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Hi All
thought this might be of interest - about 2/3 down:

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba110/letters.shtml

I thought there was other evidence apart from winged ants that pointed to which season some of the phases of Silbury were built in or am I wrong?

Sounder wrote:
Hi All
thought this might be of interest - about 2/3 down:

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba110/letters.shtml

I thought there was other evidence apart from winged ants that pointed to which season some of the phases of Silbury were built in or am I wrong?

I can't think of any other evidence, in the Writtle book (Sacred Mounds, Holy Rings) there is a report on the seeds and fruit identified on the land surface beneath the mound, and the turf stack, over 1100 species, mostly very familar wild flowers of today. I think it was the vicar Smith, when Silbury was opened by the miners, he found what he thought was mistletoe laid on the stones around the original mound....
A practical builder would say, its easier to work in the dry summer months than wet winter months, so the argument could still stand. Notice Leary disses Dames and others because of the folklore mythology they have built up around Silbury - probably means Leary is bringing out a book with his theory ;)

Jim Leary and David Field have written a book called The Story of Silbury Hill which will detail the archaeological investigations undertaken during the conservation work of 2007/08. This was mentioned at the lecture Jim Leary gave back in January of this year.

Although the book has been written (Foreword by David Attenborough) it will not be published until October of this year.
A 'must-buy' for my bookshelf anyway.

PS: David Field has also written a book on Earthen Longbarrows which is worth reading.