Jim Leary, who led the recent archaeological investigations for English Heritage at nearby Silbury Hill, and is co-author of the recently published The Story of Silbury Hill, coordinated EH’s contribution to the investigation of Marlborough Mound, the initial results from which have been made public today.
More here – heritageaction.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/the-marlborough-mound-prehistoric-origins-confirmed/
Just found out about this and have to confess, I've never visited the Marlborough Mound before. It would be interesting to know what the plans will be for preservation of this. Very significant.
"It would be interesting to know what the plans will be for preservation of this."
Hi Anna. You might be interested in The Mound Trust. Follow the link from here - marlboroughcollege.org/col_college_history.aspx
News on the subject.....
guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/31/malborough-mound-wiltshire-silbury-neolithic
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-13604479
Thanks for the links. Appreciated.
Hi - just to say that the above news item is not entirely accurate.
Jim Leary only 'led' the final part of the recent archaeological investigations at Silbury Hill ie from June 15th 2007 onwards.
regards
fachtna
Recently I was talking with Bryn Walters, director of the Association of Roman Archeology. He was quite confident that the mounds at Silbury and Marlborough are exactly aligned on the spring and autumn equinox.
Besides being massive pieces of megalithic engineering, they seem to have been very deliberately positioned, so that viewing platforms on both were in line-of-sight of each other.
As Silbury was originally a stepped pyramid, with a spiral ascent path to a flat top, perhaps Marlborough was as well, and its spiral path always been there?
”Besides being massive pieces of megalithic engineering, they seem to have been very deliberately positioned, so that viewing platforms on both were in line-of-sight of each other.
“As Silbury was originally a stepped pyramid, with a spiral ascent path to a flat top, perhaps Marlborough was as well, and its spiral path always been there?”
We don’t know for sure that Silbury had a flat top, let alone a viewing platform - though I’ve always ‘felt’ that it probably did (have a flat top). What was once on the top is open to all sorts of speculation but, given that it might have had a flat top, a path up to it would have been needed, and a spiral path would seem to be the most logical choice (both from a practical point of view and perhaps also from a ceremonial one as well). Ditto the MM.