Hi Everyone
I've just watched an episode of Time Team on More4 which is one I saw a couple of years ago and had been wanting to see again since.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnToOWJ0Gmk&feature=sh_e_se&list=SL
It's filmed in East Yorkshire and the landowner has found lots of prehistoric artifacts including part of a polished axe, a nice leaf shaped arrowhead and other bits and bobs.
The episode is predominantly a Norman one but like so many others there a fair bit of the prehsitoric in it.
The major revelation IMO is the landscape stuff from Stuarts roamings. There's a huge artificial mound which was the site of a Norman Motte which Stuart thinks was originally a neolithic mound, it looks for all the world like a mini sibury hill. Especially the ariel shots placing it in a natural bowl in the landscape.
More significantly is the fact that in prehistory (and the medieval) the land was marsh and the area surrounding the mound was flooded.
I know even today the area around silbury gets flooded and have seen numerous pictures where it's like it's in the middle of a lake.
I think there's a book by Lothar Respondek that deals with silbury and water & we all know the significance of wider neolithic sites and water.
The similarities with silbury are striking and possibly hint at a wider phenomenon of massive non burial neolithic round mounds and watery zones. Could this seasonal phenomenon be significant in terms of meaning and symbolism to our neolithic ancestors?
I know there's many mottes which could have their origins in the neolithic so maybe silbury, silbaby and Marlborough are the tip of the iceberg. (There's a pun in there somewhere!) Where I grew up there's a Eddlesborough church ontop of a huge mound which is thought to be neolithic.
The bits showing the axe and arrowhead are at the start and the bit with the mound is at 16mins in. Not sure what it all could mean but I just wanted to put it out there.
What does everyone else think?
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