Arcadia Discussion Zone

Nice coincidence, those two particular stained glass windows.

A man after my own heart! I also did a 15 mile walk yesterday - I have very few friends who would even contemplate such a (in their minds) huge endeavour, whereas I consider it a perfect distance for a long walk!

In a nice piece of synchronicity, I was just looking for a t-shirt for an old rock and roller friend's birthday this morning and purchased this for him:

I was up on the Marlborough Downs again today, and happened to go through Winterbourne Monkton, and so went back into the Church of Mary Magdalene. This is the font referred to by Nicole above, which dates from the 12th century.



Here's a closer look at the detail, which would once have been painted.



And this is the sarsen outside that was mentioned. It marks the grave of Reverend Brinsdon, vicar here for over forty years, who died in 1710. The stone came from a millbarrow nearby.



A bit more detail on the church from some information inside - the original chapel, now the chancel, was built in 1133, but there's previous Norman and Anglo-Saxon building on the site, and from then on, it's like a lot of English churches, and a blend of later additions and periods. The nave and porch date from the 14th century; the piscinas (used for washing communion vessels) and some of the windows from the 13th; the pulpit is Jacobean. The church was restored in 1877 by the architect William Butterfield, and the two large stained glass windows at either end date from the same period, and were made by a celebrated glazier of the time called Gibbs.

Next to the pulpit is a list of incumbents, which goes back to the year 1229. For most of the 13th to 16th centuries, they were under the patronage of mostly the Abbott of Glastonbury, interspersed with the Abbott of Cirencester, then the King through much of the 17th and 18th centuries, then the Lord Chamberlain, and since 1865, the Bishop of Sarum.

Another bonus of today's visit to Avebury was going into the bookshop and buying a copy of Julian Cope's "Modern Antiquarian", which has been out of print for a while, and very expensive second-hand, so I had the European one, but never owned the one on Britain till today, as it's been re-issued; packed with photographs, text, essays, in a slip case, etc., really nicely done. And signed by the author, as apparently he came in the other day and signed all their copies.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-Antiquar ... 552&sr=1-1

His website is excellent, btw:

http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/home/

Wonderful photos, thanks you Richard. And thanks also for the info on the reprinting of Cope's book.

Just to add a bit to the above, this is a closer view of the stained glass window (1877) in the chancel:

Left side:


Right side:

Richard and Paddy
I thought you would find this interesting
Lichens Survive In Space: Grow After 18 Months In Vacuum And Radiation, Adds Credibility To Theories Life Came From Outer Space
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/2301/248/Lichens_Survive_In_Space:_Grow_After_18_Months_In_Vacuum_And_Radiation,_Adds_Credibility_To_Theories_Life_Came_From_Outer_Space.html

You can freeze it, thaw it, vacuum dry it and expose it to radiation but still life survives. ESA’s research on the International Space Station is giving credibility to theories that life came from outer space – as well as helping to create better suncreams.

In 2008 scientists sent the suitcase-sized Expose-E experiment package to the Space Station filled with organic compounds and living organisms to test their reaction to outer space.

An example of a lichen that was exposed to space conditions on the International Space Station for 18 months. Some lichens survived the ordeal and continued to grow in the laboratory.

Several trays filled with organisms were installed on the outside of the European Columbus laboratory.
It seems possible that organisms could colonise planets by hitching rides on asteroids. ESA is probing this intriguing theory further on future Station missions with different samples

they love the Sarsen stones of Stonehenge

Hi Richard, a belated input from me on this topic.

A few years back I went through Professor Thom's geometry for Avebury and reconstructed it over the scene we can easily see today. In the Eastern sector where the stones were mainly missing, Thom could only guess. But a geophysical survey now establishes the position of 18 stones which exist and are currently buried. I have plotted these from Papworth's geophysical survey. Thom could not possibly be right in his construction, his eastern sector is too wide and comes dangerously close to the ditch edge, which he never showed on his diagrams. Furthermore I could see no justification for his elaborate 3-4-5 triangle at Avebury.

My best guess for the construction led me to believe that it is constructed out of four perfect arcs. I think I am on the right track because lines parallel to these establish the ditch and outer bank too, to a high degree of correlation.

Without going hugely into the whole argument, two points arose from my recent work. One is that a line exactly at right angles to one of my major arc bisectors heads straight for the gap between the two tumuli on Windmill Hill. I don't think this is an accident and I believe Windmill Hill is an integral part of the drama at Avebury, just as much as Silbury Hill or The Sanctuary.

Here is Windmill Hill top left and my relationship to the geometry at Avebury:



The second point that arose from my construction, looking at as much evidence as possible, historical and contemporary, concerns the inner circles, especially the northern one.

Below is my construction which shows my analysis of the inner stone rings. Stukeley counted 30 stones in both the north and south inner circles, yet modern estimates and plans show 27 stones. Where are the missing three? I looked at the aerial photos of parchmarks in the dry summer of 1995 and the stone positions that showed up didn't match the circle on conventional estimated plans. To fit existing stones and the evidence drawn by Stukeley in his many sketches and plans I conclude the northern circle is an oval. It then allows the 30 stones to be where Stukeley showed them to be. Out of 30 stones Stukeley could see only one place where there was a gap of two stones missing. Stones were missing, but he could see where they once sat and recorded dates when they were removed.

Work continues and Dr Amanda Chadburn of English Heritage has expressed great interest in the work I am currently doing with David Furlong at the site. Happily I can say that we believe we have found one more missing stone, still buried, in the northern circle. It was largely though this recent analysis that I was able to pinpoint where to prod in the ground and David found it. This stone was recorded by Smith in the late 1800s but since forgotten.



There is so much more to be found at Avebury.

Hello Whoop

Thank you for all the above comments. I'm really impressed; I'm just a dilettante, I'm afraid, lucky enough to live relatively nearby, and to go there a lot to wander about; your input here is going to be great.

I really like your map diagram, need to take that in a bit more. I think it's interesting that there might be a connection in placement to Windmill Hill, because that's a very old part of the site, little understood. Really intriguing place. And so disguised, from certain parts of the landscape; the slope is so gentle from one aspect that you can almost lose it in the surrounding fields, and yet from the other direction it's a high ridge, visible from far away. It's a pretty place in summer, when all the wild flowers are out; it can feel quite bleak in winter.

It must be great to get to do real work there, and it's good that you can do that in liaison with English Heritage. Look forward to hearing more.



Yes, we're only seeing part of what was once there. But also, I think, so much more than Avebury as well, because the hinterland is so rich ... the Ridgeway, Wansdyke, sacred hills, sarsen fields, hill forts, all the barrows everywhere, antiquarian white horses, the whole thing; such a great place. The last time I went, a few weeks back, I walked from Alton Barnes to East Kennett and back, went out via the White Horse trail then the Wansdyke, then cut across the great plain to Silbury (big skies), back along the Ridgeway. Great view of West Kennett Long Barrow from the other, less seen side, at the top of a rape field in full bloom, it was like a prostrate serpent floating on a sea of yellow flowers.

Welcome to the Forum. This section is a bit of a backwater, but usually a nice place to come to.

Edit to Add: Sorry, just realised you must be Whoop-John, bit slow on the uptake there. Welcome back, in that case.

Whoop John that is AWESOME!
So Windmill hill is in line to Avebury

This is one of Europe's largest stone circles
There were originally 98 sarsen standing stones, some weighing in excess of 40 tons. The stones varied in height from 3.6 to 4.2 m, as exemplified at the north and south entrances. The fill from two of the stoneholes has been carbon dated to between 2900 and 2600 BCE


the archaeologists Joshua Pollard, Mark Gillings and Aaron Watson believed that any sounds produced inside Avebury's Inner Circles would have created an echo as sound waves ricocheted off of the standing stones
this is a favorite area for crop circles

Nothing we have been doing at Avebury has been done in liaison with English Heritage per se. They are only interested in managing Avebury as a World Heritage tourist site. Dr Amanda Chadburn is the English Heritage lady in charge of both Avebury and Stonehenge. David has spoken face to face with her and she has expressed a keen interest in seeing whatever we come up with. She already knows I think the northern inner circle is an oval of 30 stones rather than a circle of 27 stones.

In 2003 a geophysical survey was undertaken by Martin Papworth of the outer stone area stretching from about 1 o'clock to about 4 o'clock if you regard the circle as a clock face. They have found 18 buried stones. That leaves the northern arc unsurveyed and a portion stretching to the southern entrance unsurveyed. The area of the inner circles have also not been surveyed using modern techniques either. Nor have the areas excavated by Keiller in the 1930s, but we know what is there from Keiller's drawings. We won't find any more missing stones or anything there. Martin's 2003 report, incredibly, has only just been officially published, about three months ago. Nine years to publish a report of simple ground resistance tests done over 3 days. It's a disappointing read but interesting they found so many stones that Stukeley blamed Tom Robinson for demolishing.

English Heritage has no plans to do any more geophysical work at Avebury in our lifetimes. David has joined an archaeological club which has ground resistance equipment and analysis software and the plan is for us to do a survey of the unmapped areas - nothing to stop us pegging it out and wheeling a trolley around the site.

Now for some plans you probably have not seen because I don't think they are currently in print anywhere. They are in the Bodleian Library.

This is Stukeley's pocket book sketch. It shows his detailed notes and measurements.

There are some problems with Stukeley's final sketch. We cannot rely totally on his evidence, but the stones he sketched in scenes from various angles give us a good clue as to what was really there. Getting access to the Bodleian Library to look through the repository of sketches is almost impossible, but we are working on it. Sure, you can order reprints, but you have to know what you want in the first place.



An early sketch. Stukeley is still having difficulty placing buildings in relation to stones. He must have known it was not a true circle but flattened arcs but he's nevertheless trying to make it fit a circle.



And another version:



Below is the final etching, which you probably have seen before, published in Stukeley's book.

Yes it's me. I moved ISP and when I changed my email account here on Arcadia some weeks ago it froze me out until Andrew allowed me back in. Nothing happened so I signed up again as plain old Whoop. Andrew reinstated me over the weekend.

I can only take so much of this forum, I dip in every few months or so for a burst of activity and then do other things. There's only so much running around in circles here - pun intended - I can take.

At the risk of stating the obvious, any two places are always in line with each other. I am saying that Windmill Hill is in line with a right angle to an axis that is a bisector of one of the arcs I found describing the plan of Avebury. I don't think it is enough evidence to securely lock the two features together, but the Archaeocosmologists of greater ability than I (not difficult) are looking at a lunar alignment that might add weight. These depend on viewpoints, foresights and backsights, so without knowing these we can only talk of possibilities. You can see Windmill Hill clearly on the horizon from The Cove within the northern inner circle.

As for the number of stones, estimates are difficult because of the missing portions and the irregularity of the stones themselves in size and shape. When Keiller re-erected the stones, and it really was a sorry sight/site before then, he re-erected stones with their flattest side outward where it was not obvious how they once stood. So they look like a more regular set of teeth than once they might have.

Keiller took detailed notes of the excavations he made, however when he came to clear the banks of the trees, he blew them up with dynamite. Not exactly the technique that an archaeologist might use today.

Current estimates, as well as Stukeley's in the early 1700s, suggest about 100 stones in the outer circle.

What has come out of the recent Papworth survey is that there are anomalies in spacing at two places. One is either side of the only existing stone in the north east sector. The stones are much closer together either side of this stone. There is a similar situation in the south east, where three buried stones lie closer together. I think it is something like 9 metres apart rather than the usual gap of about 15 metres. This puts extrapolated estimates out and we might have 101 or 102 stones. I doubt we can ever know for sure, but 98 is too conservative.

South of the road at the eastern entrance is a triangular area where once stood a house. You can see it on Stukeley's plan above. This fenced off plot is the only part still left in private hands, it's owned by an old lady in the village and she will not allow access to it under any circumstances. It has never been excavated and it may well contain two buried stones - maybe even an impressive entrance stone. The geophysical survey worked to the edge of it and strongly suspect a buried stone to the south, there's a resistance anomaly, but the change in level here, dense undergrowth and lack of access made further investigation impossible on that occasion.

Another thing to remember about Avebury is that the southern entrance has moved. When the road was widened in the 1800s to the west, material was taken from the bank to the west, where a big depression and scar is seen today. The chalk was used to level the road. Where the trees now stand today at the east of this entrance was built up to the top of the bank and is thus modern and misleading. The break in the ditch still shows where the original entrance really is, facing the two existing entrance stones.

There existed a huge stone to the west of this entrance, at the edge of the old road, which was an obstruction. It was broken up and taken away in I think 23 cartloads but don't quote me on that. Some say this huge stone was the left one of the entrance pair and the left one we see today is actually the right. Personally I don't buy it.

Thank you so much for the William Stukeley pocket book sketches, showing the evolution up to his classic etching of the Avebury complex; that's a really good thing to have on here. He was a very interesting person, a true pioneer, and I love his drawings, a few of which I've bought as prints in the Avebury bookshop.

I've probably put this up here before, but this is a good resource - a facsimile of his 1743 work, "Abury: A Temple of the British Druids", and includes all the text and illustrations from the book.

http://www.avebury-web.co.uk/AburyWS/AburyWS.html

Taken from the very good Avebury website, which contains lots to look at.

http://www.avebury-web.co.uk/avebury_now.html


I know the feeling. But this was a very welcome burst of activity. Many thanks again.

An example of the actual book turned up on Ebay about three months ago and I was sorely tempted to buy it. I can't remember if it sold, but it was around the £1,500 mark.

Me too. He has a problem with scale though. Sometimes his men are tiny, sometimes giants. His houses also.

The southern inner circle is something David and I are actively working on. David has done some meticulous laser measurements, on several occasions, of the existing stones. Also accurate GPS positions. Modern plans estimate 29 stones were in this circle. Stukeley estimated 30, equally spaced 12º apart. In his final etching he perversely shows 29, but one is mid-way between two positions. I think this could be a mistake in interpretation between Stukeley and his engraver, or it could be that he was very uncertain and could not see into the garden where this was.

Stukeley thought he saw an inner ring of 12 stones here too, but he may have been seeing some of the inexplicable Z stones which we see today and assuming it was like the northern inner circle where he had more evidence for an inner ring of 12.

The five mile act had excluded non-conformist christians from preaching or worshipping within five miles of a main town. Avebury fitted the bill and the non-conformists settled there, doubling the population in about ten years. The Quaker Meeting House is still there today, the tourist office, and it sits inside the southern circle. Stukeley represented the King, nobility and the orthodox Church of England. He had major arguments with the residents who were clearing the stones as fast as they could, both to build their houses and to clear the fields. I think he was chased away whenever he looked at the north east of the southern inner circle stones, in private gardens.

I matched up Stukeley's sketches and plans with today's reality and got this:



The yellow angled rectangle is an overlay of Keiller's 1930s excavation plan. This pinpointed where the massive Obelisk stone once was. It conforms accurately to where the concrete marker is today. The orange blobs are parchmarks that appeared in the 1995 dry summer. Depressions clearly seen in the ground show where other stones once were, these are marked with white starbursts. My conclusion is that the circle probably was 30 stones, not 29, and that the centre may be a little to the north-east of the obelisk. Not very satisfying if so, but a slightly bigger circle fits the other evidence better.

Recently a new sewer was laid to the left side of the Quaker Meeting House. An archaeological team had a watching brief on the trench and in the report it mentioned a depression that they thought was the site of a stone hole. We chased up this lead and managed to get drawings of the trench sections, but it is unclear exactly where they found this stone hole. It should be the one at the north west corner of the Meeting House, at about 10.30 on the clock face, due north west in the circle. The report was more interested in some old pottery and a Victorian cat burial than the empty hole. So we've been unable to pinpoint this hole position exactly.

In the north of this inner circle Stukeley shows stones out in the street, in front of the houses, on his plan. For this circle to be a true circle the stones would be behind or through the houses, as I have shown them above. So we are keen to find any evidence of stones that could give us a clue to why this should be so. Stukeley's sketchbook shows that he was experiencing confusion in this area, with repeated alterations. Yet he shows a fallen stone in a fenced off garden in the road in front of the house which was in plain sight for all to see. Surely too much detail for it to be plain wrong. We think the building line is the same as it ever was. All the indications are that this circle was a true circle, yet it won't match to what Stukeley seems to have seen. It's a puzzle.

Thanks Richard for those wonderful links!

It is a part of history that has lots of smoke

It seems Abraham had this knowledge and the Druids were aware of this knowledge
Jehovah is the Mediator

Ancient Order of the Culdees of Iona
The training method of a Culdee is called the Quaternary which in Greek is Tetraktys, and in Gaelic is Cethrair. In English we say, Path of the Four, or Fourfold path.


The spire, or aim, is Theosis and its symbol is the Monad, or point within the circle.
"olam fodlah" is the "Hebrew" phrase found in OUR Scripture which was translated into the English phrase "everlasting covenant" in reference to God's EVERLASTING COVENANT with us.
They were well aware of the stars and astrology and mathematics

I love Stukely's drawings showing the Lunar temple and the Solar temple
so the Obelisk stone was destroyed?
Wonderful work Whoop John and tremendous drawings

Avebury produces incredible cropcircles

I am not sure to what knowledge you refer, nor why it needs mediating, by Jehovah or anyone else.

If you want to understand more about the mystery of such places as Avebury, the possible beliefs and understanding of such people you can do no better than to read Robert Graves's 'The White Goddess'.

To give away the secret name of a tribe's deity was to relinquish it's power.

Graves gives an explanation of more ancient forms of the unspeakable name of god than the later derivation 'Jehovah'. It seems the prototype in Britain was the form O A O U E I Y, where the first O is a long O as in Greek and the Y is a long I sound. Essentially a word sang using all the possible vowel sounds, in order. In Roman letters back to front it would look more like JIEVOAO. Getting closer to Jehovah already.

For the full argument you have to read the book.

'In Egypt, the priests sing hymns to the gods by uttering the seven vowels in succession, the sound of which produces as strong a musical impression on their hearers as if flute and lyre were used. To dispense with the hiatus would be to do away altogether with the melody and harmony of language. But perhaps I had better not enlarge on this theme in the present context'. Demetrius, 1st century BC.

Sound itself has power. Whether you sing 'Aum (Om) as in Hinduism or Buddhism, or like the sufis go, 'Hoo', chanting has an internal effect and chanting tends to be based on sustained vowel sounds. Singing the vowels in sequence is especially potent. Try it and see how it feels for you. Block your ears and hear the sound of silence, the drone you might hear in your head is a manifestation of life itself.

.... a most splendid Choir Gaur or Great Round Church...probably one of the most beautiful sacred precinct/temples in the world.

Oh I tried it and it has great vibration
I got that Jehovah is a mediator from Richards link
to Stuckley's book
Chapter 1
http://www.avebury-web.co.uk/chapter1.html
and think about it a Druid was a mediator
many Druids were law givers
they were the judge
when it came to disputes

I have been to Konigsee and there is a natural sound room made of the rocks and cliffs

the lake's position surrounded by sheer rock walls creates an echo, which is known for its clarity. On boat tours, it has become traditional to stop and play a flugelhorn or trumpet to display the echo; formerly demonstrated by shooting a cannon, it could be heard reflected up to seven times

So what I'm saying the stones would reflect the sound or vibration and the circle essential
an echo
is a reflection of sound, arriving at the listener some time after the direct sound

echo produced by the bottom of a well, by a building, or by the walls of an enclosed room and an empty room. A true echo is a single reflection of the sound source. The time delay is the extra distance divided by the speed of sound. The word echo derives from the Greek ἠχώ (ēchō),[1] itself from ἦχος (ēchos), "sound"

if Stuckley is right about the echo then these Ancient guys kinda knew about the speed of sound
Stones

ok I just found the coolest link showing Avebury Church...Saint James
and he was a very important Saint

http://www.360cities.net/image/20060805-avebury4b#0.00,0.00,70.0

the floor tiles are combination black and gold crosses
Avebury’s lovely old church was probably founded around the early 11th century, prior to the Norman conquest in the early days of Saxon Christianity

what is interesting is a stone font carved with Jesus stamping on dragons


I wonder if they used one of the stones around the stone circles circle for the font?

Richard shows a similiar font of stone at Mary Magdalene church
I wonder if the font is made up from a stone from the circle
similiar idea and look

Just thinking out loud sorry

Probably not, lovuian, as I doubt you could get that sort of detail onto something as hard as sarsen stone. But they did use them for building, certainly, and I read something at Avebury once about how various bits from ones that got knocked down ended up in townhouses in nearby Marlborough and Devizies.

They were still occasionally digging fresh ones up in the sarsen fields up until the early 1920s, before it was a protected area. The last three they dug out were used in the restoration of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, during the reign of George V.

Thinking aloud is good. A thought I have about Avebury is:

This pic of mine you showed earlier of the sarsen fields ...



... a couple of fields to the right-hand side of that is the Ridgeway, an incredibly old ancient throroughfare, and Avebury sits right beneath it. So you have to wonder if there was an element of utility, in the placement of the Avebury stones, given that getting them there involved "merely" digging them up and rolling them down a nearby slope. Obviously a lot more to it than that, but you get my drift - it must have been a hard enough job to do as it was, but they didn't make it more difficult than it needed to be, by dragging them a long way away. (But obviously in other cases, Stonehenge, for example, they did get taken a long way, so I'm only making a very small point.) And there were an awful lot of people, relatively speaking, living on those downs, back then, it was a real hub of humanity, and a major transit route. It's only now that it feels empty and desolate. So I think it's there because the people were there, and the stones were there, and they built their place of worship and ceremony there, in the place where they lived, as people have ever since, rather than there being anything intrinsically "special" about the place itself. Just musing.

Silbury Hill

Michael Dames put forward a composite theory of seasonal rituals, in an attempt to explain the purpose of Silbury Hill and its associated sites (West Kennet Long Barrow, the Avebury henge, The Sanctuary and Windmill Hill), from which the summit of Silbury Hill is visible

The Ridgeway is an ancient route, some would say the oldest extant route. In "The Ridgeway Path" by Sean Jennet it says that the route has been in use for more than four thousand years. It appears to run along the tops of chains of hills including the Chilterns. Originally it went south beyond Alton Priors across the Vale of Pewsey to Salisbury Plain and Stonehenge. It is believed to have continued south into Dorset and on to the English Channel. At the other end the Icknield way went originally through Cambridgeshire to Grimes Grave in Norfolk and then to the North sea coast.

The old route kept to the chalk ridges and this forks from Wiltshire. It divides to pass south of the Thames valley, as the South Downs Way and North Downs Way, towards Eastbourne and Dover, and north of that valley as the Ridgeway and Icknield Way, through Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.

this is many places crop circles have been spotted

In The Oldest Road: The Ridgeway by Godwin and Anderson, referring to the Ridgeway near Avebury they ask:-

"How has it escaped the plough over thousands of years of close-fisted land-owning and jealous property rights?...here, where the ancient road served the heart of the lost civilisation that produced the Great Stone Culture, something has protected it, something more powerful than laws or charters, an atavistic fear perhaps... It is as if over thousands and thousands of years ordinary greedy men were brought up short by - what? A line of footsteps in the muddy chalk? A feeling that a road trodden by countless generations has established property rights of its own? A simpler sense, felt in the bowels rather than the mind, that to plough the Ridgeway would exact retribution from the ghosts of all these years?... The fact is that the Ridgeway on these Downs has remained unploughed, a right of way established for the human race by laws older than any writ of man."

The same feeling was expressed by Richard Jefferies in 1879 in his "Wild Life in a Southern County":-

"Plough and harrow press hard on the ancient track, and yet dare not encroach upon it."

http://www.journeyswithsoul.com/research-underground.html

Earth energy currents

In "The Icknield Way" by Edward Thomas he says:-

"In the Mabinogion is the story of the dream of Emperor Moxen. He dreams of and then finds a beautiful woman in a castle. He gives her three castles. Her name is Helen and she connects all the castles in Britain by high roads (the main street of most English towns is still called the High Street or High Road)."

area of chalk is the main aquifer of Southern England

There is a well (now in the 'pool' room of the pub) at the centre of Avebury henge, seismic surveying has recently discovered a previously unknown well near the centre of Stonehenge, and underground water has even been detected in the desert underneath the Great Pyramid. Earth energy currents are also associated with underground water.

Rain falls on the chalk Downs and is soaked up like in a sponge. The water percolates through the porous chalk and through fissures to the impervious clay underlying it and then runs along the clay until it emerges on the surface as a spring. This springline is often in the sandy soils which adjoin the chalk.
I'm bringing this up because of the stone fonts hold baptismal water

Yes, very ancient indeed, and some would say in use for even longer than 4,000 years; I've seen 5,000 years quoted, even 7,000, at least speculatively, because of archaeological finds along the route and suchlike. It's beautiful to walk along. You come down towards Avebury, and imagine some very distant ancestors making the same trip, and seeing what would then have been the gleaming white chalk capstone of Silbury Hill in the distance, and feeling a real sense of wonderment at what they were encountering.

The placement of Silbury Hill is also potentially quite interesting, in respect of its relationship to the Ridgeway. Close by Silbury is probably Avebury's most sacred (natural) hill, Waden Hill (from Woden, Odin, probably), a long, gently curved hill. As you walk down the Ridgeway towards the Sanctuary - Julian Cope calls this the Silbury Game - Silbury lies the other side of Waden, mostly obscured from view, save for it's top (much more visible back then, when it was pure white chalk), and the visual effect is that it appears to be riding on Waden's back.

One also has very good views from the Ridgeway, when walking in the same direction, of East and West Kennet Long Barrows, the latter appearing like a long serpent lying on the ground.

A little bit here on the Silbury Game:
http://northstoke.blogspot.co.uk/2007/0 ... -cope.html