Sanctuary wrote: This makes for a good read…
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/caring/conservation-projects/silbury-hill/
And this is interesting considering our discussion on the original path…a flight of stairs??!!
‘The present pathway up the mound is a useful archaeological indicator, for its position has not changed at all since John Aubrey - often regarded as the founding father of analytical field survey - illustrated it during the 1660s. All features that the path overlies or cuts through must therefore be earlier. One earthwork that the path post-dates is a broad but low bank that rises from the terminal of the western causeway almost to the summit. It is conceivable that this marks the line of a hedge that once subdivided the mound, but it could represent an ancient route to the summit - perhaps even the remains of a flight of stairs’.
That doesn't take account of the fact that the miners cut a path in 1776 in order to get timber to the summit to line the vertical shaft. Remember also that Stukeley describes the tree planters cutting a path in 1723.
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