Silbury Hill ‘not always a hill’

 

Silbury by William Stukeley

11 July 1723

 

In an interview* with Evan Davis yesterday, on Radio 4’s Today programme, Jim Leary makes (and repeats several times) the extraordinary statement that, “The received wisdom that we had when we went into the tunnel in 2007, was that the hill was constructed as a single construct…”

 

What! A single construct! I’m no expert, but anyone with even a passing interest in Silbury knows it was constructed in at least three phases. Perhaps Leary means he was surprised at how many phases it was constructed in, but that isn’t the impression he gives here. He’s certainly keen to push his book though (see here) and the interview concludes with Leary urging millions of Radio 4 listeners to go out and buy a copy…

 

Littlestone

 

* http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9126000/9126720.stm