an extravagant piece of self-assertion by some forgotten tribal warlord-  "Gaze on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Looking again at these photographs, I'm struck by how anomalous it is.  A smooth-sided hill rising out of a valley bottom- it doesn't fit; it's against Nature. It's as if some gigantic child with a bucket and spade had just dumped it there. 

It's made of chalk. In its original state- like the ditch and walls of Avebury- it would have gleamed an unearthy white.

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

It's rather beautiful rising out of the fields as it does.
I am always reminded of the pyramids in Mexico when I see it even though there is no structural common denominator. They seem to link together in my mind.
How well you staged that last picture with the blue wildflowers in the foreground!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There are certainly some similarities. Was Silbury also a temple of the sun?

Thanks.

That last picture was taken from the top of the chambered tomb at West Kennet.